Dear Dave:

My company has big ambitions about growth but a very limited marketing budget. How can I best allocate my marketing to get the greatest return on investment?

Signed,

Working on a Shoestring

 Dear Shoestring:

Focus on one market sector, one customer segment only. The benefit of focusing on one market sector is that you can create a complete and professional marketing program that includes targeted messages, tailored campaigns, web pages, events, custom collateral and sales scripts, and other sales tools.

Also, by focusing on one area, you become an expert in that market. You can position your company as a thought leader. You can appear bigger than you actually are because you are blanketing that market segment with your message, increasing the visibility of your brand, and raising awareness among potential customers.

The benefits of marketing to one customer segment tend to compound over time as more target customers become exposed to your company, products and services. This helps reduce or eliminate the time-consuming task of starting from the ground floor in every sales and marketing interaction, which in turn can lead to more qualified prospects interacting with your company and a shorter sales cycle.

Oh, but what about all those opportunities you will lose out on in other market segments?  I draw your attention to the “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” written by marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout, a book that should be in every marketer’s library.

Law #13: The Law of Sacrifice. You must give something up to get something. If you try to be all things to all customers, you will lose. If you try to stretch a limited marketing budget across many customer segments, you will fail in all of those customer segments.

On the other hand, once you gain momentum in one market sector, it becomes easier, less costly and less time intensive to market to that sector year over year. Now you can turn to another customer segment. And after that, another. Soon your business will be growing fast, along with your marketing budget.

For David Klein Marketing, I’m Dave