Be Your Own Bailout
December 2, 2008
As the economy tightens, businesses have begun the belt-tightening process. They are taking a close look at all expenditures and cutting back on the non-essentials. Branding/marketing budgets are not escaping the scrutiny - nor should they. So what SHOULD a company allocate towards branding/marketing? Here are 7 areas to consider:
- Look at your business in its entirety. Think strategically, then tactically. This starts first with the 3 Simple Rules of business. Take a close look at your vision for your company - has the picture in your head of success changed? If so, then you need to re-focus your business strategy around that new vision.
- Take a long look at your business model. Is your business model out of alignment with market conditions? Do you have scalability in your processes that allows you to flex to new opportunities? This will have big impact on how you spend branding/marketing dollars. Keep in mind that advertising MORE doesn’t help an obsolete business model.
- Ask “why?” a lot. Every marketing expenditure must be tied to a strategic reason. There should be no marketing just for the sake of marketing.
- Ask “what?” a lot. Every marketing expenditure should have provable, measurable results. If a particular marketing tactic is not producing results, stop doing it.
- Make heavy use of public relations. This is key in two areas. 1) Media relations - most media outlets have had to cut back on reporting staff. As such, they are hungry for non-pitchy, relevant stories. Strongly consider using a professional PR firm to help you handle this. They can very likely articulate your story to the media better than you can. Also check out “Help-A-Reporter-Out”, a story request tool from PR guru Peter Shankman. 2) Be Your Own Media - if your story isn’t getting out, it is your fault. Your web-site is a publishing outlet waiting to tell your story. I’m a strong advocate of re-purposing all marketing tools to tell your story instead of pitching your message. If you follow the 3 Simple Rules, you will have great stories to tell.
- Drive the cost out of existing marketing expenditures. Keep in mind that almost all marketing is a commodity. This means it often can be done faster and less expensive if you shop it carefully. This especially true with web costs. Take a look at what it costs to maintain your site. If your current site doesn’t have a CMS (content management system) then you are likely wasting thousands of dollars. Also take a look at hosting costs. As far as out-bound marketing efforts, almost everything can be purchased less than what you are paying for now - direct mail, media placement, etc. Finally, consider using more interns. A college marketing student is much more likely to understand current marketing trends than a marketing person who hasn’t escaped the walls of his/her cubicle in 10 years. Interns are ideal to manage customer retention efforts (see below).
- This is the biggest one - focus on customer retention v. customer acquisition. The first reason is purely financial - it is simply much less expensive to get new business and referrals from your existing customers. However, this doesn’t mean to NOT spend money on customer retention. Instead, re-direct funds that are currently being spent on customer acquisition (for example, mass advertising) towards customer retention tools. These steps include:
- Re-purposing your web-site to be a conversation platform between you and your customers - and your customers with each other.
- Embracing social media as a digital word-of-mouth tool.
- Implementing survey and customer feedback mechanisms
- Investing in contact/relationship management tools like a CRM.
- Scrutinizing every element of the customer experience.
For B2B companies, there is an 8th step - Re-build your sales force. The bottom line - if your product/service is good, there is no excuse for an under-performing sales person. If you have a good salesperson, do everything to keep them.
Some of this is “tough love” that will ruffle some feathers with our fellow marketers/branders. However, if we don’t help businesses re-focus and properly allocate marketing resources, we will end up on a ledger with a red line through our name. For business owners and executives, you likely have been doing some version of the above for years; maybe not with marketing. Question everything, think strategically, and expect excellence from your internal and external marketing people.
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2 Responses to “Be Your Own Bailout”
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Great post… We get so busy sometimes that it’s great to get a reminder once in a while to step back, look at it all, and figure where to focus.
The public relations part is really well done. I talk to people all the time about how easy it can be to get publicity if it’s done right.
Luc
Score another one for Tricycle. Every point you made is fundamental to great business…but I particularly like point #3: “Ask ‘why?’ a lot.”
Asking “why?” is great for decision in marketing as well as any other thing a business does. This same question from another perspective is “What’s the point?” Every time a business gives a presentation, prints a brochure, talks to a customer, orders product, hires support staff, etc., should be supported by a purpose. If you can’t answer “What’s the point?” then you’re wasting resources and time…both for you and your clients or prospects.