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How can I make the most of my marketing budget?

On my travels as a marketer I meet all sorts of interesting business people and receive a myriad of questions about how best to market their businesses.

Today I met up with Jen Hayden who owns Pretty Machine, a company that offers botox, chemical peels and a whole chocolate box of beauty treatments for people who want to look and feel great about themselves.

Her question was, “ How can I make the most of my marketing budget?”

These days people use Google as the modern equivalent of the Yellow Pages.” I’ll Google it” has become a verb instead of a noun. So I’m sorry Yellow Pages but you’ll get no recommendations from me. The first step for any online research is the internet. So as a business you need to make sure that your presence is the strongest it can be online. Your website is the central communication hub for all your online activity so should reflect you in the best possible light but also accurately and succinctly.

There are five types of marketing activity that you can choose from and marketers call it

The Promotional Mix

1. Advertising

To the trade, consumers or to other organisations

2. Personal selling

Traditional salesman or telesales techniques

3. Sales promotion

Coupons, special offers, discounts and incentives

4. Publicity and public relations (PR)

Press releases, third part endorsements and (celebrity endorsements)

5. Direct and interactive selling

Direct mail, telesales, database marketing and website.

My response to No. 1 is ‘Don’t do it unless it’s absolutely your target audience!’

The most effective for Jen at Pretty Machine to concentrate on are No. 4 and 5. Online PR with a Facebook page including endorsements from her customers. Word of Mouth (WOM) advertising or PR is the always the strongest form of advertising, (although she did tell me that her customers are sometimes a little shy of telling people that they’ve just had work done.)

No.5.  Once you’ve captured the data of your target audience, and you know that they’ll be in the market for extra treatments – keep in touch with them by email and social media. Offer incentives for them to buy, making sure that you’re front of mind when they’re ready to spend their money.

A word of warning though -  Online methods of communicating are very cost effective, but never underestimate the time that it will take you to put these things together.

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