WHY SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES KEEP INVESTING IN ONGOING MARKETING

Seasoned Fortune 500 companies have a deep understanding and appreciation for marketing.

Coca-Cola, KFC, and Burger King all have global recognition, but they still spend millions of dollars yearly on marketing. With strategic spending on marketing, they reap fantastic rewards as they remain at the front of their respective markets.

On the other side of the spectrum, startups and micro-businesses view marketing as a matter of survival, not theory. With so little capital, it may be challenging to make a choice. But this should be seen as an investment.

I'll tell you why.

MARKETING IS FOOD, NOT MEDICINE.

Inexperienced companies regard marketing as medicine to be taken when something is wrong. ("Not enough customers? Take some marketing and call me in the morning.”) This approach is flawed, and it is one of the reasons so many successful businesses wind up failing. They get used to feeling busy, then suddenly realize it's often too late to start what they should have been doing all along.

Marketing is food. It's the regular, sustained nourishment that gets your business where you want it—and keeps it there. Marketing needs to be consistent.

Peter Drucker, one of the leading experts on Management Theory, wrote:

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is broader than selling. It encompasses the entire business. From the point of view of its final result, from the customer's perspective. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of business."

This perspective is what keeps Fortune 500 companies so intense about sustained, well-funded marketing—even when they're already successful. Inexperienced businesses wait until they're starving to start looking for nourishment.

Savvy companies eat regular, healthy meals throughout the day, keeping them solid and thriving year after year.

SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES NEVER STOP MARKETING.

Here are four common-sense reasons why the most successful businesses in the world engage in vigorous, ongoing marketing efforts:

Ongoing marketing prevents "reputation rot": If you surveyed everyone who's heard about your business, you'd probably find that their understanding of who you are and what you do is out-of-date by at least a few years. Your business is constantly improving, but people's perceptions remain fixed. It takes years to shape and define your reputation, so you need to be doing it all the time. You can't wait until it's hopelessly out of sync. If you do, you'll never make it to the other side.

Ongoing marketing shapes your customer base: You must target different audiences as your business evolves. Sometimes your focus changes only slightly, and other times you have to start with a completely new customer base. Either way, you need to constantly evaluate your target and adjust your messaging, visuals, and strategy accordingly.

Ongoing marketing gives you many options: Having "just enough" business isn't enough. There should always be more demand for your products and services if you actively market the problems you fix.

Ongoing marketing secures your company's future: Security and stability are the most critical reasons for engaging in active, ongoing marketing. Marketing creates business. You may have lots going on right now, but will it still be there in six months? A year? Three years? Savvy business owners don't leave their future up to chance; they're planting seeds now that they can harvest next season.

If your company currently has lots of work, happy customers, and busy staff, then you've successfully achieved a key milestone in the life of a business: viability. This isn't the end of your journey but the beginning. Marketing your business should be your constant companion at every step you take.

Businesses disappear when business owners don't invest in them.