Marketing only works if you STICK WITH IT

Have you ever heard of the sunken cost fallacy?

Chances are, you have. But if not, here’s a quick explanation. The sunken cost fallacy is the idea that once you’ve invested a certain amount of money or time into something, you feel like you HAVE to see it through because if you don’t, you’ve wasted your money.

It happens all the time in business. Someone starts a company, and it’s not going well… But they continue to invest more time and money into it because they’ve already put so much into it. If they back out now, all that time and money has been wasted!

But here’s where the fallacy part comes in. In reality, they would have been far better off backing out in the beginning and taking the minor financial hit. But they chose to continue putting more time and money into it. And guess what? The business still eventually fails. They could’ve taken a small hit, but they took a big hit instead—all because they didn’t want to “waste” the money they initially put in.

So, what does this have to do with marketing?

Well, this principle is found in marketing as well… But with marketing, there’s one CRUCIAL difference.

In marketing, the sunken cost fallacy is NOT A FALLACY!

Here’s why. Marketing is a long-term play. We’ve talked about the value of thinking in terms of long-term ROI, and we’re gonna talk about it again…

When you start marketing efforts in your business, you might not see any significant results for months or years. People don’t see results and think their marketing isn’t working… What they don’t realize is that things are in motion behind the scenes!

If you don’t see immediate results, that’s fine. You’re still getting leads. You’re making impressions. You’re establishing your name and your brand. All of these factors will provide an ROI over the long haul, but ONLY if you stick with your marketing efforts.

And when I say “stick with it” that doesn’t always mean you have to invest more money! It might just mean putting some time into following up with leads or creating an email sequence.

Let’s say you invest a lot of money to build an email list. Now that you have it, you start sending out offers… But you don’t see many results.

Some people might look at this as a failure and stop altogether. They won’t want to invest any more money or time into it because something clearly isn’t working. That is one of the worst moves you could make! If you do this, you’re throwing away millions in potential revenue PLUS you’re never going to make back that initial investment.

In order to get the results you want and get a return on your investment, you need to continue your marketing efforts. You need to nurture those leads, follow up with them, send them new offers, build new funnels, create content—there are a million ways to do it, but that’s just it. You have to DO IT!

If you were to quit your marketing efforts… What happens to those leads?

They’re going to forget about you. They’re going to go to your competition. And that influx of clients that you’re so used to having—and that your business thrives on—is going to come to a grinding halt.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… You’re thinking, “Okay, this makes sense—but sometimes certain marketing tactics just don’t work. How am I supposed to know if I’m making the right call when I sink money into marketing?”

And you’re right (sort of).

It’s true. You can never know with 100% certainty that your marketing strategy will work. But—shameless plug incoming—that’s why people like me exist! Professional marketers run tests, collect data, and do their homework before deciding where to invest their time and money. Nothing is left to chance.

And while we might not be able to achieve 100% certainty, we can come pretty damn close. It’s all about figuring out the LTV of your customers, the cost to acquire them, and the value of a lead (plus some other secret sauce).

So, maybe we should revise our first statement:

In marketing, the sunken cost fallacy is NOT A FALLACY…when using tested and proven methods!

Make sense?

I’m curious to hear if you’ve ever had a “sunken cost” debate in your business. Have you ever backed out of a marketing campaign because you were spending too much? What was the result?

And on the flip side, have any of you stuck with a marketing strategy that wasn’t providing immediate results? How did it turn out months (or years) later? Let me know in the comments below.