This isn’t just a question for economically difficult times. Marketers often wonder how to use their budgets more effectively. Here are six ways you can make sure your advertising dollars go further.
Develop a Strategy That Works
Sometimes the size of your budget doesn’t matter as much as the strategy behind it. You can have six figures to dedicate to an ad campaign, but if you don’t have the strategy to back it up, you’re essentially wasting your time and your money. Your strategy for how you execute that strategy will help you deliver your message while staying on target with your goals and objectives.
Narrow Your Focus
No matter what your budget is, if you aren’t reaching your target audience, it isn’t working. The narrower the audience focus, the greater the gain. It might seem counterintuitive to lessen the scope of who you’re trying to reach, but this tactic ultimately allows you to more effectively reach your target. Find the narrowest channel that can deliver the most dividends to your business. Identifying and narrowing your focus only helps stretch your budget and creates more loyal customers.
Connect With Your Audience Emotionally
People are inundated with advertisements every single day. But which ones are the ones they remember? Oftentimes, the difference between a successful and unsuccessful ad campaign is how deeply it was able to move or affect its target audience. There’s a reason people remember Olympics commercials — they humanize the Olympic experience and remind the viewer what it’s like to have a dream and pursue it.
Poet Maya Angelou is often credited with saying: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Emotive campaigns are key to creating a memorable connection between a brand and its audience. This memorable connection will make a difference, no matter how much money you’re able to spend on advertising.
Differentiate Yourself
It’s easy to spend time researching your competitors and trying to determine if what they are doing is working — but ultimately, the comparison isn’t going to get you anywhere. While it is important to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry, make sure you’re more focused on your mission instead of keeping up with your competitor’s every move. Comparison can kill creativity, and creativity is a major differentiator in the marketplace.
Stay Local
The advertising war is won on a local level — even national brands believe that a company cannot start out with a global message. Companies must focus on how to reach a local, hyper-targeted audience and expand from there. Even national brands have to fight locally. They must understand the dynamics of the individual markets their stores operate in. These local markets affect the message, the medium, how customers buy and how companies should advertise. Markets vary region to region, state to state, and sometimes even town to town. These are vital factors to understand when crafting a brand marketing strategy.
Meet Your Customers Where They Are
One of the biggest curveballs businesses faced in 2020 was learning how to stay timely and relevant in the midst of turmoil. One agency, The Sussman Agency, helped a solar energy provider stay relevant by looking at things from a consumer perspective. Understanding that safety was a huge priority during this time, they pivoted their offerings to focus more on home security, a move that positively impacted sales. This serves as an example of proactive marketing and adjusting based on marketplace behavior.
Now, more than ever, it is vital for advertisers to think outside the box and stretch their advertising spend as far as it can go. Companies that understand this will see success in the long run. Those that do not pivot and adjust their methods will find themselves falling behind.
