To me marketing is not just about making sales or having a glossy brochure as a leave behind, it is about following a number of initiatives that all work together producing clarity about your USP and facilitating business growth.
To clarify this, below are what I feel, the process of marketing should include:
1.Winning new business
I still feel that 5 or 6 initiatives should be running at one time and that each new initiatives needs testing. For example, do you use cold canvassing? It can be incredibly successful
2.Understanding your market
How well do you know your market? What sort of experience do you have from your contacts? Is there potential to do a real SWOT analysis?
3.Brand building
My personal favourite. Ensure you use a mix of corporate id, advertising, PR, sponsorship, SEO, corporate literature etc. All of these are great brand building elements so use them, maybe in connection with visibility at seminars, networking or conferences.
4.Plan your strategy
Make sure you know exactly what you are doing withyour business or marketing plan. Are you the sole driver in this or can you outsource?
5.Managing existing clients
Put in place manageable deliverables and some way of monitoring activity.
6.Internal marketing
This might not be something that you need if you are a small business, but internal communications and training are essential.
Some might say that marketing is a bit of an obsession for me, but how well do you know your market and your position within it? How much more turnover could you make if you increased your market share or were on more radars?
Too often marketing is a knee jerk reaction to falling sales rather than a planned process. In a crowded market place, you must shout to get heard. You mush shout to get noticed and to be remembered. Jump in and take control or someone else will. Make sure you have a simple, clear and differentiated offer.
After all, there is nothing worse than seeing some other business/organisation doing really well when you know your offer is better. Don’t let it happen!
