Market Your Way to the Top

We generated more than $200,000 in business. That was pretty good ROI. Two weeks after that we did an $8,000 TV campaign for two weeks and only got two people responding, so radio worked better. But the client who responded to the TV campaign has already paid $75,000.

So we did learn that radio is more effective for the number of respondents, but maybe the responders for TV will be bigger fee payers -- we're not sure yet. Perhaps a better commercial will give an even higher ROI, or maybe I'll be sorry. Regardless, you have to use one as the model and then keep testing against it.

How much time should a new business owner spend on marketing? He or she should never stop thinking about marketing. The person who owns the business should always think of himself or herself as the marketer-in-chief. It should be the most important thing he or she does because it's the growth of the business; the business owner shouldn't just hand it off to other people or another firm. Someone else can do it, but the person who owns the business should always be involved.

Many new business owners are experts in their services or products but aren't well versed in marketing strategies. What would you suggest they do? They have to recognize that while they're the expert in the operations of the business -- how the factory works or the retail store works--those aspects don't grow the business. You have to become a marketer. The reason small businesses fail is because they stop thinking about marketing. It's also why big businesses fail.

It's why General Motors (GMGMQ Quote) is failing now, because the senior management of General Motors stopped thinking about hybrids and creating cutting-edge cars. They just stopped doing it, whereas Toyota (TM Quote) never stopped thinking about marketing and making products more and more appealing. A lot of small-business owners start businesses in areas of their expertise -- they're IT specialists, computer fixers or chefs, for example. It's important to maintain skills as a chef, but you have got to think, how am I going to market my restaurant? Otherwise you'll be cooking for yourself.

Can you talk about why right now is a good time to increase marketing efforts?
Right now your competitors are sleeping; they're hiding in the bunker, they're waiting for the dust to clear. And they're leaving you a golden opportunity to grow your market share. So develop a strategy, think it through -- remembering it can't be perfect from the start. Get the courage to make an investment and then test, test, test until you break the code.