What I’m going to tell you in this blog is “How To Stop Burning Your Marketing Budget”
It doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you to spend nothing on marketing or do things on the cheap or try and lower your costs because of Brexit / Summer / Christmas or a litany of reasons you want to save money
Marketing is an investment and what I want you to cut after reading this blog is wastage from your marketing budget i.e cut the stuff that isn’t working and increase the budget on things that are and still come out smiling
1. Educate Yourself On Marketing
I’m not making wild assumptions when I say 95% of the people reading this blog will have no formal education or career in marketing
The chances are you did the whole “Do what you love” “follow your passion” or “decided to take a punt on a business after redundancy”
And that means your kind of winging it and that’s fine at times – winging it can sometimes lead you down paths that no one had even thought about
But please please please educate yourself on marketing
I’ve got 20 years experience in marketing and every day is a school day – I never stop learning and reading about marketing
Read our blogs, read a “Marketing For Dummies” book (yes, I googled it and it does exist but I can’t vouch for that books quality), ask us for a few recommendations on marketing books
Don’t just blindly go spending money without 1st understanding the basics of marketing
2. Chat To Someone Honest Who Works In Marketing
Anyone who serious about marketing and in their business for the long term won’t sell you a service that won’t work
I turned down work just yesterday that if we’d have signed them up on a contract would have been worth thousands to us. I was upfront and said social media wasn’t the right option for this campaign and that email marketing would have been a better option for them
It’s hard finding someone totally honest in marketing, but if you find someone that is trusted and highly recommended they give you impartial marketing advice that will work for you and offer a solution that works for your business
Marketers realise that reputation is everything
They’d rather you tell 10 people that the service they offer works than telling 10 people the service they offer doesn’t work
At Altrincham HQ we specialise in social media – but if that isn’t the right fit we have recommended businesses that can offer a wide variety of marketing skills
3. Look At The Most Successful Businesses in Town
This is the easiest way of spending your marketing wisely
Look at where the most successful businesses in town are spending their marketing budget and mirror where they are spending their money
If the most successful local business in your industry is drilling down on social media it’s a good indication that it’s working for them
If the most successful local business in your industry is drilling down on blogging and content it’s a good indication that it’s working for them
If the most successful local business in your industry is doing solus leaflet delivery it’s a good indication that it’s working for them
And as well as looking at what is working for them – look at areas you believe they are leaving out of the mix that you may be able to capitalise on
SWOT analysis of your marketing and competitive analysis of your competition is a really cost effective way to lower your marketing costs
4. Do Marketing That Involves Creativity, Not Money
Social Media is not free
But it takes time, not money
Some of our most “viral” posts that have reached mass audiences and won lots of new customers have been posts that have taken less than 5-10 minutes to create
We understand that you might not have the resources currently to outsource your social media for example, but a low budget option is 121 social media training which will show you how to create great content on a budget – content that truly wows your audience
The thing that does take time on all our platforms is engagement – the relationship building aspect of social media
And 30 minutes a day relationship building is a “free” way to build up your business
Is that 30 minutes a day an income generating activity for you?
5. Don’t Pond Jump – Be Patient, but Measure Results and Adapt When Needed
If you jump from pond to pond, you’ll get wet – but you won’t really see any results
You know what I mean by this because you’ve probably done it yourself and it’s an absolute guaranteed way to burn money fast
So you tried social media for 3 weeks and it didn’t work … so you gave up
And then you advertised in the local online newspaper twice and it didn’t work … so you gave up
And then you tried leaflet delivery and 2000 leaflets didn’t work … so you gave up
And then you paid for a new website and that didn’t work in 4 weeks … so you have up
And within 3 months you’ve spend your whole marketing budget for a year
Go back to points 1 and 2 before spending money, weight up the benefits and risks of each option and then commit, be patient and measure along the way
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
Or Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
