Investing your money in something and it paying off is everyone’s dream, right? You hear of these stories of your Mum’s friends’ husband who invested in Bitcoin years ago and is now living off the returns. This is all well and good. But how many people do you know who have invested their money and it flopped? Too many.
Let’s look at the average interest rates in the world right now. Invest in a cash ISA? 1-3% return. As well as factoring in the inflation value, you are getting a mere fraction of this already underwhelming interest. You put 1 dirham in and you get MAXIMUM 3 fils back, right? I don’t know about you but that doesn’t fill me with excitement.
So what about stocks, shares and bonds? Obviously this one is highly fluctuating but we’ve looked at the figures and between 7-9% is what people can expect to get back if they are investing this way. This is better than it sitting in a ‘high interest’ savings bank account but still, nothing to write home about. You’re not buying a home with that money. You’re not getting a new car based on this. It won’t be paying for your child’s tuition fees.
What about property? Let’s take the average returns in Dubai at the moment, they are between 5-7%. Of course this depends what country you live in but Dubai is known for having pretty high real estate returns.
So I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say. Really, when it comes down to it, there are not that many reliable and quick ways to get your money back.
That is, except by investing in YOUR OWN business. You get your business in front of more people. Qualified, interested people. Then it will grow. And how do you do that? By advertising. And the returns on paid advertising are astronomical in comparison to the others I have talked about.
What if I told you there are known digital strategies which have been shown to have a return on investment (ROI) of….
Wait for it….
4000%.
Yep. 4000%.
You put in 1 dirham and you get 4,000 back.
Well that is exactly the returns that email marketing can get you.
Not only email marketing but paid advertisements can bring huge returns as well. Averaging at a very healthy 200% for Google Ads and 450% for Facebook Ads. And these are just the averages. Some businesses are consistently getting the very top end of these numbers. When a business owner recognises the power in these strategies, everything else falls into place. Don’t let your money rot in a bank account somewhere. Be pro-active and get that money doubling, tripling and even more.
Once you have identified how much a lead is worth for your business, then you can work out your ROI. Once you start running some ads and working out how much your average customer spends with you (factoring in the lifetime value) then you just follow a simple calculation to find out what it costs you to acquire that customer. Divide how many leads you need to get a customer and therefore how much exactly a lead is worth to your business. Consider this, as well as your business goals for example, ‘I will make 1 million dirham this year’ and work it back from there. How many leads do you need to earn this amount? How much are you going to spend in order to get those leads? How many customers will this generate for your business?
Money really is the fuel to drive your business. If you have a lot of money sitting in your business bank account, why are you not using it? By it just sitting there, it is actually reducing in value if you, again, consider inflation. Feed your business. Investing in your own business can be a smart move to make with the excess money sitting in your business account, as it can help your business grow and expand while also providing a higher return on investment than leaving it untouched.
Predictability and consistency are vital for a business owner’s peace of mind. I get it, you have an office to pay for, salaries to pay, outgoing after outgoing. But investing in your business is the slingshot to success. Buying customers is the way to do this. I know you can’t go into a shop and literally buy your customers but by investing in advertising you are handing in money, with customers as a result of this exchange. So yes, you are basically buying them.
Then repeat. Repeat until you can hire more staff. Repeat until you can buy a bigger office. Repeat until you buy your first yacht.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
