Your advertising budget is one of the most costly parts of running your small business. It is also a lifeline that generates new business and keeps customers coming back for more. In a time when consumers are spending conservatively, jobs are scarce, and the cost of doing business continues to skyrocket, recession advertising is critical to keeping your business afloat.
However, how can you start cutting advertising costs while maintaining a campaign that is strong enough to keep your business alive and well? The key is developing a frugal yet aggressive advertising budget that gets the right information, to the right people, at the right time.
Radio Ads – The Drive at Five
If your advertising budget has included space for a variety of radio ads throughout the week, it might be time to revise your strategy. Rather than spending a lot of money to keep ads running through the whole week, take a more targeted and strategic approach. People tend to receive paychecks at the end of the week on Thursdays or Fridays. A good recession advertising technique is to only purchase ads on these days, and then only air them during peak hours, such as the daily commute home at 5 p.m. Reducing the frequency of your radio ads and featuring them during the drive at five maximizes efficiency and allows you to trim your advertising budget.
Online Advertising – Stop Paying for Cyberspace
There are a variety of different ways to advertise online, and a great deal of your advertising budget may be dedicated to online ads with local vendors and newspapers. With recession advertising, you need to start looking for free ways to advertise your business online. Start cutting advertising costs by canceling online ads that have generated the lowest tier of ROI. Replace these ads with free services on social networking sites, like Yelp, Twitter, and MySpace. You can also try targeted campaigns on free posting sites like Craigslist.
Customers – Totally Free Advertising
The best things in life are free – and this adage is even true when it comes to your advertising budget. Your most efficient and effective means of advertising is through word of mouth. Make use of your existing customer base to get this job done. First, you have to get your customers talking, and you can do this by training sales staff to create unique and memorable experiences for shoppers. When your sales staff goes out of its way to treat customers right, customers will in turn share these experiences with friends and family. Next, you can host special customer appreciation events featuring sales, buy-one-get-one deals, and instate loyalty or referral programs. These types of events get customers spreading the word about your business. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to succeed with recession advertising.
The essence of all these tips it to trim your advertising budget without backing down on your aggressive advertising campaign. Recession advertising requires strategy and dedication, but with these simple tips, you can start cutting your advertising budget and use the savings to enhance other aspects of your small business.
