How do you go about your marketing? Do you have a dedicated marketing strategy, planned and executed across the year?
Or do you practise ‘as and when’ marketing – implementing the odd campaign when you need it, or when you have the chance, time or inclination to do so?
If you fall into the second category, you’re certainly not alone. Many businesses just like yours take those snap chances to implement their marketing as and when they can, or as and when they want to.
For example, if your busiest time is Christmas, surely it makes sense to save your money and invest it all in autumn, hoping to boost those December sales. Or, if your slump time is the summer, surely that’s the best season to spend a bit of energy on your marketing while the day-to-day business slows a little.
Or is it?
Unfortunately, although ‘as and when’ marketing is often the most convenient approach, it’s definitely not the most effective. This means the time and effort you spend on it could all be for nothing.
Let’s look at why.
‘As and when’ marketing isn’t time effective
Although sporadic marketing throughout the year – a new brochure here, a LinkedIn post there – takes less time than a consistent marketing strategy, you’ll find it’s not even worth your time at all.
Your customers or clients need to come into contact with regular material from you for your brand to resonate with them.
If they only interact with your marketing once in a blue moon, they’re hardly likely to remember you six months down the line when they actually need your products or services!
Therefore, you could be wasting time on your ‘as and when’ marketing strategy.
‘As and when’ marketing isn’t cost effective
It’s no surprise that this approach could also be as much of a waste of money as it is time! However much you spend on that occasional campaign, unless it’s part of a larger, long-term strategy, you might not see much of a return.
‘As and when’ marketing isn’t easily measureable
Not all marketing strategies are a success. Sometimes it takes a good deal of trial and error to identify what works with your clients and what doesn’t.
Unfortunately, if your marketing approach is patchy, it makes it very difficult to measure the overall impact of your efforts. This means your future marketing isn’t informed by hard data – and won’t be as effective as it could be.
‘As and when’ marketing lacks consistency
Of course, the very nature of ‘as and when’ marketing is that it’s not a consistent approach! However, by this, we mean that your marketing risks losing the consistency that makes the greatest impact with your customers – whether that’s consistency across your branding, your tone of voice or your imagery.
The alternative to ‘as and when’ marketing
Of course, any marketing is better than none, but if you really want to get the most out of your marketing (if you want to stop wasting time, money and energy) you really need to adopt a consistent marketing strategy.
We know it’s easier said than done. After all, one of the main reasons you’re probably practising this type of marketing is because you don’t have the opportunity to take a more consistent approach.
That’s where we step in.
At Garda, we’ve helped countless businesses like yours shift their focus from ‘sporadic’ to ‘steady’. Working with them according to their aims and budget to help them get the best from their marketing.
Isn’t it time to shift your focus too?
