So you have some money to spend on marketing. The big question is, how do you know what to spend it on to minimize risk and maximize return? The answer is through your balanced marketing portfolio.
We all understand the importance of having a balanced financial portfolio, but what about our marketing portfolio? If we invest the bulk of our marketing in limited activities, we are putting ourselves at risk of achieving a less than desirable return on our investment.
While in finance we want to balance risk and return, in marketing we want to balance 3 crucial elements – control, cost and credibility. Look at the diagram at the end of this article. Each of these 3 areas has varied degrees of control, cost and credibility.
For example with advertising, we are pretty much in total control of when, where and how we
place an ad. Of course we also have to pay more to have this control. But how much credibility do
we gain by telling others we are great?
If we’re to rely heavily on advertising, chances are we could very quickly deplete our marketing
budget before we reach our goals.
On the other hand if were to look at low cost items with high credibility, like PR and to some
extent Referral marketing, we have very little control on when, where and how it occurs.
In this instance we could run out of TIME before we reach our goals.
Therefore, divide your budget up in 2 ways.
1. Allocate a lot of your marketing dollars to savvy advertising and promotions (the key here is
savvy)!
2. Allocate more of your marketing TIME to referral marketing and PR activities.
Don’t forget. Just like your financial portfolio – it’s important to measure your return on investment
on all your marketing activities as well!
Is your marketing portfolio balanced? Does it exist at all? If you answered no to either of these
questions, chances are you are missing out on maximizing your bottom line and minimizing your
costs and time.
How balanced is your portfolio?
Source: Hubspot
Posted on August 9, 2011 in Advertising & Promotions, Article Library, Cidnee Stephen, Duct Tape Marketing, marketing budget, marketing ideas, marketing portfolio, Professional Services, promotional plan, Service Based, Small Business Marketing, Strategies for Success
