Don't throw away your advertising $$$$

Hard economic times require that you continue to market. No matter where you might live there are always people doing well in any economy. An example is cars sales being down, then auto repair is booming. It is also a fact that those businesses who continue to market during tough times are in a better position when things get better than those who did nothing.

What do you need to do? First you must clearly define WHO exactly your market it. If you answered everyone, you are wrong! My best market are families with parents between the ages of 30-45, with 2 young children, a home and an income of $50,000 or more. With this information I can locate where they are living. (Like attracts like) and market to this group with better effectiveness.

Next I am going to decide what media I want to use to deliver my message to them. This also requires research and planning. I really don't want my message to be delivered to people who cannot afford my services, nor to people who don't want my services. This is a waste of money in a time when no one can afford to do that.

I know of a local martial arts club that is very new to the business. They decided to have some large postcards delivered to the entire neighborhood in the area that the club operated. They created a very expensive multi colour card, which was full of logos and pictures telling the world about all the things they had available for the public. One one half of the card there was a picture of two ring fighters, with one receiving a heavy punch to the head. On the other half (same side) they had a child in uniform telling parents about their great kids program. I can guarantee that the only business generated from this was for the recycle people. There were too many messages on the card and they were in direct conflict with each other. Someone looking for ring fighting doesn't want kids around, and parents don't want their kids beaten up. This is a BAD messages.

I could go on for hours on this topic alone. Check out are website for more on this and other marketing topics.