In the current economic scene, you DEFINITELY need to market. But you need to market SMART and AGGRESSIVELY.
What does it mean to market smartly in times like these?
Traditional methods of marketing for your industry may no longer be cost effective. The drift away from the Yellow Pages and from Direct Mail has only accelerated in most industries. But if you can get a very targeted list, Direct Mail can be incredibly effective.
Smart marketing means, more than ever, if your marketing isn’t working, you need to do RESEARCH. Every marketing great from Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, etc. has written at length about the importance of research. Yet it is so neglected, especially in the small business world.
Research is about the most expensive thing you can do in marketing…. other than spending money on a campaign doomed to failure because you don’t understand something critical about your target market (like who they are or what they want).
If you can’t afford to hire a professional research firm, get creative and do it yourself. There are ways.
Smart marketing means don’t commit all your eggs until your campaign has been tested and verified it works. THEN put the pedal to the metal. All marketing is experimental until it is proved out. Smart marketers test.
So like the man said…. GET SMART.