The sliding economy won't keep your clients from needing new campaigns. Here are three ways you can trim your budgets while keeping brand promotions going strong.
With the state of today's economy, it's arguable that no group in business feels the pinch quite like those in marketing. This rings even more true for those working with companies in the automotive space. With shrinking consumer spending, the competition for retaining and attracting new business is fierce. Yet with budgets that are also shrinking, it's a challenge to maintain status quo, let alone launch new campaigns.
So how can digital marketers, and especially those working with automotive companies, trim marketing budgets while still keeping brand initiatives going strong? The answer lies in leveraging what you have, developing smart vendor partnerships that can deliver maximum functionality with minimal dollars spent and exploring inexpensive or free marketing activities.
Finding the economies
Let's start with leveraging what you have. This is an attitudinal tactic that I first learned from my grandmother. A product of the Great Depression, she rinsed and reused paper towels several times before she threw them away. For her, finding ways to stretch a dollar by leveraging what she had was instinctual. While I'm not a proponent of such extreme measures, my point is that economies can be found if you open your mind and start looking.
As an example from the automotive space, vehicle manufacturers often have multiple brands and multiple brand managers. Every brand manager is tasked with presenting a brand in the best light and increasing revenue, meaning they continually want new campaigns, an updated website, etc. As a digital marketer, you can be the conduit between brands, keeping costs down by sharing innovations, technology and resources. If two brand managers want a microsite to promote "green" vehicles, use the same underlying technology and brand the consumer facing interface individually. Create once and use twice.
Another way to leverage what you have is by pushing your company or clients to test old assumptions and requirements. For example, years ago, I worked on the planning of a major software initiative that required off-line capability for end-users. That requirement came about because in the late '90s, our Novell network was configured unreliably and we had frequent network outages. A decade later, that problem was history, but the requirement lived on for years. That requirement, based on an old assumption, made the project more complex than it needed to be and, consequently, more expensive to execute.
Another great example of this, in the automotive space, comes from Axiom Advertising. Tasked with creating a website for a large dealer group in the Midwest, Axiom decided to write its own Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) decoder so they could post detailed vehicle descriptions. That lasted about a week. The firm quickly realized there were vehicle data experts who specialized in compiling and delivering vehicle data. By challenging the assumption that they had to create their own system, they saved development time and money. The extra funds realized could be used for marketing, not IT development.
Testing assumptions can come in multiple forms. Test your ideas about in-sourcing versus outsourcing activities. Test your ideas about consolidating providers versus shopping for best of breed. Simply put, by testing old assumptions and requirements, you may open up more cost effective solutions and therefore more marketing dollars.
Teaming up
The last point segues nicely into our second suggestion for trimming budgets while still maintaining strong brand promotion: developing smart vendor partnerships that can deliver maximum functionality with minimal dollars spent.
Digital marketers are tasked with creating entire initiatives, from structuring and implementing the base technology to designing, writing and activating the end campaign. Many agencies and digital marketers don't pause to consider that what they need to build may already exist. Creating everything from scratch is often not the only option.
Outsourcing some aspects of design and technology, or piggybacking your initiatives off of existing innovations can save time, resources and money, which can then go toward your marketing efforts. As in the Axiom example above, you do not need to reinvent the wheel to deliver the website functionality your company or clients demand. In the automotive space we've seen a dramatic growth in web services. More manufacturers, portals and even large dealer groups are turning to outside vendors to host, manage and maintain data-heavy functionality like vehicle comparisons and configuration.
This type of functionality may drive their websites, but it is not their specialty. By choosing to buy instead of build, they can reduce costs, get to market more quickly and focus on marketing, not technology. You can do the same for your company or clients. As a digital marketer, recruit the best vendors you can and then spend the resulting extra dollars on promotion and brand building. Good partners can increase your ability to deliver more with less.
Free market(ing) economy
The last tip for those looking for maximum exposure at minimal cost is to explore inexpensive or free marketing activities. We all know what this category includes: websites like YouTube and MySpace, company blogs and other social media sites. The caveat here is that free is not always good. Disingenuous or contrived postings could backfire because discerning consumers will call you out for shameless promotion and pandering. You have to do it right, or you will hurt the brand and reputation you are trying to promote.
An example of doing it right comes from a personal experience. A friend was in the market for a Dodge Viper; while considering the purchase, he decided to check out YouTube to see if any owners had advice or thoughts to share. The candid and enthusiastic videos he found there from satisfied owners drove him to make the purchase. My advice to digital marketers, in the automotive space and all industries, is to capitalize on peoples' lust for their 15 minutes of fame and make some satisfied owners famous. Mine your customer relationship management system, talk to customers and organize the filming. Done right, it is high-end branding with a small price tag.
As you look to conserve resources while still implementing your company's or your clients' marketing initiatives during this economic downturn, remember to leverage what you have, cultivate smart vendor partnerships and look for maximum exposure at minimal cost. These three suggestions can help you trim marketing budgets while still keeping brand promotions going strong.
Bridget Townsend is director of engineering, product and client services and Chrome Systems Inc.