Top Marketing ideas
The idea behind our top 10 tips is that they give you some understanding of what marketers do, and some of the simplified tools which may help grow your business.
1. Research, Research, Research - As with rule one for sales, research is really crucial to the success of any marketing campain. Before you go any further, get some independent market research carried out - ideally some primary research from the people you would like in as customers as well as lots of your existing ones. As we said with vested interst your customers will feel special and valued if you ask their advice. You wouldn’t jump off a cliff without checking the water below for jagged rocks, so why risk it with your business.
2. Stakeholder Relationships - Stakeholders are anyone who has an interest in your business, this ranges from clients, competitors, local government, suppliers etc. Get a big piece of paper, write down all of your stakeholders and what they want / expect and get from from you. Is there any way you can give them more?
3) Add Value - Does your marketing campaign add value to your company, or is it advertising for advertisings sake. If you cannot justify the expenditure in 20 words, don’t bother. How much does it cost and what do i get back? More and more organisations are asking this question and are turning their back on intangable marketing practices. Should you?
4. Competative advantage - Does your existing marketing put you in a place of competative advantage? In other words, if you carry out this amazing idea, will it beat your competitors and make you number one (or keep you in that coveted number one spot). Again if it doesn’t then don’t waste your money.
5. Never Stand Still - No I don’t mean that you should be running every second of the day, but if you feel that you are slowing down (because you are tired, or maybe running out of things to do) then do some reading, FT.com, brandrepublic.com, buy some Seth Godin books (I recomend Purple Cow), or go to google labs and try some of the new products they are testing. Put simply, the more you learn the easier working will become, and you might even pick up some clever tips on the way.
6. Dont act the clown - I’m not saying you should have fun at work, but please please please don’t use cheap gimmicks or tricks, they don’t work (in the long run) and tricking people into using you is not the way forward, it will devalue your business and could put you at serious risk from a company’s legal team knocking at your door.
7. Don’t Sell - Help People Buy - This may sound weird, but the customers for your business are out there - so stop trying so hard to convert every sale, in fact be genuine, honest and work hard on your customer service and the work will come to you. I use the idea that every phone call I receive is a potential client, and that if I offer the same exemplary service to all conversations, it will lead me one step closer to our next client. Help your customers buy your business, not force it down there throat.
8. Know when to stop - 2o % of the effort often leads to 80% of the result. You may find that by searching for a saving of an extra £10, you actually spend £30 worth of time.
9. Ask for help - I haven’t got a clue on how to do an oil change on my car, what you need to remember is that if it is not your strong point then ask for some help! This is a 2 way street, you ask someone for help, it may be that they ask for your help too.
10. Be Free - There are tons of small free marketing tools that you can use to enhance your business (as a tip don’t enter this into Google, you will get lots of empty promises), these range from website optimization to bespoke packages.
