SME MARKETING
4 Expensive Marketing
Mistakes SME’s Make,
And How To Avoid Them
By Valerie Ambetsa Siganga
A
sk an SME owner or manager
what the purpose of marketing is
for their business, and the likely
response would be growth. Marketing is
meant to bring in more customers, elevate
loyalty and ultimately, get the company
more money. For the non-marketer, there
are so many connotations and assumptions
about what marketing is. That’s where it
gets blurry and SME owners and managers
figure that it is not worth the hassle.
Or even worse, the ‘I Got This’ mentality
where they choose to fly solo. What
happens when this happens? Impact is
close to zero, money has been spent on
materials that may not be useable, an
agency somewhere has made their cash
with no visible results, and the SME
owner concludes that marketing doesn’t
work.
Let me get in your face a little and tell you
that Marketing Does Work - Every Time.
The most successful global companies
have thriving marketing departments.
Marketing is a term that almost all
business owners are familiar with, and an
action word that is linked to achieving
success. For marketing to work, one must
think it through and do it right. Getting
it right calls for identifying marketing
mistakes and coming up with strategies
to avoid them. Here are four you can
probably relate to.
Thinking Marketing is
Expensive
Marketing is not expensive - marketing
is an investment. When you are making
an investment, you reason differently.
You consider how much you will get as
a return for the amount that you put in.
Investments also take time to get you
the results you are looking for. Consider
investing in the money market - you get
a percentage return of the amount you
have invested. With the stock market, you
The best place to begin is Direct-to-Cus-
tomer marketing. This requires you to
interact with your customers directly
and is the fastest way of discerning what
works and does not work. It also ensures
that you can measure conversion and
accurately calculate ROI on your mar-
keting activities. Furthermore, this ap-
proach can be incredibly cost effective.
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could even lose a little or everything if it
all goes south. The returns though - that is
why you invest.
When paying an expense, you think of
spending - money leaving your pocket or
account and never coming back. With an
expense, you will be left with one item to
show for it and that’s it. That item does
not have intrinsic value that increases, in
fact, it will probably depreciate from the
moment you own it. Purchasing a car is an
expense, buying a house is an investment.
Back to marketing. Marketing is about
making an investment today, so that in
the future, you get value that gives back.
Marketing is an investment you plan for,
and it should provide you measurable
results. Before you spend on marketing,
a session with a marketing consultant
will help guide your marketing decisions.
Marketing needs a plan with SMART
goals.
Making Social Media a Verb
A few conversations with SMEs have
introduced me to a new and fascinating
term - “Social Media-ing”. Social media
is not a verb, and it is not something
that you need to do for your business to
grow. Social media refers to platforms or
applications that enable people to network
socially and share content. The right terms
will add clarity. As an SME, you want to
engage in Digital Marketing.
Digital marketing can be done simply,
effectively and affordably as long as you
have a plan. The plan should not revolve