Everyone gets wrapped up with the design, offer and media side of marketing – The basics, being the true objective of marketing, to drive sales and company profits, is often overlooked. I was reminded of this after  listening to an interview by Dan Kennedy with Mark Stevens, author of the 2003 best selling book “Your Marketing Sucks.’

Much of this 1-hour interview was a reminder that marketing is failing us, seldom giving a good ROI. And based on Mark’s and many of his clients experiences, 95% of today’s ad agencies and marketers are image and brand-focused, still seeing ROI as relatively unimportant. (A recent UK survey seems to back this up) .

Click on the mp3 graphic below to listen to a 5 minute extract from the interview – Here Mark talks about a simple strategy that started the turnaround in sales for a large client in the finance sector. He then discusses a disturbing case with a smaller operation, that clearly demonstrates where many of us are failing.

Your Marketing Sucks. by Mark Stevens – Excerpt.

Marketing is not about spending money on such things as advertising, direct mail, and P.R. Those are just tools. Marketing is about growing your business–its revenues, profit, and valuation. If you saw someone open an office window and start tossing out handfuls of thousand-dollar bills, you would have every reason to think that he’s nuts. Yet that’s what happens in business day in and day out, as company after company wastes millions of dollars on spending camouflaged as marketing.

… Smart people do stupid things all the time when it comes to marketing. Since the art and science of marketing is not their core expertise, not surprisingly, their marketing is far less effective than they dream it will be. It’s a trap that is easy to fall into. Think of it this way. There is a Christmas-morning sense of excitement when you get your company’s new brochure with its pretty pictures or see yourself hawking homemade hickory furniture in a cable-TV ad. In the back of your mind, a little voice says, "We’re big-time. We’re on television. We have a beautiful brochure. We’re marketers. Wow!"

But hold it a minute. You know how they say, "Anyone can be a parent. Being a good parent is where the tricky part comes in." Well, a similar dynamic occurs with marketing. All you need to market your business is money. You don’t need an iota of creativity, smarts, experience, or savvy. No, all you need is a cheque book. And with that cheque book, you can buy ads up the kazoo, public relations that can make Donald Trump look like a recluse, brochures to fill warehouses, websites that would make Steven Spielberg envious.

…when the return on your investment isn’t there, there can be no arguing that your marketing sucks.

The problem is that if you are like most companies, all of that spending will result in a negative return on investment. Your marketing will cost you more profits than it brings in.  Why? Because in all likelihood, your marketing sucks.

…when the return on your investment isn’t there, there can be no arguing that your marketing sucks. This book tackles the problem head-on. It will help you

• Rid your company of spending camouflaged as marketing, and redirect your dollars to programs that deliver strong and measurable financial rewards. (If you get the Christmas glow too, that’s fine, but keep the ego-gratification stuff to yourself. We’re in pursuit of dollars here.)
• Stop overlooking simple but obvious ways of increasing sales and earnings. For example, you will be amazed to see how easy it is to sell additional products or services to existing clients. (We will be talking about that in detail later.)

To buy the book, click here