Wouldn’t it be great to have a year where your marketing efforts were streamlined and got the results you were after? None of us want to struggle with marketing, and yet this is the one topic that continues to be highest in the minds of small business professionals.

Let’s really consider some of the reasons that can sabotage our marketing efforts, and how we can turn that around.

Lack of a marketing mindset

We don’t see ourselves as in the marketing game. The truth is, if you are out there running a business, thinking like a marketer has to become your priority. It’s no use having a great service if nobody knows about it, or you.

Lack of knowledge is your enemy. Start by reading whatever you can. Speak to successful people in your field and ask them what strategies they use. The information you need is out there for you to take.

Lack of investment

For many small business owners, the focus on cost control prohibits them from ever investing enough money into marketing and promotion. These activities are seen as costs rather than as an investment. So this year I encourage you to reframe your attitude towards marketing. Once you know what marketing activity to do, and have confidence that it will bring results, spend the money enthusiastically.

Lack of focus

Perhaps you do spend time and money on marketing, but you aren’t happy with the results. Or your efforts are ad-hoc rather than carefully planned. Whatever it is, 2005 is the year to take charge. If what you are doing isn’t working – stop doing it! Ask a professional for help (not your friends or associates!). Or put yourself in your customers shoes and work out what’s going to attract them to your business. If an ad-hoc approach is the problem, take the time to complete the marketing plan in the ‘How to…’ section and become ruthlessly systematic this year.

Lack of over-riding marketing strategy

Marketing activity and tactics are all well and good but it is like driving a rudderless ship if there is no grander plan. Part of creating a marketing strategy is to clearly understand exactly where you are right now, and where you want to be. Your goal may be to have sales of $1,$5 or $50 million. Or you may want to revolutionise your industry. Or you may want your company to be acquired within 5 years. What matters most is that you have a clear, precise vision of where you are, where you want to be in 1year, and where you want to be in 5 years.

Not surrounding ourselves with the right people

All of the great books on success advocate spending time with people who are already successful at what you want to do. Why? By surrounding yourself with people several steps ahead of you, you can absorb the attitudes and values that made them successful, as well as picking up new strategies and ideas. So If you are hanging out with people who also lack a marketing mindset then it’s time to think about expanding your professional network to include those who are already down the track to success.

Marketing is more of an art than a science. Often times you learn by systematically trying different activities and approaches. The experts don’t always have all the answers . . . and this is exactly why you need to give plenty of personal attention to make sure your marketing is working as hard as it possibly can. If you want to get serious about success in business, then understanding marketing is an ongoing priority.

Here’s a quick list of 10 ideas to get you into the marketing groove:

1. Commit to reading one new marketing book per month

2. Start learning about how to market online

3. Make a list of people whose businesses inspire you, and carefully study their marketing techniques. How many of these are you using?

4. Make a list of successful people in your industry and check out their marketing strategy. Why not offer to take one of them out for coffee to learn more about how they got where they are (what’s the worst that could happen?)

5. Revise your marketing budget. Look at your previous investment in marketing, and ask yourself if this is the amount a truly successful business would be spending

6. Review all of last year’s marketing activities. Work out which ones brought new business in the door, or were successful in some other way (building credibility for example). If you can’t quantify how successful the outcome was, stop spending the money!

7. Implement an ongoing ‘keep in touch’ program with existing customers

8. Ask 10 or more of your most loyal customers for a referral

9. Stop doing those marketing activities that you know don’t work, but you do them anyway

10. Market research – ask 20 of your customers what value you provide to them. Use what they say in your own marketing materials

Megan Tough – published writer, coach, facilitator and speaker – works with people to create outstandingly satisfying and truly successful professional lives. Make more money – have more fun! To learn more and to sign up for more FREE tips and articles like these, visit http://www.megantough.com

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Many wonder if free advertising is an effective way for their website to get exposure. Contrary to what you might think, there is not an easy answer to this question.

We know that advertising on television can be effective as well as radio advertising. We have seen many people use free advertising on classified websites that have had no success. On the other hand, we have also seen many others that have had tremendous success using free website advertising.

The issue that must come to head and be addressed with any advertising (whether free or not) is writing good ad copy and by making sure that you are selling your target audience what it needs or wants.

