Consolidate To Dominate

A marketing colleague of mine, Brett Duncan, recently sent out a call for entries in a (soon to be released) FREE e-book he’s compiling. I loved the idea and here’s my 500-words-or-less entry:

It can be overwhelming to think of the myriad of ways to advertise a product or market your ideas today. Dozens, if not hundreds, of traditional and non-traditional mediums are at our disposal. Broadcast radio and television, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, e-blasts, websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter … just to name a few. Some are extremely expensive, and some are pretty cost-effective. But winning big doesn’t mean that you need to conquer them all to stay connected to your audience and have a meaningful conversation and mutually profitable relationship with them.

In fact, and it may seem counterintuitive, I believe that if you were to focus your efforts and actually reduce the number of different channels of influence you’re using this year, rather than increase them, I think you’ll see tremendous results. This is an approach that requires neither reducing your budget (when would you ever get it back if you didn’t spend it all, right?) nor needing to ask for more money (how likely is that request to be granted in this economy, right?).

For example, I once heard a concert promoter lament that he’d “wasted” a lot of advertising money using three different radio stations trying to get butts-in-seats at the show. I thought he’d have done much better focusing the same amount of money into just one station. He’d have achieved a much better frequency (the number of times a person hears an ad) and probably gotten a better response from just one audience hit hard than attempting to reach three hit lightly. I would have advised him to dominate one station.

Consider your current communications strategy and ask yourself some questions. How many different means am I attempting to use right now? Do I feel like I am mastering them all or is it overwhelming and frustrating? Is my audience seated around all of these tables or just a few of them? Which tables do I really need to pull my chair up to? If it seems like you’re always a few steps behind in successfully using all of these means, you may need to make some hard decisions and cut some things loose.

You may be a candidate for consolidating your mediums and focusing your efforts – using the exact same budget you already have – to increase your rate of return. I know how hard this is in light of all the newest and greatest high-tech gadgets and social mediums popping up on the horizon every few months. I am continuously fighting the urge and temptation to stay on top of it all. But saying “no” to some good things will allow you to say “yes” to some better things. You will also need to be able to discipline yourself to remain a “committed marketer” and place more of your eggs into fewer baskets – and watch those baskets!

Some say, “Less is more.” I’ve also heard it suggested that, “Less is better.” I believe that if you can bring yourself to consolidate your communications channels, and dominate fewer mediums, you will reap huge rewards.