I’ve been working on our business plan today, reviewing and updating what we wrote a year ago, setting new objectives etc, you know the kind of thing. Not the most thrilling activity you’d assume but please stick with me.
Things change a lot in a year, that much is obvious, particularly after the year everyone’s just had. Anyway, there’s a big section on marketing in the plan and that’s where I noticed the biggest change.
We’d previously allocated X amount for targeted ads, Y for data and Z for exhibitions etc, you get the idea. All the while only playing lip-service to social media; talking about starting this blog and knocking about in a few forums.
A year on and the ads have been scarce, mainly cheap, targeted online banners and buttons, the exhibitions have passed us by and the data was never ordered. The only big mover has been social media.
What started off as a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘we really should be doing this’ gesture has become the cornerstone of our marketing activity, and certainly one of the most productive things we’ve done.
We’ve connected with customers, engaged new retailers, sales agents and distributors, gathered feedback, acted on it and learnt plenty about the marketplace. We’ve also met some great people along the way.
And the best bit…all it has cost is our time. Admittedly we were quite late to the table, which makes it even more bizarre that people are still ploughing limited budgets into mass-marketing methods!
The only problem we’re facing now is where to find the time. So many platforms to use, communities to explore, apps to install, tools to try out…the list goes on. We’re certainly having fun though 
