You're pouring your heart and soul into your business, but something's not clicking. Sales are sluggish, customers are ghosting you, and you're left wondering why. The truth is, there's one critical mistake that I see many business owners make – and it's silently sabotaging your success.
In this post, I reveal this HIDDEN KILLER and show you how to fix it.
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Successful companies understand that marketing is NOT an expense but an investment in building a valuable asset - that asset is YOUR company, your brand.
Viewing marketing as an expense leads many to start and stop marketing and advertising efforts based on fluctuating sales. Perhaps sales are slow for the month; what’s the first cut? It’s marketing and advertising. This yo-yo of on and off of your marketing and advertising is killing your sales and profit. Here's why...
How Many Interactions Does It Take Before Someone Buys from You?
For business-to-consumer or b-to-c brands, on average, it takes 3 - 7 interactions before someone buys from you.
For business-to-business or b-to-b, on average, it takes 15 - 27 brand interactions before someone buys from you.
David Ogilvy [Image Source: [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_ogilvy.jpg]
David Ogilvy, the Father of Modern Advertising, says, "Consumers are constantly bombarded by advertising and messaging. It takes CONSISTENT REPITION to break through and make an impression."
Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz and SparkToro, says, "Today’s buyers research extensively before making a decision. Multiple touches ensure you stay top-of-mind throughout that journey." And Dan Kennedy says, "Repetition is the soul of advertising. You must expose your audience to your message multiple times for it to stick."
And Dan Kennedy says, "Repetition is the soul of advertising. You must expose your audience to your message multiple times for it to stick."
The Path to Purchase is NOT Linear
The Path to Purchase is NOT Linear
The majority of customers don’t just see an ad once and then buy. Some do, of course, but most of your prospects have to see your brand over and over repeatedly, and then they buy. Plus, consumers take multiple steps before they purchase that can span hours to week or months.
Google Analytics Shows Non-Linear Path to Purchase
Take a look at this data from Google Analytics. It shows a small sample of customers' various conversion paths for this website.
Google Analytics Showing Various Conversion Paths
Discover How Our Agency Can Drive More Leads and Sales To You
SEO - increase traffic and leads from Google
Content Marketing - from a data-driven topic strategy to awesome content
Paid Ads - Google Ads and Paid Social Media
So, what stands out here?
A couple of things...
First, notice that prospects start the customer journey from many different sources - organic search, organic social, referrals, and paid ads. So, having a presence across all those channels is essential.
The second fact is that the customer journey spans multiple steps across multiple channels. There are no one-click, one-channel conversions in this sample - every conversion path listed here is two or more steps across the customer journey.
The other thing to notice here is that consumers move across paid and organic channels - which is why you need to optimize across multiple digital channels.
And so, imagine if the location stopped advertising efforts - the paid channels will no longer be capturing sales. You lose any momentum that you gained with the exponential increase in exposure.
The paid channels definitely influenced sales midway through the customer journey in many cases.
Organic Social Media and Organic Search Won't Replace Lost Paid Traffic
You might be thinking, well, organic social and organic search will make up the difference - but no, they won’t.
Remember, all these platforms are pay-to-play - organic reach in social media through Facebook posts or Instagram Reels reaches very few people, but with ads, you have almost unlimited exposure to amplify your brand in a very targeted way.
Same with organic search in Google - you need SEO, but paid ads will complement those efforts, especially when you’re retargeting website visitors who haven’t already converted to a sale.
When you start and stop your advertising campaigns like a yo-yo, you break any momentum you’ve gained. The consumer forgets you!
Example of Consistency in Advertising
My own experience with Dollar Shave Club is a perfect example of why repetition in marketing is so powerful.
It took me a while to become a customer, even though I constantly saw their ads. For a couple of years, they were everywhere I looked – YouTube, Facebook, even TV.
It felt like I was seeing their ads daily. But at that time, I was happy with my existing razor brand, so I didn't think much of it. Then, one day, I was shopping for new razors, and I was shocked by how expensive they had become $20 bucks for four razors. Suddenly, Dollar Shave Club's message about affordable razors clicked. All those ads had planted a seed in my mind, and I later signed up directly on their website.
So, when you stop advertising and marketing, everything you invest dies off with time, little by little, and all that investment in building impressions and brand awareness goes to waste. Now you have to rebuild the brand's awareness.
It’s OK if you need to pull back on advertising, but don’t ever stop. The adage, out of sight, out of mind, still holds true today. (Read my related posts: SEO vs PPC, The Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies video, and How Much Should You Spend on Marketing video.)
So that’s the silent killer for any business - not consistently day in and day out allocating budget to invest in building your brand through marketing and advertising.
