Tag: budget

Is Your Marketing Budget Working Smarter, Not Harder?

“I want to work smarter, not harder in 2012,” a friend resolved at an annual New Years Day party where guests reflect on the past year and state intentions for the new one.

Working smarter often involves working harder at first, but not harder on the same old stuff. Working smarter means putting systems in place that conserve time, energy and money. But that work often means asking hard questions. Otherwise we would set up resource-saving systems more often!

Which brings me to marketing budgets. It’s easy to squander time and money, two equally valuable assets. Read more

The Tree of So-So? Or the Forest of Effective.

A better path for your next communication problem

(Download the white paper for The Tree of So-So? Or the Forest of Effective.)

Dusk at the bluebell wood — creative commons license / flickr user: Today is a good day

Few businesses these days can afford to throw dollars at any communications unless they see some value—value being the relationship between cost paid and results achieved. Nonprofits especially can’t afford to, with budgets and staff strained as they are. Why then do so many organizations approach projects in ways that hinder their ability to be as effective as they could be?

Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick Two

(Download thisWhite paper: Good, Fast, Cheap as a PDF.)

Google the phrase “Good Fast Cheap Pick Two” and you get over 78 million search results. There are only 1.7 million for “Fountain of Youth.” Apparently people desire good, fast and cheap more than they do the secret to staying young. I see requests like this posted in online venues like LinkedIn. Is it the economy? Is there a growing sense of entitlement? Or is it more benign than that—businesses don’t realize that asking for good, fast and cheap will hinder their ability to be effective? Read more