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Adrienne Zoble's Marketing Myth #35:
Let's send out a postcard and see what happens.
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 Hello, :
It occurs whenever business slows down: business owners and executives become desperate and try almost anything . . . once. Unfortunately, one-shots don't work. In the past few weeks, I've heard these one-shot notions applied to advertising, public relations ("let's get something in the paper . . . "), direct mail, ad specialties, you name it.
Let's go back to basics. Think of marketing as an umbrella. Think of marketing strategies as spokes of the umbrella. Spokes include social marketing, websites, print media, broadcast media, direct mail, public relations, collateral materials, ad specialties - you get the idea.
Whenever you home in on an isolated spoke just once or twice, you're not giving the strategy sufficient time to yield results. Whatever you try, you should give at least 3 months. The more expensive your product or service, the more specialized your product or service and the greater the negative overtones (which we all suffer through) of your product or service, the longer it will take people or companies to respond to your promotion.
Before you spend "isolated" dollars, write a brief Marketing Plan. Not just a budget and schedule, but a Marketing Plan. Reflect on your previous marketing efforts: what's worked well, and what's been less effective? What are your clients/customers telling you? Which products or services seem to be more popular than others right now? What's your schmoozing frequency and with whom?
To be even more strategic about this, call upon a marketing professional who brings outside objectivity to your table (this can easily be done by phone). Too often people in companies trying to write their own Marketing Plans can't see the forest for the trees. Outsiders aren't necessarily smarter than you, but they're not bogged down with the everyday pressures of your business. A few hours with a marketing professional will produce insights and ideas you never thought of.
This is not the time to try marketing out of desperation. This is the time to reflect on your successes. It's all too easy to beat up on yourself, but do something really different: total up what you've been doing right! That's what the first part of a Marketing Plan helps you do: the Diagnosis asks, "where are we now, and why?" What did we do right, that we're still in business? What should we go back to, that worked well but we stopped, when we became too busy?
If you wish to spend your marketing dollars as effectively and efficiently as possible, you'll rid yourself of the notion to "try something and see what happens." There's too much at stake to gamble. A Marketing Plan helps ensure your success.
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Visit Adrienne Zoble at www.azobleassoc.com. Check out her Do-able Marketing Plan workbook and her 10-Minute Marketing Plan Program. Make sure you pick up her Schmoozing Calendar and her latest E-book, "Thriving in Difficult Times or Getting your Phone to Ring Again."
Perhaps
your organization or company is looking for a dynamic,
tell-it-like-it-is speaker; or you need an article/column for your
publication or newsletter.
Adrienne Zoble will help you sell more in less time, even in these
challenging times.
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Adrienne Zoble Associates, Inc. azoble@azobleassoc.com
1060 Sailors Reef www.azobleassoc.com
Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 970/282-1150
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