Advertising is not too important

A common mistake of small business owners is spending too much time and effort on inefficient elements of promotion - advertising campaigns.

What is wrong with focusing too much on advertising?

Advertising is not the most important element of promotion of a small business.

Why?

Every trader has 3 groups of people:

1 Customers
2 Friends
3 Total strangers

The problem of ineffective action starts when we focus immensely on advertising and canvassing. This means talking directly to strangers and trying to convince them to our service or product. If we would talk to our friends (who probably know the strangers) instead, they contact them on our behalf. This way of communication is much more efficient.

Because an average human is bombarded by ads almost form everywhere, we don’t necessary trust the message and the sender. We use our friends to verify the information. This is why we should turn more to building publicity and public relations if we want to succeed.

Advertising is important too, but it makes only 20%-30% of our marketing success. It could be more than 20%-30% if the product or service which we offer is rare and we don’t have much competition.

My main marketing goal as a freelance Interpreter & Translator is informing the public who I am and what I do, and meeting new people. I’ve got this vision that everyone on my city has my business card in their wallets. This is something what really works when a job comes in. Trust me.