If you’ve just started a new business, or are struggling to keep one afloat in an economy that feels like it is squeezing the life out of you at every turn, you probably believe that spending money on marketing or advertising is not a priority.

Too many SMEs view marketing themselves as a luxury – spending money on promoting your goods or services is often viewed as extravagant when there are so many other issues to deal with, like production costs, staffing, logistics, raw materials, energy bills and so much more.

Take a minute out of your busy day, however, to consider this: Will your business succeed and thrive if no-one wants your goods or services? And how will anyone want them if they don’t know they’re there, or that what you offer is superior to your competitors?

Cost-Effective Investment

Ask the CEO of any top company about spending on marketing and they’ll tell you: view marketing as an investment. It isn’t something that might be nice to have in the future, and something you can save for later when things are going well. In fact, investing in marketing is a necessary outlay to generate profitable gains, now and in the future.

The tried and tested old adage “You have to spend money to make money” is credited to a Roman dramatist named Titus Maccius Plautus in around 200BC – but it remains true to this day, particularly in the exciting world of digital marketing.

Investing in marketing should not be feared, postponed or neglected – but the extent of your investment does need to be carefully evaluated to ensure it is cost effective. Let’s take a look at how you can expect a positive return on your investment (ROI):

What Investment in Marketing Achieves

These are the main gains that marketing spend can deliver for any company – even a sole trader:

• Awareness – the most obvious factor. Getting the message out to customers and potential customers about what you have to offer.
• Reach – penetrating the market to draw in and convert customers who may otherwise not ever discover you.
• Branding – making your business recognisable and familiar, standing out from the competition.
• Prestige – keeping you at the top of your game and front and centre in the mind of your customers, suppliers and competitors.

All these abstract advantages of course translate into physical benefits, like more sales and market share, meaning more profits.

Where and How Best to Spend on Marketing

Part of getting the best ROI when it comes to your marketing budget is to target it accurately. It’s important to do your research and establish exactly what your potential customers’ demographics are. That way you won’t waste any of your precious resources reaching out to people who don’t want or need your product or service, or are in locations not served by your business.

Nowadays the most obvious way to market effectively is online. Digital marketing is the best solution for any and all businesses, because it is so flexible, measurable and focussed. You can go large where it matters to capture your market.

For instance, digital marketing offers you:

• A choice of marketing channels, such as social media, email campaigns, website development with search engine optimisation (SEO), and pay per click advertising.
• The ability to establish and track clear goals and metrics for your marketing efforts, measuring their effectiveness and results, allowing for adjustment of your marketing strategy which in turn improves your ROI even more.
• The facility of allocating even a relatively small marketing budget to areas which will see the best returns – and as conversions and sales improve you can plough more profits in to increase your ROI in the key areas.

Making the Most of Your Marketing Investment

That’s great, I hear you cry! Yes, I’d like to spend a bit on marketing but how on earth can I find the time to clue myself up on digital marketing when I’m fully stretched trying to run my business?

The answer is simple. You need an expert, trustworthy partner who has all the knowledge, experience and resources available to target a digital marketing campaign for your individual needs, and make sure your marketing money is being well spent. In other words, a digital marketing agency with proven results, that operates everything in house in England.

That’s us – Dentons Digital in Westbury, Wiltshire. We’ve helped hundreds of small businesses and trades people, from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands, grow their businesses, purely as a result of getting a great return on their investment in our services.

Our secret is getting to know you and your business inside out, so we can market your enterprise using all our skills as if it were our own.

It all usually starts with a brilliant website, and we build the best websites that work, SEO and conversion optimised and ready to roll with everything you need for e-commerce if necessary. If you have an existing website we can work with that too, making sure it hits the high spots on the search engines.

We’re best placed to advise on where and how to spend your marketing budget, backed up by decades in the print advertising business with our well-known, eternally popular local Dentons Directories – and their online counterpart, dentons.net.

The Cost of Professional Digital Marketing

In case you’re worried about how much having a professional digital agency handling your marketing will cost – relax.

Our packages are surprisingly affordable, and we offer tailor-made flexible payment terms so you can pay monthly, as little or as much as your budget allows. We can craft an ongoing contract to take care of your continuing marketing needs, so you never have to stress about it again.

Our clients are each assigned a dedicated account manager who give regular progress reports, and are available to you any time to answer queries, offer support and advice.

There’s no obligation in having a chat with us over a coffee, and it could be the start of the best return on any investment you ever made for your business. It’s time to stop avoiding marketing, explode the myth and grab the bull by its horns.

Call Dentons Digital on 01373 580126 or email infor@dentonsdigital.com for cost effective marketing.