Effective marketing campaigns don’t need big-company budgets. By being smart at the outset and taking the necessary time at the planning stage, you can coax the greatest value from your budget, regardless of its size.
- Big impact doesn’t always mean big bucks!
There are three stages to effective marketing and every marketing activity you undertake should include these distinct stages:
• Planning
• Implementation
• Post-audit
In the busy lives of most marketers, their major focus is often on programme implementation, and planning and post-audit become casualties of the marketing war. This is very dangerous because these two stages are critically important in deciding how, when and where to get the greatest benefit from the marketing effort.
It’s not just about the money, but time and management attention as well.
Planning includes all the up-front work — determining the objective, what strategies will best accomplish the objective, how much the objective is worth and whether the budget is sufficient to do an effective job. You’ll look at what resources are available, who needs to be involved and so forth. This step keeps you from falling victim to the “ready, fire, aim” syndrome.
Implementation is the actual — visible — part of marketing, where you actually do something that can make a difference in generating sales. Implementation can make or break a promotion plan. Even the best strategies can be rendered completely ineffective (and very expensive) by sloppy implementation.
Post-audit is important because it is how you learn what works and what doesn’t so you can improve your efforts. Marketing isn’t an exact science, and what works in one industry (or market or competitive climate) may not work in another. Your company and your objectives are unique, and the marketing tools that are most effective for another marketer may not be optimal for you.
If you would like help in setting up your own marketing activity in a structured and accountable way, please get in touch.
