When times are tough, is when marketing is the most important.
If you are a business owner, or managing a marketing department, you may be faced with the challenge and pressure to reduce (or, gasp!) even eliminate your marketing budget - everything from marketing spend to human resources.
For small business, even for large ones, when business slows down and the revenue drops, the focus and spend for marketing is often the first one that gets red circled for the chopping block.
That’s a mistake.
Now, this doesn’t mean spend money for the sake of spending it. That would be foolish. Here are 4 things to think about before pulling out the axe.
Think about what your business needs to achieve to remain profitable. Look at your strategy, your desired state and of course, your budget.
Reflect on your why. Why are you in business? What are you hoping to achieve?
Look at your product and service lines. Which are excelling? Which have the greatest revenue margin or the potential to get there? Put your ear to the ground – what are people looking for that you offer?
Then think about how people connect with you and your business. In person? Online? Traditional media? How can you be where they are in the most cost-effective and impactful way?
All right, ready to get started? Pull your people together – even if it’s just you and your shadow - and brainstorm, spitball and think of all the wild and crazy ways to get to where you want to be.
A sidenote on a brainstorming method you may want to try:
In a recent presentation I attended, we did a 2-minute experiment where one individual was the seller of an idea and the other the recipient. The recipient had to answer every idea the seller had with the words ‘no, because’. You can imagine how inhibiting and deflating this exercise was – in just 2 minutes. Now we did this again and reframed it so that the recipient of the idea could only answer with ‘yes, and’. In 2 minutes, the energy was palpable and contagious – and we came up with amazing things – in 2 minutes. This could be worth giving a try at your organization.
Now carve it down to the ideas that you can do (this might be a good time to ask for help from experts and sometimes even friends and family).
Next, objectively look at your marketing budget and activities. Does it make sense to drop off the face of the earth? What is the opportunity cost of this? After all, if people don’t know about you or what you offer, it can make it challenging for them to purchase from or support you (yes, this is true for existing customers too).
Be creative, inspire your customers to act, let them know you are still there to serve them. They’ll remember. And your business will prosper.
Keep on being amazing,
Lyanne
(Original postdate of this blog article was March 2022 and has been updated in December 2022 with timely information)
Whether you are interested in learning more about how blue dragonfly can help your business, are interested in joining or learning more about Mastermind groups, would like to chat about a speaking engagement, or just want to meet with me, this is a great way to get started. Contact | Blue Dragonfly Marketing Strategies (bluedragonflystrategies.ca)
Cheers to the beginning of a great relationship.