The marketing communications challenge is getting harder, not easier.
Why? Because there are more communications channels than ever. Each channel you use requires time, effort and some expense. And it’s not easy to be proficient with so many communications tools and tactics.
As an example, last year President Obama’s campaign team (marketing team) was praised for their successful use of popular social media tools to communicate in the presidential campaign. These new marketing tools included Facebook, Twitter, texting on mobile phones, YouTube videos, and schmoozing with popular bloggers.
That wasn’t all they did, though. They also used all of the traditional marketing communications channels in sizes and levels that haven’t been seen before – TV advertising, campaign events, direct mail, phone canvassing, public relations, TV and radio appearances, celebrity endorsements, email marketing, and an impressive Website.
They used ALL the marketing tools and channels available, which is much harder to do than using just a few.
What if your business is not as large as a presidential campaign or a Fortune 500 company?
Startups and growing companies without big (or any) marketing budgets can still communicate effectively on a low budget, but don’t underestimate the challenge. Here are few ideas to help you make the most of marketing communications efforts.
Make the Most of Your Communications Efforts
- Realize that marketing requires work. The good news is many new marketing communications tactics don’t require big bucks. The bad news is that they require real work – creating content, interacting with people, and building relationships. This requires time and effort, which aren’t free or even cheap. (See the previous post on the cost to create a Website.)
- Focus your message. The proliferation of communication channels complicates things, so your message needs to be simple and strong. A clear strategy and a laser focus can help you develop a message that makes an impact with a smaller budget. Strategic focus is harder than it looks, but you can’t develop powerful story without it.
- Have a great product. The expansion of new Web-enabled social media tools allows customers to talk to each other in many new ways. Your future customers find out about new things and get recommendations from each other. If your product or service isn’t making your customers very happy, no amount of marketing effort or spending will overcome this.
- Leverage social media tools. Existing businesses have to deal with the new “social media” world where your customers and market influencers are talking to each other online — in blogs, forums and online communities. At least one of your key tactics should be a new Web approach that engages with people in your market. The new Web-powered world is real and very important, so do not procrastinate if you haven’t jumped in yet. (I did – you’re reading it.)
- Don’t expect a silver bullet. Finding and converting new business doesn’t come easily (or quickly) when you start ramping up marketing efforts to fuel your growth. There isn’t just one idea or tactic that is going to save you. Marketing communications execution takes time, trial and error, and persistence.
This year, many companies started use social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. Last year, corporate blogs and viral videos went mainstream. In the future, we will have new ways to reach people on their mobile phones. The ways we communicate will continue to expand and fragment.
The marketing communications challenge is getting harder, but you can succeed if you approach it wisely and take a long term view.
Great post Greg! And so true to emphasize the point that it takes hard work. There is absolutely no silver bullet and the most successful startups leverage several strategies that work together over the long haul.
Greg: I enjoy reading your blog each week. For me, this post served as a practical reminder that there is a path through the complexity. However, not surprisingly, real results will require an excellent guide, an appropriate budget, and some commitment to the effort and time. Good advice indeed. ~Tim
Well said Greg,
I would personally emphasize your point about focus and even extend it to being certain it is worthwhile content. One of the biggest challenges for adopters, especially of real time networking is filtering out the amount of useless tweets, LinkedIn and other status updates. Like IM and cell phones, these will continue to be a challenge until we get past the novelty and people realize that they are tools, not toys.
Permission to message to someone’s desktop should be treated as a sacred trust. I do not mind the 5 updates I get per day from those with content worth knowing. But send 3 sales offers or personal updates about how you are looking forward to the weekend or prepping for a meeting- and you have abused that trust. The good news about distribution that puts receivers in charge (rather than senders) is that content worth pushing gets read and content that does not earns the author a delete.
Just becasue we can send messages does not mean that we should.
Barry