If you’re a business owner, you know that there are things that you need to pay for to stay in business. Things like office supplies, paying for an internet connection, and paying rent are just a few of the things that many small businesses have on their list of expenses. 

 

Frequently, marketing and advertising get quickly lumped into the expense catagory without a second thought. Many startup companies don’t often think of a marketing budget as a priority and it gets bumped to the end of the line (if it’s included in the business plan at all). And when money gets a little tighter for established businesses, one of the first things that many companies cut is in its marketing budget.

 

There is something fundamentally wrong with this thinking, and in this article, we’re going to show you exactly why digital marketing is not actually an expense and is a necessary and vital investment for any business.

 

What is a True Expense?

We’re not splitting hairs here, we really need to define what an expense is so you can see why digital marketing absolutely does not fall into this category. 

 

What is an expense? An outlay of money that is a financial burden. 

 

Okay, so at first glance, it seems like digital marketing could easily fall into this category. It’s obviously something you need to lay money out for… but is it truly a financial burden?

 

Now let’s ask a different question. 

What is an investment? An outlay of money that is typically returned as income, often with an increase called profit. 

 

Do you see a major difference there? When you make an investment, you’re expected to get your money back– usually more than what you put in. That is what digital marketing is. It’s not an expense, it’s an investment.

 

When you do digital marketing the right way, it will make you more money than you spend. That makes it, by definition, an investment, not an expense.  

 

Think about it this way: If you had a magic machine that you could put $1 dollar into and in a week it gave you $5 back, is that first dollar you put in an expense, or an investment? Now scale that up to $50, $100, or $500 dollars that you put into the magic machine. That’s the idea of good digital marketing. And it isn’t magic. It’s just reaching people using the right methods at the right time.

 

The main point of contention for most businesses is that they’re open to the idea of digital marketing, but don’t know where to start themselves, or who they can trust to help them. Here at Good Rep Media, we specialize in making sure that in the long run marketing is never an expense for your business– it’s always an investment that gives you a profitable return. 

 

Also, now more than ever, digital marketing is so simple to scale with practically any budget. A business like yours can invest a very reasonable amount and begin to see results. From there, once your marketing becomes profitable, you’re able to scale it up slowly so that it constantly pays for itself. Once you do that, you have the magic machine we talked about that gives you more dollars back for every $1 dollar you put in. 

 

Digital marketing is a easy to measure, easy to scale, and a quick-acting method to get you new customers. And here at Good Rep Media, we can help you build profitable digital marketing campaigns that work. 

 

There are certainly places where you can save money within your business, but one place you should never be making cuts is in your marketing budget. And if you don’t have a formal marketing budget, now is the time to start thinking about some changes. 

 

And if you are marketing, but you’re using more traditional methods, we want to give you a new perspective on that as well. Keep reading to see why digital marketing absolutely out-muscles traditional advertising and can help you get the most out of your advertising campaigns. 

Why Is Online Marketing the King of Advertising? 

 

 As a small business owner, you’re likely somewhat familiar with more traditional marketing options like radio, television, or even print advertising. There was a time when these were the best way to get your business’s name in front of the most people– but those days are long gone. 

 

It’s finally time to cancel that bus bench ad with your face on it. Here are some of the most important reasons that digital and online marketing is far superior to any of the traditional advertising methods around. 

 

You Can Track Your Results 

Firstly, traditional marketing methods are almost impossible to truly measure. Nowadays, you’ll hear the people selling traditional marketing use phrases like “our ads raise awareness”, but the truth is there’s no way to track how well the ads are performing. When you spend money on traditional advertising, you’re just hoping that you get a return on investment, but it is very challenging to actually measure that. 

 

When you use online marketing, you’ll have a clear, detailed picture of exactly where your money is going, and how well the advertisement performed. You can see how many people your advertisement reached, how many people took direct action because of it, and how many sales you made. 

 

With this powerful information, you can compare how much money you spent versus how much money you made back to see if you’re truly getting a return on your investment. That sort of detailed, accurate tracking is pretty much impossible with traditional media like television, radio, and print advertising. 

You’ll Learn More About Your Customers

Digital marketing not only shows you how much money you made, but it also gives you powerful details about who is buying your products. Many small businesses have a general idea about who their main customers are, but their perception can be off the mark if they go with the information available on the surface. When you’re able to look at the black and white metrics and numbers from a digital marketing campaign, you may be surprised. 

 

Something we see often with small businesses is that their digital marketing campaigns are eye-opening, and the data from each campaign teaches them at least one new thing about their customers– but often a lot more than that. When you use digital marketing you can start to see trends and patterns about your customers that would be nearly impossible to track yourself. Things like what time of day people purchase or visit your website, the age of your average customer, and much more. 

 

Targeting is Possible

Another thing to consider is that most traditional media only has a broad, general idea about who your ad will be reaching. Television, radio, and print advertising all use very inaccurate methods to find out who is watching their shows, listening to their stations, or reading their publications. They use things like surveys and other ancient methods that not only give results that aren’t the most accurate but also go out of date almost immediately. 

 

The results are also skewed: if 100,000 people are surveyed, and only 1,000 answer, you’re not even close to the real demographic information. That’s only 1% of the actual audience (which is the typical response rate of most surveys, by the way).

 

Digital marketing is the opposite. Not only can you be sure your ads show to the exact audience you’re trying to reach based on their age, gender, and other details, but you can also target people based on their interests as well. This is a powerful tool that gets you the most out of every dollar you spend.

 

Results are Quick

When you run an ad using digital marketing, people can see it as soon as you turn it on. That’s just not the case with traditional advertisements. With television and radio your ad will go on air at specific times during the day– you’d better hope that the people you want to reach are watching or listening at that time. With print advertising, it’s even slower since you have to wait until the newspaper, magazine, etc. is not only printed but also distributed. 

You Can Scale Your Marketing Up or Down Immediately

Finally, when it comes to digital marketing, you can dial it up and down at lightning speeds. If you have a campaign that is performing well, you can put more money behind it and make even more sales. On the flip side, if a campaign is given a fair shake but isn’t getting you the return on investment you need, you can dial it back or turn it off completely. You can’t do that with traditional marketing.

 

Many traditional marketing avenues also require you to sign contracts for six months or a year because they claim it takes that long for people to see you, and trust you, and for their marketing to work (they call it “frequency”). With digital marketing, you’ll see results much more quickly and won’t have to sit around waiting for months, hoping your marketing is doing what you paid for.

 

Also, ask yourself this question: when was the last time that you personally, or someone you know bought something because of a radio ad, billboard, television commercial, or another traditional advertising method? It’s not impossible, but it’s not nearly as common as it once was.

Good Rep Media Is Super Affordable

Not only is digital marketing an investment and not an expense, but it can also be affordable too. We focus on helping small businesses, so we understand that you’re working with a limited budget, and that’s okay. 

 

Sure there are a ton of digital marketing companies that charge an arm and a leg, but that’s not us here at Good Rep Media. We know how to take a reasonable marketing budget and slowly grow it. 

 

We also believe that our results will speak for themselves, and we definitely earn our keep. We have a strong focus on getting you a return on your investment in each and every project that we work on together. 

 

It’s simple to get started, all we need to do is have a quick conversation about your business. 

 

Schedule a consultation or give us a call today, and take the first step on the journey to getting more customers and revenue with digital marketing.