Posts Tagged ‘Budget’

Stop Wasting Your Marketing Money

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Stop wasting your marketing money on mass-marketing and start using it to find real customers. For small businesses, mass-marketing campaigns like newspaper ads, magazine ads or billboards usually don’t work. That’s because, while you’re paying to reach thousands of people, only a few of those people might be interested in what you are selling.

If you’re small, think small

When you think about your success and plan for your business’s future, think big. But when you plan on how many people your marketing communications should reach, think small. You want to reach only the people who are interested in products or services like yours. Right now, in the Delta Sky magazine, there’s a full-page ad for a synthetic motor oil, whose creator, it is claimed, “Changed lubrication history .” Giggles aside, how many travelers are in need of a synthetic lubricant during their flight?

Don’t waste your money on marketing to people who don’t care. Here are some tips for how small businesses can “think small” about their marketing:

  • Online search advertising and Search Engine Optimization. People are actively searching for your products and services. Be there when they are looking and ready to buy.
  • Stay in touch with your current customers, to encourage them to buy more frequently and refer you. For example, a resort might send a birthday card to past guests with a complimentary service coupon for the guest’s next stay.
  • Ask current customers where and how they first learned about you. If you hear the same answer several times, increase those marketing efforts.
  • Instead of advertising in publications, get mentioned in them. Your customers probably do read newspapers and magazines, but they trust the stories more than the advertisements. Do something news-worthy, and many publications will be glad to cover it (especially if you offer to provide the copy!).
  • If you are a local business, like a restaurant, go out in your neighborhood and meet your customers. One idea is to host an event that showcases your product, offers free samples or includes a contest. It’s inexpensive but effective.

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Posted in Advertising, Marketing Theory, Pay Per Click Advertising | No Comments »

Cut Marketing Costs, Not Effectiveness

Friday, December 10th, 2010

As 2010 draws to a close, it’s time to finalize your marketing plan and budget for 2011. For next year, wouldn’t it be great to save money on your marketing efforts while not reducing their effectiveness?

I’ve found that almost every marketing budget carries some unneeded fat. An easy way to increase profitability is to make cuts where they won’t hurt.

Follow these four steps to cut costs, not effectiveness:

  1. Make a list of all marketing activities your business undertakes in a year: trade shows, public relations, advertising, sales trips, customer service training, etc.
  2. Write down how much money you spent on each item in the last year.
  3. Now write down how much revenue you can attribute to each activity.
  4. Do more of those activities that made money and less of those that lose money. Usually, this step is harder than it seems because our marketing plans are full of activities that we do from habit or to satisfy certain people in our businesses. But, for instance, if you lost money on trade shows, you shouldn’t keep investing in them, regardless of a perceived loss of reputation or “getting your name out there.”

This four-step process is simple, if you’re able to track the results of your marketing efforts. But do you have difficulty attributing revenue to each item? Here are some tips to track the effectiveness of your marketing channels in the future.

  • Unique toll-free numbers. There are services available to provide different toll-free numbers and track the calls you receive from each. Assign a different number to each advertising channel: radio, print and web. For more granularity, assign a different number to each campaign type.
  • Website analytics. If you haven’t already, install Google’s free Analytics on your web site. You can track the effectiveness of your pay per click advertising, other sites referring to your site, search terms visitors use to find your site, the geographical location of visitors and more.
  • Ask your advertisers. Advertisers should be able to provide results from your campaigns. Ask them about it.
  • Coupon codes. For any special offer you provide customers, use a unique coupon code you can use to track redemptions.
  • Lead tracking. When you record a new contact, track where the lead came from. Usually people don’t mind being asked, “How did you hear about us?” Store this information on a spreadsheet, contact application or lead manager like salesforce.com.

Some marketing efforts don’t have a clear return on investment, like training your receptionist to help customers find information or encouraging your sales staff to develop better relationships with customers. Fortunately, most efforts that have an unclear ROI also cost the least. And personal interactions have the biggest impact with your customers because customers will remember a phone call with a member of your team more than they will remember an advertisement they saw in the newspaper. When planning your marketing budget for 2011, cut costs, not effectiveness and promote interactions over impressions.

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Posted in Business Plan, Marketing | 4 Comments »

Direct Mail Disaster

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

One way to waste a few thousand dollars.

In any marketing venture, disregarding details will often result in a marketing disaster. Advertising and direct mail are by their very nature public, so marketing mistakes in these areas are very visible. So learn from this company’s mistakes before you launch your next small business marketing initiative.

Furniture Row, a retailer with 330 stores in 31 states, apparently put a lot of thought (and resources) into developing a system for sending direct mail to people who recently moved into a new home. Here is a mailer recently sent to a resident in Cincinnati, OH:

It’s a shame they didn’t put as much thought into getting customers to their stores. The mailer doesn’t include a phone number or website address, just cryptic directions to go “N. of the Florence Mall” and an address in Denver. Observe:

Without any directions or way to contact the company, this direct mail piece is a failure. Surely Furniture Row doesn’t expect new homeowners to drive around Florence, KY looking for their store.

In your marketing efforts, pay attention to the details (unless you like wasting your marketing budget on mistakes).

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Posted in Advertising, Graphic Design | 3 Comments »

The Communication Trifecta

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Content, timing, media – this sums up the marketing communications trifecta. And they all have one goal: communicate with your customers in ways that are meaningful to them.

If you don’t communicate with customers in ways that are meaningful to them, your messages will be ignored (or, even worse, your customers will become angry with you). Don’t waste your marketing budget on direct mail pieces that will be thrown in the trash or email messages that will be marked as spam. Here are some things to consider as you design your communications with customers.

