As an entrepreneur, you’ve no doubt been told by a lot of marketing “experts” out there that it’s important build your brand, and “get your name out there”.

But what if I told you that any entrepreneur who does marketing to build their brand, create awareness or exposure, or get their name out there is wasting their money?

Let me tell you what I really think — brand building is for entrepreneurs who HATE their money.

Here’s why.

You’ve heard a lot of the traditional advertising beliefs and mantras:

“You have to get your name out there.”
“Someone needs to see your message 7-20 times before they buy.”
“Brand building is what marketing is all about.”
“Your brand is the most important asset you have”.

Excuse my Irish, but that’s a complete bunch of bullshit.

Not only is this advice WRONG, it’s dangerous to the future of your business.

 

Why Most Entrepreneurs
Fall For This Lie

When most entrepreneurs go into business for themselves, they don’t have a lot of marketing experience or knowledge about really works.  So they do what most people do when they don’t have the knowledge themselves .. they look around and see what other companies are doing.

Unfortunately, most of the advertising and marketing we see are from major companies and brands.  Apple, McDonald’s, Starbucks and the car companies are good examples of this.

Go to the bookstore (or Amazon), and most of the books written on the subject of brands are all about the big companies and how they created billion dollar brands.

You’re told that your brand is all-powerful, that you need to “build it”, and that your marketing is all about creating that awareness and exposure in the market.

So, you do what makes sense — you put marketing out there that “builds your brand”, and spend thousands of dollars doing what you’re told to do – getting your name out there.  And the results are less than spectacular.

In fact, they suck.

They’re zero.  Nothing.  Nada.

You’re hundreds or thousands of dollars lighter, with no new clients or sales.

This is the reality for most entrepreneurs until they discover this dirty little secret ..

 

You’re Playing The Wrong Game

Let me reveal why it is that most entrepreneurs go broke, and how it can be that all of this “branding” advice you’ve heard is wrong.

Here it is: the big brand companies are playing a different game than you and I are.

The difference is that big brand companies can afford to do dumb, generalized marketing intended to do nothing more than position their brand in the market, and to “buy” market share.  They can afford to spend millions of dollars, beating their brand into the mind of the consumer.

Their hope is that eventually, the market sees them so often, when they finally have a need for what that company offers, they’ll think of them first.  That’s called “top of mind awareness” (a buzzword from the big brand marketing world).

They blanket the market, hoping that a few people from their target market will respond – so 98% of their advertising dollars are literally wasted on people that will never buy what they sell.

The argument is that they’re “building their brand”, and eventually some of those people who see their ads will eventually become clients.  That’s the hope anyway.

 

And There’s More Bad News ..

Not only are you and I playing a different game than the big companies, the marketing industry is completely built around this useless, “brand building” mentality.

One of the companies I used to own was in the business of providing audio and video production to ad agencies, so I’ve seen this from the inside.

Most advertising and marketing firms are more focused on creating “cool” ads and winning industry awards than actually generating results for their clients.

In fact, they HATE it when clients want to track actual results back to their marketing.  They fall back on this “brand building” idea, and say it’s impossible to accurately measure the effect and impact of marketing.

This is because they don’t WANT you to be able to track their results .. they know you’ll probably fire them if you realize how little in sales or results they’re actually generating.

 

Here’s How You Can Win
The Marketing Game

Smart entrepreneurs don’t waste their money on “brand building” advertising.  Instead, they implement a different kind of marketing called direct response marketing.

Instead of blanketing the masses, the secret is to really understand your market and then target only the people likely to be interested in what you do or deliver.

Direct response marketing is intended to get your target market to “put their hand up” and engage with you, so that you can spend the vast majority of your time creating value for them and demonstrating that you’re able to help them with a problem you have.

Here’s my rule when it comes to successful marketing as an entrepreneur or small business owner:

“Building Your Brand Is The By-Product Of
Great Marketing, Not The Purpose Of It.”

In other words, I believe that building your brand is the RESULT of great marketing .. not the primary purpose of it. 

My company has developed a great brand within a number of niches, but I’ve NEVER spent a dime doing “brand building” marketing.

Our marketing connects with our target market, engages them and creates sales .. and in the process, we’re building a powerful, premium brand.

In other words, our marketing makes us money – it doesn’t cost us money.

Anytime you’re about to do some marketing because you (or someone else) is saying that it’s to “get your name out there” or build your brand .. STOP.  Because you’re about to throw money away.

Instead, implement marketing that generates immediate results and sales, and builds your brand as a by-product (and for free).

It’s the dirty little secret that the marketing world doesn’t want you to know, but now you do.  So use it and break free from the foolish “brand building” mantra that destroys so many small businesses.

I’d LOVE to hear what you think — please post a comment below and let me know if this article has helped open your eyes to what marketing is really all about!