Optimize Your Marketing Budget. Think Low Cost High Impact!

To re-cap, your marketing plan which as in preview segments, discussed the various value propositions which help to define a positioning statement. You have also identified your primary and secondary target segments using demographics and psychographics. Matching your product value propositions and target segments, you begin exploring your marketing mix.

You apply the relevant touch-point strategies, be it a coupon, or press ad or internet marketing, to your marketing plan with the intention to generate leads for sales conversion.

Enter the Marketing Budget Plan. This is a plan which serves as a reality-check to you in terms of affordability. Up till now, you have been freely exploring the various marketing strategies and tactics to apply to your business. Now is the time to apply a dollar amount to each of your proposed marketing strategies. Unless you have really deep pockets, likelihood is that you will start to tweak the tactics to suit your budget.

Think Low Cost High Impact Marketing at onset.
Make it a conscious habit until it becomes subconsciously part of you. That way you need much less tweaking on the budget. Imagine how much ad money you have to spend in order to achieve at least 7 times to be seen or heard before you can influence a buy on your product. There are however, ways to achieve Low Cost High Impact Marketing.

More Could Be Less. So Niche your market segments.
Yes, focus on select potential target segments which your product directly maps their needs. What is an ad message when it has extensive reach but appeals to less relevant targets? Would you rather that you focus your ad message to the relevant and willing target segments? And, with a direct need for your product, you are reducing the rejection reasons they have about buying your products. Selling to these groups hence becomes easier with lesser objections.

Collaborate, Don't compete.
This is especially true if you run a small business which has limited resources both financially and physically. Forge strategic alliances with other small businesses of similar nature or become a major link in their business supply chain. This gives you stronger bargaining power and potentially opens up new distribution channels for you.

Member-get-Member scheme, referral plan or whatever you term it, it still is word-of-mouth marketing.
Not just the Banks do it. And you can do it too! But it has worked since time in memorial. Why? Because people believe people whom they know, who have tried and test your product and genuinely recommend to one another the goodness of your product.

Some food for thought for the CMOs, CFOs and financial controllers of your businesses..

About The Author:
Yoshiko Choy is an entrepreneur and a management consultant in business & marketing with 17 years of experience in Locals & MNCs as well as an avid online marketer. She holds an Executive MBA from the California State University. Read about business & marketing management trends at BusinessFast4Ward. Also get the latest reviews on online niche marketing at Online Niche Marketing Reviews.