Marketing Tips for Success

Success is not gained by one big overwhelming thing, but by a succession of small, consistent, regular efforts.

There are many key areas of marketing for which one could write numerous tips, but to narrow it down, I would have to put them under the following categories:

·         Image

·         Planning and Organization

·         Activity

Businesses find they have a problem defining Marketing and separating it from Sales.  Actually you can’t separate them.  They are a continuum.  If you have a business, you have to ask for the order…eventually.  That’s sales.

Image

This all encompassing title includes what your company stands for, and bores right down to your belief system.  If you don’t believe in what you are selling, you can’t sell it with any integrity, and people won’t believe in you either, nor will they buy from you. 

1.     Have a Vision, and a Mission, and write them down. 

2.     Be able to articulate why you are in business and what you want to achieve. 

3.     Have a clear, concise and consistent message so people will know exactly what you are selling and your brand is readily identifiable. 

4.     Protect your brand.

Planning and Organization

There is one very good reason to have a plan and that is so you don’t get caught up in the details of your business, and miss opportunities.  Your plan is your roadmap. 

1.     Have a Business Plan including a Marketing Plan and a Financial Plan.

2.     Work your plan.  Give it a chance to work for you.  Use a ‘parking lot’ for opportunities that come at you out of left field, and re-visit them when you review your plan.

3.     Use a Marketing Planner notebook.  You need to have one place for all your ideas and the information.  It’s a good tool for keeping everything together.

Activity

It’s activity that will put you where your customer can trip over you. 

1.     Define your target market. 

2.     Know your customers’ hot buttons (so you can solve their problems). 

3.     Where do your customers live-work-play?  That’s where you can connect with them.

4.     It’s a numbers game.  Know your ratios.

Finally

Don’t try to do everything: you don’t know how, and there are only 24 hours in a day.  Do what you do best and delegate the rest.

Whooooosh!

Two months down.  Did you notice them go by?  Whoooosh!
What is it you really want to achieve this year?  Pick one thing that would make a difference to your business, and think it through. 
How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time. 
Break the elephant up into bites, and make the first step: list the activities, check your calendar, mark the bites into it, look up the phone numbers for tomorrow, tell someone about your wish/goal, what ever it is that you can do now.  You will feel you have made a start, and feel better about it, and then it will become more or a reality, with all the benefits upon completion.