How to stretch your marketing dollars

Business owners of every size and type of business are always trying to make their marketing dollars go further. With limited budgets marketing can often get shorted with the amount of cash that is available to use. However, savvy business owners know that there are creative ways to make their marketing dollars go further. Here is what you need to know about how to stretch your marketing dollars-

- DIY-It is important to understand that everything that you send out to be done when it comes to marketing materials will cost you more then doing it in-house. It is important to keep in mind that while it can be more of a hassle to put together marketing materials within your company it can save you substantial money. You want to save your marketing dollars for the times that you must have the expertise of an advertising agency or expensive consultant to get your marketing completed. If you cannot take on the marketing tasks yourself consider hiring an employee that can handle the marketing task for you.
- If it's not broken, don't fix it-Far to often business owners think that they need to change up their marketing message. This is just an unnecessary expense. It is important top keep in mind that some of the most well known companies in the world have continued to use the same marketing message for many years. You should not let boredom or a need to just change things dictate whether or not you change your marketing strategy. Instead you should carefully look at the effectiveness of your current marketing campaign and then determine if you need to make changes in order to get better results. You may just need to make some simple changes or just update some materials in order to get a bigger bang for your marketing buck. Either way you can save a lot of money and make your marketing dollars go further.
- Use marketing materials in multiple ways-There is no need to have different text, photos, and other graphics for every piece of marketing material. You can not only make your marketing dollars go further but you can unify the theme of your marketing message by using the same pieces of marketing in multiple ways. You can use pictures, layouts, illustrations and even text that was used in one promotion and then transfer it over to something else. By doing this you can not only get more mileage out of marketing materials you can present your customers with a clear marketing message.
- Try not to go overboard-Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that they are not really marketing unless they can present their customers with a 4 color brochure, a photographic layout in their annual report, and embossed invitations to VIP events. However, while there may be a place for all of this it can often obscure the marketing message you are trying to present and cost you a lot of money. You want to make sure that the tone, image, and the look of your marketing materials does not overshadow your marketing message. In addition, you should never feel that your marketing materials have to keep up with your competition. You want to present a unique view of your company and what you can offer your customers through the marketing materials that you send out. Not only will this help you to market more effectively if will help you to make your marketing dollars go much further. If you give into the temptation to use overdone marketing materials your customers may wonder about your expertise and whether or not you even understand your market.