Marketing is an Investment, Expect Returns

Jessica has an inspiring story- she wrote her business plan for J Squared Communications while living in a homeless shelter with her child. With little money and the willpower to succeed, she now leads a team of six. Her company also includes charitable giving, donating a percentage of its profits to support organizations serving girls in low-income parts of the world. J Squared Communications is an LGTBQ+ and woman-owned business. 

Jessica J. Reveles, from Ascend LA, shares her insights on social media marketing

by Martha Flores Perez

Managing a business requires pulling the right levers at the right time. One of those levers is letting potential clients know about your services and products. You create the most incredible life-changing product, but it is only wonderful to you if no one knows about it. However, throwing money into the wind, hoping someone will see your advertisement, counters any business's goal- increasing profits. 

Jessica J. Reveles, a graduate of Ascend LA, has 15 years of experience in the industry, says that marketing should be part of a concrete strategy with goals and metrics. Her company, J Squared Communications, focuses on digital marketing, i.e., social media, email marketing, blogs, and full-service website design. She adds, 

"Social media is so prevalent and interwoven into our lives that this is something that does not go away or turn off. So, it is a good investment to put your time, focus, energy, and money into social media, specifically creating a funnel. You draw people into that funnel through social media advertising and then get them to go through the pipeline."

Nevertheless, the key to managing marketing, whether in hiring an expert like Jessica or doing it yourself (perhaps through low entry points like free social media platforms), is analyzing your starting points, goals, and actual outcomes. Six key performance indicators are response rate, gross revenue, net revenue, lifetime value, the cost to acquire customers, and your return on investment (Weaver, 2022).

As for how much money to invest in marketing, that depends on your business's industry and your financials. "Because marketing budgets can vary so widely, it is a good idea to contact your industry trade association or read industry trade publications to see if they offer any benchmarks for setting a budget (Lesonsky, 2019). Thus, reach out to other Ascend businesses or other businesses in the same industry as you and have candid conversations about how much they allocate to marketing and what their results are. Be part of conversations where you learn best practices.