Playing the ‘don’t run out of money’ game

Are you taking a short-sighted view on your marketing? Logan Wedgwood takes you down the road to lasting customer relationships.

Let’s start with a thought experiment.

Picture this: I’ve just handed you $100,000. Not in a suitcase. I just stood in front of you and physically handed you brick after brick of one-hundred-dollar notes, banded together. Cold hard cash.

Stop thinking about that luxury trip to the islands; this money has to be used to grow your business.

There are a few catches though. Once you run out, it’s gone. Forever. No more money.

So, every single dollar you spend must achieve a positive and lasting return.

You have the full responsibility to choose how you deploy that money before it runs out.
First you need to decide on your strategy. What is the specific outcome you want to achieve?

• Who do you want your marketing to reach?
• How are you going to reach them? What channels will you use?
• What are you going to ask them to do when you do reach them?

You could spend $100,000 on billboards on four main roads for a month. However, it’s risky. It’s hard to quantify whether this has worked.

You could spend $100,000 on digital advertising. It’s more measurable, but it’s noisy and highly competitive.  

You could spend $100,000 on traditional media advertising and PR. But, are your audience even there anymore?

You could spend $100,000 on guerrilla marketing, disruptive campaigns and word of mouth. But, how do you ensure you’ll get talked about?

You could spend $100,000 generating content that people like reading. Will it make them spend?

Say we relaxed the rules and you were allowed to reach out to an expert for advice. Which marketing or business professional would you speak to?

Who do you trust to help you spend your money?

Grounded in reality

Now, this entertaining little exercise is actually grounded in the real business. It’s (somewhat) the experience that many of us face each day as we choose how to spend our budgets.

You are already making marketing decisions with your money every single day.

So, are you making these decisions consciously, deliberately and with full awareness of the outcome you are working towards? Are you measuring the results? And, are you confident it is working?

The real prize

The outcome that you are really working towards isn’t simply a sale. And it’s not even just a positive ROI. What you want is a customer.

Marketing doesn’t stop at acquisition. Marketing means investing in the relationship you are creating with your customer – the trust you are building, the promises you are working to keep. You are investing each dollar in future sales, not just the ROI on the first sale.

Now, does that change how you think about spending your money on marketing? Who do you trust to help you keep those promises?

My advice is to not take a short-sighted view. Define the way you want customers to work with you in the future and strategise so that your marketing dollars have the best possible chance to get you there. 

The ‘Don’t Run Out of Money’ game reflects the real-world choices we face as business owners. Make conscious decisions about how you spend your marketing budget, measure the outcomes, and prioritise building lasting customer relationships.

Remember, your ultimate goal is not just a sale, but a satisfied customer who will continue to support your business in the long run.

Logan Wedgwood is CEO of strategy execution advisory firm Advisory.Works. www.advisory.works.co.nz