Winning strategies on a tight budget

When you need to tighten your marketing belt, it’s time to focus on strategies that give you the most leverage for the time and money invested.  The long-term health of your business depends on nurturing your customers, converting your leads and generating new prospects.  Develop a marketing plan with these goals in mind.  Don’t ignore your current customers in the scramble to find new ones.  Rank your leads and follow up with them accordingly.  Make a compelling offer.

Here are some strategies that will help you stay focused on top priorities that lead to better results:

1. Nurture your customers.  Your customers are your gold.  Email communications, e-newsletters and surveys are one of the best ways to keep in touch with your customers.  Be sure to balance your content so you are offering value-added information while providing product and service information.  Capture customer email addresses whenever possible.  Have email addresses appended to your customer file.
2. Rank your leads.  When you return from a trade show, hopefully you have piles of leads, but you need to prioritize them.  Be sure you have a flexible contact management system.  Develop a ranking system for your leads and have a plan for how each classification of lead will be followed up.  Then, work them according to your plan.  Be sure you have email addresses and include them in your program of email communications and e-newsletters.  Target this group for special offers to convert them to buyers.
3. Prospect for new customers.  Direct mail is one of the most effective tools for lead generation.  By developing an in-depth prospect portrait, you can build a model to target very specific market segments.  Direct mail gives you the most comprehensive market coverage and the best delivery of any media channel.  You can test offers, lists, creative and continually improve your total response and profitability. 
4. Test new approaches.  One of the advantages of a tough economy is that marketers get more creative.  When things are going well, no one wants to change “what’s working.”  But testing is the way we find approaches that work better.  Work with your suppliers—list and data providers, printers, lettershops—to research new ideas and new technologies that might be tested in your marketing program.
5. Make an offer that can’t be refused.  After your list, your offer is the element of your campaign that can have the biggest impact.  Test different offers.  Everyone is looking for savings these days.  Direct mail is ideal for coupon offers.  People are always scanning their mail for special offers—now more than ever.

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