Focus on Cost over Expertise

Recently at a vendor event, we spoke to the owner of a small retail store. He confessed that blogging was a major part of his business strategy but a real pain. Evidently, he bought 500-word blog posts on Fiverr from overseas writers who receive $4 before PayPal fees to write the post. He confessed they were so poor in quality he spent a few hours cleaning them up before finding a royalty-free photo and scheduling it to go out.

Triassic Media Group charges $100 for a blog post. On an initial comparison, this is more money. However, in many ways, it’s not. First, there’s the time of the original writer working for less than $4 an hour. (What kind of writing expertise does that kind of money buy? We’ll let you make your own conclusions here). Second, there’s the three hours or so the business owner spent re-writing the bad posts at around $33 an hour. Surely the business owner’s time is worth more than that. Third, the business owner is not a writing or marketing expert. Wouldn’t the business owner’s time be better spent working on their business or own area of expertise?

Our blog posts are 500 words that you won’t have to re-write. They’re written by a writer who’s earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and who writes professionally 40+ hours a week. They have the expertise to know what performs well and how to engage readers. We find royalty-free photos for our clients and create the meta data they need to keep up with SEO rankings. Plus, we schedule the post for you.

Try to Do-It-Yourself Marketing

When business owners try do-it-yourself marketing, I can’t help but think of the time I thought it was a brilliant idea to lay down laminate tiles in my living room. It looked so easy and think of all the money we’d save! Let’s just say, it took us 2 weeks to lay down the flooring and it looks goofy around the edges. We’re saving money up to replace it because every time I pass it I only see the issues with it.

Do-It-Yourself marketing is the same thing. It’s true eventually you may get it, but at what cost? The loss of a lot of time and a giant learning curve.

Post Inconsistently on Blogs and Social Media

Blogs and social media accounts can be great ways to reach your customers. Many small business owners heavily create content for these channels in the beginning when they have time. When they get slammed with work, they stop posting regularly if at all. The problem with this strategy is that it negatively impacts your business. Don’t start something you can’t keep up with.

If you visit a business’s website with a blog that hasn’t been updated in 3 years, do you think they’re still in business? If a social media page you liked a year ago posts something randomly for the first time, do you unlike the page because you forgot about this business?

Put All Your Marketing Eggs in One Basket

Some marketing techniques work for one business but not yours. Some take a long time to pay out. Some work for a period of time before not working. In many B2B businesses we’ve spoken to, they feel that their existing technique is SO GOOD they don’t need a blog. A few months later, they’ll reach out because sending catalogs out isn’t working anymore. This is why you need to diversify your marketing efforts and not rely solely on one strategy.

Marketing can be expensive, time-consuming and overwhelming. If you’re ready to invest in a strategic partner that relieves some of this pressure, contact us today at info@triassicmedia.com. For $1,000 a month, your marketing is done at much less than the cost of an employee.