Viper Marketing

More with Less

Author: Jim Hardcastle

Jim has helped organisations and groups communicate more effectively for nearly 20 years. His background in the countryside and rural sectors provide him with a wealth of experience. Fueled by coffee with Post-Its at the ready, he’s here to help .

We have to do 'more with less' all the time. That's the nature of an SME at the moment. We're streamlined everything. I'm sure there's more we can do but this is how it stands at the moment.

The public sector is being asked to do 'more with less' or at the very least 'the same with less'. We're currently asking some friends in the public sector how they are going to achieve this, we'll share the findings soon, but in the meantime here's 10 ways Viper does more with less.

1. Write a list i.e. do some planning, but only on one side of paper otherwise you'll forget it and/or won't do it

3. Jump straight to 3. Less list, more time to do

4. Search Engine Optimisation. SEO. You've built your website now make sure it's working properly. It's not a leaflet you know. Update it. (No names, but I found the most up-to-date newsletter was from 2007 on a major players' website this morning)

5. Get in-house training. Some day courses can be nearly £300/person. Get 6 of you together, the trainer comes to you (by the way, we do this ;-), cost comes down to £50/person

6. Get an e-newsletter system. No more print or delivery costs!

7. Get trained from the comfort of your own chair. Attend a webinar, do a remote learning course. Plenty of options  

8. Define your key audiences. Talk to them more and the others less

9. Minimise paperwork. Get an on-line project management system. Not only stops pointless shuffling of paper but cuts costs as we don't really buy any, enables flexi working so travel time and expenses are cut

10. Identify your key partners. Look after them the most as they'll do more for you 

11. Take a different standpoint: your customers/visitors. What do they want? Do that more

12. Spend a bit more on technology that means you spend less time faffing with annoying kit

13. This is the best idea we use (and the biggest difference between my life now and my previous one in public sector), DON'T type up notes of meetings. We have meetings around the whiteboard using Post-Its, then we take a photo of the board and post it on the project management system. Job done. In seconds. No time wasted typing up what you've just sat through. No paper wasted. Stored in one place with the right people notified automatically. 

Ok that's 13 recommendations but you got more than the original 10 so you can get more for less!

- Posted on Tuesday 20 Jul 2010 at 14:48 by Jim Hardcastle

Tags: audience (33), bespoke (2), communication plan (15), enewsletter (5), jim hardcastle (33), post-it's (7), seo (4), training (36)