Marketing: A Great Place to Start!
So I’ve gone and done it. Yagotcha’s blog is now up and running. I’ve spoken at great length with many of you about the need for reliable marketing and social media. It’s time to put my money where my mouth is and what better topic to discuss? Why, the value of marketing of course.
What is Marketing?
It’s common to think that marketing is a pen left behind after a sales call, magazine ad or spending a bundle to research why your customers like blue instead of red. Ok, that’s all part of marketing to the extent of saying that an elephant’s toe nail is elephant or a boat’s rudder is ship. To fully understand what marketing is and what it does for your brand presence, we need to take several steps backward from it.
For the purposes of definition let’s say that:
Marketing: (def.) the sum total of the message, strategy and supporting tactics that initializes and maintains a satisfying and valuable relationships between customer and supplier.
This all seem nebulous…Strategies? Tactics? Is this the Gulf War or Afghanistan? It might as well be, because there are competition-combatants out there that will not hesitate to seize your market territory and cut your company off from its life’s blood: your customer.
Strategy vs. Tactics.
A Strategy is immutable. It is the big picture look at what you want to accomplish with your mission as a company, country, religion or person. Simply put, your marketing strategy should be simple to state. It focuses your marketing efforts on what will aid your business plan. For example, if you’re an internet retailer a strategy would be to gain 25% repeat business. If you were a niche lighting manufacturer, a strategy would be to gain 5 new corporate house accounts per year.
A Tactic is fluid and will mold to the circumstance. It is the small picture approach to handle specific scenarios. It’s the focus on a few trees instead of the entire forest. An example of tactics that support the lighting manufacturer’s strategy would be to start a web blog devoted to the problems of a facility manager or press releases announcing a new assembly line dedicated to custom products for unique lighting fixtures. The internet retailer may offer a discount to repeat buyers or free shipping.
The knowledge of your marketing Strategy and the Tactics that support it are important to detail to market your company effectively. Yet, they do little good unless they are communicated to your customer. That’s where your Marketing Message comes in.
The Marketing Message.
Your marketing message is critical to all of your marketing efforts. If you have a great marketing message, combined with effective promotions, your sales worries will greatly subside. Once developed, your marketing message should be used in all areas of your company, (notice that I didn’t say ‘marketing’ here.) Any form of external communication should broadcast it. This includes faxes, telephone answering greetings-even the way you answer the phone. How your sales people are dressed, what they say, samples they leave behind, your literature, web site, tag line–all should reflect this message. Your prospect’s attention should be grabbed by your marketing message. It assures them that they’re problem is in good hands and they can trust you over your completion. After this, all that’s left is to plan out how to get it in front of them.
What’s In Your Marketing Plan?
A good company will have a business plan that focuses its mission in a trajectory that will attain success. It will detail how you will build products or provide services to your targeted customers. The Marketing Plan, however, is the roadmap that allows you to formulate your brand and ensure that all aspects of your company reflect the business plan mission. It’s more than an ad in a trade journal or a fancy post card pumped out en mass. It is based on a clear identification of your marketing message and strategy. It details the tactics in a reasonable timetable on how you will succeed in your mission.
Without a plan there is not start, no finish and no checkpoints along the way that point you toward your destination. You wouldn’t just drive toward the setting sun to get to a convention in San Francisco or throw loose change in a bucket to pay for your child’s college education. I had a mentor once that spoke to me on a number of occasions about the necessity to this plan. It took me a while, but I eventually saw the light.
What’s Next?
I could write endlessly on all of these topics and more. But we both need to get back to work. In future blog posts, I will detail other aspects of marketing and ways that you can implement them into your daily business life. I truly look forward to this blog experience and encourage you to reply and comment with your experiences and opinions.
Good luck!
John Maclay
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