In today’s tough economic climate, small business owners are facing an ever-increasing onslaught of demands on their cash. This tight cash flow management often leads to small business owners pulling back on marketing and promotional costs in an effort to protect their bottom line. As a marketing expert, many people ask me if this is a wise course of action. Do they stop spending in order to protect the bottom line and save cash, risking business growth? Or do they spend precious cash in order to grow, but at the risk of hurting the bottom line if growth doesn’t occur?
My answer may seem overly simply, but the key to financial success is “smart strategic spending.” As a business owner, have you ever spent a few thousand dollars on a marketing idea that sounded like it would be the magic bullet for your business? I think we’ve all done that at one time or another, and we got similar results— it didn’t turn out quite the way we pictured it would! Do you find yourself bouncing from tactic to tactic trying everything out there in hopes that “something” will eventually work? Again, this is sadly an all-too-familiar picture for most business owners.
An approach I’ve found to be extremely useful over the years, and one that has helped me stay focused in my marketing activities, is to “STIR” things up with these four simple steps:
- Strategy: What’s the specific outcome you’re looking to achieve, and how does this fit into your company vision? Once you really know this, you can understand what you’re looking to achieve from your marketing strategy. Just wanting to grow will likely not give you the desired results.
- Tactics: What’s your compelling message, and what tactics are you going to use to get this message out? Do you have a clear marketing message? Do you have a “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP)? Do you tap into your “Features Advantages and Benefits” (FAB)? Are you drinking your own Kool-Aid, or do you really know “What Is So Great About That” (WISGAT)? Choosing the best tactics to deliver your message becomes easier once you understand your overall marketing strategy and message.
- Implementation: What’s holding you accountable to ensure you’re producing a good ROI? Knowing your strategy and tactics is only one part of the marketing equation. Planning really doesn’t mean anything unless you actually take action! We all get side-tracked from time to time … I’ll make that sales call later, send out the press release tomorrow, etc. Great ideas mean nothing unless they are executed. Who’s holding you accountable to getting your marketing tactics implemented?
- Rhythm: What rhythm are you establishing to ensure implementation becomes systemized? You decided to make PR calls, but do you make them consistently at a set time each week, or do you try a couple of times and then give up? Do you have a process around which you collect and review marketing metrics to ensure spending is working? In my experience, developing a rhythm is integral to the success of your marketing plan.
By clearly understanding these four steps, you’ll ensure that your marketing spending is strategic and aligned with your overall business. You’ll also be successfully implementing these tactics and creating a habitual rhythm based on execution. As simple as it may sound, this system will help you answer that age-old business question, “to spend, or not tospend?”