Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

How do I know how much to budget for marketing?

Try not to worry about the budget, but to think strategically about how to reach your target market. I work with small business owners who want to grow their business and increase revenues. I also work with corporations, like HP, who are targeting that market as well. That’s it. It’s not about quantity of prospects – it’s about quality of prospects. Unless you’re trying to sell to the masses (a much bigger undertaking I have to say), the number of prospects are limited. That’s a good thing in terms of following up with them and marketing your product or service to this group.

I had a coaching client tell me recently that she had sent out a beautiful full-color newsletter to more than 3000 companies regarding the training program she offers new hires. She didn’t get one response. No kidding.

Here’s why.

She was an unknown to this list and it takes at least 6 – 7 times before a prospect can identify who you are and what you’re trying to sell to them. Had she had 100 people on her list, she could have mailed to them multiple times and followed up with a personal phone call, e-mail, handwritten note, etc. Would she have stood out that way – absolutely. Would it have cost her less time, energy, effort and money – right again!

Think in terms of refining your list of prospects that can provide the greatest access to your end-user. In my case, Fortune 500 companies targeting the small business market are my high-level prospects. They afford me the opportunity to speak directly to the individuals I want to address – small business owners. If you’re trying to get a product to market – targeting super retailers or independent boutiques might be your primary market. It’s a lot easier to establish relationships with these folks than the general public.

Sometimes, working on a shoestring brings greater creativity to the process and in the end, is a more strategic approach!

           

Posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Boardroom, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.