Allocating Marketing Resources

Effectively  Allocating  Your  Marketing  Resources

During the 1990s marketers (ie: advertisers) had no choice but to pay tens of thousands of dollars each year for print, TV, radio or other forms of conventional (ie: ‘traditional’ pre 2000’s) advertising, so they had to carefully decide which media to pay for  ………………………  and why.

The good ones had a strategy.  The rest, I suppose you could say, merely ‘dabbled’.

In a digital world however, it seems like just about every second day or two there emerges another type or form of media that, if used correctly, can  –  and often for free  –  expand the market reach and appeal of a business.

Almost weekly there’s a new platform to try  –  and another marketing conduit:

• onto which the consumer public’s eyeballs are focussed; and

resultantly,

• that someone will try and convince you is the very best place where you / your business should have a significant presence.

As a result of this business owners invest their time (which, of course, is not free) making significant decisions in relation to marketing tactics in the hope of making gains that, often, they haven’t yet clearly or adequately defined.

At the end of the day, strategy should still come before tactics.

Here are 7 questions to ask yourself  before  you allocate marketing resources

1.   Why should I invest in this channel or platform –  and why now?;
2.   How will this channel or platform benefit my brand?;
3.   How will this channel or platform benefit my customers?;
4.   How will I measure if it’s working?;
5.   What’s the opportunity cost of devoting resources here and not there?;
6.   What other opportunities exist to invest in growth by delighting my existing customers?; and
7.   If this is the right thing to do, how am I going to be the best in the world at it?

In short, do you have a defined strategy  ………………………  or are you just dabbling?

Peter Kerin