Post by Patricia Hewitt, contributing Women On Business writer
It’s the day after – literally – and if you live in a swing state, you are as thankful as I am that this election is over! I have a marketing hangover that’s killing me. Yet, over the course of the past few weeks, I couldn’t help but think about all that money spent on advertising. What I would do with all those advertising dollars if they were mine to spend. Hmmmm, what a delightful thought – an almost unlimited marketing budget! Well, you know as well as I do that in the real world, an unlimited budget for anything is just wishful thinking.
The reality is that marketing budgets are usually tight and in this economy, even tighter. Ironically, there are more options than ever to spend your marketing dollars on. Marketing wisdom says that in a downturn, it’s smart to keep your company in front of the public, but that’s not what this post is about. Because, before you consider spending one dime on any kind of marketing, give a few moments to reviewing the fundamentals. Let’s go back to the election and consider how the candidates crafted their messages. There was generally one of two points to be made in any single television ad. Either the candidate wanted you to vote for them because they were the right choice or they didn’t want you to vote for the other candidate, because that person was the wrong choice. Pretty simple, right? Was that the same message you received in print? How about over the phone? During interviews? On their website? You get the drift.
The point is that these candidates spent a great deal of time worrying over exactly how their message was crafted. They employed many different channels of communication and made sure that the message was consistent across all of them. Businesses today do pretty much the same thing, using many forms of communication to get their message out and the role of the marketing manager or CMO is to make certain that there is consistency in the brand and the messaging connected to that brand.
Whether or not your company has a marketing manager, it’s extremely important that you review your marketing communications on a regular basis. Here’s what you should be looking for:
- Your current brand on everything, no matter how small or large. This includes not just your logo, but fonts used for your name and contact information, coloration, and layout.
- The keywords of your value statement appear frequently.
- The copy is consistent across all channels.
- The materials reflect your current product and service offerings.
These are the major components of any marketing scheme and by taking the time to periodically check them, you’ll be making sure that the market is never confused about what your company is and what it does. You want each vote to count, so make your choice the right one by maintaining a consistent, persistent message in the market – vote for me!
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Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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