Money Matters in Marketing
We’ve discussed brand awareness and some advantageous ways to increase it without increasing your spending to an outrageous amount here, but let’s talk about why money matters and how…
It is imperative that you outsmart your competitors rather than outspend them.
If you’ve taken the foundational first steps toward success for your brand, then you know where your audience is most active. Reaching them could be tough, but throwing your marketing money in any and all directions does not mean you could even accomplish that. It is imperative that you not only know where they’re active, but create targeted messages to connect with them in a meaningful way. To create unique messages that touch the correct consumers, you must know your brand and you must know that you cannot be everything to everyone.
Knowing your brand means understanding who you are and what you stand for.
What are your core values? What clearly defines you? What makes you unique? Where is your market value? What are your competitive advantages? Be authentic. Authenticity is respectable.
Knowing that you cannot be everything to everyone means knowing that once you’ve defined your ideal audience, you focus in on them and stay focused. Do not deviate from your niche. Being all things to all people is not possible; instead, be the sole solution to the most suitable people. If you contribute real value to your consumers, you create campaigners. There is no better way to win people over than by serving them rather than selling to them. Showing them how and why they need what you have to offer, being available to answer questions and supply solutions, is more effective than a typical sales pitch.
This is where the tough questions come in. We addressed those here. Asking these questions keeps you from throwing spaghetti at the wall. If you are consistently reexamining your practices to discover what is working and what is not, you can further focus your funds to the correct method of marketing. For instance, if you have the same number of followers on Facebook and Twitter and you have been advertising via both avenues but see more growth in followers or seem to garner more conversions from the Twitter ads at the end of the ad cycle, you can zero in there and allocate accordingly. If you participate in a tradeshow or an event and find that it does nothing to generate buzz around your brand, you should probably opt out of that one the next time around.
None of this is quick, and most definitely requires more effort, but in the long run, not shelling out money needlessly and being intelligent with your budget is truly what pays off.
