Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Think about that and then ask yourself if your current advertising strategy is based in insanity.

I’ve spoken with several local small business owners this past week who, like many others, have cut their ad budgets due to the economy and declining foot traffic in their stores. The interesting thing is that they were all very frank about the fact that their advertising wasn’t producing great results even before they scaled it back.

My question to them was: “if your tactics weren’t effective when you were spending $5,000 per month, what makes you think they will be effective when you’re spending $2,500 per month?”

Basic principles of ROI would dictate that if you’re not hitting a break-even point by spending $5,000, then you certainly will not hit it by spending $2,500 on the same tactics. In essence, you’re running a loss campaign.

Based on your profit margin, how many customers do you need to earn each month to justify the $5,000 expense? Cutting the ad budget will decrease your expense, but it will also decrease your exposure, and thus, proportionally, your return.

Here is a lesson you can take to the bank: if your advertising tactics aren’t paying for themselves at $5,000 per month, then they aren’t going to pay for themselves at $2,500 per month or even $10,000 per month.

The problem is not the amount of money you’re spending. The problem is the tactics you’ve chosen. If they don’t work, then doing more or less of the same thing isn’t going to change that.

The “sweet spot”, as we say in advertising, is to find tactics that work (to be defined as tactics that pay for themselves and leave a profit) and then to do them at a high enough frequency to provide your business with adequate revenue. That formula is different for every business…but the principle remains the same.

If the tactics you’ve chosen for that $5,000 budget aren’t working, abandon them, as I advised the business owners I mentioned earlier. Do something else. Think outside the box. There’s more to the world of branding and marketing and advertising than print, radio, television, and billboards. Lots more.

When you get outside of that traditional mindset, you will find tactics that produce lower cost, higher returns, and stronger brand equity. Hello, sweet spot!

The point I’m making here is this: if something isn’t working, accept that it isn’t working. Don’t expect a different result by doing more of the same. That’s insanity.