Making every penny count

Whether your market is booming or the pickings seem rather meagre, it makes sense to get the most from every dollar, pound, euro or yen that you spend on marketing. As we all know too well, marketing budgets are often the first to be put under pressure, forcing marketers to prove their worth – so there is always a need for wise investment. This has come up more and more often in client meetings.

We’re all attracted by the bright lights of ‘new’ and it’s certainly important to keep things fresh and appealing. But every piece of material you create has hidden value. Have you squeezed all the worth you can from it? For example, when you invested in interviewing a customer for a case study, did you explore what else you could get out of the meeting?

Did you uncover the sales strategy? Writing up a separate piece with vital hints and tips for conversation starters and objection-handling can improve salesforce effectiveness. Did you gather additional sound bites? Quotes add substantiation and credibility to direct mail and brochures. Have you prepared a shortened version to include as a synopsis in a new product brochure?

Events are another area where it’s possible to get much more, longer-term, benefit from your investment. Don’t write off the people that didn’t attend. Writing an event report or putting together a short video of the highlights to put on your website can keep the event delivering value long after the remains of the buffet have been consigned to the compost.

Don’t get me wrong, I love big budget projects, and we can do all the whizzy and glamorous stuff. But where I think we offer something different is how good we are at making sure that you get really great value, even when your budget isn’t huge.