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(Article first published in Oct '08. It has been modified slightly to suit its publication on our site)
During turbulent financial times all business owners tend to worry about the future - it's only natural. However it is important that you don't allow your concerns to impact on your business decisions. A big part of this are your decisions on spend.
A critical realisation is that marketing is an investment not a cost and in these difficult times it is more important than ever to keep telling potential customers you exist, while looking for ways to cut costs in your business. The bottom line is that you CAN have a strong marketing program AND save money.
How Is This Possible?
In our previous business universe it didn't really matter if you spent an excess amount on marketing, or indeed if you spent money on marketing activities that didn't really work. There was enough business to go around anyway - I call this the 'Shotgun' approach. Today things are different and every penny spent on marketing needs to hit the mark and make a difference. I call this the 'Sniper' approach.
An example of this is a customer we recently worked with, who was wasting over €200 per month on ineffective Google Adwords advertising. He had been running this way for over a year - that's almost €2,500 of wasted spend. Previously not a problem, but a big chunk of your marketing budget when every penny counts. After some basic tweaks to his campaign he saw a dramatic increase in targeted customer enquiries from the same spend!
There are examples like this in every business. So your reaction shouldn't be 'STOP', but instead it should be to review and optimise. That advert you've been running at the back of a magazine/newspaper - has it brought in any significant business? If not review your approach. The answer could be a redesign, a more compelling offer, a bigger ad, run less often, nearer the front or in extreme cases scrap it and try something else.
Avoid Knee-Jerking
A big mistake in marketing is knee-jerk reactions to activities. It is very tempting to stop everything, but it's even more tempting to do something, anything, to get business moving. Beware! Media sales people know this and it's their job to sell you ad space or radio air-time. They don't care about how good or bad your ad is or whether your spend is the best use of your marketing funds. GET ADVICE and get your ad professionally designed. It is a false economy to produce DIY ads. Any money you might save on designing your ad at home yourself, you are going to lose in wasted advertising spend.
Review Your Costs
In almost every case, business owners can find savings in their day-to-day business expenses. These savings can then be used to fund additional marketing activities and get your name out there.
The Truth Hurts
If the Celtic Tiger era of doing business wasn't over already, it definitely is now! I like to make the analogy of catching fish. Previously our business climate was like putting your hand into a river and fish would just swim into it for you to pull out and cook. Those days are over and frankly that's not a natural state. We are all going to have to get used to having to buy the right fishing equipment and bait and then spending time working out the best spots to catch the fish we are looking for. That takes time, effort and more money than we have all been used to spending. But that's a normal state of business practice.
Franco De Bonis has worked in the field of sales and marketing promotion since 1990 and was most recently the global marketing manager for a major international technology company before setting up DG Group in January 2007.
DG Group is dedicated to delivering all the marketing solutions any company may require. Whether it's a website or leaflets and brochures, or even some product packaging; DG Group will manage the whole project and even provide guidance along the way.
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