You might see a paid advertisement on Facebook or Google from one of your competitors. Maybe you clicked on the ad or you visited their website, and now they're remarketing to you. But just because you see your competitor doing something, doesn't mean that A, you need to do it, or B it's even working for them. If you feel the urge to spend money on marketing, just because you see other businesses doing it, you may be suffering from a case of chronic advertising fear of missing out, FOMO.
What Is Advertising FOMO?
Millions of businesses suffer from advertising FOMO. The side-effects of advertising FOMO include low quality leads, lost profit, irritable employees, lumps, spending money on brand awareness without measuring any actual business outcome, confusion from BS jargon reports and sweaty palms. In today's episode, we'll share how to know if you're suffering from advertising FOMO and the prescription to fix it.
My name's Jack Jostes, and welcome to the Landscapers Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing podcast. This show is all about helping you market your business more effectively. And often that means cutting things that don't work, or saying no to the bright, shiny, distracting advertising objects that are coming your way, usually in the form of some sort of paid advertising.
In addition to our growing list of top landscaping companies around the country, my digital marketing agency, Ramblin Jackson retains some clients who we've worked with for years outside of the green industry, including an $18 million property management company. One of their customers has a 40 unit apartment complex. The owner of that 40 unit complex wanted to meet with me and the property management company to see if they should do Google AdWords. We're currently doing primarily organic SEO and online review management. When I asked, "Why do you want to do Google AdWords?" They said, "Because we see our competition popping up online for our keywords with Google ads."
Just Because Your Competitors Are Doing It DOESN'T Mean You Need To Do It
When I dug a little deeper, I learned that their vacancy out of all 40 units was one. The other 39 were filled. But they were anxious because they were seeing advertisements from their competitors who frankly, weren't organically. Recently, Rand Fishkin, the leader of SparkToro, and somebody I look up to in the SEO industry, published a survey that showed in 2020, less than 1.6% of all searches on Google resulted in a click on a paid advertisement. Now, Google has since disputed this, kind of, vaguely, in my opinion. They didn't really answer with real data. And even if there were more clicks on the ads in Google, should this apartment complex that has one unit invest thousands of dollars and the time and energy of managing an AdWord vendor or doing it themselves, paying Google for the ads, to fill one unit? Or could they post something else on Craigslist, send out an email campaign, hang up a flyer in the hallway, find a referral somehow do something that costs way less money and time?
What Issue Are You Actually Trying To Solve?
I have this conversation with landscapers all the time. They say, "Jack we're booked out three or four months. And we're thinking about spending 20 grand on house ads this year," or whatever. And it's like, for what problem, what are you trying to solve? What if you didn't spend the money? What have you just kept it in your pocket? I know I've spent a lot of money on things in my business, including marketing and advertising, because I thought that I should, or it felt good. And Hey, if you want to spend money to feel good, at least mark it in your QuickBooks as a charitable donation, that's valid. But if you're going to do marketing, hold your dollars to be accountable to results and measure the results. Think about the actual result you're trying to get before you spend the money and after you spend the money and you'll be way more profitable.
So, do you really need online advertising, or are you just trying to keep up with the Joneses? To dial in your marketing, follow the foundation of digital marketing. The foundation of digital marketing is a process I've created to help small business owners learn exactly which order you need to build your online marketing presence in. And I can tell you that online advertising is at the very end.
If you haven't already, grab a free copy of my bestselling book, get found online from landscapersguide.com/book. This book will show you proven strategies to get your marketing dialed in, in the correct order. So you get results, fast ,results that last, while not wasting money on things that you don't even need. All I ask is that you cover the cost of shipping the book. So grab your free copy today at landscapersguide.com/book and see the show notes for a link. My name's Jack Jostes, and thanks so much for checking out today's episode of The Landscapers Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing podcast. I look forward to talking with you next week.