DIY Marketing

We all know what the weather looks like outside: cloudy with a 100% chance of recession for the next year or so. People are cutting back. I get that. People are cutting back on marketing too. I actually have issue with this. Let me explain.

For most businesses, cutting back on marketing means We just don’t do any marketing. This frustrates me! You can cut back on marketing spending quite easily without actually cutting back on your marketing efforts.

Let’s say you spend $5,000 a year on advertising in a publication. $10,000 on television commercials. We’ll use this as a simplified example. So you no longer have $15,000 to spend on this stuff for the results you’re getting. Great. Slash it. But replace it with something more affordable and still effective. Maybe that’s monthly press releases sent out via PRWeb and to editors. Maybe it’s creating an effective social media strategy. Maybe it’s an email campaign. Whichever you choose, you will spend a fraction of the money you were spending on advertising, and I guarantee the results will be better, in spite of the economy.

If you’re a solopreneur, or the one doing just about everything in your business, I can see that you wouldn’t want to take on more work. But if you want to have any work to do at all when we come out of this recession, YOU HAVE TO DO MARKETING. Sorry, didn’t mean to shout. I just hate it when businesses think marketing isn’t one of the top 3 things they need to do to survive. It’s like running your nails down a chalkboard for marketers. Uggggh.

Ok, so how do you do that?

• Dedicate 1 hour a day to research how to do your own marketing.
• Read ebooks, listen to podcasts, read blogs on how to DIY marketing.
• Ask colleagues what tools they’re using to market their businesses.
• Find a Small Business Development Center, SCORE or other entrepreneur resource in your town to help you.
• Hire an intern for $7 an hour from your local college’s marketing department. She might know more about social media marketing than you do!
• Buy ebooks on DIY Press Releases, Email Marketing or Social Media from The Marketing Eggspert Library! (sorry, had to get that one in; but seriously: for less than $20 you can’t get a better deal!)

Readers, any other ideas on how to get started doing your own marketing? Let’s hear them!