Financial Management Tips for Effective Marketing
- Establish a specific line item in your budget for marketing.
- If you have to cut back on expenses, consider cutting your marketing and advertising budget last. To grow your business you need to keep promoting what you do.
- Track income generated to specific marketing campaigns. For example, if you offer coupons or discounts, include a unique code for each new promotion. If you sell products on the Internet, include a field on the order form “How did you hear about us?” By identifying successful campaigns (and unsuccessful ones) you can adjust your marketing strategies.
- Update your marketing plan just as you do your business plan.
Advertising and PR Tips for Reaching Your Market
- Consumer interests, competitive pricing, and industry standards are constantly changing. It is important to conduct ongoing research and study what new markets are emerging.
- Offer customer surveys to help you identify strengths and weaknesses in products, services, customer satisfaction, and advertising methods.
- Regularly promote new products, major events, and successes through press releases, your website, newsletters, and other marketing materials.
- Send former and potential customers updates about products and promotions.
- If you run a nonprofit, be sure to thank donors and keep them updated on how their funds have been put to use.
- Take advantage of other businesses that have already paid millions for marketing research. Pay attention to media advertising, colors, designs, locations, products in store front windows; there are clues to take for your own advertising and products lines all around you.
Advertising and Marketing Calculator Tools
- Advertising Budget Calculator: This calculator uses percentages of sales method to calculate advertising budgets.
- Persuasion Pro Advertising Calculator: This calculator lets you use historical sales data, or projected gross sales to help you determine an advertising budget.
- Media Planning: Use this free, online software tool to help plan local media buys by the American Marketing Association.
- Conversion Rate Calculator: Calculate website conversion rates by entering your number of visitors and total orders.
- E-Mail ROI Calculator: Test different scenarios to determine return on investment (ROI) of email campaigns.
- Pay-Per-Click ROI Calculator: Use this calculator to determine the ROI for your pay-per-click advertising campaigns.
