No Holidays For Marketing

Marketing has no holidays. Unfortunately, holidays are the best times of the year to hype campaigns and make them more effective than they would normally be. Why do you think Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day and even seemingly not-that-important occasions like Mother's Day and even Grandparent's day are becoming such big deals?

I have nothing against it, it's actually great that more people start remembering dates like these, I bet the receiving end doesn't feel so bad either. But anyway on to our Holiday campaigns. It is Halloween and it will soon be Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and the New Year.

The time to start thinking about Holiday marketing though is RIGHT NOW. I have already made a marketing budget projection for our holiday spending. Some questions to consider for the holidays:

• How much did we spend in previous years and what returns did we get from them? Will it be worthwhile to do the same this year?
• What are the current trends and market behavior leading to the holidays that might be able to highlight certain product lines?
• On what days were we exceptionally active and on which days did we lay low?
• What offers are we planning to put out? Will there be a boxing day special?

After you've considered the holiday factors and established with management the holiday strategies to set in place, here are some tips on implementation to make the most out of the holiday shopping spree:

• Segment and target your customer base, differentiate people who purchase on different holidays. An email marketing campaign or direct mail campaign to the right people at the right time can generate extra sales.
• Always be timely. Customers will appreciate you sending them a card at the right time. If you're thinking of doing direct mail. make sure you mail out the pieces with the right lead time. Nothing worse than a client getting your coupon past the deadline - I should know. I've tried.
• Try a greeting card instead of the typical letter. Although the commercial nature of the holidays have stigmatized so many people. Holidays are still good reasons for people to justify their purchasing behavior. That's the spike in spending during the holidays otherwise called holiday shopping.
• Try not selling them anything. Just being thoughtful is enough to create goodwill and encourage the customer to revisit your site every now and then.

How To Start A Marketing Budget That Works

So you’ve set up your company, you’re experts at what you do, you are the best in your industry, you’re a cut above the rest. You know it. But how about the rest of the world?

The phrase, “build it and they will come” doesn’t really apply anymore, particularly in the information super highway that plays hosts to millions upon millions of websites.

Allocating marketing spend should not be as difficult as getting your tooth pulled. It should be equated to buying stocks and bonds. It is risky but when managed properly it will bring in the returns you seek.

You want people to know your company and your business - that much you know. Now take it a step further and start planning your marketing budget. You will have to start with the bare necessities:

• Branding. First you will have to establish company brand and image. This is necessary to start off. It’s like courting - difficult to win a girl (or guy) over if she (or he) doesn’t see you or hear from you. So you will have to allocate this expense (rather sizable in the first few months, this will most likely be 20-30% of your marketing spend).

• Growth. Next, use marketing to help you grow your business. The more you are out there, tapping the right markets and creating networks, the more your client pool will expand. It will be beneficial if you incorporate expenses in marketing that will give you the extra mile. Eventually you’ll have to start thinking about economies of scale and how they can play into your budget maintenance once you’ve established your position in the market place.

• Follow-through. Marketing is useless if you don’t have what it takes to back it up. By proportion (assuming the marketing campaign is effective), the size of the marketing efforts should equate to the influx of potential clients you may have. So make sure there is adequate correspondence between outgoing spend, incoming clients and fulfillment capacity.

*Important Note*

If you find the article too long, forget everything BUT this: Marketing pays for itself. If your marketing is NOT paying for itself and returning profit then it is NOT working.

Why Spend on Marketing

When determining the investment figure on marketing, first thing that comes to mind is - ROI or returns. How much revenue will I get from this spend? While it is true that returns constitute the basic premise of why a marketing budget is set, there are also a couple of things to consider:

• Awareness. Setting up a business is futile if nobody knows about it. Marketing should be part of an initial cash out requirement. People should know that you exist

• Market positioning. It is important for the company to set itself apart from its competitors. It follows then that proper messaging be established and disseminated. This requires marketing. Not only does the company have to be different/ unique from its competitors, it also has to prove superior.

• Lead generation. While the primary goal of marketing is to let the world know that your company exists, it is also imperative that marketing brings in prospects or potential clients. This will serve as the gauge for the marketing campaign’s success or failure.

• Customer retention. As much as gathering new customers is important, so is retaining satisfaction of current customer base. Once the company has accumulated a pool of clients, satisfaction has to be guaranteed. An intelligent marketing campaign should follow suit to emphasize the client’s value to the company, not only for future revenue generation or repeat business, not to mention positive word of mouth, but also reminding customers that it is to their favor that they continue to transact their business with the company.