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.