ElectroPulse
ELECTROPULSE NEWSLETTER #22, APR/MAY 2010
4 Ways to Stretch Your Marketing Budget
One common question that I hear from colleagues and small business owners is: “How can I improve my marketing reach without expanding my budget in the current economy.” The key is a good knowledge of who your target customers are and a great understanding of what you do best. Here are 4 great ways to get big results on a small budget, pulled from The Marketing Plan Handbook by Robert W. Bly.
Don't over present yourself.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but a strange thing happens to some entrepreneurs when they get a little extra money for the ad budget. Looking at the top companies like Apple or Coca-Cola, they produce expensive four-color brochures, gold embossed mailers and flashy websites similar to those produced by Fortune 500 firms. Sure, the new brochures look great, but do they fit your industry, business or clients? Great marketing does not have to be flashy. The look, tone and image of your promotions should be dictated by your product and your market--not by what other companies in other businesses put out.
Producing literature that's too fancy for its purpose and its audience is a waste of money. It can even hurt sales--your prospects will look at your overdone literature and wonder whether you really understand your market and its needs.
If something works, stick with it.
Too many business owners scrap old promotions and create new ones because they're bored with their current campaign. Avoid creating new ads or promotions if your existing ones are still accurate and effective. You should run your ads for as long as your customers read and react to them. If a concept still has selling power but the promotion contains dated information, update the existing copy--don't throw it out and start from scratch.
Explore inexpensive alternatives for lead generation.
Try Google AdWords (which is very cost effective if there is little competition for the ads), banner advertising, organic search and PR. Many smaller firms judge marketing effectiveness solely by the number of leads generated. New-product press releases lead the list as the most economical method of generating leads. Even marketing newsletters like this one have been picked up by national technology journals, and we’ve had inquiries on the companies that we have featured. Post all your press releases in a media or press section on your website.
Get maximum mileage out of existing content (text and images).
We have all heard the environmental mantra, the 3R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Photos, illustrations, layouts and even copy created for one promotion can often be lifted and reused in other pieces to significantly reduce creative costs. For example, copy created for a corporate image ad can be used as the introduction to the annual report. Also, you can save rough layouts, newsletter drafts, thumbnail sketches, headlines and concepts rejected for one project and use them in future articles, mailings and promotions.