Branding vs. Direct Response in Small Business Marketing and Advertising

by Joel Walsh

Think your small business's advertising and marketing need to build your brand? Have you considered these important reasons why you should get some direct responses to pay bills before dedicating resources to branding?

Too often, small business advertising and marketing campaigns prioritize branding at expense of direct response--i.e., actually getting leads and/or sales right now. That is almost always a foolish and even dangerous proposition.

In an age when websites truly rate a "dime a dozen," discovering a really great website feels more like finding a $10 bill on sidewalk than merely surfing Internet.

Whether their creators did it on purpose or not, virtually all successful websites share following characteristics:

First, every good website focuses on a specific, narrow, "niche" audience.

Imagine difference between a light bulb and a laser beam.

Both provide light, but laser focuses its light with pinpoint precision, while light bulb diffuses its light in every direction.

In other words, successful websites don't try to sell cooking supplies to people interested in latest fishing or hunting equipment.

They specifically provide content on exact topics of interest to their target audience, instead of trying to offer all things to all people.

Second, with exception of personal, family, or hobby websites, every website operates with ultimate purpose of turning a profit.

Unfortunately many websites make this their only purpose and, thus, fail miserably in their attempts to succeed online.

We saw how blatantly greedy, self-centered websites failed in "dot-bomb" era... and it got ugly.

On other hand, successful websites make money as a result of providing products, services, and information of obvious value for their targeted visitors.

They win by putting needs and desires of visitors first and get rewarded in process.