3 Leaks in Your Marketing Budget — and How to Fix Them

A fundamental problem of marketing is that you can't afford not to spend money on marketing, but it's not always clear how much you should be spending where. If social media marketing isn't working for you, do you give it up as a bad job? But the scary graph said that 91% of businesses use social media! We can't get left behind!

Here we'll help you identify three areas of marketing where your spending could be seeping into the void and how you can use a more purposeful approach to see a better return on your money.

1. Become Invested: Activate Purpose-Driven Marketing

When someone looks lost, what do you do? You go out of your way to help them, and when they say where they want to go, you answer to the best of your ability. You become invested.

Your business may be losing money because your marketing hasn't invested in the customer's journey. Per the laws of supply and demand, your business should anticipate and answer the question that your customers are thinking — but may be too shy to ask.

You need to invest in raising and answering that question. Focus your marketing strategy more around actively discussing your customer's needs and why it's important to you to address these needs.

A purpose marketing agency can help you discover the benefits of offering an outstanding customer care experience before someone even becomes a customer. It's about showing that you understand what they need and why you care about delivering that service. 

Without demand, there's no supply — without questions, there aren't any answers. Find your purpose and give your customers a voice with purpose-driven marketing.

2. Use Social Media to Convey Purpose

On social media, outside-the-box thinking is king. That means:

No half-baked ‘meme' ideas

No lackluster promotional messages that achieve almost nothing

Don't wait for customers to message you

It's a waste of your budget to hire staff for social media marketing without a strategy that displays your brand's identity and purpose. So, a case study.

A friend of ours used to work at a restaurant with an incredibly savvy and effective social media presence. Rather than simply having a designated staffer use social media for advertising menus or offers, it gave team members ‘shifts’ on the social media account (complete with training).

This team-oriented approach meant that there was already a ‘conversation’ happening for customers to engage with online. Team members could post photos with happy customers and humorous stories: for example, comic table-waiting mishaps that didn't negatively impact customers. It enabled the restaurant to develop personality as a brand and boosted engagement.

Using social media to create a human image of your workplace can be highly effective. This example worked exceptionally well in a restaurant setting, but get creative! 

3. Video Marketing: ‘How To’ Not ‘We Are’

Video marketing is expensive and time-consuming — unless you're planning to go full Gonzo with a smartphone camera, which is a risky strategy for most brands. However, brands still pour money into it because it can deliver excellent results.

Again, remember that the center of your business is addressing the question in a customer's mind. So you need to get invested in that question and answering it effectively. A video that overly promotes your company, saying ‘we are X, and we do Y’ repeatedly over some stock jingle, is no good. It offers no practical demonstration of expertise and no purpose.

‘How to’ videos are among the most popular content on Youtube. That means your customers are asking the question. Make sure your video can:

Answer the question effectively

Showcase your skills

Invite them to learn more

Conclusion: Shared Purpose

You and your customer want the same thing: for your customer to get what they want and for your efforts to reap the rewards. That's the foundation of commerce. Keep your marketing focused around this principle, and you'll see that the money stops leaking through the cracks.