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 Hello, :
It happens every year: people start out with overly ambitious marketing intentions. Feeling guilty about the inconsistent or non-existent marketing of the prior year, they get ready to pull out all the stops.
Dumb. Here's why: it's much more sensible to work only two or three strategies and work them well than it is to pay token attention to a raft of strategies.
People take on several trade shows, a monthly public relations retainer with a hot-shot PR firm, ad and direct mail campaigns, until reality sets in. How are they going to pay for all this?
Then they cut back to one or two trade shows, halve the hours in the PR retainer, cut the ad and direct mail frequencies - you get the picture. No one strategy has been accorded enough continuity to show its stuff. Then, next year I have to listen to, "We spent a fortune in marketing; and it didn't work."
Here's a better way: go after strategies that are face-to-face, voice-to-voice and/or educational. That means a weekly Schmoozing Schedule for you and your employees (www.azobleassoc.com for our Schmoozing Calendar). Since people make purchasing decisions based on confidence, comfort level and trust, you can benefit greatly from face-to-face marketing at little cost.
Present webinars. Position yourselves as The Experts. Utilize the social media to announce and promote the webinars. Call your clients and prospects to learn how many will be present from their respective companies.
It's fine to promote through email, but don't rely on email exclusively. What I'm saying takes longer, but it's more effective. People are awash in email and often simply delete them. Don't put all your promotional eggs in your technological basket!
Begin a campaign to phone former clients to learn how they're doing. For a minimum amount of time, you'll be amazed at the additional business you can generate. People in my seminars who have great success with this strategy say the calls average 3 - 5 minutes. Other expense? Zip.
There are plenty of marketing strategies that cost next to nothing or are simply free. Those are the strategies you want to include in your Marketing Plan. Need help with your Marketing Plan? Once again, go to www.azobleassoc.com and check out our "Do-able Marketing Plan" workbook and our "10-Minute Marketing Plan" program.
You've heard me say often enough, "in marketing it's not what you spend, but how you spend it." Pleasssse take that to heart for the year ahead.
Have a great Marketing Year!
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