Big Bang or Slow & Steady?

What kind of marketing and advertising plan is best?  A Big Bang or Slow & Steady?

All depends on what you’re needing to accomplish.

Every once in awhile I see businesses do the exact opposite of what would work best for their goals.

First, let’s lay out the different options and pick a marketing budget of, how about $50,000.

If I have an event coming up, say a concert I am going to create a different plan compared to a retailer that is open year round.

And by the way, that $50,000 is a relative number, I work with companies that spend that much in a week, and others that take 5 years to spend $50,000 in advertising.

The concert is an event.  The goal is to sell tickets and fill seats on a specific date and time and place.  There is an end.  Once the event is over, it’s too late to sell tickets.

Your goal for advertising and marketing is clear for this concert.  So here’s what to do:

Advertising wise, you want to do a push leading up to the date that tickets become available.  Depending on the popularity of the performers, you need to spend more for lessor known artists because they are not going to have as large of a fan base.

You need to reach as many people as possible who are likely to attend your event.  Advertise until the concert is sold out, or the date of the concert.

Plain and simple rule for event advertising when it’s a one-time event is this: 

Connect and invite as many of your likely buyers as possible starting with the date that tickets are available until the event.  I can help you plan that strategy, because there are numerous factors that need to be taken into consideration.  This is the Big Bang Approach.

There is a different approach that you need to take with advertising and marketing your company that is going to be around for awhile. The Slow & Steady Approach.  Here’s how it works:

I’m going to go back to that $50,000 advertising budget again.  The slow and steady approach is to spread that out over the course of a year, spending an average to $1000 a week. Your goal is build your business so that at the end of year one, you have momentum going into year two.  That momentum is from happy customers who come back and use you again and they also recommend you to their friends and family.

But spending $1000 a week to drive people to your business is not as simple as it sounds.  I’ve seen businesses do that and waste their money because they didn’t follow the Human Relationship Principles I mentioned recently. 

When you spend your $1000 a week every week, you need to build trust with your potential customers.  If you jump around and advertise at one place for a couple of weeks, then advertise someplace else for a couple of weeks, you are not building momentum.  This is true no matter what advertising platform you use.

Imagine that you open a store on a busy corner on the northeast side of town and 3 weeks later, close your store and reopen on another corner on the southwest side of town.  A few weeks later, you close that store and open up downtown.  That’s what happens when you start and stop your advertising on different advertising platforms.

Slow & Steady works if you have reasonable expectations, coupled with a business operation that can handle new customers and you are in it for the long haul.  I can share with you some success stories and examples of companies that I’ve worked and help you design a program that could work for your business.

So back to the original question:

What kind of marketing and advertising plan is best?  A Big Bang or Slow & Steady?

All depends on what you’re needing to accomplish.

Want help figuring it out specifically for you and your situation?  Contact me.