Shotgun Marketing - Blasting Holes in Your Bank Balance

What I am about to say will upset some salon owners....get ready for it......contrary to common belief, not all advertising is good advertising! 

When times are tough, and let's face it, they are pretty tough right now,
it is vital to make your advertising dollars work harder for you than ever before.

Gimme all your money!

Shotgun marketing, as the name implies, relies on shooting out many many pellets of advertising material as you can afford to to try and reach as many people as possible.  This approach might be useful for a start-up business that needs to make its local market aware of its existence but after that, it is just too scattered to make the kind of impact that is needed to build an existing business.

Here's somthing you really need to know and embrace....not everyone wants to be your client.  Savvy salon owners appreciate this and spend their precious advertising dollars only in ways that will reach the kind of people who are likely to come in and spend.  In most cases, that is to their own database or to people who are very much like the ones who are already purchasing from you.
 

Do you know who these people are and more importantly, are you making them the target of your marketing efforts?

Next time you are approached by people asking you to advertise in their magazine, newsletter, internet listing etc and so on, ask yourself some important questions first before you sign on the dotted line.

• Am I getting this message to my target market (my clients or those people just like them) or am I spending a lot of money advertising to people who just aren't interested in what I am selling?
• Is the money I am about to spend going to be a good investment and achieve the desired outcome?  Am I going to see a substantial return on my investment and how can I measure the results?
• How could I refine my marketing, spend less money and reach the people who are most likely to buy my product?

Perhaps it's time to re-focus your approach to marketing in 2011 to ensure that every dollar you spend from this point forward creates maximum impact with your target market.

Wishing you prosperity and success
Pam

Photo by Boaz Yiftach