What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now?

Some of you are extremely busy right now, others… not so much. Some of my clients are essential businesses—on the front lines helping to manufacture needed items for hospitals, etc. For the companies with a little extra time on your hands, why not use it to focus on marketing projects you haven’t had time to get to?

I’ve been fortunate to have projects to keep me busy… both client work and my own marketing. Lately, whenever I get some downtime in between projects, I’ve been having fun working on my new website [check it out here!]while researching and creating a new marketing campaign. This downtime has given me some traction and I’ve actually gotten ahead of schedule. It’s been a great way for me to focus on something positive right now.

The big question with all this uncertainty, I find myself asking this question right now: How much time and money SHOULD you devote to marketing projects?

It is understandable that many companies will need to stay on the conservative side. You have to use those dollars wisely and plan for the future. My thought is, if there is a project you’d like to work on, sometimes a smaller budget as a constraint can bring new, creative ideas to light. You can also do partial projects if you don’t have the budget right now.

Focus on what you can do and add projects as things pick up and businesses start to open up again. For example, one of my non-profit clients (see sample below) had the budget to work with me to update their logo and create business cards, but put a hold on their brochure project until the fall.

Need to re-allocate your trade show budget?

For many of my manufacturing clients, a big part of their marketing budget is devoted to exhibiting at trade shows throughout the year, but it’s hard to know if the shows slated for this fall will move ahead, cancel all together or switch to a virtual format. You could focus more of your marketing budget towards:

• Updating your website.
• Creating downloadable sell sheets to promote new products online.
• Creating a “virtual tour.” If you’ve already signed up for these shows and they switch to a virtual format, you could set up your trade show booth in-house and create a video “virtual tour” of your booth.

It’s hard to know what will happen, so it’s a good idea to be prepared for each scenario.

If you have any projects you’d like to get a head start on, reach out! I would love to help brainstorm new marketing ideas, but also keep everything within your budget.