7 Ways to Leverage the Golden Age of Marketing
The National Business Association lists a lack of proper marketing as a top contributor to why 64% of all small businesses fail. The NBA stated that business owners often fail to put enough importance on effectively promoting and marketing their business, or they ignore what their competition is doing in the market place.
Businesses MUST be able to effectively distinguish their Brand Image from their competitors. They must be able to effectively position themselves above and apart from their competition, and they must be in action, marketing their business at ALL times.
Without enough new clients coming in, how can a business survive? Even established businesses may be treading water, barely keeping their doors open because of a lack of new customers. The economy isn’t helping either; doom and gloom dictate consumers’ buying decisions. When will there be any good news for business owners? There already is!
The Golden Age of Marketing
The growing impact of technology has spawned what truly is the golden age of marketing! A time when the playing field is leveled. A time in which technology has opened a new frontier for businesses to build their brand image, achieve high visibility and capture their target customers, all while saving time and money. What’s truly significant is that businesses can now track what’s effective and what’s not for the best use of their marketing dollars. No more guesswork!
7 Areas You Can Make Marked Improvement
- Brand Development – Being honest with yourself, ask yourself, you team members, your associates and maybe even your own Mom, how the look and feel of your company image and marketing collateral measures up against your best competition. If it’s not an easy landslide in your favor, look to a professional or competent Brand & Marketing Development Specialist to help you dial in you Brand Image and Message to attract your ideal, target customers.
- Website Development – This is a potential gem of technology worth every well-invested cent. 1000’s of times more prospects will visit your website vs. walk through your physical doors. Spending the time to properly architect an effective website that quickly distinguishes you, sets you apart as an expert and trusted advisor, engages and captivates your site visitors, and drives them to a Call-to-Action, will yield you 1000’s of times more dollars in revenue than you ever imagine spending on your web development.
- Lead Capture – Assuming you have dialed in your Brand Image to aid in your credibility and appearance, and you have spent the time developing a website that engages your prospects, now you want to make sure that when website visitors come to your site, you do everything that you can to convert that visitor into a new customer. Call to actions and Lead Capture allow you to convert almost an additional 40% more business out of your website.
- Local Listings – There is a slew of Local Business Listing Directories, many allow for customer reviews, others are found in mobile phone and navigation services, many only list businesses with hard-wired, business lines by default, others are more popular like Google Places & Maps. All of which add to your online presence and the ability for the 97% of consumers who are looking to do business with a local company. Ensuring your business is listed in as many of these directories, and that all of the information is consistent across these directories, the more citation you get in the search engines, and more likely your company is to be found.
- Search Engine Optimization– There’s a hot topic if there ever was one! All the Brand, Web & Lead Capture Development in the world won’t matter if people can’t find your site, but finding a Search Engine Optimization Specialist that can produce results within your budget can be a challenge.There are too many moving parts to learn SEO yourself, and the landscape is ever changing. So, even if you were to make strides at one point, those same practices could hurt you based on evolutions in SEO. Interview SEO’s, check references, ask for referrals, and while you’re doing your due diligence, a NO FAIL, BEST ADVICE PLAN is to be the expert you are, and start writing regular content to be added to your site on a regular basis. In most cases, you or one of your experienced team members will be the best person to disseminate information about your company, and enroll prospects into asking for more information from you.
- Marketing Collateral– This ties into your Brand Image and how you compete against your competition. It also hinges on how effectively you communicate your Brand Message and Sales Process to your potential market. Your Marketing Collateral & Advertising is an extension of you and your sales force. Your collateral offers an effective way to succinctly communicate exactly what needs to be communicated. It can be a sales aid for an in-person presentation, and it can continue to echo your praise on your behalf. Do yourself a favor, and seek out the advice and help of a Brand and Marketing Specialist, don’t rely on canned templates, software wizards or outsourced designs from designers who don’t know how to communicate your message to your target audience.A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when deciding on Marketing Collateral Development is to ask yourself will it help you close more business, and how many sales will I need for this marketing investment to be profitable.
- Ongoing Marketing – We started this article citing a statistic from the National Business Association that shows 64% of small businesses fail due to a lack of proper marketing. DON’T LET THIS BE YOU! Keep up the marketing. Push yourself to think of new ways each day to spread the word about your business. Use free tools like social media, leverage press releases about your company. If you find yourself coming up short on ideas and ways to market your business read books by Marketing Professionals like Jay Conrad Levinson and others. Or call a company like P3 and ask for a Free Consultation. It will inspire and invigorate you to stay in action!
P3 has helped many professionals like yourself over our 23-year history. We’ve worked with everyone from small businesses to former Presidents of the United States of America. We offer a complimentary marketing assessment to discover where your marketing dollars are being effectively utilized and where they may not being used so effectively. For a FREE Consultation or Marketing Assessment, please contact us today at 800-515-9422 or use the form to the right.
“P3 has once again surpassed all expectations. Over the last fifteen years, your brand & marketing campaigns have been magnificently effective and always hit the target.”
Laurie Powers Shamone, Nature’s Food Patch, Clearwater, FL