Avoiding a case of “sticker shock.”
As a marketing consultant, many times I work with businesses that are new to marketing. Invariably, I need to prepare them for a strong case of “sticker shock.” A fair part of my initial consulting work is in educating clients as to the real cost of doing marketing if they truly want to achieve the results they seek. Often the client may need to rethink their business goals to one that best fits their marketing budget. One of my most important responsibilities is to ensure clients know exactly what they can get for how much.

Get your budget in place before you start marketing.
Developing a realistic budget before one begins marketing is a critical factor of marketing success. Too often a company will dive right into marketing efforts, and realize too late it did not adequately plan to have the financial resources available to sustain success.

Know the costs associated with your marketplace.
One of the things that drive costs is location. Here, outside of New York City, we are easily overwhelmed by one of the world’s largest media centers. For example, WCBS-AM radio effectively reaches a very large business audience. But if your market is located primarily in Fairfield County, CT, you’ll be paying a lot of money to reach only a sliver of WCBS’s audience. Many business owners are surprised at the cost of advertising to reach their demographic and geographic markets, but are still unwilling to budget appropriately. This is like trying to fly across the Atlantic on a half tank of fuel. Sure you’ll make progress, but you won’t reach your destination. This is a recurring theme with educating clients as to the return-on-investment to their marketing dollars, but one that must be overcome if their business is to prosper.

Don’t worry about spending too much, worry about spending too little.
Recently, I was retained by an established, $6 million business in the document management industry. We create a five-year marketing plan with the goal to grow the business to $20 million in sales. I established an initial marketing budget of $65,000, which represented just 1% of gross sales. Sensitive to the fact they had not done much marketing prior, I felt confident we could do an effective job promoting their business with this budget amount. The program included advertising, direct mail, website development, and a PR campaign, and specifically detailed where every dollar was allocated.

Surprisingly, the owner thought it was much too expensive and could not justify such an expenditure on marketing.

When a $6 million company resists allocating 1% of gross sales for marketing, a major disconnect exists between what marketing actually costs and what clients think it should cost. And that’s a problem. It is impossible to grow a $6 million company to $20 million with a minuscule marketing budget.

Have you ever been in such a situation? You expect something to cost a certain amount, but it costs much more. You’re frustrated, the client’s frustrated, but there are expenses to make marketing happen; it doesn’t happen in a vacuum and it doesn’t happen all by itself.

In the era of Google, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there is still irrefutable value in the good old fashioned card. Business cards, arguably one of the oldest and most important marketing tools, have been in the marketing news as of late and deserve our attention, as well they should. The business card is an essential part of your marketing strategy and should never be overlooked.

MSNBC has recently been quoted to say business cards are becoming obsolete, being replaced with complete profiles on LinkedIn and digital cards with mobile applications. Some believe this is necessary new technology, but I’m not quite convinced. Don’t overlook your business card as part of your overall marketing strategy as it plays a key role in your business image.

I am confident technology will never replace the business card as the first brand representation of yourself, other than your physical being. In many situations, business cards are the first presentation of your brand image other than your physical being. Inc.com did a story on creative, innovative, business cards, but there is no need to be that extravagant. Your card needs to carry the necessary information so a prospective client can easily contact you.

Don’t chintz on developing a quality business card—use a quality, heavyweight cardstock. Consider hiring a graphic designer. Are the business card elements consistent with your company brand image? Is your  logo and slogan included along with all your phone numbers, address, email and other pertinent information? Don’t underestimate your business card, this marketing tool has power: the power to sell your brand — how you want others to perceive you.

As antiquated as it may seem, sharing a quality business card is also a remembrance of a more civil time, pre-DUB era. (DUB is the abbreviation of DubMeNow, an electronic business card application said to be replacing physical business cards.)

A personable time when face-to-face contact concluded with, “Do you have a card?” And how nice it is that this has endured.

Roger Bannister’s name may not be a household name, but still turns heads at road races and track and field events as the first man to break the 4-minute-mile barrier way back in 1954.

Why should we lowly marketing gurus care about a 4-minute-mile?  Because they told him it couldn’t be done. They – doctors and scientists and even his fans – said it was impossible. To which Roger Bannister said, ‘I don’t think so.’

Actually, I don’t know exactly what he said, because I was barely walking, let alone running, in 1954. But as a small business owner and a consultant, advisor, marketer, and cheerleader for countless others, I know what happens in the pit of my stomach and to the hair on the back of my neck when they tell me something I want to do is impossible. I turn defiantly away and figure out how — exactly how — I can get the job done, on time and on budget. And so should you.

Do the work. Then do some more. Research, reinvent, reduce, remake and realize your impossibilities. Visualize your success. This is not new-age hogwash: it’s science.

Roger Bannister was systematic and methodical in his approach to achieving the impossible. He devoted countless hours to research, theory and practice. He immersed himself in the study of human physiology. And where he took his physical being, his mind followed. He used mental imagery to visualize success, and in doing so, reached his goal of being the first to break a 4-minute-mile.

What’s your business goal? Do you have a strategic plan to reach it? Or did someone, somewhere, tell you it was impossible?