Posts tagged marketing strategy


Using Twitter to Connect with Audiences

May 5th

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This is a superb introduction to Twitter as a marketing tool. You can advance the slides within this blog.

Using Twitter to Connect with Audiences

View more presentations from Corinne .
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Most painful marketing mistakes — Lack of strategy

May 4th

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Today I’m beginning a new series on the most painful small business marketing mistakes. Follow me for the next few days and you’ll get the whole picture!
Mistake number one is also the deadliest blunder of them all: NOT HAVING A STRATEGY.
I had lunch with a potential new client the other day. He opened an innovative retail business last year and has spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising. He’s tried everything — print, radio, TV, Internet, billboards. He’s had sales, promotions, and PR events but can’t seem to move sales.
So I asked him, “Who’s your customer?” He said at first he predicted it would be middle-aged women, but then he noticed mostly couples entering the store. He said senior citizens need his product but he doesn’t know how to target them. He tried ads in the UT student newspaper to appeal to college students but it got him nothing. And he thought locals would frequent the store but has seen people drive in from Kentucky and Alabama, too.
You can see that it’s impossible to have an effective advertising campaign without clearly defining who you’re selling to, the customer needs you’re meeting, competition, pricing, and your points of differentiation. In fact, if you don’t KNOW these things, you are probably going to fail.
My friend is firing “buckshot advertising” … just shooting here and there, hoping he to get lucky and hit a customer. What he needs is a guided MISSILE (see, you knew you would figure out the photo eventually!) … and that’s where strategy comes in.
What makes up a strategy?
Some of the key elements of a marketing strategy are:
  • Target demographic and market segmentation
  • Market positioning and points of differentiation
  • Product and service attributes – finding under-served needs
  • Competition and external influences, threats and opportunities
  • Marketing channels
  • Pricing
  • Communications and branding
  • Distribution
Developing your strategy
Going through a methodical process to research and identify your marketing approach is the most important thing you can do for your business. And it’s so LIBERATING! You don’t have to guess any more. You don’t have to play advertising roulette. You can sell with confidence and it will work because you have data, insight and a PLAN!
How do you develop a marketing strategy? If you want to try the do-it-yourself approach, there are many possibilities (free) out there through the SBA and other small business websites. Even Microsoft Small Business and Yahoo Small Business have excellent templates.
The problem is not finding a methodology, it’s having the skill and experience to actually do it. Without a background in marketing and research, most people get frustrated trying to put together a meaningful marketing strategy. It’s difficult and it’s so important. Unless you’ve cornered the market, the effectiveness of your plan is probably the difference between profitability and failure.
 
Call in the troops
One alternative is to look for help. If you pardon my act of shameless self-promotion, that would be me. It’s the kind of work I have done for more than 25 years. If you need me to do the whole project or just need a little guidance, I would be glad to help. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a business grow and come alive with the help of a focused marketing strategy! To learn more, please visit my website at http://www.businessesgrow.com/.
Whether you go it alone or use the services of a marketing professional, please don’t overlook this marketing essential! If you don’t have a marketing strategy, you probably don’t have a business.
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A sign that the Twitter apocalypse is upon us

May 1st

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twtjobs
Twitter mania has become hysterical. And I do mean FUNNY! : )

Today I learned of a new site called Twtjobs where job seekers can create a “Twitter Resume.” For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blog limited to 140 characters. My friends, how do you post a meaningful resume in 140 characters? To demonstrate, gentle reader, I became your guinea pig. I’m not looking for a job, but I am always looking for new opportunities, so above is your first glimpse of a Twitter resume. Perhaps your last, too.

More comic relief — In the drop down field for “experience,” the upper limit is five years! I guess they think nobody over 30 is looking for a job, or perhaps their target demographic under 30 is the only group thinking a 140-character resume is a good idea.

So after I posted, what happened? Nothing. I don’t know where it went. I don’t know who read it, or if anybody read it. Are there elf-like recruiters out their looking through these 140-character resumes?

By the way, if you Google Twtjobs, Google will try to correct you by asking, “did you mean titjobs?” (gasp) I guess this is an accurate comment … Both sites are looking for boobs. : )

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Recession Essentials Part 3: Embrace customers

Apr 29th

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handshakeThis is part three of a series providing the essential marketing strategies you MUST drive during this economic downturn.

Allow me to start with a story. It’s short and you’ll love it!More than 50 years ago, Alcoa helped a struggling start-up who had a big idea – make pie pans and other shallow containers from formed aluminum. The company had some early financial setbacks but Alcoa saw the potential of the new company and helped them with R&D and favorable credit terms to ease them through their early growing pains.

The company’s founder was so grateful, he promised he would always give Alcoa 100 percent of his business. On his deathbed, he whispered to his son, “Stick with Alcoa. They brought us to the dance.”

In a time of struggle and turmoil, Alcoa took this customer under its wing and literally earned loyalty beyond the grave! This is a great story to illustrate my final imperative in this recession marketing series: EMBRACE YOUR CUSTOMER.

Your customers are probably struggling during this recession. So acknowledge that. Reach out to them. Help them. Treat them like human beings who are suffering.

This is the time to show customers what you’re made of. You tell them you care – now show it. You want to find mutually-beneficial solutions – work even harder for those win-win business offerings. Really listen and understand what you can do – together – to make it to the other side of the downturn. This is an opportunity to build rock-solid, long-term relationships and deep customer loyalty.

In the teeth of this recession, one car company actually INCREASED sales. Hyundai. How did they do it? They told their customers that if they bought a new car and then lost their jobs, they could walk away from their payments. Now THAT is a bold, meaningful statement. They have embraced their customers and demonstrated compassion when it was needed most. Only time will tell, but this corporate compassion will probably pay off for years.

What bold and compassionate move can you make to build long-lasting customer loyalty in their time of need?

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