During harder times, many businesses decide that their marketing and advertising budgets can be cut without too much worry. The thinking behind this move is usually that they already have enough customers to be comfortable. Advertising never gives a fixed return on a fixed spend and so it can seem to be too much of a gamble for some companies.

The reality is that advertising and marketing is always important. Removing yourself from the environment of your potential customers just stops them thinking about you. If you are supplying a unique product or service, then you can have an excuse, otherwise, you should be able to work out the end result.

There are some very cheap ways available for keeping in your potential customers thoughts.

One is the simple email campaign. This involves collecting email addresses, and sending everyone on the list a special email only deal, once a week, once a month or once a quarter. The latest research shows it takes 5 or 6 emails to get the attention of a customer. Let this statistic be your guide.

Surveys are a good idea. Ask your customers some questions and make a story of the result. For new companies, ask the public, or your potential customers some interesting questions. The results can be fascinating.

Release the results as a press release and ensure that you put something in the story which connects your services or products. Remember to include a human element. This is the bit that either makes you go ‘ahhh’ or makes the respondents say ‘someone should do something about this!’

Finally, you can produce a postcard campaign. For this, you will need a collection of potential customer addresses, a relevant, thought provoking picture or tag line and a special exclusive deal.
Unlike the email campaign, you need more time to arrange this campaign. Time is needed to design the cards, get them printed, addressed and posted. Finally, you will need to phone them all up and get a response to the postcard.

The postcard campaign could be the most successful method of marketing but its also the most expensive. Guess you get what you pay for! However, most business should be able to create any of these campaigns with the minimum of expense. It is the creative process which really makes the difference!

For more business advice please contact Flintshire Business Services. This service is free for businesses based in Flintshire.