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How to create a marketing budget that fits your needs

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Do you have ambitious growth plans for your small company, but a limited marketing budget? Does the cost of marketing your product or service seem overwhelming and far too expensive?Well, take heart-there is no need to compromise your goals. There are lots of great, budget-smart tactics that will put your business on the fast track even if you do not have deep pockets. The key to this problem is to correctly and efficiently design a marketing budget that will best serve your needs. Here are the basics on how to create a marketing budget that fits your needs:

  • You must be able to identify your target market and have a feasible route of reaching them.
  • You must be aware of what is going on in your market and what your competitors are doing.
  • And most importantly you must be able and willing to respond to what the market in your industry is doing and change your marketing strategy to reflect that.

When you have established these facts you will have an effective marketing budget.Then you can go on to use those marketing dollars in the best possible way for your product or service. There are several ideas that can be adapted to fit even the smallest marketing budget.Here are just a few:

  • Customer rewards: It can cost as much as five times more to win a new customer than to retain an old one.Consider the fact that customer reward programs are a lower-cost alternative to acquisition marketing.By creating and actively promoting a loyalty program that rewards on enrollment and then provides graduated incentives to your best customers you can significantly save on marketing dollars. Just keep in mind the best rewards programs work to keep customers coming back by providing in-kind rewards rather than gifts from other vendors.
  • Local paid search: The vast majority of American shoppers do research on the web before making a purchase. They already have decided what they want to buy-they are just looking for the right place to buy it.The major search engines among others, offer services for local advertisers, and several programs provide a location page that will drive traffic to your store even if you do not have your own website. All this is done for a nominal fee that can provide huge returns.
  • Marriage mail: Marriage mail has nothing to do with matrimony.Consider this if you are trying to reach consumer households in specific market areas your own direct-mail campaign could cost a small fortune. Instead, marketing experts recommend using "marriage mail" this is where you will send your ad or coupon in a joint mailing with other advertisers. This is an affordable alternative to stand-alone direct mail and will make your marketing dollars go much further.
  • Grass-roots advocacy: Word-of-mouth is often the most desirable (and one of the least expensive) forms of marketing. To get people talking, you can run a contest, stage an event, or assemble a group of "influences."For example: The creator of a series of books and products for preteen girls has used its website to enroll several hundred girls to act as advisors on everything from book characters to plots. The members are also the first to receive information on new products. You can be sure that these influences of your product or service will spread the word to family and friends about how great it is.
  • Marketing partnerships: When considering the best way to spend marketing dollars to fit your business needs it often pays to partner with another company that targets the same audience. You can forge marketing partnerships with businesses that offer complementary services and then pool your prospect lists or share advertising costs. Trade seminars are often the best way to find prospective partners that can help stretch your marketing dollars.
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