Talk like a customer.
The most important element is the content of your message. Communication is for your customers, not for you, and the content should be designed for the customer. Sometimes, companies fall into the trap of creating communications for themselves, instead of for their customers. In their latest ads for Windows 7, Microsoft developed a hilarious message… by poking fun at their customers. Watch as the customer in this ad enters a dream world, imagining an impossibly idealized version of herself:
How is this ad supposed to be meaningful for Microsoft’s customers? Microsoft made the mistake of designing an ad they found funny, without considering what their customers might think.
At least Microsoft didn’t fall into the trap of many technology companies by listing all their new technical features. You’ll notice they didn’t even mention the technology. That’s because almost no customer cares about technological details. They care about having a computer that is easy to use, and Microsoft knows that.
It’s 3AM. Do you know where your marketing communications are?
Beyond the content of your messages, you must consider the timing of your communications. Telemarketers are infamous for calling people as they sit down to dinner. Telemarketers are also known for their low success rates – The Direct Marketing Association reports that the response rate for outbound telemarketing is between 2.9 – 4.4% (they also report this rate is the best for all direct marketing methods – yikes!). Consider when your customers would like to hear from you. For example, if you are emailing a B2B newsletter, don’t send it out Monday afternoon. It’s likely your customers are already busy and won’t have time to read it.
So many choices.
Completing our trifecta of communication is the medium you choose. There are more media than ever from which to pick: magazines, direct mail, newspapers, pay-per-click advertising, social media, local events, radio and many other choices. Fortunately, choosing a medium is not as difficult as it might seem. The only media that matters to you are the ones that matter to your customers. An assisted living facility might advertise in a well-respected local newspaper, because that’s what their customers trust. An organic bakery, on the other hand, might not do any traditional advertising at all, if they determine they can best reach their customers at the local farmers’ market or on Facebook. One media tip: the more local your business is, the more local the communication should be.
Communication is more than just advertising.
Traditional marketing communications like we’ve been discussing are the flashiest and most obvious element of communicating with your customers, but, really, communications include every time you talk to your customers and every time they try to talk with you. While a large part of communication is advertising, you need to evaluate every point of communication with your customers.
Some of the non-advertising communications you should evaluate include your billing documents, receipts, the experience of calling your business on the phone, handling a customer service issue or walking into your store. The strength of the small business is that you can give thought to every experience your customers have with you and your company. Making beneficial changes to non-advertising communications with your customers is usually inexpensive and can make a big difference to the bottom line.
New isn’t always better.
I know many small businesses feel the need to try out new and various ways of advertising, and they spend a lot of money trying to find “what works.” But you don’t have to guess, and you don’t need to listen to high-pressure sales pitches. You can evaluate every new advertising opportunity with the question, “Will this be meaningful to my customers?” By making all communications customers have with you meaningful, you will be able to stretch your marketing budget further and with more success.

Talk like a customer.

The most important element is the content of your message. Communication is for your customers, not for you, and the content should be designed for the customer. Sometimes, companies fall into the trap of creating communications for themselves, instead of for their customers. You can see an example of this in my post, “Microsoft, why do you insult your customers?”

At least Microsoft didn’t fall into the same trap as many other technology companies by listing all their new technical features. You’ll notice they didn’t even mention the technology. That’s because almost no customer cares about technological details. They care about having a computer that is easy to use, and Microsoft knows that.

It’s 3AM. Do you know where your marketing communications are?

Beyond the content of your messages, you must consider the timing of your communications. Telemarketers are infamous for calling people as they sit down to dinner. Telemarketers are also known for their low success rates – The Direct Marketing Association reports that the response rate for outbound telemarketing is between 2.9 – 4.4% (they also report this rate is the best for all direct marketing methods – yikes!). Consider when your customers would like to hear from you. For example, if you are emailing a B2B newsletter, don’t send it out Monday afternoon. It’s likely your customers are already busy and won’t have time to read it.

So many choices.

Completing our trifecta of communication is the medium you choose. There are more media than ever from which to pick: magazines, direct mail, newspapers, pay-per-click advertising, social media, local events, radio and many other choices. Fortunately, choosing a medium is not as difficult as it might seem. The only media that matters to you are the ones that matter to your customers. An assisted living facility might advertise in a well-respected local newspaper, because that’s what their customers trust. An organic bakery, on the other hand, might not do any traditional advertising at all, if they determine they can best reach their customers at the local farmers’ market or on Facebook. One media tip: the more local your business is, the more local the communication should be.

Communication is more than just advertising.

Traditional marketing communications like we’ve been discussing are the flashiest and most obvious element of communicating with your customers, but, really, communications include every time you talk to your customers and every time they try to talk with you. While a large part of communication is advertising, you need to evaluate every point of communication with your customers.

Some of the non-advertising communications you should evaluate include your billing documents, receipts, the experience of calling your business on the phone, handling a customer service issue or walking into your store. The strength of the small business is that you can give thought to every experience your customers have with you and your company. Making beneficial changes to non-advertising communications with your customers is usually inexpensive and can make a big difference to the bottom line.

New isn’t always better.

I know many small businesses feel the need to try out new and various ways of advertising, and they spend a lot of money trying to find “what works.” But you don’t have to guess, and you don’t need to listen to high-pressure sales pitches. You can evaluate every new advertising opportunity with the question, “Will this be meaningful to my customers?” By making all communications customers have with you meaningful, you will be able to stretch your marketing budget further and with more success.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Advertising, Customers, Marketing Theory | 1 Comment »