The essential idea of marketing is based on the desire to grow a business and spread a message. Marketing isn’t about neutrality or staying the same. However, one reason why so many individuals and organizations struggle to succeed in marketing is because they think like a pauper. They focus most of their efforts on saving money, rather than making money. They only try inexpensive ideas, or they refuse to invest in learning new skills or conducting consistent promotional activities. Marketing comes last on the list, instead of first. In order to grow, though, you need to do the opposite. Concentrate on making money, rather than saving money.
A vivid example of this problem is the TV show called “Extreme Couponing.” On this program, people exhibit their ability to save hundreds of dollars by collecting and redeeming coupons. For instance, I saw an episode where a woman used a coupon strategy to pay less than $10 to take home over $400 worth of groceries. However, this woman put a lot of time, skill, and energy into saving that money. If she had put the same time, skill, and energy into making money, she could have generated thousands of dollars in additional income. Then, she could buy all the groceries she wanted and still have money left over.
You can’t cut your way to growth. For example, if you were down to your last dollar, what would be the best strategy? Should you spend as little as possible to make the dollar last longer? No, because you’ll live like a pauper and eventually wind up with nothing. Instead, it’s wiser to invest that last dollar in a manner that creates more dollars.
Don’t allow a money-saving mindset to kill your marketing. View it as an investment that will reap a return larger than what you put into it. You can clip coupons from a newspaper, but I haven’t seen a bank that will let you deposit them into your account.
