Mid-West Family Madison Blog

Size Does Matter

Written by Mike Cashin | Mar 26, 2024 1:00:00 PM

Size Does Matter: Dominate Your Market with Strategic Advertising on a Single Medium

As a business owner, you’ve certainly sat across your desk from a sales guy asking about your budget. We know you’re reluctant to give a number because you think if you admit you have a $50k budget, then that is what the proposal will be. You’re concerned you’ll fork over that $50k, but you'd get the same proposal if you’d just said $30k. Well, shame on the sharks out there who behave so underhandedly. This is not how a true marketing partner behaves. A partner asks about the budget because they want to respect where you are and to ensure they bring a solution that works for everyone.

What’s Your Budget?

One of the top reasons advertising fails is trying to reach more people than your budget allows. If you have $5k, there is a campaign that can be successful. If you have 50 times that much, there is a campaign that can be successful. The difference, besides the number of zeros, is focus. 

If you dribble your $5k budget over a bunch of tactics, you will fail. 

If you can’t saturate, if you can’t rise above the noise in one tactic, you might as well light the money on fire and watch the pretty flame. But, if you take that same budget and focus on one advertising tactic, you can dominate and get results. Here is why:

  • Frequency—Strategically dedicating a small budget to reach one specific target market increases the number of touches you’ll have with the same person. The Marketing Rule of Seven states a person needs to hear a message at least seven times before they take action. 
  • Testing—When you’re only testing one tactic, it’s easier to connect your ad message or offer to results. You can conduct thorough testing and experimentation to assess its effectiveness. This lets you gather comprehensive data and insights to inform future marketing strategies. 
  • Impact—Concentrating your budget on one tactic can potentially increase visibility within that specific channel or audience segment. In the long run, you’ll increase your brand awareness and engagement within that segment.

So, after reading this, I hope you’ve concluded that what matters most is not the size of your budget but what you do with it. Remember these things, and you’ll be successful.

  1. Don’t try to stretch your budget too thin. 
  2. Pick one tactic and OWN it before adding more to your marketing mix.
  3. Let the campaign run long enough to collect the data needed to test the effectiveness of the message or offer. 

 

Want some help allocating your budget to your best benefit? Click the link below, and let’s get started.