Top Ten Marketing Tips

No.1: Marketing Plan

Begin, by writing your marketing plan. Keep things simple. Concentrate on one year or even six months. Bear in mind that the longer the marketing plan, the more you are building for the future. Begin, by looking at your business objectives. Then think of ideas that will help meet your objectives.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger once said; Do not look for small ideas, seek big ideas to match your future.

No.2: Your Image

Take a long hard look at your company image. Your logo. Your literature. Your website, and your premises. Is everything consistent? Are the fonts the same, and the colourways? Do you have corporate standards in place? Is your image up-to-date? Does your branding reflect what you do, and relate to your customers?

No.3: Your Customers

Who are your best customers? Many people think they know exactly who their best customers are, but actually, they're often surprised to find that they're completely different to what they thought. By profiling your customers you can accurately define who the most profitable are, and work out who your best prospect customers will therefore be. This is easy when your customer base is half a dozen, but not so clearly defined as your client base grows.

No.4: Your USP's

List down your USP's - your Unique Selling Points. Try to avoid over-use of the most common promises such as Best prices! Cheapest! Top Quality! Best Service! Innovative! You wont find better! This is distressed selling - fine if you really are in distressed retail, but this is what everyone says, and is rarely sustainable. For example, a company who has a poorly designed website yet says top quality, automatically looses credibility! Innovation only counts if you have developed something entirely new or changed your product or service.

Try and think of UNIQUE selling points - things that make you stand out from the crowd, and appear different from the competition.

No.5: Marketplace

Now position yourself within the market. Are you at the bottom end in terms or price, selling to the appropriate demographic? Or is your product for high-flying female commuters with money to burn?

What is your place amongst the competition? How do your prices compare? Are you at the bottom, mid-way or top of your field? What are you offering and where does that place you in the customers mind?

No.6: Targeting

Pinpoint targeting is crucial. When asked who they are aiming at most companies say everyone and yet this is rarely true.

Firstly, are you B2B or B2C (Business to Business or Business to Consumer). Work out the demographics of your customer. Male? Female? Age? Geographics? Then segment them into groups based on which product or service they are most likely to use. You may end up with one group or several.

Targeted marketing is salesmanship mass produced. You wouldn't need marketing if you could talk to all your prospects face-to-face. But you can't.