While the dollar seems to be shrinking these days, you don’t need to be a magician to make your money do more – all you need to do is rethink how to spend that money already allocated. It’s not as difficult as you may think. A new line of attack that promotes your business and lets you reap the rewards of a more streamlined, tighter advertising campaign is possible.
With budgets as tight as they are, how do we make our advertising dollar work harder for us? A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, right?
Think about this. Sometimes, it’s not about stretching the budget but instead, condensing it.
Say you have somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 set aside for marketing and advertising that you’ve traditionally used in a campaign over a 12-week period. Make a bold move and consider using that same amount of money over a 6-week period instead. Create a promotion and condense that promotion over a shorter period of time. Figure out a reason for people to visit your place of business today rather than inform them of your existence over a longer period of time.
Studies show that people respond better to a direct offer than they will a series of regular programmed ads that promote what your business does, but that don’t sell a specific product or advertise a specific event. Whether it’s a coupon, a one-time offer or a longer running ad campaign with multiple offers attached (ala McDonalds’ Monopoly campaign), create something unique and advertise the heck out of it over a condensed period of time.
We call it “condense and conquer” for the residual benefits will far outlast the length of the campaign itself.
As to the advertising vehicles you choose: internet, newspaper or radio and TV – choose the medium(s) that suits your business and your promotion best.
The idea is to drive as much qualified traffic as you can through your doors over a condensed period of time thereby increasing your rate of return (sales). Give it a try, it works.