How to market more with less money

It’s a familiar complaint among financial services marketers. You’re expected to improve results and use new marketing channels, but with no increase in budget. Likely, your marketing budget was slashed when the financial crisis hit and few, if any, of those funds were replenished.

Here are two ideas that can help you reach more prospects, give you a better chance at improving account openings, and do both without an increase to your marketing budget.

1. Consider alternative media.

Suppose you’re advertising with television spots. Pricey. Can you get the same results, or better, using radio? If you’re paying for big print ads, would a mail campaign work better?
Look at what you’re paying for media and what results each medium produces. Yes, that will be difficult because you can’t track consumer responses to broadcast ads or even print ads. But if you’re using a single medium for a promotion, see if there was a boost in account openings during that run. If not, then generally the ads aren’t helping you.

Besides shifting resources to less costly, more effective media, consider the other resources you use, as in people. Can you find a better, more productive use for your staff’s time? If your staff copywriter spends hours composing tweets or your assistant uses a large part of the day researching tidbits for your Twitter account, maybe you should cut back. Let your copywriter devote more time to perfecting your next campaign. Free up your assistant’s time for researching lower-priced or most cost-effective media.