Problems with Distribution
Marketing is perhaps one of the hardest things to do for any business. It’s such a complicated science involving extended costs, financing, budgeting, returns, etc.
When you create a marketing campaign, you have to think about the budget for different channels, which is a complicated process because you have to consider the metrics and what may come from them. Then, to extend your budget, you have to consider the lifetime value of customers, and their payback period, and if you can finance the initial losses for eventual gain or breakeven.
But sometimes, finding the right channels that can work is hard, even with big budgets. The problem with distribution is, if you can’t find profitable channels, or at least channels that can get you to breakeven, you don’t have a business.
– PR – if you’re not generating enough news about the company, which brings in quality traffic and converts, you’re wasting a lot of time and effort talking to writers who aren’t helping the business grow
– SEO – if you’re not ranking well, or even if you’re ranking well and bringing in traffic, and aren’t closing new customers, then you’ve also wasted efforts trying to acquire customers here
– Advertising – this is the worst channel to get into if you can’t find a way to profit because instead of small budget allocations and a lot of time investment, you are investing a fair amount of time and high budgets, which will end up hurting the company if you can’t make sales
Danny Wong is the Chief Marketer for Blank Label Group, working with the startups Blank Label, Thread Tradition and RE:custom. Danny also blogs at HuffingtonPost, TheNextWeb and ReadWriteWeb.