How I decided which marketing method would work best

Overview

I knew I was launching a strong offering with Account Assist and that it would do well when people heard about it, but I didn't know how to reach people in the first place. I had a budget put aside for advertising and marketing but figuring out which method would work best proved a costly learning experience. We now have a marketing model that works.

The challenge

To identify the marketing method with the best return on investment. I needed to work out whether the budget was best directed towards advertising, PR, direct marketing or something else entirely - without breaking the bank.

The solution

We invested in some targeted advertising, PR and direct marketing simultaneously and used a questionnaire on the website and on the phone to figure out where clients had first heard of us. We quickly realised that PR was more effective at raising our profile than any other method, even though it took a little more time to get going.

Key lesson

Don't splash out on masses of advertising without knowing what you're doing. Try a little of each option and measure success carefully, only investing further when you've seen positive results.

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