The other day I received a phone call from a potential new client that was steered in my direction from a friend of mine. (the more the merrier) This client was a small to medium size business who told me that they were interested in doing a national campaign. My first thought was wow, they must have a good budget and had someone do their strategy already because how would they know that was what they needed?
So this client proceeded to explain to me their business, it sounded great and they had all the indications of being a really profitable company. Then I started asking a few questions like "What is your goal? What do you want the campaign to achieve? and so on.
There were a few silent moments from the other end. I was asking these questions because they needed to be asked. Too often clients jump into things not fully understanding what it is they actually need versus what they think they need.
The part that puzzled me the most was the consistent question "How much does it cost?" "Well without knowing what we strategically want to accomplish it's kind of hard to give a number to associate to" I told them. They seemed puzzled so I went into an explanation that went something like this:
Creating an advertising and marketing campaign is kind of like buying a car. You wouldn't go to someone and say " I want to buy a car, how much does it cost?" Well you could, but then someone would take advantage of you and sell you a car that you probably didn't want or need. (It's amazing the similarities between advertising and cars)
Fist we need to know what you need the vehicle for, is it to haul your family around? Do you need something that is good on gas? Do you need a sports car? Or maybe you just need something cheap to go from point A to B. All these things factor into the decision.
Similarly you need to know what the campaign is going to achieve, what you need it to do? This is the starting point. You wouldn't have much success with a mini van if you what you really needed was a sports car. Knowing what the campaign is to achieve clearly sets out a path in which to deliver on.
So after you determined what the purpose is you have to figure out strategically what the best approach is to fulfill that purpose. Lets say you needed something that is economically feasible, it's good on gas, gets you from point A to B without much worry. Easy to operate, easy to maintain and doesn't cost a lot of money. (sound familiar) Well there are a lot of options that can achieve that. A small car, a hybrid, a fully electric and so on. The choices are usually made based on budget.
It's the same thing with the campaign, there are many ways to achieve the goals - paid search, SEO, hybrid campaigns of both traditional and online and so on. It all depends on what we can fit given your budget.
So lets say you have $12000 to spend. Chances are you will be hard pressed to find a new small car to buy for that money, but you could buy a quality used one or lease one for a year within that budget.
Same goes for the campaign, there are lots of options we can plan so that the budget is utilized to the fullest and gives you the most return for your money.
And so the conversation went on with my analogy of cars and advertising. The client was a bit shocked because they realized they hadn't really thought it through. It was clear that the client needed to think it over. I offered my services to help them get a quality strategy together so that they were at least headed in the right direction.
In this day and age you can do a lot with less. But you have to be strategic about it and understand the limitations before heading into it. You can't get a Ferrari on a Yugo budget, but you can still turn some heads.
Happy Monday and I hope you watched Madmen last night.
Cheers
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