Marketing is the first thing to be cut with most small businesses we see. Money gets tight... decrease your marketing budget. Response isn't quite what you thought on a new ad... kill the marketing campaign early. Economy takes a turn for the worse... let your marketing go. Regardless of industry, we see the same response time and time again. Sadly its all wrong. The worst thing you can do when things get tough is stop marketing. The second worse thing you can do is kill a marketing program early because it doesn't have instant success.

Marketing takes time, and like everything else, it also costs money. And marketing is a fickle thing without somewhat difficult to quantify results. If you mail someone a sales letter and they don't call you, was it a waste of time and resources? What if they do call you, but its a month or two later, is it a waste then? People can't buy your product if they don't know what you sell or that you even exist. And even if they know who you are and what you sell, you have to catch them at the right time and persuade them that you are the best option if you want to make it happen. Some marketing efforts seem to go unheard only to be reap the benefits later... you have to keep sowing the seeds in order to enjoy the fruits.

And that's how marketing is sometimes. While results can be instant, often they are not. A year is an extreme example, but its not unheard of in many industries. Often you have to get your name and product in front of a customer multiple times before making a sale. Each time you are building brand and product awareness, and you are also taking a chance that your product will be what they need at the brief moment when you have their attention. Even if they don't need you know, if you have targeted your campaign, they will almost certainly need you at some point in the future. Better to make a good impression now and keep building on their perception of you. While all of that seems like common sense, you would be amazed how many businesses we deal with don't see it through. You have to combat your instincts to quickly abandon a marketing program before you have given it a chance for success.

In order to make a campaign successful, you have to know your audience, reach your audience, and give your campaign a chance for success. This means that you don't stop sending direct mail to a customer because they didn't call you after the first letter. This means you don't stop dropping off your business card to a potential client the first time they tell you no. And it means you don't quit a 6 month radio or television campaign after 2 weeks because the phone didn't start ringing as quickly as you imagined.

We'll work with you to devise a marketing campaign that will have the greatest chance of success for the budget you have available. We'll analyze your existing strategies or help you develop something completely new. We'll help you with your ad buy or direct-mail negotiations. But the most important thing we can do is encourage you to have realistic goals and don't cut your campaign short. If your product is right, your service is good, and your brand is strong... a good marketing campaign will be a success. But you have to give it a chance.

Another avenue we can help you with are marketing alternatives. Depending on your industry, there are ways to get in-front of decision makers and referral sources through less traditional means. A cake & cookier designer we work with spent countless dollars on wedding shows, postcards, and printed brochures. We recommended she deliver cookies to wedding consultants and other wedding vendors and keep doing so every few months. It didn't cost her as much as other marketing efforts, and gave her a much greater chance of success. Its a simple idea, and it worked.

We'll also work with you on customer retention and customer referral programs. It takes much more effort and costs considerably more to create a new customer than to exploit one you already have. That is why repeat business is the key to so many businesses. Once you have developed a relationship with someone, as long as you haven't given them any reason to go elsewhere, they are much more likely to come back and recommend you to a friend. We can help you increase the effectiveness of your customer retention and referral programs, and if you don't have any in place, we will help you develop them ASAP so you don't continue to let good sales pass you by.