The one thing I will never understand is this: When a company faces financial troubles and prospects are dire, the first budget they cut is the marketing budget. It’s so backwards because you will ultimately rely on marketing to bring in new customers and to remind your existing customers of how awesome you are. So I ask you again – why cut your marketing budgets? You will always need marketing. I have already told you about the quote attributed to Henry Ford, where he says that a man who stops marketing to save money is just like the man who stops a clock to save time. You and I can both see that this is futile. A company skimping on marketing will keep losing money just as the second guy in the quote will keep losing time, regardless of what he does with his clock. How about this quote to help you see that marketing is the lifeline your business, or any business for that matter, so desperately needed:
Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.
– Steuart Henderson Britt
It stands to reason that if nobody knows you, they will not turn to you. You will not even feature as a face in the crowd because those faces in the crowd that your customers are seeing are only there because they are marketing their companies.
I may have convinced you that marketing should be the last budget that needs pruning but you might still look at me, look at your books, and then say something about theories and practice and point out the difference between the two. Or maybe you have no control over the matter and can only hope for a sliver of light at the end of a dark tunnel. So how can you market your company when your marketing budget has been cut? The answer is simple. Start with what you do have. Come up with a cost effective marketing plan and use what little funds you still have available to come up with a marketing plan that will dazzle your vendors. Remember the funding loop? With hard work and a brilliant plan, you will grow your marketing funds and in so doing, grow your business. Get in touch with us if you need a partner to see you through the tough times.