How to Prioritize Your Marketing Dollars
In our new The Brand Journal series, The Agenda, we ask design industry professionals to share their thoughts on important topics that should be on our radar. In this week’s post, we ask Caitlin Hill, the Founder of C&C Consulting to share her thoughts on how creative businesses can prioritize their marketing dollars. Read on to learn more.
I believe the most important spend should be on documenting your work. Allocate an annual budget to professional photography and styling. I encourage my clients to think about photography in two categories: 1., Formal photography for portfolio and editorial opportunities, and 2., Content for social media. The latter helps ensure you keep a nice rhythm of content sharing and connection with your audience. Building this cadence is integral to burnishing your brand and telling your story.
Once you can prioritize dollars toward photography, invest in hiring a professional team to execute your branding and web development if needed. They’ll want to understand what you have available or down the pipeline in terms of professional photography anyhow, hence prioritizing photography. Often the imagery will help inform the creative direction of these projects.
Though there are many other ways to prioritize marketing dollars aside from photography, branding, and web development, I encourage my clients to reserve funds for efforts around client gifting initiatives and potential marketing events and collaborations. Create a touchpoint with your clientele through a creative summer gift or gesture, or host a studio soirée to showcase some of your latest projects and celebrate the summer together. There are many creative ways to think about leveraging your marketing dollars.
