Business owners and marketing department managers have a multitude of tasks to do on any given day: operations, staff meetings, project management, customer service, sales, hiring, firing, training, marketing, advertising, networking, public relations, inventory control, property maintenance … the list goes on and on.
When they get too encumbered with any one of these tasks, they often find themselves mired down working “in” their business and not “on” their business. And working on their business is what they should be doing most.
Business owners choose their field of business for a reason. It’s because they are good at what they are doing. However, you can’t expect to be good at everything all the time without sacrificing something in the long run. It’s all about core competency.
Take marketing and advertising, for example. I’ve heard people say, “That’s easy. Anyone can buy advertising.” I’d argue that point.
Yes, anyone can buy advertising, but can they buy it objectively, effectively and efficiently?
That’s not to say some business owners don’t have the professional or educational experience that can give them an upper hand when it comes to marketing or advertising. But unless they have all the time in the world to manage a multimedia advertising strategy, they’ll find themselves allocating too many hours away from running their business.
The time spent on one campaign can include several calls and emails to and from a myriad of media representatives, researching all the media options and finding the right ones to target a business' potential customers, negotiating the best rates and value-added benefits, creating strategies, placing the buy, coordinating the ads with the media outlets and then making sure everything runs correctly.
Oh, and don’t forget about the reviewing of countless special offers or sales packages du jour that come across one’s desk frequently and, according to the person selling them, must be a part of your advertising mix. It all takes up time.
If your time as a business owner or marketing department manager has a value and that scenario sounds all too familiar, you would benefit from the help of a qualified media buyer.
Not only will you save time, you will save money, and money is something that’s important to every one — not just in the cost of the average ad, but in the efficiency with which an ad is placed. A good media buyer with an objective view will offer analysis tools that will help strip out any wasted dollars.
Your most difficult decision should be what to do with that savings. Do you reinvest it in new media to expand your market reach? Do you add it to your bottom line? Either way, you’ll have more time to think about it!
