6 ways to squeeze the most out of your marketing dollars
I've run into VP's and Marketing Directors in the last few months who complain of massive marketing budget cuts. While the logic behind cutting the hand that feeds you is another blog post all together, the more pragmatic question is "what the hell should I do?". It doesn't matter what size the budget was – a 50% to 80% cut can be staggering. I heard one great believer in convergence marketing bemoan the fact that she would not be able to do much broadcast anymore. Another colleague is cutting back his boutique style brochure and focusing on one brochure for various assets (with minor customizations).
This is the perfect time for innovation. And in the business of image, perceptions, and conversations – people are the raw materials of innovation. Between your internal team, your brand evangelists, and the rest of your universe, you should be able to do some "sense making" and move most of your marketing online. Keep the artifacts – brochures, trade show booths, direct mail pieces – they're all vital – but reserve them for the prospects that are showing greater potential.
Start with your website
The area that most companies don't focus on enough – us included – is conversion. While PPC folks live and die based on conversion, the rest of America seems to check off websites, once they're done, and move on to the next thing. Based on some interactions with Tim Ash lately and much studying myself, I say with confidence, work on your landing page optimization – Test, test, test! Is your site optimized for search, social, and usability? Is the traffic from the right places? What's the bounce rate? Do you even have a conversion path plotted out?
Make your social media work harder
Even the Mayo Clinic has a full scale social media program. Are you using the platforms that your customers are using? Are they being updated regularly? Its easy to forget one, yet that could be the one that your customers like best. Are you being authentic? Yet don't be a slave to authenticity. You may never get anything done. Are you taking risks? Are you failing? If your answer to the last two was no, then you need to start over. My opinions aside, the much respected Charlene Li, author and former Forrester Research recently put it best (and I paraphrase) if you're not failing, you're not doing the right things. I don't subscribe to the notion that your website is the center of your web universe. That's like saying – I'm best when I'm in a tux or in a boardroom. Your website is all business. Everyone from Billy Ray Cyrus to Perez Hilton love a party in the back. That's what social media is supposed to be. Make sure that you create the right context for conversations. And of course measure, measure, measure. But my new friend Robbie Slaughter says it best – "there is a danger of over measurement: we become more obsessed with figures than providing value, and we tend to game the system instead of tend to the actual work"
Try an integrated SMS, Email and Social Strategy
You know that saying the sum of the parts is greater than whole? Uh huh!
Activate your evangelists
Every brand has evangelists. Are you showing yours love? Are you tight with them? Are you giving them things to talk about?
Micro-sites and landing pages
These can be invaluable for spreading the net. They're great for search and you can measure the hell out of them.
Move people to real world interactions
Of course this is the key for most companies – whether its doing some offline or online. People must be inspired to do something. Is your marketing to a few people (or to a whole bunch) inspiring people to act?
For Indianapolis social media: I'm Duncan 
What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Takes more than hype and gimmicks to kill brochures, tv, radio, paintings and records
Recently a local marketing firm hosted a presentation entitled The Death of the Brochure. I know that a few people attended although I passed on the opportunity because I don't believe the brochure is dead. It's not dead for the same reason traditional photography didn't kill painting, radio didn't kill newspapers and magazines, TV didn't kill radio, video didn't kill films, CDs didn't kill vinyl, mp3s didn't kills CDs, and so on. I agree typewriters may be dead – although I've heard strong arguments that they never died, just evolved into word processors and personal computers.
Logic might suggest that PDFs (unpleasant to read for the most part if you've got lengthy reading to do) will kill the brochure. Of course, there's also the "green" argument against brochures, but let me tell you, when it comes to making an emotional connection, the brochure is king. You want to buy a new BMW 5 series? No one wants to read a PDF about it, and even if they do, they still want a glossy brochure on heavy stock to hold in their hands. Even the people who ran the seminar. I guarantee that all of those people have paper versions of their proposals that they bring to meetings. Why? Because not every one wants to read a PDF during a meeting. As a British "chum" of mine pointed out, "trends may come and go, but it takes more than a trend to make a good business idea stick". The thing is – no one doubts the value of the PDF. It's much like a certain type of hooker – cheap and mobile. Still, not many people choose to marry hookers or even date them (don't get caught up on that one – just enjoy it).
When it comes to an emotional experience – touching, feeling, and appreciating – in a lasting way, the brochure, the record, the painting, the real photograph and other such "mediums" will hold their own. It's because people want the artifact so that they can experience it again and again. So while these "death of the brochure" types of subjects may create buzz in the short term, there is no long term value in these discussions. They're sort of like verbal masturbation. They're a lot of fun, but there isn't any doubt that it is a substitution for something more substantial.
Long live records and National Record Store Day (this Saturday). Long live TV, radio, painting, and yes, long live brochures, too.
One last thing: I run and work in a digital marketing firm and I use paper for a lot of things! We have an electronic and paper brochure. I own a TV, CDs, paintings and records! No gimmick – just being real.
Photos by EfrankE and las vegas lass
