Businesses all need to market. Marketing should include multiple strategies, working concurrently, even working together for the best results. However, many businesses focus on just one or two strategies. For best results, a business should have as many strategies as they can manage and implement.
Selecting marketing plans can be overwhelming. There are options for radio, television, local newspapers, regional papers, neighborhood papers, flyering, direct mail, in-person networking, and many, many others. Choosing, designing and implementing any of these strategies requires a good amount of work, research and knowledge.
While we focus on direct marketing (postcards, letters, brochures, and door hangers), we also take the approach that we should one be one of the many strategies a business should use. In our consultative approach, we discover the current or planned strategies a prospective client may be using, and work through if our services would complement them.
In some cases, direct marketing strategies may not work. And when we discover that, we let the prospective client know. When there is a fit, we work to ensure what we develop is consistent with their other strategies, but can perform and be measured independently.
Going into a meeting, you may have a good idea what you’re expecting, or we may have an idea what we initially think may work. What we’ve discovered in our many meetings, what the client or we may have in mind initially changes as we brainstorm. Sometimes the changes are minor, other times, they are significant changes.
One last thought about selecting marketing strategies is that over time, the effectiveness of any strategy may change. Those that have been the “bread-and-butter” strategies may start to falter, while those that didn’t work in the past may generate great results when you try them again, in a different market.
In short, try many things, measure the results, and try some more. When one strategy stops working, or the results start to trail off, try something different. Always be marketing and know how it works for your business.
A few weeks ago, I had a fun meeting with a newer business. Laurian Horowitz started Colorado Life Lessons just under a year ago. They provide great services for people, especially teenagers, looking to establish their credentials in life guarding, baby sitting, CPR and First Aid.
Laurian was referred to me to see if I could help her with some of her marketing. After a good conversation learning about all the services she offers and brainstorming a little about the market for each, we started into what we could possibly do.
First, we discussed each of the services to determine which would be easiest to market and most profitable. Unfortunately, those didn’t overlap in her case. We also discussed the work it would require of her for each of the classes to determine how much she could actually handle.
The markets for Colorado Life Lessons overlapped to some extent, but in order to effectively market, we had to get extremely specific, which removed some of the overlap.
As marketing goes, nothing is guaranteed, but when you can either get extremely specific, or hit multiple markets at the same time, you can measure the response. Ultimately, all your marketing should be tracking well so you can evaluate your strategies on a monthly basis and make any adjustments.
The lesson here to to always look for new marketing that complements your existing marketing. While some things won’t work, others will. Your goal will be to find out which methods work and how to integrate them into an overall marketing strategy.
While this blog is not intended to be a sales tool for PinPoint Mailings, if you think direct marketing may be a strategy you’d like to explore, I’d be more than happy to help you determine if it may be a fit for your business.