THE PROS AND CONS OF EACH MARKETING CHANNEL (INFOGRAPHIC)

When you have a limited budget, it’s important to choose the marketing channels which will give you the best results for your money. But how do you know where to start? How do you know which ones are worth your time & money?

From loyalty programmes to social media advertising, the infographic below will help you understand the pros and cons of marketing and pick the ones which will work best for you.

Want to know how to find the right marketing mix to push your business forward? Get in touch: hello@cerealmilk.co.uk

THE ART OF SELLING

No, this is not a sales pitch. Not a good one anyway.

If you’ve worked with me before, you’ll know I’m a sucker for good data. It guides me, helps me make decisions, allows me to give educated advice to my clients and colleagues, teaches me about my customers and adds tangible value to creative work.

It makes things easier, creates logic, develops a nice and cosy blueprint. But it also skews the playing field.

"The problem is that while I take comfort from a clean and tidy serving of objective evidence, so does everyone else."

It’s out there to be explored, desiccated, sold, and used by whoever has the most resources.

What’s left then? What’s that something that is unique to oneself?

We’re still in marketing. This isn’t fine art or self-expression but in the end, what it really comes down to is the idea, the concept, the intuition.

Big time Mad Man Bill Bernbach once said: “It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we're legally allowed to take over our competitors.”

Amen.

YES, IT'S PERSONAL.

It’s always been personal. It was never about the brand, never about the business. It was always about how it made you feel, your experiences and your aspirations.

I’ve always liked business.

I grew up in hotels and it felt like I lived inside this never sleeping creature made of a thousand moving parts.

It was exciting.

I would meet dozens of new people every year, and became interested in their experiences, in what made them choose that particular place and what they would make of the memories they took back home.

"I mean, I learned marketing from many books, and schools, and people, but I think it was back then, at 9 or 10 years old, that I really understood its core."

I often see companies selling to everybody (this usually means nobody), pushing their product onto people’s (faceless) faces because they haven’t taken the time to do the research and make it personal.

I don’t mean creepy. I mean honest, respectful and meaningful.

We do get a bad rap as marketers (and rightly so sometimes) but I think the problem is usually due to a poorly executed strategy and a shortsighted company.

We are all people interacting with people, but behind laptops and data and business objectives, we sometimes seem to have forgotten.

Every time I feel like I’m too focused on the numbers, I try to take a step back and remember those days running around hotel corridors. The experiences the guests had, the memories, the nostalgia many years later.

That’s what I’m meant to focus on, that’s what we’re selling.

A word about sticking to your guns:

I have a DIY spirit. In life, this has proven to be inconsistent at times, but in work I feel like it’s a valuable asset. I truly believe that you do a better job if you understand what it’s made of, if you take the time to learn about it. I feel like tutors, books and gurus have tried to make me unlearn this approach. To automate, to generalise and disguise it as personalised. I refuse though.

It is and it will always be personal.