Nov 11 2009
Alright, so it's not news that the economy has been in the (insert your favorite term here) lately. As profits shrink, budgets shrink, and a lot of business owners are left trying to do more (or more of the same) with a lot less. For some, it's worked. For others, desperation has led to questioning strategies and pretty much biting at every seemingly cheap opportunity that comes knocking. And as I see a lot of small business owners struggle and some close their doors, I'm left wondering if it's because they fell into the trap of pulling back on marketing efforts.
Not giving up
Doing less marketing or no marketing in a down economy, as many much smarter than I have said, is a big mistake. The reason is simple: If everyone is doing that, the ones who continue their marketing efforts get more of the pie. Better yet, they're also the ones people will remember when they are ready to spend more. Here's the thing though, not every marketing technique is going to work for your business.
While there are hard facts that show, for example, that email marketing is more cost effective than a direct mail campaign, this does you no good if your target audience isn't using email much. (Yes, it's hard to believe, but there are audiences like that out there.)
The almighty target audience
The key here is to truly identify your target audience. And I mean really nail it. That will tell you where you can market to them and how. If it's email marketing, great. If it's a direct mail campaign, great. Either way, the piece has to be designed so that it actually makes the recipient take an action and give you a return.
You gotta have a goal
In addition to really knowing your target audience, you need to know what your ultimate goal is. "To make the sale," I hear you say. But that's just too broad. What product(s) or service(s) are you going to focus on? You see, email click through rates and open rates don't mean anything unless they're converting into actual sales. A prospect looking at and reading your slick postcard doesn't amount to much if it doesn't bring in customers and sales. Having a goal let's you focus on the message to convince those people that you really do offer the best choice.
Hiring a pro
No one said this stuff would be easy (and if someone did, they lied). But that's why there are professionals. You can bring them in to help you identify what's working or not (that would be the wise move), or, bring them in once you've figured much of the audience and goals out on your own. Either way, a good design/marketing agency will help you see achieve better results by crafting your message with peak ROI in mind. Further a pro ought to stick around after the fact to measure the outcome and provide help on how to improve. After all, anyone can create a postcard with a copy of Publisher and the FedEx Kinko's down the street. Really making your marketing effort work for you (and analyze it afterward) takes seasoned professionals. And for 2 reasons: 1) They've got the experience and 2) they'll have an objective point of view.
It's really about knowing your business
So instead of taking the seemingly obvious (but misleading) advice of cutting the marketing that costs the most, instead, find out whats's giving you the most return. Then cut the stuff that doesn't give you much of a return. That's just wiser when it comes to the needs of your business.