How To Maximize Your Marketing Dollars

Maximizing the ROI (Return on investment) on your branding projects is easy if you know what to do. Every time you start a new project, start with these guidelines and you will have a successful outcome every time!

Have a clear purpose.

What is your goal for this project? What do you want it to accomplish? When you have a clear purpose, you can focus on your branding project’s goals and ensure that it’s aligned with what makes sense for your business.

For example, if your goal is to attract more customers to your website, then it’s better to invest in an influencer campaign than an expensive TV commercial. Or, if the purpose is to increase sales from e-commerce, then it may be better to invest in SEO than print advertising.

Define your goals.

It’s important to define your goals before you go into the project so that you can set expectations for yourself, your brand, and the agency. If you are working with an agency, it’s also important for them to understand what success looks like for this initiative—and, more importantly, how the two of you are going to measure it. Is it an increase in followers or sales? Something else?

So think about what success would mean for your business if you were able to reach your goals during this process – whether it is six months from now or three years from now – no matter how far off those dates might seem right now.

Understand your audience.

Branding is a complex project that involves many different elements, but understanding your audience is the core of your brand’s success.

• Know what your audience wants: What does your audience want from you? Do they want more face-to-face interactions with you and less digital content? Or vice versa?

• Know what your audience needs: What are some unmet needs that could be solved through branding or rebranding efforts?

To rebrand or not rebrand…

Many companies choose rebranding as an opportunity to create a fresh start for their business. It’s an excellent way for them to renovate their image and ensure that it matches the goals they have set for themselves and their customers or target audience. Rebranding is about creating a new identity: A new logo, brand name, slogan/tagline, color scheme, imagery, and typography all contribute to developing an identity that speaks volumes about your company’s mission statement. Your logo should be memorable enough so that when people see it on different materials such as posters, banners, flyers, billboards, etc, they know who created those products/services.

But total rebranding is expensive and may not be necessary! Changing your brand may alienate current customers so any major change should be thought out and planned carefully:

• Don’t expect to rebrand in a few days. Too many things can go wrong, and you need time to think through how your brand will look, feel and function in the marketplace.
• Don’t expect to get it done for free. Even if you’re willing to pay designers on spec (meaning without an initial agreement), there are still expenses like design software subscriptions or buying fonts from a font library. If you don’t have money for these items up front, find someone who has the financial resources necessary for such purchases—and who’s willing to invest them into your project instead of their pet projects! It’s worth paying for a professional designer because they know what they’re doing; trust us. We’ve seen some doozies from amateur designers!

Chatter Marketing are experts at rebranding and adding a strong voice to your business. Click here to see our success stories!

Define success.

When you are defining success, there are two main approaches that will determine the outcome of your project. One is to define it in terms of yourself. The other is to define it in terms of your audience.

The first option involves asking yourself questions like: What do I want out of this project? How can I make sure that we achieve our goals? How much time and money do we have to spend on this project? In what ways does my team match up with my goals? If my team does not have the time or skills to achieve these goals, is it in the budget to hire an outside marketing agency?

The second approach involves asking yourself questions about your audience: Who am I trying to reach with this project? What kind of responses do I hope they have when they see the brand or interact with employees of the company? Do these audience feelings help or hurt the brand?

We at Chatter Marking love sending these marketing reports to our clients. It’s our “report card” and lets you see exactly how your marketing dollars are working towards your goals.

 

Delegate accordingly.

If you’re working with an agency that specializes in content creation, let them do their job. They will have the resources and experience to help your brand reach its full potential in an efficient way—and they’ll be able to make recommendations based on their expertise too!

In conclusion…

You don’t want to find yourself stuck with a project that doesn’t achieve what you set out to do. Be realistic about time and money, and define success ahead of time so that everyone can be on the same page about what success looks like for any branding project. Contact Chatter Marketing today if you want to make the most of your marketing dollars!