With the end of winter in sight and the busy season right around the corner, now is the time to start preparing your business for success! You’ll want to use all your time to work on upcoming weddings and events, which means your marketing activity may fall by the wayside. Even if your calendar is full, it’s vital your marketing efforts are still driving couples to find your business.
We know that a marketing budget can quickly disappear if you’re not careful, but there are ways to maximize your existing budget to get the most out of your efforts. The best practices below will help you manage your marketing strategy without breaking the bank!
Decide on your goals
Before you start spending time or money on a specific marketing tactic or channel, decide on your business’ goals. If your marketing budget is limited, it’s extremely important to align all marketing activity with a certain goal. Do you want to book more weddings, or do you want to make more money on each wedding? Those goals are very different, so the marketing tactics and channels you should target are very different.
Evaluate your current activities
What marketing activities is your business currently engaged in? What’s working? What’s not working? Having a good understanding of the answers to these questions will help you evaluate where your needs are. Then, once you have you’ve decided on your business’ goals, you can evaluate your current activities as helping you to reach those goals. This will help you figure out which areas you’re weak in and how you can improve!
Look for cross-functional platforms
Particularly if you have a limited marketing budget, look for platforms that provide you with tools that help you reach your goals through a variety of marketing tactics. Premium WeddingWire members, for example, have access to CRM tools, social media tools, search engine optimization tools and more. If you’re using one platform to address multiple needs, you’ll save time and, more than often, money. Plus, being able to manage all of your marketing activities from one place will make monitoring and reporting much easier.
Monitor your progress closely
The best way to control a marketing budget is to monitor your progress closely. Whichever platform or solution you decide on, make sure you see a difference over time. Look for ways to optimize each channel, whether you stop using a certain channel completely or just adjust your budget to see results. When something isn’t working, you’ll know immediately and you’ll be able to address it quickly. Likewise, when something is working, you’ll also know immediately and be able to optimize.
Each year, go through this same process. Even if you think you know what works, things will always change and evolve. Head over to our Marketing section for more tips!
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