Slashingmarketing and community outreach budgets are not new occurrences,especially in the last five years. Even though expectations forproduct and member growth increase, budgets don't seem to followsuit.

So there you are, staring down your strategic plan for 2015,wondering how you are going to get even half of what you want done.Here are a couple of suggestions that may help you get the mostbang for your buck:

• Identify one key story and stick with it

During your planning process, determine the one story that youwould like every person in that target group to take away.Identifying this up front will keep three of those most importantP's (product, placement, promotion) concise and on targetthroughout the year. Delivering a single, consistent and memorablemessage is the best way to keep your dollars on point and trackyour progress.

• Invest in content marketing

Consumers need to feel trust, awareness, and positive emotionfor your brand if you're intending to woo them into a long-termrelationship. Putting some of those precious budget dollars into asound content marketing strategy that elicits these can pay hugedividends.

Consistently sharing valuable information, without the directpresence of your products, helps people understand and prepare fortheir most important financial events. And who knows? You mightjust be the first folks they think of when those moments arisebecause you've given them help in the past. Whether you creatematerials in-house or partner with a company for specific content,delivering good information that has value to your community(without a direct product angle) is a great way to accentuate yourbrand as a partner.

• Don't forget to allocate the cost of time

As you make those final budget decisions, don't make the mistakeof forgetting to allocate the cost of staff time and unplannedresources that will be required for success. It's never easy tomake the tough calls in prioritizing what you and your team cansuccessfully do. But doing just that allows your dollars to stretchfurther because the choices you made will get the attention theyneed.

It's unfortunate, but you're likely never going to have theperfect combination of budget and enough staff to do all theprojects that you'd like. However, no matter what the challengesand constraints of your budget situation are, you can put yourselfand your team in a position for success by sticking to one messageat a time, providing value to your consumers and not biting offmore than you can effectively chew.

Fatemeh Fakhraie is social media and marketing specialist atbrass Media. She can be reached at 541-753-8546 Ext. 132or [email protected].