12 Sep The Shrinky Dink Marketing Effect

Have you ever implemented a great marketing idea that provided a major boost to your business, then gotten “too busy” to sustain the marketing campaign? Shortly after you stop staying on top of your marketing, business dwindles. I call this the Shrinky Dink Effect. All of you older than 30 remember Shrinky Dinks from back in the day. There were all kinds of fun shapes, some of them cartoon themes. You fill them with the various colored crystals and heat them up in the oven and they shrink down and melt the colored crystals into your own masterpiece. This is essentially the same effect that happens to your marketing. You invest a fair amount of time putting your marketing ideas into action and then your business heats up and gets busy. Because of the influx of business, you taper down on your marketing to take care of clients and eventually your newly acquired increase in business shrinks. The Shrinky Dink effect is a common pitfall that ails many businesses. The treatment for this business illness is to never stop marketing, no matter how busy you get. In order to be successful with this during your extra busy times, you must have a firm and written marketing plan in place. Layout your objectives and marketing strategies and detail out exactly how you plan on meeting your objectives. These plans should include any social media, phone calls, print marketing, radio or TV ads, promotional products marketing, networking events, sponsorships, and web marketing that your business does to attract new business. A good mix of many different marketing techniques is best, but if you can’t afford all of them, focus on a few types and do it well. After you see your revenues start to climb, tack on some other marketing options. Your marketing plan should be updated frequently flushing out any marketing ideas that are not working and increasing the invested time or money of any plans that are working. After you have your completed or updated marketing plan, print it out and post it on your wall or near your computer screen so that you see it every day. Don’t fall victim to the Shrinky Dink Effect. Get a marketing plan today and follow it daily.