The biggest bang for your marketing buck

26 Apr The biggest bang for your marketing buck

Our account manager Jessie keeps the ball rolling across all of our TGM projects. She loves lists, good briefs, a budget, and a plan of action. This month Jessie has combined all these things into an easy to understand list, providing insights into how to get the best bang for your marketing spend.

While the marketing industry is filled with strategies and ideas, it’s easy to get flustered by all the things you should be doing to help your business grow. Ultimately, it all comes down to planning and making the most of your marketing budget.

Make a plan

Doing business without a marketing plan is like smiling in the dark – you know what you are doing but nobody else does. A good marketing plan will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, who your target customer is and the best way to engage with them. A clear and concise plan will make sure you’re communicating to the right audience, with the right message, at the right time. There are plenty of resources available to help business owners develop a marketing plan, or get a specialist in to help – it’s money very well spent.

Develop your brand

A brand is your voice, vision and visuals coming together to distinguish your business from your competitors in the eyes of the customer. For small businesses, this may mean just a name and a logo, but for larger ones, it will likely be more (such as business cards, letter heads, email templates, brochures). All of your brand elements must work together to consistently communicate with your customers and make your brand clear, reliable and believable. 

Get online

If you do nothing else, get your business online. Whether it’s a simple Facebook business page or a dedicated website, an online presence will give you credibility and make it easier for your customers to find you. And with mobile users 5x more likely to leave your website if it’s not optimised for viewing on their device, it’s extremely important to make sure your site is responsive on all screens.

Targeted advertising

The traditional approach of putting an ad in the local paper may be easy, but it’s also quite expensive and may be missed by your customers. Spend your advertising dollars where they will make the biggest impact, whether it is through targeted publications, direct marketing, mail drops, online advertising, trade shows, billboards etc. A good marketing plan will have already identified your target customers and should have measurable outcomes built in to every approach.

Signage

First impressions matter. If you have customers visiting your business, make sure the signage is clear and attractive.

Review, review, review

Spend time reviewing the results of your marketing actions so that you can adapt and ensure the money you’ve spent is returning the results you were hoping for. If the marketing plan needs adjusting, then now is the time to do it.

We can help plan where your business can go together. Pop in for a chat with Andrea or one of the team to discuss the potential for your business to grow and how to get the most effective marketing results for your business.