Imagine this: You are sitting at your desk on a Friday afternoon, with the breeze drifting through your office. As you near the end of a busy week and look forward to heading home, an email with the subject " Invoice " pops up in your inbox. It instantly casts a shadow over your Friday afternoon. Another bill to pay!
With cost increases hitting many businesses, paying additional invoices that could impact our profitability can be a dreaded task. If you're like us at Belle PR, you're probably carefully prioritising and weighing up what will add the most value and impact to your business in the short, medium and longer term.
Maybe it’s time for a mindset shift regarding costs, especially when it comes to public relations, communications and marketing activities that directly impact your business's future potential and success.
Belle PR is like any other business – we work hard on brand awareness, reputation, identity, trust and customer experience. We strategically assess how we can add greater value to our business and review each expense, which can be one of two things:
A cost we need to pay to maintain our operations
An investment that enhances our business’s brand and reputation and provides opportunities to grow, develop and do better.
We spend time, money and resources to continually improve our profile and position our agency as a leading public relations consultancy in the Waikato… and these activities come at a cost, but are an important and valuable investment in our success.
Let's pause for a minute and look at the traditional Oxford definitions of cost and investment.
Cost: “An amount that has to be paid or spent to buy or obtain something.”
Investment: “The commitment of resources to achieve later benefits.”
If we draw on an example in our marketing and communications toolbox, a website hosting fee is a cost. But a website itself is an investment, as it communicates, informs, educates and showcases all the great things about your brand and your business and why your customers should engage with you.
We completely understand that many things in business can be categorised as costs. However, it's important to pause and check that you’re getting maximum value wherever possible to maximise the potential positive opportunities investment brings.
For instance, let’s say you want to advertise regularly in your local community newspaper to raise more local awareness of your business. You could pay for space for a small photo/image and your contact details, or you could invest in an editorial where you'll have extra space and opportunities to showcase examples of your recent work, a client's experience, or an update on new developments within the business. If both options are roughly the same price, which would be better value to your business?
You are ultimately responsible for choosing an approach, but when it comes to growing your business, it's crucial that you work with the right people who can help you make the most of any investment in marketing and public relations activities.
So, the next time you receive that email with the subject “Invoice”, reconsider whether it is a cost or investment, and look at how you can maximise the opportunity to enhance your business.
