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Adam's Advice: Diversify Your Marketing

Last week we discussed why it's important to diversify your marketing strategies. Now, let's discuss a few specific ways you might do that...

At the beginning of the year sit down with your marketing managers/team and plan out your marketing strategies for the year. I recommend that you use plenty of notebook paper.

Key: You must plan your marketing strategies at the beginning of the year. This will help you establish a budget, with clear objectives and goals written down. Then, everyone in the organization will have a road map of what needs to be done and where the company is going. Just by writing down your goals, you will have an eighty percent chance of success!

Finding one particular strategy that works great for you doesn't mean that you should terminate your other strategies. Stick to your original marketing strategies that you set at the beginning of the year and you will experience greater results than you would have ever imagined.

The biggest problem that most agencies face is failure to stick to their original plan and starting a "shotgun" or panic strategy when sales are down-dumping a huge amount of money into one strategy and waiting for the calls. When a company is already suffering from a cash-flow problem due to lack of sales, this panic strategy is an expensive way to yield very few results. Remember, it can take 30 days or more for a new strategy to take hold.

A diversified strategy such as the "Parthenon" strategy (Diagram B) can target several market segments at once using multiple marketing strategies simultaneously. By using multiple strategies you and your marketing team will be able to leverage your time while at the same time bringing in more referrals faster. It will also significantly reduce your agency's level of risk by increasing the number of referral sources you have-whereas the shotgun strategy or the "Diving Board" strategy (Diagram A) targets a single segment and relies on only one strategy or referral source for referrals.

A diversified strategy also provides you with the benefit of having your audience experience repetition of your marketing, which is by far the most effective strategy to get the market to recall and identify your company name.



What would happen to revenue and profitability if you combined a wide array of marketing approaches?



If you are currently relying on only one or two marketing strategies and/or referral sources to bring in referrals you would be better off to consider diversifying your marketing strategy and developing the "Parthenon" strategy, a strategy that will guarantee a strong flow of referrals into your agency month after month.

You don't have to start off by adding all the strategies illustrated in the Parthenon Strategy (Diagram B). Start off with two or three and build on them as your resources increase or your team is ready. Diversifying your marketing program will bring you incredible results!