One of the biggest reasons free advertising, as well as paid advertising, does not work for some is because most advertisers fail to send a clear and precise advertising message to their potential prospects. Make sure your advertisement is clear and concise. Your free ad must be “catchy” as most people do not enjoy reading or having to decipher through hundreds of different ads. Good advertising will be delivered best through high impact with a short message.

As with any type of advertising, a big key to free ads are to have your advertisements exposed on many websites at once. You’ve probably heard the saying before, “the more hits you get, the more sales you get.” Many free advertising websites give you the option of upgrading to be featured on their site and many times it is at a very low cost (sometimes as low as $10). We have utilized these and found that our websites were getting about 7-10 more hits compared to just the free advertising without the upgrade.

Here’s the bottom line: radio advertising works, newspaper advertising works, television advertising works, AND free advertising works… all advertising can be very effective if utilized correctly.

To learn more about FREE Advertising Websites available on the internet, visit Brian’s Yoli Automated Leads site.

About the Author: Brian McCoy is a top internet marketer and works with industry leading MLM experts from around the world. Brian specializes in helping his team members generate FREE or low cost leads.

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Almost everyone who dreams of starting their own business is familiar with the fact that they should create a business plan. However, often that’s where many people stop. When you created your business plan, what did you do with it? You actually have the base for the next step, which is creating your marketing plan. Without the plan of how you are going to market your business, the business plan is just an empty jumble of words speaking of dreams and desires. The marketing plan takes those dreams and creates a strategy for how to make those dreams come true.

There are several different suggestions on how to put a marketing plan together, but all plans have at least seven or eight steps. These steps include preparing a mission statement, describing the services provided, identify and understand the competition, spell out the marketing objectives and strategies, create the action plan, and create a monitoring strategy in order to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Prepare a mission statement

The mission statement should clearly and succinctly describe the nature of your business, services offered, and markets served in just a few sentences. A mission statement is a statement of who you are and what you stand for. It answers the question of why you are in business. Although there are many, many different theories on what makes a good mission statement, here is a site of various examples; http://www.csuchico.edu/mgmt/strategy/module1/sld015.htm

List your ideal client

I cannot emphasize this enough. You have to know who your ideal client is, and what their issues are, extremely finitely in order to speak to them. You have to visually be able to see them in front of you and know what makes them tick. Be very specific in identifying your ideal client. Include age, sex, income, education, occupation, geographic region, lifestyle, attitudes, purchasing characteristics, etc. What are their values, what do they like to do. Really get clear who this person is.

Describe your services

Imagine everything you want to do, either currently or in the future. It’s ok if you haven’t done it before: If it’s a dream that you provide in-home cooking demonstrations, include that in your list. You will later determine how to make it happen. Include all details of what you offer, where and for how much. Determine what your prices must be to cover your costs. Don’t leave anything out even if you’re not sure it’s something you want to do this year.

Who is your competition?

In order to know how to position yourself from your competition, you must know who your competition is. Do some research and determine what your competition offers, how they promote, what they charge for services, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Don’t rush through this section. Make phone calls, check the internet, and ask people you know. Feel free to call the people you find and ask questions. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, ask a family member or friend to do it.

Marketing objectives and strategies

Marketing objectives will indicate targets to be achieved across several marketing decision areas. Examples could include such things as what products/services you wish to offer, who you plan to offer them to, how you plan to make your services known, your promotional objectives, etc. Objectives should be clear, measurable, and have a stated time frame for achievement. Objectives included should include both marketing objectives and financial objectives.

Get very specific with your objectives, such as how many clients will you have by what date, how much revenue you will bring in by what date, and exactly where these new clients will come from. Who will you include your marketing to? For financial objectives, you need to be clear about what growth percentage you expect and how you will achieve that growth.

Marketing strategy

This is your game plan to achieve your marketing objectives. You are now getting into the nitty-gritty. This is where it’s time to play and play big! The marketing strategy should include information about your product, your price, how you will promote or create awareness of your product or services, and how you will distribute that information.

