Is it time to rebuild your marketing plan?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group

When funds are tight, it’s easy for business owners to look for ways to reduce costs and that’s usually a wise choice. Rather than simply cutting your marketing expenditures though, a better option for most companies may be to scrap their existing plan and start from scratch.

Think about your two possible scenarios:

Scenario 1

You do your best to cut a little here and a little there to get your marketing budget down to what you can handle under your current circumstances. In this case, one of two things can happen; either you don’t save as much as you need to, or you end up wasting your money because your cuts have reduced or even eliminated the effectiveness of your marketing. You’ll also waste a lot of energy trying to prop your existing marketing plan up.

Scenario 2

You reevaluate your current circumstances in terms of finances, the activity in your market, your unique business situation and your goals, and then develop a marketing plan around that. In this case, instead of a marketing plan that looks like it was patched together by Dr. Frankenstein, you’ll have one that is tailored to what’s going on right now. You may end up using fewer marketing channels to promote your company, but your marketing will be more focused, less work will be required to execute it and most importantly, you will achieve better results with a lower investment.

Start with the right foundation

If you were building a home in a nice level field, the foundation would be drastically different than if you were building it in the mountains. The same applies to your marketing. When the economy is booming and clients are spending money like rock stars, you can market differently than when everyone seems to be tightly clenching their purse strings. In times like this, you need to determin what your immediate goals are and market like hell to achieve them.

• Branding is still important, but if your don’t have the revenue to pay the rent, you need to focus on that. Your ads should be to the point and include a specific call to action. Motivate your customers to take action now.
• Be competitive in your pricing, but focus on value instead of just the dollar amount, otherwise you’ll always be forced to compete on price. Regardless of what you offer, make sure that you’re making enough profit to make it worthwhile . If you spend all your energy just breaking even, you won’t have time to go after the jobs that can help you get ahead.
• Choose your marketing channels carefully. Email marketing can be a cost-effective and simple way to reach your consumers with a targeted message, however, if you haven’t done the groundwork to build a quality list, it’s going to take some time before you can harness it’s true potential. Outdoor media, such as billboards, can generate tremendous exposure, but if you don’t have the budget to reach a tipping point, you’re not going to see results. Focus on what you can afford to do right.
• Speaking of what you can afford to do right, you need to know what is and isn’t working so you can adjust accordingly, and the only way to do that is to track the performance of all of your marketing. If a prospect calls in, ask them how they heard of your company. Utilize web analytics. Use a phone number that isn’t used anywhere else for your print advertising. Put a CRM system, such as ACT or Goldmine in place to track interaction with your prospects and customers.

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