Experts: Dont Slash Marketing Budgets - Successful Marketing
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Autotask's Vogel says an important ingredient of successful marketing is to have an ROI-based message. "If you can very clearly and tangibly demonstrate that you are saving your prospects money in the long run, it will be even more relevant in a down economy," he says.
E-mail campaigns, Drake points out, are relatively inexpensive, costing the company $150 monthly to run.
Greves says not all marketing efforts have to cost money. He encourages companies to use free tools such as Google Analytics to spot trends. The tool tracks Web site visitors, including those referred by search engines, and compiles statistics that marketers can use for sales leads.
As it good as the tool is, though, Greves says it only gets you so far. It provides top-line metrics, but getting a more in-depth perspective requires some investment, he says.
Greves also cautions clients about how to use search optimization. The temptation is to pepper Web site content with a lot of terms proven to generate traffic, but those terms should be used wisely. For instance, using "telecommunications" may generate some traffic. But because the term is so broad, it may not convey the specific message a company should be trying to get across, leading to the wrong kind of traffic.
Both Greves and Germain recommend that businesses turn to marketing professionals to design and implement marketing initiatives. Just as a solution provider should focus on what it does best—deliver IT services and sell products—the idea is to let the marketers do the marketing.
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