4 Tips to Do More With Less

A recent event hosted by our Hoosier Chapter of Public Relations Society of America and the Fort Wayne Advertising Federation discussed how companies can “Do More With Less.” In today’s uncertain economy, with resources slimming and budgets tightening, how can we give our clients top quality work with less staff, a smaller budget and limited resources?

A panel of several professionals from marketing, public relations and advertising got together to hash it out and give some examples and advice.  Here’s what we learned:

1. Rely on interns. Interns are an untapped resource for most businesses. They are a group that is especially eager for hands-on experience; lean on them to help execute day-to-day tasks leaving more of your time for bigger pictures and strategic moves.
   
   
2. Get specific. Narrow down your target audiences and re-evaluate again in order to determine whether your campaign or strategic plan will actually provide the ROI that your client is expecting. Make sure you are targeting the right crowd from day one. Spend your money where you’re sure it will be paid back.
   
   
3. Move online. Think about taking your traditional marketing campaigns online. Toss out direct mailers and implement e-blasts and social media strategies that can accomplish the same goal at a much smaller cost.
   
   
4. Rely on outside partnerships. Countless different industries are slimming down and companies are looking more and more to each other to help out these days. Think about asking your business partners to team up more often. Think — “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” — and no one spends a dime, pretty smart.
   
   

Comments

[Rodger Johnson]

This is good. There's no need for a PR agency to have an in-house web development and design company. Managing the overhead of that could be enough to send it belly up before any good work gets done. But outsourcing that kind of work to a design firm the agency has partnered with is probably the best choice.

When budgets get tight and resources become scarce, the creative find these times full of opportunity to build community, which builds better relationships and better places to live and work.