Years ago, a restaurant owner in my city rebuffed all overtures to conduct any advertising for his new establishment, saying, “The food speaks for itself.” A few months later, the restaurant closed.
There are many reasons for a business closing, but most of the time, it has to do with a decline or a lack of sales, which is caused by a decline in the number of customers or lack thereof. In turn, a lack of customers can be caused by a lack of awareness of the business.
Awareness is crucial for businesses. In fact, it’s the first step in the Consumer Adoption process. Here, you are spending a considerable amount of effort in public relations, advertising, word-of-mouth marketing, etc. The rationale is that no one can buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
I know that some business owners would rather spend all their efforts and money on their product or service. In other words, they believe that offering the best product or service is enough to attract customers.
While having a good product or service offering certainly helps keep a business open, it doesn’t help if you don’t tell anyone about it (like a tree falling in a forest …). I can’t tell you how often I’ve talked to a business owner who opened their doors and had no or hardly any customers on day 1.
Why? Because your products don’t speak for themselves.