In my last Marketing Minute, I wrote about tactics that involve an investment of time, talent and brains, rather than cash. Here’s the flip side. Maybe you hit the lottery or had a great night at the casino. Perhaps dear, old and obscenely rich, Uncle Waldo kicked off and left you a tidy sum. Either way, you’ve found some marketing moolah. Now you’re wondering where to drop that marketing dough before it burns a hole in your pocket. You’re in luck. Here’s a list of marketing activities that small businesses see as being the bee’s knees:

• Community relations – 55%
• Website – 47%
• PR/Media coverage – 31%
• Direct mail – 26%
• Yellow pages – 23%
• E-mail marketing – 21%
• Newspaper ads – 21%
• Search engine keywords – 18%
• Telephone marketing – 10%
• Outdoor advertising – 10%
• Print coupons – 6%
• Magazine advertising – 6%
• Radio advertising – 6%
• Web banner advertising – 5%

Source: Entrepreneur Magazine, August, 2005 / Interland

From this research, it appears that developing a program centered around community and public relations, reinforced with a solid website, is just the ticket.

So, get yourself a site, if you don’t already have one. Build it so it’s informative and useful to your audience. Consider adding some helpful tips, how-tos, articles, white papers and such. Think about what kind of information would be of aid to your audience. Put them first and the rest will follow.

Next, get involved in your community. Join a group or two that does good things for your hamlet or metropolis. Fork out some cash and join a business club or two. But, don’t simply join and just sit there … or worse, don’t show up at all. Yup, I’ve seen it happen all too often. People join a club with the best of intentions and they get busy, or are so slow they can’t afford the price of lunch, or they get just plain ‘ole lazy and stop going to meetings and events. The trick with a business club is to get involved and do stuff. Getting active in organizations helps to get you on the radar screen and you’ll have those nice warm fuzzy feelings from being such a nice person. Also, you might consider donating some design time to a worthy cause that’s close to your heart.

Plus, joining a group or two or doing a pro bono gig can give you some ammo for your public relations efforts. For instance, if you chair a committee, write a press release about it. Maybe you did a nifty poster or other piece for a nonprofit. Fire up your word processor du jour and get the news out.

Speaking of your public relations efforts, consider creating a press kit and shooting it out to your media list. To build your list, look through a copy of the Standard Rate & Data (SRDS). You can find one at your local library. The SRDS is the hefty book media buyers use to do their buying thing. It lists loads of information about consumer and trade publications and there’s also a version that covers newspapers. The Web is another source. Don’t forget trade organizations. They often produce newsletters or magazines and also post newsy stuff on their sites. After you have your press kit, keep up the good work by writing a steady stream of news releases and articles. Your first few attempts may not be published, but once an editor sees that you’re a consistent and a reliable source, they’ll start to print your nouns, verbs and even the occasional adjective.

Weighing in at 26%, direct mail’s another good tactic to round out your marketing efforts. Consider creating a postcard, letter of introduction or other mailer as one more touch point. If you choose to do a mailing, don’t forget to follow up by phone. That’s important. You might have a great mailer, but without a follow up strategy, you won’t pull as much as you could. Folks get busy and forget about you and your meritorious mail. What works for me is mailing in small groups of 20 - 25 or so and then making calls about a week after I’ve mailed the pieces. It doesn’t take too much time and it’s manageable. The following week, I repeat the process. Lately, I’ve been mailing out a brief, somewhat humorous, letter of introduction with a fax back form where folks can indicate their level of interest. It’s simply another point of contact and I still do the follow up calls.

Check around with other [noncompetitive] designers, photographers and writers to see how Yellow Page listings and ads work for them. I used to run a Yellow Pages ad, but never picked up a client as a result. I did, however, get loads and loads of calls from people looking for a job or selling aluminum siding. That said, I do know several creatives who get a fair amount of inquiries and work from them.

Ironically, even though designers often create print ads, they aren’t usually a good option to generate prospects. Print ads (newspaper, magazine, etc.) are a good vehicle for products or services that have a solid offer, such as discounts. But for designers, they’re costly and don’t provide a decent pay back in most cases. However, if you have a good niche industry that you serve, it might be worth it to pop an ad into a trade association newsletter or magazine, as a test, for name recognition. You might consider an offer of a complementary design review or a free white paper or report. If it works for you, great, but, odds are a well-placed news release or article will be better to help to position you as an expert.

At the end of the day, be frugal and smart. Spent your money on sensible vehicles that will give you the biggest bang for your hard-earned buck.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt