Focus Your Marketing for Better Results
By Debra Murphy, Vista Consulting
In tough economic times, many software companies cut back on marketing. Marketing is viewed as overhead and discretionary spending, and unfortunately, many senior managers feel that marketing programs are ineffective anyway. But cutting back on marketing does not necessarily help the bottom line.
When the economy is down, investing in marketing can help you get the attention of your target audience. Keeping your name out in front of your market will both boost sales opportunities now, and have your name on the list when a prospect starts to evaluate options.
Before you open your wallet, there are ways to get the most out of your marketing dollar. The following are five tips to help you get your customer’s attention while using your budget wisely.
Don't Shortchange the Strategy Process
When resources are scarce, it is tempting to short cut the planning process, resulting in a marketing plan that is little more than a list of unrelated programs. A plan with ambiguous objectives and unfocused programs usually leads to “reactive marketing” rather than “proactive marketing”. Your resources spend time reacting to the competition, the market and other environmental challenges without a well thought out plan to guide them. In addition, you may be spending money on programs that are not the best use of your marketing dollar. By thinking in broader, more strategic terms, you can determine whether you should be spending money on a particular program at all. By using your marketing strategy to strategically allocate your budget, you spend your valuable time and money on programs that are worth doing.
Having a set of focused marketing goals with the appropriate strategies and programs to achieve those goals, enables your marketing organization to be proactive in its efforts. Everyone knows where they are headed, and they use their precious time and dollars wisely, executing the programs that move you closer to your goals.
Focus Your Resources
Nothing is more frustrating than spending a lot of time and money on something that is not returning results. By ensuring you have defined the appropriate target market and selected the customers most likely to buy, you focus your resources and ensure they are all marching in the same direction.
Another potential strategy is to target one or two of your competitors that are the most vulnerable to losing market share and go after their installed base. Have they experienced significant personnel changes due to poor management or downsizing? Have they just been bought out? Have they been plagued with bad press about the ease of use or reliability of their product? Pick the best opportunities and hammer away for at least six to nine months. But be sure to monitor all competitive activity in the process to enable you to be able to quickly react to changes in the market environment.
Take Advantage of Internet Marketing
The Internet is a powerful channel to your customers and prospects. It is a medium that your marketing resources can utilize fully without spending a lot of the marketing budget. Traditional methods of marketing to your prospect database can be done using the Web at a fraction of the cost. All of your marketing programs should direct your prospects to your Web site. Once there, you must ensure that your Web site provides them with value to keep them coming back, and ultimately buying your product.
Market to Your Customer
Once you have invested in the cost of obtaining a customer, many companies forget to nurture that relationship. It seems like a waste of time because they already bought your product. But, once you have a customer who has invested in you and trusts that you are doing what is in their best interest, it is far more cost effective to retain that customer and get them to continue to invest in you. For software companies, annual upgrade and service fees are an annuity you should work to retain. By implementing installed base programs, you ensure that you get their continued investment in your company. Become such an integral part of their success that they cannot afford to let you go. Invest in marketing that delivers value to your customers – send out monthly newsletters with technical tips, communicate the new features of upcoming releases, ask for their input through a Web response form – all simple and inexpensive, but talk to your customer.
Invest More - Time, Effort, and Money
Even when the economy's taking a turn for the worse, now is the time to invest more in your marketing effort to ensure your prospects know who you are and what you can do for them. People must hear your message many times before you make an impression. Therefore, this is a good time for you to communicate with your prospects, speak to them in terms of what you can do for them, and eliminate the “techie marketing” of the past. Be sure your programs and the messages that are being communicated clearly explain the value of your product to them. Speak to your prospects through simple marketing programs like e-newsletters and Webinars, which offer two-way communication and drive qualified prospects to your Web site.
Simple, effective marketing is not out of reach for companies on limited budgets. Build your strategy. Focus your resources wisely. Invest more time and effort to communicate to your prospects. Offer value to your current customers. And, take advantage of cost-effective, Internet marketing. You will begin to see results.
