Printing Stimulus: Maximizing Your Impact While Minimizing Your Budget

There is a lot of talk these days about the stimulus bill that has been released by the government, specifically its effects on the nation's economy and how it will play out in minimizing our financial  recession. The problem is that most of us won't see the immediate effects of the stimulus, if any; we have had to cut back on spending and costs astronomically. One of the biggest cuts across the board is usually in marketing. Most companies see a quick, short-term solution in cutting their marketing and advertising budgets and focusing on their existing client-base. 

The major problem with this lies in those two words: "short-term". What happens when the recession begins to ebb and the economy is on the mend in six months to a year? The business that nixed the marketing dollars is now at a disadvantage and has to make up for the time lost in building a new client-base. The businesses that rode out the storm and continued to take advantage of the free market are the ones that will see success as the economy begins to repair itself. 

What is their trick? How can they afford to still spend on marketing while maintaining a profit? The answer lies in spending wisely. I have seen our clients make many drastic steps including:

- Instead of ordering a year's-worth of product, storing a majority of their inventory, and then discarding the obsolete inventory when the year is over...ordering on a quarterly basis or as the need arises.

- Reducing overall quantity of product ordered and instead targeting a specific audience through direct mail campaigns.

- Creating and implementing a print-on-demand system so product is only ordered on an as-needed basis, rather than risking ordering too much (printed digitally vs. offset)

Bottom line: nobody is safe from the storm this economy is causing. However, what are you doing to ride out the wave? Marketing your business is still a possible and necessary step to maintaining your company's lifeblood (new clientele). Give me a call and we will go over some very important steps on how we can keep you in the game.

Kyle Richardson

503-863-5325

krichardson@bridgetown.com