No, advertising is not all bad — the way it gets implemented in many cases is bad, used in place of a proactive marketing strategy (i.e., I’ve been advertising in the local paper/business journal/trade magazine for 5 months, why isn’t my phone ringing?) Advertising on its own is not an integrated marketing strategy; it’s usually best used as an overall awareness or brand builder. The problem is that a lot of entrepreneurs want to see it as a plug-and-play-pipeline builder and it usually is not.

And to clarify, I would never say “don’t advertise” as an absolute. In fact, I usually tell most business owners to make it the last step in their plan, once they’ve got the tools they need to attract and close warmer prospects. The other problem with advertising is that unless you’re selling an impulse item (like the snuggie) — and most of us in the B2B arena are not — business owners just aren’t prepared for the fact that when the phone does ring, they’re still essentially dealing with a stone cold lead. You need to get your sales and marketing processes finely tuned to ensure you can close a good number of those opportunities when they arise.

But I definitely stand by my original point here that advertising is not a strategy unto itself; it’s a tactic that’s used to further an overall marketing or business goal. And looking at the snuggie, let’s remember also that they are running an ad campaign that is likely worth a few million dollars at least; they are using advertising very well, but few startups without significant funding would be able to replicate that. They have also backed up their TV strategies with what appears to be some solid PR and social media savvy so even an ad-focused marketing plan like theirs has a few other moving parts.

Thank you for the comment and for challenging me on this.

Matt Hanson