5 Points For Marketing Success
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Article Date: 2003-07-25
What do you want your marketing to do for you? Different people will give different answers to this question ranging from more exposure to better customer traffic, but the core answer to everyone's response will be more sales and profits a.k.a. MONEY. So marketing can make you more money...that should be making you ask youself the question: What can you do for marketing?
I have had marketing clients who had hugely successful marketing campaigns and some that didn't live up to expectations. What made the difference? All of the clients were bright intelligent people who were leaders in every way. They operations of thier business were very efficient and they all wanted the marketing to succeed. So what was the difference between success and failure? The difference almost always turned out to be an issue of attitudes and pre-conceived ideas about marketing. Since people now love concise lists, here is a list of five things you must do for marketing to work.
1 -- Stick to the plan - You will ALWAYS find something that looks better after you commit. I personally have this problem after I order in restaurants. Meddling in your careful researched and constructed marketing plan after you begin is lethal to your success. One of the big causes of businesses changing their plan is that they get bored with it. You will get bored with your marketing about the time that your customers start to notice it. This is one of the main reasons that marketing fails…pulling the bait out of the water as the fish approach. One caveat to this rule is don't beat a dead horse. (I wonder if I can slip another animal analogy in) If hard data (not gut instinct) shows that it's not working, pull back and regroup.
2 -- You have to spend money - There are inexpensive ways to market a business. But whether it's Super Bowl or shoestring, you must have a budget and be willing to use it. A good marketing plan will pay for itself many times over.
3 - Don't stop - People stop actively marketing for several reasons. One of the main ones is success. You must remember that the marketing is one of the reasons for your success and continued marketing means continued success.
4 - Marketing must be integrated in the business - This is the hardest thing to do. It's also the most important. Everyone in your business from the CEO to the guy that scrubs the toilets should know the basics of the marketing plan. Anyone of them can sabotage and destroy the entire plan because each of them has access to customers. Everything your business does should reflect the plan and vice versa.
5 - The product needs to lead the marketing - A good product will take the strain off of a marketing campaign since it will lead to word-of-mouth and other positive forms of grassroots marketing. What you sell needs to be outstanding in its field (or creating a completely new field)
Marketing is a process, not a destination. When you follow these guidelines and work for your marketing, it will work for you.
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