3k a month for 3 month advertising budget - any thoughts?

[aflexaholic]

Well in an effort to bring new customers to our retail stores (we have 3 locations) I am pulling back the reins in our payroll expenses and looking to put it into some hands off marketing such as radio, television, social or whatever else becomes of interest. We are in the market of vitamins & supplements selling retail products as well as our own brand (our own brand is where the money is). The questions I have for you guys and gals are...

1. Would my marketing dollars be better spent on our own brand or well recognized retail products.
2. What method of advertising do you see best for my industry?
3. Should I even do this at all or invest it into something else?

Thanks for the help!

[mtnjkwe]

1.Your own brand
2.Sponsoring related events in your industry
3.It depends on your longterm vision.

[rogercbryan]

You are in a very competitive industry when it comes to online marketing. I'm not sure if you have done any research on your individual product positioning online. I would start by taking your list of products and researching the competitive environment online for each to see if one of them has an opportunity for easy optimization. You can do this by measuring the search volume, commercial intent, and relative competition for first position PPC placement.

Until you know your positioning you really shouldn't spend a penny doing advertising.

[JaffyDesigns]

Well in an effort to bring new customers to our retail stores (we have 3 locations) I am pulling back the reins in our payroll expenses and looking to put it into some hands off marketing such as radio, television, social or whatever else becomes of interest. We are in the market of vitamins & supplements selling retail products as well as our own brand (our own brand is where the money is). The questions I have for you guys and gals are...

1. Would my marketing dollars be better spent on our own brand or well recognized retail products.
2. What method of advertising do you see best for my industry?
3. Should I even do this at all or invest it into something else?

Thanks for the help!

Hi aflexaholic!

Firstly, it's difficult to run an effective marketing campaign in a hands-off way. Sure, you can sink some dollars into Google Adwords, or some other channel, but in order to truly reap the benefits, you'll need to invest time and attention, as well as money (although not as much money as you'd think).

To answer your questions:
1. It depends =) are you able to offer the well-known brands cheaper than other retailers, etc.? My gut reaction is that with the other branded products, you can only compete on price, which often turns into a sticky situation, as other competitors counter by matching or beating your prices. If anything, the well-known brands are already well-known, so why spend your money doing their marketing for them? Weight your spending so that it's clear to your customers that you carry these popular products, and devote the majority of your budget towards raising awareness of/uniquely positioning your store-label products.

2. There's no magic formula, only a mix of channels that you'll discover by experimenting and learning (see my note about there being no hands-off marketing =) . I say this without a good knowledge of your business, but your basic building blocks are: your website, your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), your offline marketing (store signage, event/conference presence).

3. So long as you have an objective and keep it in mind with all your activities, it can never hurt to invest in marketing - especially in times of recession or slow recovery, when most of your competitors will be cutting back their promotional efforts.

Hope that helps!

Jason