The Top 10 Marketing Tools To Grow Your Business
By Jay Lipe
©2004 All rights reserved
Looking to grow your business? Make sure you have these marketing tools in place:
#10 A powerful tagline
In 10 words or less, a good tagline reinforces a company's reason for being. And
smaller companies will find it to be one of the hardest working tools. To get
one, first boil down to a single sentence, the benefits of doing business with
your company. Then, write up a few version of this and take them to a good
copywriter. After deciding upon one, marry this tagline up with your company
name and logo wherever they appear.
#9 Consistent branding elements
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a rancher would mark his cattle with
an exclusive brand. This brand, depicting a unique visual image, distinguished
his cattle from another rancher's. A branding effort for a growing company works
the same way. The consistent use of branding elements (i.e. name, tagline, logo,
colors, fonts and typestyles) clearly identifies your company from the competition.
#8 Search engine positioning
Today, just having a high-quality web site doesn't mean success. Having large
numbers of qualified prospects visiting your site does. If you're not spending
equally on the promotion of your site through search engine positioning, then
your web site isn't working hard enough. One recent client of mine who found my
site through a search engine, generated a whopping 1,500%+ return on my search engine investment.
#7 Calls-to-action
It's not enough to just rattle off your product's features and benefits. You
must go one step further by telling your reader exactly what you want her to do
next. Too often marketing materials effectively present a company, then leave
the next step up to the reader's imagination. This is a missed opportunity.
Instead, spell out exactly what your reader should do next. "Visit
www.emergemarketing.com and register to win", "Call our estimating department for
a free quote" or " Email us with your suggestions" are
calls-to-action that leave no doubt about what you want your reader to do next.
#6 Attention-grabbing testimonials
Buyers of your product or service, especially first-time buyers, have reservations
about doing business with you. Will your product deliver? Will you answer your phones?
Will you be around next month? Written testimonials from your satisfied customers,
scattered throughout your materials and web site, smooth over buyer fears.
#5 Key messages
Remember back in English class how we were taught to write down a paper's thesis
before we wrote the paper? This thesis statement was the argument you
wanted to assert, the central point of the paper. Think of your company's key messages
as the thesis statements for your marketing. The next time you have to write copy
for your brochure or web site, identify the three most important things that
distinguish your company from the rest. Then, write your copy so that these three
ideas come through loud and clear.
#4 Results-oriented metrics
Can you imagine a doctor examining a patient without a thermometer? Yet this is
precisely how many growing businesses approach their marketing analytics. Without
metrics to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, decisions are just…
guesses. Develop two or three key metrics (i.e. # of new leads per month, cost
per inquiry, or sales calls per month) that measure the true health of your business' marketing.
#3 Ongoing customer communication
Your customers have invested a lot in your company already; time, money
and emotional energy to name just a few. Keep in frequent touch with them and
they'll shower your business with repeat purchases, referrals and positive
word-of-mouth. Use catch-up phone calls, email blasts or personalized
letters to keep customers abreast of new products, promotions or just plain news.
#2 A marketing plan
The cornerstone to any successful marketing effort is a marketing plan.
A good one lays the groundwork for action by covering the "whys" behind each
task. It also helps break down a seemingly daunting effort into a series
of more manageable chunks. And when the phones stop ringing, it gives you
something to go back to. You'll never again ask "What should we do now?"
#1 A process for implementing your plan
Developing a marketing plan is only half the battle. Without a concerted effort to
implement the plan, your marketing effort will fail. To avoid this common marketing
mistake, use weekly project updates and quarterly checkpoint meetings to ensure your
plan is successfully implemented. Don't forget that proper implementation also hinges
on having the right person in place. Who is this person? In three words, a project
manager. Without a deadline driven, nuts-and-bolts type at the helm of your roll out,
you'll drift like a rudderless ship.
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