Back when I was leading advertising sales departments at local television stations in the Midwest, I’d periodically hear from business owners that advertising doesn’t work. They were usually in the retail or service business, and although I didn’t hear it frequently, it happened often enough that I remember those conversations.

Sixteen years ago (this month actually), I started my own marketing and advertising firm, and over the years, we started doing more business-to-business marketing work for clients. I got close to those clients and learned about their struggles and challenges. Periodically, a few of them would tell me marketing doesn’t work. They were trying to communicate with their current and former customers and didn’t think it was having an impact.

I couldn’t disagree more with this thought process.

In this world where measuring click-response interactions influence which marketing activities get prioritized and influencers drive advertising campaign success, I’m more convinced than ever that advertising and marketing work. In fact, they work great.

A Change2Make

There’s only one way to make an impact with your advertising and marketing investment. Stick with it. Be consistent.

Too many nonprofits, businesses, and medical practices have lost the heart for the process of winning new relationships with donors, customers, and patients. The average business owner starts to think advertising and marketing doesn’t work around the same time the target of their message is beginning to take notice. This is not the right time to stop or back away.

One former client comes to mind when I think about this topic.

They were a business-to-business services company that decided to terminate our relationship a little over a decade ago, after three years of working together. They said the marketing wasn’t working. Roanoke is a small city—maybe like the one you do business in—and word gets around. Four or five years after we had parted ways, two different MAJOR new clients of my former client mentioned that they were both doing business with the firm. It was years after the marketing outreach had started the awareness, but the connection was evident. And the efficacy of the campaign was clear.

It took years for the results of that campaign to jell.

My guess is that neither my previous client nor his two new clients would recall the ways their business relationships had started. I did. It was the marketing that started the process, and I’d stake my 16 years of doing this work (and my 35 plus years in advertising and marketing) that it was the marketing that was responsible for their business relationships.

Advertising works. So does marketing. Of this, I have absolutely no doubt. If you do, I’d welcome a one-on-one conversation and a chance to change your mind.