The Marketing Equation: Time & Money & Skill = Marketing Success

Time

Like other areas of business, such as operations, sales, or accounting, successful marketing requires a time commitment. Whether the marketing tasks are accomplished by an on-staff marketer, a marketing team, the business owner, outsourced to a marketing firm, or a combination of all of the above, a time commitment is required.

In the world of organic search engine optimization and social media marketing, time can be the most costly factor in the marketing equation. While both SEO and SMM are "free" methods of promoting your business or product, to do both well requires a significant amount of time. However, both can produce significant results and are really a must, not an option, for business success in today's online world.

Action: Assess your time resources. If you have existing resources (yours or your staff's), develop SEO and SMM plans. Check out our articles, DIY Website Success, for do-it-yourself SEO tips and the Dallas Marketing Services Social Media 101, our current series profiling social media sites and the ways businesses can use social media for marketing.

Money

While there are numerous "free" marketing opportunities, as noted above, most methods of marketing and advertising require a financial investment. From online pay per click (PPC) campaigns, to traditional offline marketing such as direct mail or print, to advocate and industry marketing, the key is to create a marketing strategy and marketing tactical plan that maximizes your marketing return on investment.

Action: Define a marketing budget and create a marketing strategy (who you will target, positioning, key messaging, etc). Next, assess the costs and the realistic anticipated returns of potential online and offline marketing tactics and then, develop a tactical marketing plan that fits your budget. Implement tracking methods whenever and however possible for each marketing campaign. Assess success and revise the plan based on actual results.

Skill

This is about the point where someone says, "Whoa, that's a lot of work and I don't know how to do that." As the old saying goes, "If it were easy everybody would be doing it."

If you do not have the skills nor the funds to outsource your marketing efforts, then you will need to educate yourself and constantly keep up with the fast changing marketing scene. How?

Action: Start by looking over the book recommendations on this page or on the Dallas Marketing Services Resources page. We have read each of these books and highly recommend them.
Next, find, subscribe to and regularly read a few good marketing blogs. In addition to ours, Dallas Marketing Services, which is solely devoted to providing free online, offline and social media marketing resources, check out Seth's Blog, Marketing Sherpa and Search Engine Land.

Short on time, money or skills?

Get some help from a marketing firm such as Seven Aspens that can create, implement and manage your online and offline marketing efforts.

About Dallas Marketing Services and Seven Aspens Marketing:
Seven Aspens is a Dallas-area marketing firm specializing in marketing solutions, website design, search engine optimization, social media marketing and consulting services.

Seven Aspens consultants have decades of experience with companies ranging from small businesses to major corporations. Seven Aspens' blog, Dallas Marketing Services, provides free marketing ideas, tips, resources and reviews and is home to the Social Media 101.