Growing your business requires at least some investment in terms of time and money. Often, both of those resources are scarce so you have to be smart in allocating them. Here are 3 tips that will help you stretch your investment and produce better returns.
Think of one or two things you are really good at and direct your focus there. Realistically you can’t be everything to everyone. Especially start-ups and small businesses need to have a clear direction towards which time and resources are allocated. Avoid distractions. It’s OK to adjust your business to shifting trends, but it’s counterproductive to jump on every new fad that emerges. Stay true to your core business and what it is that makes you stand out. Without focus you will stretch your resources too thin, making it too difficult to get off the ground.
Assuming that you know who your target market is, the way you approach getting in front of them will have to be customized. Think about with what media your audience is most likely to spend time interacting. Think about what media form they respond to best. Do they read? Do they watch video? Will they spend 15 minutes taking a deeper dive into a certain subject or do they have a very short attention span? When are they most likely to be the most receptive to your point of view and message? There is a lot of research that can help you refine your communication plan. Taking the time to find out how your target market behaves will improve your campaigns and ultimately your returns.
Have you found something that works well for you? Keep doing it! Once you find a channel, a campaign or a tactic that produces a positive ROI, exploit that method. You might be surprised about what works best, but if the analytics show success, trust the numbers. Too often we let opinion overrule analytics at the cost of actual success. It’s OK to keep testing different opportunities and challenging the results, but ignoring your results is almost never beneficial to your returns.
There are many other considerations in optimizing your marketing investments. Many of them are specific to your industry, your company and your specialty. Contact us to evaluate and optimize your marketing investments to improve your returns.