Google AdWords
Our company provides a range of marketing services, and each week we typically send out around 4-5 price quotations. We also turn away around 9-10 requests, when we feel that our services are not appropriate.
Most of the companies that we turn away understand what we’re saying, and appreciate our not taking their money under what would amount to false pretenses.
And a sizable number of companies we send a price quote feel that our services are too expensive.
A typical reply is a variation of the following:
“We were kind of hoping that you might be able to manage our Google AdWords account for around $200 a month? If we start to see good results for this, we might be open to spending a little more.
PS: We assume the $200 a month also includes Google’s fees?”
Seriously.
What can a person hope to get for $200 a month, averaging at around $50 per week?
How many hours of quality work can a person expect to receive for so little money?
When a company sets aside a budget of $50 a week to push their product in front of the world, that company has no chance of success.
Think small and you’ll stay small.
Note that I’m not suggesting reckless spending. If your business is a new one, then you shouldn’t be ordering a super-luxurious ebony desk with a custom-made hydromatic, air-induced, conductile chair. And if you don’t think a service is worth spending money on, then don’t use that service.
But you need to be prepared to spend money where appropriate. And you need to think that your business is worth spending money on.
If you’re planning to save $10 a month on cheap web hosting, using free or ad-supported hosting, your business will fail.
If you’re hoping to steal your neighbour’s wireless internet instead of paying for your own, that mentality will kill any hope of success.
If you’re not prepared to pay $10 a month for a business bank account, and hope your customers don’t mind paying into your personal account, you’re never going to make it.
If you won’t spend $300 on Office 2007, and don’t mind asking clients to export their documents and spreadsheets into a different format, then you won’t have too many clients to worry about.
And if you won’t spend significantly more than $200 a month to push your product in front of targeted people from all over the world, targeted people who are looking for precisely what you sell, then your business has no chance of getting off the ground.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all been at the decisive moment when we have to take a deep breath and put our money on our company.
The most you have to lose isn’t cash. It’s the future of your business.
Think small and you’ll stay small.
Note: comments, feedback and argument more than welcome!
It can work the other way as well, there are plenty of companies that have gone under because of wasteful spending.
Absolutely. That’s why I advised against reckless spending.
But killing what could be a great product by being cheap is tragic.
No argument from me on this. Have written a series of articles on my blog on what I termed “small think”. You can see it in the pricing of software, the proclivity for developers to use US$29.99 or less as some kind of ceiling that can’t be overcome is a case in point. I also experienced something similar when I offered voice overs to developers for their videos. The general consensus was it was worth $20 because some turkey with an electret condensor, a USB soundcard and a copy of FOS Audacity did them for that. The fact that real mic’s, software, plug-in effects, mixers, sound proofing, broadband usage, cables and so on can’t be fitted by folks working at that kind of rate doesn’t enter into the logic. I won’t even get stated on “experience”.
I think the problem here is there’s no such things a “local business” anymore.
The introduction of the internet has thrown relatively small & family business into the view of millions of potention customers. Unfortunately, it also means that you are completing with so many more companies too.
Many of my clients, initially, don’t see the need to put weights and measures in against there ecommerce products. Why? Becasue “We’re only going to ship to the UK”. Rubbish, if you sell online, unless your product is so massive you need a shipping container to move it, you should be prepared to sell internationally.
Your competitors will be doing it, I guarantee it.
You absolute right Dave, money spent in the right place at the right time will prove invaluable…