| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Time for A Marketing Tune-up
If you have been in business any length of time, I can assure you that habits, not conscious thought, are guiding your marketing actions. Many business people are great optimists, or they probably wouldn't have gotten into the game to begin with. They keep doing everything they've ever done in the hope that one day it will produce results. STOP! It's time to get the brain back in the game! If you are like most people, each time you come across a new marketing idea you add it to your existing approach. You never think to weed out the approaches which haven't yielded any fruit yet. You just keep adding more. Time for that to change! Marketing strategies and actions tend to accumulate. They hang around and continue to siphon off time from your day (even when they may not be working as well as you'd like). We get into habits of actions. Seldom do we take time in our busy schedule to really assess how we are spending our time. To improve your marketing, you'll need to clean out some old ways of working. Start to make this a habit. Every week, at a minimum, schedule time in your busy day for a marketing tune-up. Ask yourself the following questions during that tune-up: 1)What's working in my current marketing efforts? 2)What's not working at all? 3)What's not working as well as it should and how can I improve it? What's Working? These showed be hard to find. They are all the marketing actions you are taking which are successfully getting your name in print, driving traffic to your website or blog, making the phone ring, and selling product. What will we do about these? Keep doing them! In fact, is there a way to expand on a currently successful marketing tactic? Expand the places where you do traditional advertising? Write more articles? Advertise in more women-related ezines? Try to expand the marketing actions that are working. What's Not Working At All? Pretty obvious what we should do with these, right? Quit doing them. Don't live on the false hope that someday these tactics will surprise you. You don't have time for that luxury. Concentrate on what's working now and what can be improved. What's Not Working As Well At It Should & How Can It Be Improved? Many of your marketing tactics may be yielding results, just not to the level you would like. It's time to assess these and determine ways to improve them. Maybe a lot of traffic is coming to your website but your conversion to sales is small. Then you need to redesign the website. What would make your site more attractive to potential customers? Don't know? Ask them! Add a survey form to your site. Ask your customer what they would like to find on your site. Be as ruthless as you can in assessing your site. Ask others to give you candid advice about your website and LISTEN TO THEM! In this same way, you will look at every marketing tactic which is yielding results but could do better. As you do this, you will be well on your way to improving the results of your marketing efforts and freeing up time from those actions that are failing you now. The hardest part of tuning up your marketing efforts is getting started. The time is NOW! Ready? Michele Schermerhorn has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com), authors a marketing blog (http://www.imarketblog.com), and regularly conducts free online seminars. Online Business Institute Inc. exists to "Create Successful Online Business Owners One Person At A Time".
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Pick a Winning Business Name What's in a name?Think of your business name as an external mask for your business. If it's something your target audience like, they would consider checking it, if they don't, in most cases you have lost a customer even before you could tell them what your product or service is. Open Doors by Building Relationships "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get others interested in you." - Dale Carnegie -"The same could be said for increasing your professional network. 3 Simple Selling Tactics The following 3 simple selling tactics produce sales by responding to the way customers normally think and behave. They work for any business - regardless of what you sell, how you sell or where you sell it. Private Practice Marketing: 3 More Secrets I Wish I Knew When I First Started Out Secret #4 - Get very comfortable asking for paymentOne of the easiest ways to set this up is to have very clear explanations in your intake forms about how payment works.It's your job to train your clients how to pay you promptly. Mortgage Marketing and Advertising - The Magical Ingredient Do you offer superior service, consistently close loans on time and overall are more adept than your competitors, yet you're struggling to figure out the mortgage marketing and advertising puzzle?For many loan officers, marketing is a real puzzle. Your expertise is in pricing loans, closing them on time and rendering quality service. An Example of Understanding Consumer Thinking A church in my community provided me with one of the best examples of understanding the consumer, which I've ever experienced.Once a month a church in my community provides free lunch, open to the public. 10 Important Marketing Tips Each of the following Ten Marketing Tips is based on a highly effective but often overlooked marketing tactic. How many are you using? How many have you overlooked?Marketing Tip #1: Insulate yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of products and services you offer . 10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market A specific group of people you will focus on selling your services to is your target market. This is not to be confused with the problem you will be solving for this group. Get More Clients From Networking - Follow The Rules Of Dating! If you're a business owner, you probably spend quite a lot of your time at networking events. In fact, it may be the main way you try to get new clients. The Magic of Using Booklets for Tradeshow Giveaways Candy, squeeze balls, pens, and key chains -- these provide questionable value to anyone visiting or staffing a tradeshow booth. More and more meeting and marketing professionals are considering something a little different - booklets. Mailing Lists - Keeping it Simple The right direct mailing list targets people who want your product or service.The direct mail mailing list is a key factor in a successful direct mail marketing campaign and a major point to consider in small business marketing strategies where marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is a key concern. How Much Is Your Popcorn Worth? Powerful Lessons In Marketing & The Psychology Of Selling - Part 3 To read the beginning of this special report, you can read part two here: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=58712Let's continue to discuss the various marketing principles that are involved in "popcorn marketing":2. How to Size an Emerging Market In developing their business plans, companies of all sizes face the challenge of determining the size of their markets. To begin, companies must present the size of their "relevant market" in their plans. Powerful Direct Marketing Numbers Direct Marketing works!Why? It works because it's personal. It carries a message, answers questions and gets orders. The Sweet Aroma of Highly Effective Marketing Highly effective marketing is accomplished when your marketing materials and marketing strategy work together to reliably move your prospects through your sales process.Have you ever caught a whiff of a tantalizing aroma wafting through the air as you walked down the street? With your senses suddenly alerted to something tasty nearby you notice the bakery on the corner. Five Cheap Tricks for Promoting Your Business If you're like me, you're always looking for ways to promote your business - without spending a ton of money. Well, you're in luck. Promotional Mugs: Become a Part of the Legendary Coffee Experience When you want someone to like you, associate yourself with something that they love. Take coffee for instance. Effective Marketing For any business to be successful whether on or offline it has to be marketing effectively. You are going to need more than a great looking site with fabulous products or services to obtain success. How Do I Define My Market? Your market is who you want to reach. Your customer. Get Personal: Letters vs. Direct Mail One of the reasons direct mail works is the personal aspect. It's ostensibly a letter from you to your prospect.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
