Posted by: on May 14
Have you ever considered outsourcing some, or even all, of your marketing? Doing so can help you achieve your business goals if you don't have a marketing department, or it can give you more hands and fresh ideas if you do. Here are some benefits to consider:
• Fill skill gaps. Since media is increasingly fragmented, communications programs are more complicated. You can't be an expert in every medium and understand the needs of each of your target audiences if your products are sold across vertical industries or have key purchase influencers from several departments.
• Reduce overhead. You don't need to hire an individual or team for a specific program. Just outsource an expert. That way you don't bear the hidden costs of recruiting, training, furnishing an office, and employee benefits. Salary is just a fraction of employment costs.
• Eliminate bias and leverage a broader, different perspective. Outsourcing eliminates the "We've always done it this way" mentality. You can access the strategic thinking and creative expertise of a marketing professional free of internal political baggage.
• Improve your focus. Outsourcing helps you to focus on the core competencies of your business. Talk to your customers or your sales team. You can then provide strategic, insightful direction and play to your strength. You'll help to reduce your risks and maximize the return on investment in your marketing programs with input from the front line.
• Jump-start your marketing instantly. Outsourcing gives you access to experienced marketing professionals who can quickly develop plans and campaigns on the tightest of schedules. You can just say "Run with it" and start focusing on the crush of your other competing priorities.
Colleen Edwards
President and CEO
The PowerMark Group
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Posted by: on May 13
If deals are the currency of good partnerships, then lists are the currency of good marketing. Without good lists, good content, and good timing, you'll quickly find your company among the poor performers in your category. Cultivating a high-quality contact database requires a lot of effort, patience, and painstaking attention to detail. Very few companies do this well and they are the few who reap big rewards. Start by assessing your current situation:
• How big is your existing prospect database?
• Does it reflect your target prospects well?
• How did it grow?
• Do you have processes in place to ensure consistency (e.g., should IBM be entered as I.B.M., IBM, or International Business Machines?)
• When was the last time your database was validated?
• Are contacts tagged appropriately (by industry, size, product, campaigns, etc.)
Getting your database into good shape can take weeks or months, and requires combing through it contact by contact, getting sales input, making corrections, ensuring consistency, etc. By paying the right attention to cultivating a winning prospect database, you can significantly improve the results of your marketing campaigns. And that usually means driving more revenue, which makes you a winner.
Colleen Edwards
President and CEO
The PowerMark Group
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Posted by: on May 12
Today, the highest-impact marketing campaigns strategically combine direct mail with online marketing to yield impressive results. If direct mail is well targeted, conceived, written, and designed, it has a much higher likelihood of being read over hundreds of irrelevant electronic messages your audience receives each week. Think about it. How much e-mail do you get? Compare that to your snail mail. To create direct mail that has a chance of making it past an administrative gatekeeper to a senior executive's desk, remember the following critical success factors:
1. The list. Make sure you are mailing to the right prospect/customer segment and that your list has been recently scrubbed. An outstanding campaign will not generate the results you want if it does not reach the hands of your target audience.
2. The offer. The question "What's in it for me?" is crucial to your success. Offer your audience something meaningful to it. Drive it to action.
3. The creative. Wrap your offer in a smart, professional bow. Direct mail is another branding opportunity, a chance to communicate who you are.
And remember, dimensionals stand out. Do you open boxes first when you open your mail? A dimensional mailing to a targeted audience can incite the recipient to take action. It might open the door to an introductory briefing or convince him or her to attend an important event. Direct mail also allows you to cost-effectively test and refine different lists, offers, and creative packages, which will benefit how you spend your future marketing dollars based on your audience's response.
Colleen Edwards
President and CEO
The PowerMark Group
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Posted by: on May 09
In the marketing industry there is a lot of follow-the-leader being played. During my 23-year marketing career there have been countless times when I'd make an aggressive move, just to see my bigger competitors follow six months to a year later. What often happens is the thought-leader (not necessarily the biggest company) makes a marketing move, and competitors copy it.
To dominate your competitors, you must isolate your marketing. Choose one place to advertise that is target-rich and absent of your competitors. It probably won't take long for them to jump in, possibly with a bigger presence than your own. That means your competitors aren't thinking for themselves, they're letting you do it from them.
If you want your marketing efforts to be effective, don't take the easy way out and simply follow the leader. Look at what your competitors are doing to get a useful awareness of the competitive landscape, but avoid the temptation to mirror their media buys or Web site format. When planning your event schedule, don't attend shows merely because your competitor has posted them on their site. What guarantee do you have that their marketing team made good decisions? They could have blindly followed another competitor, and then you have whole industries making bad decisions.
Bottom line—be the thought-leader. All the time. It's the best way to win.
Colleen Edwards
President and CEO
The PowerMark Group
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Posted by: on May 08
Location is one of the most important, but perhaps least thought about, decisions a small business owner must consider. While there is no definitive answer on how to choose where your business should operate, research has revealed some simple guidelines about what your customers are likely to expect.
•Your location should be easy to enter and exit. If traffic patterns, or medians and embankments, make it difficult to turn in or pull out into moving traffic from your facility, your customers may opt to visit your competitor up the road where there is a turn lane or signal. Such seemingly minor obstacles can inhibit the growth of your business, particularly if you are dependent on drive-by or foot traffic.
•Parking needs to be plentiful and close to the entrance. Parking areas should be clean, well-maintained, and secure. If you anticipate your operating hours will extend after dark, the parking lot and entrance need to be well lit and the building should be in a section of the community where customers are comfortable walking by themselves.
•Customers make assumptions about your business based on your location, landscaping, signage, and architecture. Think about the kind of customers you want to attract and the type of environment that will encourage them to do business with you.
•Before you agree to buy, rent, or build in a particular location, review all of the applicable ordinances. Zoning and land use restrictions can affect your operating hours, the kinds of signs you can display, the number of parking spaces required and interior specifications at your site as well. Does the space you are considering give you room to grow and expand? Does it meet your requirements for storage, shipping and receiving, and warehousing? Will it be a comfortable, pleasant place to work so that your employees are happy and productive?
Charlie Fewell
President
Charlie Fewell & Associates
Memphis, Tenn.
