People panic. That’s what we do. It’s part of our DNA, otherwise we would not have survived as a species. That’s also why we use consultants: people who are outside of the emotion and consequences of a situation so that they can have a more objective perspective and decision-making paradigm for any given scenario.
I’ve seen more money wasted on marketing campaigns than I care to admit (particularly because I was at fault a couple of those times). Every time the advertising budget was wasted was directly related to a panicky situation (insofar as under a deadline and we had not met revenue goals). Throwing money in big ad buys made us feel better because we felt as though we were taking action. We were being bold! … bold or not, don’t be stupid – especially since in this case you’re in a situation in which you’ll have to deal with advertising reps: they smell fear and will milk you of every last drop of money spent in panic mode: “Oh yeah! We get great results from plans like this, and this one is customized just for you, promise. Just sign here and I can send you the specs.”
It’s very important to remember, however, that there’s a difference between wasting money and testing new marketing channels and ad concepts. If you’re not trying new advertising options and failing here and there, then your marketing plan is stagnate, boring, and you’ll soon exhaust your reach and frequency. You DO need to be experimenting, but you don’t want to be wasteful with your ad spending because you panic. Big-O Difference-O
It often feels as though one of the primary aspects of my job is to continually ask the question, “How will this increase your sales?” Do companies need PR and indirect marketing? Yes, absolutely. Here, though, I’m talking about burst marketing campaigns that tend to pop up around your normal marketing plan.
When you get offered a good deal on some placements, or your numbers are low so need to expand your reach. So when you feel yourself in a slightly panicky or desperate mode because your business might be having a bad quarter: ask yourself that question. SALES is the key point here.
Leads are wonderful, but if you spend $10k and get leads but no new customers… then that’s a big loss. One knee-jerk reaction and now you’re worse off than you were before you started. Those big ads probably made you feel good for awhile, but panic ad buys tend to kill you in the end.
The point here: when you start to panic try NOT to turn to entirely new advertising channels that you’re not certain will result in customers. Look first to see if you have more headroom in the channels that you KNOW work and will convert into customers.
Building brand awareness never hurts, but it’s the worst if you’re in panic mode trying to reach goals and benchmarks. You want customers, so focus on milking every possible lead from known, working, converting sources first. You’re not trying to take over the world, you’re just trying to meet your quota.
Take a breath and be smart: target and use your data. Finding that additional headroom in currently used marketing channels can save your quarter. And f you don’t find where it starts to plateau, keep pushing it. You should be fully aware of the spending amount at which point input (spent) outweighs output (return). Knowing that, the next time you go into panic mode you’ll know where you can intelligently throw more advertising money (rather than rely on ad reps who are usually on commission and always trying to sell you something).
