Think your small business's advertising and marketing need to build your brand? Have you considered these important reasons why you should get some direct responses to pay the bills before dedicating resources to branding?

Too often, small business advertising and marketing campaigns prioritize branding at the expense of direct response--i.e., actually getting leads and/or sales right now. That is almost always a foolish and even dangerous proposition.

Unless you're a ubiquitous consumer products company, the value of branding is far, far less than the value of direct response. What good is impressing someone with your brand if he or she never comes into contact with your business again