We have always looked at Marketing as a channel to generate more profit/business. You don’t have to invest on any channels unless you are ready for it. Even Techshu has not invested in SEO or Social Media so far, we are now investing on SEO but by now we have already grown good and already ranking for some of the keywords without any investment. We have built all profit blocks and maintain it with very minimum investment (We have over 10,000 fans for Techshu’s main site and over 1700 fans for Techshu Career, we have over 300 domains linking to Techshu and have over 100 pages of content, we have setup PPC and have converted well, running very local keywords).
Different companies can generate profits from different channels (We call it profit blocks). We have seen companies generating millions of profit from ads and partnership; they hardly bother about SEO or Social Media. On other hand, we have also seen company earning only from social media marketing or SEO. See the case studies.
Now there are 3 aspects of it profit blocks.
- Build it (Essential, low cost)
- Maintain it (Essential, low cost)
- Improve it (Optional but recommended, high risk, high return)
Details on building, maintaining and improving Profit Blocks:
- Building and maintaining all profit blocks (Easy, Low cost, 2 to 6 months work) - It is essential to build the profit blocks as then it will keep growing by its own (speed will depend on your investment). Without those profit blocks in place often you miss many the incremental growth opportunities. You will find more details under each profit block page.
Example: A social media page will allow you to keep the visitors who are visiting your website but not buying. All you need is a page and connect with the website (+ building the initial 1000 fans). Also you can update the page with 1 to 2 posts a week, thats it. Not building the profit blocks means; you are missing the opportunity to grow organically. http://www.facebook.com/TechShuCareers is an example where it is over 1750 fans organically and it keeps growing (Our HR team manages it, updates once in a while, no proper marketing plan for it)
- Improvising and investing on profit blocks (Investment, High Returns, Monthly Budget): This is a decision that you need to take, you need to have a proper plan and goals in place to take it forward.
If we take the same example from above, to take Techshu Careers page forward, we will then have to define a goal, allocate a budget and put a timeline to pursue it. It needs a monthly commitment. If your business is not generating enough profit then you need to look at where you can focus to generate the profit (ask for a free analysis). Most of the companies invest 20% to 40% in marketing cost. Marketing is an investment that will help you generate more profit and sales (One of the most difficult part of business these days, customers have too many options and too less time, they buy whatever convinces them enough, not necessary the best product)
“Best product is not equal to big company, you need to focus on sales and product both” – Neil Patel, Owner of Kissmetrics competing with Omniture.
In case if you have not started building your profit blocks we urge you to contact us to do an evaluation of profit blocks for your business. It doesn't cost much. Also we charge very less for profit blocks as it helps you get started and once you make money/profit, you can use us to improve it further.
Our Goal:
”Digital Marketing work should be funded by profit generated from the initial marketing. Our target is to break even within first 3 to 9 months, then the marketing should fund itself."