Where to focus my investments..

[lynxus]

Hi All,

Every month I have a ever increasing amount of money to focus on advertising / marketing for my business.

While currently we are only talking a few hundred a month, it is getting larger.

Where would you suggest this be spent?

Adwords etc, seem a waste ( and have been )

Thanks
G

 

[AllUpHere]

Do you have a strategic marketing plan in place?

 

[Shopclicks]

I'd invest in live chat if I were you

What better way to show off your product?

 

[ethical PR]

Invest it in getting a marketing/PR consultant to develop a costed marketing plan for you. This will identify which channels you need to reach to engage your target audiences. Make sure the said consultant has experience in your sector and with your target audiences and that they show to how to measure the success of any activity they suggest.

 

[Ashley_Price]

A quote that has been attributed to several people, including Sam Wannamaker: "I know 50 percent of my advertising budget works. The problem is I don't know which 50 percent."

So, look at what has worked the most from your advertising activities and concentrate future investments on that area. There's a saying that 20% of a company's marketing/advertising gets in 80% of the business. Find that 20% and give it a boost. No point in paying money out to things that don't work, if you already have proven marketing in place.

 

[David White]

You're in a market where competition is red hot, and most of which offered free by some big players. This means your marketing budget won't buy you much at all, as you need huge amounts of volume to stand a chance.

I would personally suggest spending that money on something else to support an inside sales approach. You could buy some specific vertical data using that money for a specific target audience and call or email them directly with your offer.

 

[XanderMarketing]

As other people mention having a plan is a good place to start. Otherwise it's testing tactics and seeing what works. These could include:

- SaaS directories like Capterra
- Email marketing
- Creating content
- Telemarketing
- Partnerships/affiliates (with web design companies for example)
- And more...

 

[LowPrices.uk]

E-mail Marketing.

YouTube video channel, make entertaining and informative/helpful videos.

 

[Fredrik]

I agree that the strategic marketing plan would be the fist choice, would also look at what of your current marketing efforts have a high ROMI and centralise focus with them. When you have your core plans in place I would do some experiment in one place at a time so you can evaluate success, suggestions to start would be eCRM and retargeting. Not sure if you do A/B testing on your site but would do that as well if you aren't already

Good Luck!

 

[Karllacey]

What is it that you do as a company? This would have an impact on the best way forward...