Panning for gold- How to be strategic with your marketing dollars

It has been said that today’s youth will be hit with 1 billion advertisements within their lifetime. Marketing used to be easy, right? Place an ad in the newspaper, radio, tv, and put up a billboard. Bam! Done. Not so much anymore.

Today, not only do we still have the traditional marketing outlets, but we also have social media, text marketing, community sponsorships, networking opportunities, internet marketing, and the list goes on and on…

So, how do you determine the best opportunities for your business? It’s like panning for gold. You have to sift out the options that make sense. The first step is truly understanding your market and customer.

We, at Red Sage, feel that one of the quickest and easiest way to do this is by doing a SWOT analysis. Stop rolling your eyes. It really does work.

A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis gives you the opportunity to take a step back and view your business with a different perspective.   It allows you to determine what you do well and what your challenges are. It also allows you to understand your market and customer.

One of the important questions to ask is “Where are my customers?” This helps you go to where your customers are. This means utilizing both traditional and nontraditional marketing avenues. What associations do you need to participate in? What community events do you need to network in? How should you utilize social media to reach your customers?

While it used to be that you could blanket the market and reach customers, now you need to be strategic. It won’t do you any good to run great ads in the newspaper if your audience is on social media. By performing a SWOT, you’ll be able to see what you’re already doing well – and what you to do to reach your customers.