A marketing definition of legacy
See, it’s not that hard to answer yes to most of these questions. If you do, I believe your business will leave behind a positive legacy. And I believe marketing karma will bless you for it.
Some video humor for Wordless Wednesday
Here’s a recent funny video from the Constant Contact gang.
I feel the need…the need for speed
I was sitting here wondering when a marketing person was going to answer my email (from two days ago) when it occurred to me that traditionalists will have to add a sense of urgency to their worklife in order to survive.
How to tell a client their ‘baby’ is ugly
In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here’s one of my fave 2009 posts – the last Friday of every month I’ll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it!
A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world – to its creator. But when an editor or producers says “pass” it’s the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it’s couched. For me, it’s the equivalent of having to tell clients “your baby is ugly” 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.
(Step 6) Review your results
You don’t get big muscles after just one workout and you can’t expect big marketing results right away either. Lots of small business owners worry constantly about the ROI of their marketing investments. Instead, schedule time to review the results of what you’re doing on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on your sales cycle. (For some of you online marketers it needs to be daily) Otherwise don’t worry about it. Trust your judgement!
(Step 5) Switch it up
It’s important to change up your marketing efforts and try new things…without throwing out the things that work.One of the hardest things to measure is the synergy that develops when you combine marketing mediums. It’s the basis for integrated marketing communications (IMC) concepts but no one has really captured where the actual motivation occurs to get your customer to buy, call, whatever.
Schedule time for marketing (Step 4)
Just like your workouts if you put marketing time on your schedule each week and hold it sacred, you’ll see the benefits very quickly. Here are some tips for finding the right time to work on your promotions, social media, advertising, whatever you consider ‘marketing’
Marketing…who’s got time for that? (Step 3)
How much time should you spend on a weekly basis doing marketing and promotion tasks? It will vary of course but there are some rules I’ve learned working with a broad swath of companies and industries over the past couple decades including B2B, B2C, online and retail.
Finding the right marketing mix (Step 2)
Rather than reinvent the wheel, here are some links to blog posts and articles to help you figure out the right mix for your business…
7 steps to bigger marketing muscle in 2010
I tell my clients that marketing is a lot like working out – you have to be consistent or you won’t see results. No one expects to see muscles popping out all over after one visit to the gym. For the same reaons you can’t expect immediate, lasting results from one promotional campaign.