Why DIY Marketing = RIP

Would you let an untrained builder renovate your home? What about a plumber on your bathroom? Or an electrician re-wiring your house? No? So why is it any different with that other important asset called your business?

DIY is in our DNA but sometimes doing it yourself might end up creating more harm than good. Here are three questions you should be asking yourself before you decide to go down that path:

Question 1: Am I sufficiently qualified and skilled enough to do this myself?

If you’re not, save yourself, your staff and your customers the pain by paying for someone who does.

Questions you should be asking them before appointment:

what are your qualifications? (if they say books or their knowledge smells of franchise manuals walk away)
can I talk to some of your clients directly? (it’s not important what they say, it’s what their clients say)
can you tell me about the results you have achieved? (“good anecdotal feedback” isn’t a quantifiable, commercial result, “X sales in Y months” is)
are you open to being paid by performance? (if they are great, they’re willing to share the risk, if they aren’t you know they’re all talk and no trousers)

Question 2: What are the business risks of doing it myself?

You might get it right but you might get it wrong. The cost might be a poor quality branding, confused customers, reduced leads and staff that start leaving in their droves because they’ve lost confidence in you. You could have almost always got their sooner with an expert which means whilst you were getting to grips with things your competitor just got a march on you. Have you counted the number of chargeable hours it took you to get up to speed and implement? What was the cost of lost business? So ask yourself again – is it worth the risk?

Setting up Google Adwords might be all well and good but if you haven’t set them up correctly in the first place then you might prematurely write it off as an effective marketing channel – as well as spend a lot of money without getting any results. Same with your accounts. You might think you got them right but the tax department might think you didn’t. A good accountant should always be able to pay for themselves through great tax advice and financial structuring.

Question 3: What’s stopping me from asking for outside help?

Is it ego? Is it because you don’t listen? Is it because you think, rather than know, you’re right? Or is it that you’ve been burnt by false promises? Remember your expert should have your business interests at heart, not their own so don’t fall for those “special radio deals”. They’re selling it cheap for a reason.

Are you categorically sure you know your business and your customers clearly? Sometimes being on the inside means you need to step outside and look back in to get an objective, unbiased view. You need to see the wood through the trees.

Whether it’s your building your own website for search engine optimisation, designing your corporate identity to attract a better form of customer or writing your own marketing plan and advertising, do yourself a big favour and get proven, qualified, independent professional advice.

Big companies and sports stars do because they know they can get to where they’re going more efficiently and effectively than if they did it themselves. They know they can always learn more from others and continually improve their performance. And so should you. So what’s stopping you? Do yourself and your business a favour.