Entrepreneurship: Choosing the right promotional tactics.

Choosing the Right Promotional Tactics

Starting my business on less than £100 and consulting for charities and public sector over the last 20+ years, I’ve learned how to coordinate branding and promotion on a tiny budget!! It can be done – you don’t have to have a huge budget, but consider that the more money you invest in your marketing, the more likely you will get great results.

Marketing is a smart investment not a cost. However, even if you have a zero budget (as long as you have access to Wifi) you can still promote your business! I would recommend though that you consider organising your money so that you have something set aside each quarter for your marketing activities.

Ignoring the importance of marketing your products and services is not a good idea! Many business owners place marketing on a low priority and in doing so, miss a trick! Marketing is one of the key considerations for your business, to grow your business. If people don’t know about your products and services how will they be able to buy it – or even connect with you to make enquiries about it??

I’ve assumed that you already have your logo and business plan organised, so once you’re ready to start promoting your business, there are a few key points you need to think about when coordinating tactics:

1) Firstly, A Few Key Points: Sales and Objectives

How many sales do you want to make? And by when? What deadlines are you working towards? Set some measurable marketing objectives. In choosing your tactics, the time you spend on activities should be based on the positive outcomes that you expect to achieve. This means that, if you expect to generate sales of 2,000 tickets for a concert, choosing to only promote your concert on your website is not enough. You have to choose tactics with your sales target and customers in mind. In this example, you could not rely on your website alone, perhaps consider other communication channels such as radio, print, email and social media.

2) What Resources Are Available To You?

When you are deciding on how to allocate your resources you need to think: budget, time and people as priorities. This will largely influence the kinds of tactics you use. For example, do you have a designer or design tools (as examples)? Do you have someone who can make phone calls as follow ups? Who will respond to your competition email entries? How much time and money can you afford to spend each month, quarter or year on the marketing tactics you have in mind. Who can help to promote messages and cascade information?

3) How Will You Get Your Message Across?

Think customer when deciding on your marketing tactics. Assuming you know who your ideal clients are, remind yourself of the ways in which you can get their attention: What audience do you serve ? Where are they based? What are their habits? What is their consumer buying behaviour like? What makes them your ideal customer? What problems do they have, that you can solve? Think about these things before deciding on the tactics that you use.

4) Tactics and Branding Considerations

Remember to tell your story when you are delivering your marketing online and offline. How will you show up visually? What branding will you use in your promotion: brand colour palette, strap line,

images/illustrations etc. Also remember that beyond the design side of branding, when deciding on the tactics you use, also consider that your brand ‘experience’ will largely influence how people feel about your product, service or event.

5) Monitor Your Tactics

Once you’re implementing the ideas, remember to measure your success. Tweak what isn’t working for you and remember to monitor as much as you can. There is no point in doing the wrong things consistently.

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