Help! I have no marketing budget!
- Tue, October 31 2006
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
Picking up the topic from my last post, the second most common question I receive is:
Q: Is marketing really possible with practically no marketing budget?
A: Yes, if you do it right.
A lack of funds should force us to be creative, not to complain. Most of us are never going to have fat marketing budgets. But we don’t need a glossy brochure to succeed. Don’t believe me? Then I will tell you my favorite story—the chicken story. I tell this at all my workshops, and I’ve mentioned it on my Amazon blog.
A few months back, a creative leader at a small nonprofit told me he wanted to get heavy coverage in the press and on TV, start an online donation program and just generally make a big marketing splash with almost no money. His name was David Levinger, and his organization was Feet First in Seattle, a local group advocating for a more livable, walkable community. A classic nonprofit mission: worthwhile, ambitious and very hard to talk about in catchy, relevant terms. Until David started talking about chickens. “It’s like we’re in this town where the chicken can’t cross the road,” he said. In fact, that simile was so apt that he’d bought a chicken suit. For about $125, if I recall correctly. That chicken then went around Seattle trying to cross the road.
Guess what happened. Coverage. In all media. Talk about photogenic.
I loved the story and told David a chicken suit was the best non-brochure I could imagine. But it got better with a few brainstorms - plastic eggs with a chick and message inside asking for donations. A Network for Good recurring giving program where you “click the chicken.”
The moral(s) of the story? If you are dangling by a marketing shoestring - or even if you have a healthy budget, remember:
1. When everyone is doing wristbands, brochures or whatever, don’t try to compete. You don’t have enough money to stand out in a herd. Do something entirely different, far away from the herd. Chicken eggs are different.
2. Make yourself a story that gets covered instead of buying ads. Chicken + rush hour = visual story for media.
3. Invest your marketing energy in “open-minded moments” when your audience is most likely to be thinking of your issue—like when they are about to cross the road and can’t.
4. Get a recurring online giving program going and give people a compelling reason to participate. Regular, automatic gifts mean you don’t have to spend money asking those donors for money over and over. All you have to do is thank them.
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Comments
Great tips for a simple marketing program. Low cost, too!
Its a nice post regarding law and its values.I think its necessary to each and individual to follow the law and order.
As well appreciate you alot!
Thanks for sharing great stuff mate.
thank you for your information
this post helped me , I have an Idea , I have not any budget
thanks by admin perfect blog
Online olarak Film İzle
En güzel Dantel ler
hobi elbecerileri ve Dantel Dünyası
Birbirinden güzel Dantel örnekleri
En yeni Dantel modelleri
bedava Film seyret ve
bitkisel tedavi yöntemleri Şifalı bitkiler sitesini ziyaret edebilirsiniz.
The practice of devising an annual programme for financial legislation has been attributed to William Lowndes, an official in the Treasury throughout the half-century after 1675. The term dates from the 1730s and is derived from the wallet or ‘bougette’ in which the chancellor of the Exchequer carried his proposals. In the 19th cent. the practice developed by which the annual budget comprised an assessment of Exchequer income and expenditures for the past financial year, together with estimates of expected spending needs in the forthcoming year and the fiscal steps required to provide for them. As the range of economic instruments at the disposal of the state has increased, the budget has lost some of its importance.
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I wants to thank for the wonderful read because of the informative information and sharing the thoughts to us….
Banner Prints
Back in the day before I was a web designer, I used to have what I called my “50 cent promotions.” Basically, I bought a pack of colorful crayons and let me employees pick out a different color every day that they could use to circle a promotion I printed on the receipts generated by the register. It was fun for the employees and actually was able to double my sales. The lesson is = just because you don’t have a ton of money to spend on marketing doesn’t mean that you can’t create something that will work. Now I volunteer with a non-profit and we’re working on their marketing stuff - trying to make it better without spending a ton of money. Creative marketing is essential when you don’t have the available funds.
Marketing can seem difficult with a low budget or no budget at all. The marketing campaign of Feet First was very creative. The chicken story really inspired me to think of new ways for getting funds to the non-profit organization in which I work.
Love your blog, Ted.