Examples of basic marketing strategies include networking, brochures, ads in newspapers, various programs or presentations, press releases, to just name a few. Some may cost you a great deal, but there are many marketing strategies that cost you very little or just your time. Gauge what your time is worth and how busy you are to determine how much of these strategies you will do on your own. You will further determine this by the next step, however.

When a strategy works, repeat it. If it fails, and you did it right, drop it. Learning to develop strategies that work for your particular situation and personality will take time and practice.

Create the action plan

Once the objectives and strategies have been developed, put together an action plan describing the steps that need to be taken in detail. This is your actual game plan for how you will accomplish all that you have written about in your business plan and previously in the marketing plan. It will include what the specific objective is, exactly what and when the steps will be taken, what results you expect to see, the marketing tactics you will employ and so on. This will be your template for your marketing calendar that you will create in the following step to creating your business.

Monitor results

By monitoring results, you can determine which of your strategies are working and which are not. Identify strategies that generate increased business. This involves tracking and evaluating clients’ responses to each marketing strategy. Conduct regular surveys in order to find out what clients like and don’t like.

Client comments are invaluable for creating or enhancing your market literature. With permission, these comments can be used as testimonials.

Creating a marketing plan is not something enough people take the time to work on. I have found this to be the hardest part for anyone in small business and have had to spend many hours, myself, struggling over some of these answers. I can’t emphasize how important it is to do this work, however. Skipping this step can mean the difference between success or failure. Many people who start a small business are aware of creating a business plan, and stop at the stage of the small market plan topics listed in the business plan. However, the business plan is just the first step. The marketing plan is not the final step, either! This document is the template for creating your marketing calendar that will set your projects in motion for the year. You are creating your future with the marketing plan, and then watching that future become reality with your marketing calendar.

Marjorie Geiser is a registered dietitian, certified personal trainer and life coach. Marjorie has been the owner of a successful small business, MEG Fitness, since 1996, and now helps other health professionals start up their own private practice. To learn more about the services Margie offers, go to her website at http://www.marjoriegeiser.com or email her at [email protected].

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They say advertising is excessive: it interrupts TV series, preceding movie shows and dominating music award ceremonies. Some even lament that advertising not only occupies the media, but is also present everywhere else; the latest music editor softwares could be seen at bus shelters, and online VoIP products pictured in public telephone booths. It is irrelevant and disruptive.

If you agree with my last sentence above, continue reading. You might decide to change your mind.

First of all, I don’t think advertisers occupy the media. As a matter of fact, it is the media that courts companies, maybe except for over-popular shows. TV stations need funds to run your favorite programs, and radio broadcasts have to pay for the Music on Demand. It boils down to us consumers: we demand, and the media provides, at a price of course.

Ah, you might now argue that it is the advertisers who flock to the media and pay for available ad space. True! But how many time slots are so coveted over? Shows like the Super Bowl Football are rare. Other less endowed channels, in fact, have some hard time securing long-term ad contracts to be financially sufficient. It is thus fair to conclude that advertisers and the media, and us, are in a multilateral relationship.

Besides its commercial relevance, there is more to this misunderstood industry that we often miss out on, like how advertisements might effect cultural understanding, especially in this globalizing world of business. HSBC features newspaper ads of cultural differences across countries. FedEx has their TV ads filmed in Japan, showing the way Japanese people live and work. And I actually learned from a MasterCard ad that in India, people release white doves for luck. Interesting, isn’t it?

In addition, informative ads feed useful information to our preoccupied minds. Public service messages could be conveyed effectively through ad-works on air. And people get to know the latest products available on market during review hours. I mean, it would be a pity if we work so hard to produce all these commodities just to, in the end, know nothing of them. And because we work so hard, we could hardly afford to find out about what’s going on ourselves. Informative ads keep our society functioning as it is meant to.

But most of all, advertisers are creative (e-mails are not advertisements; they are spam). The appealing advertisements that crack you up or hook your eyes for the hundredth time take much more than the 30 seconds of airtime. Creativity, and the resulted attention, increases sales, and the advertising environment is so competitive nowadays it truly stimulates the human edge of creativity and nurtures it to flourish. Advertising signifies the human drive to succeed.

To me, what makes modern advertising desirable, besides bridging cultural gap, informing the populace or generating new ideas, is that it empowers every individual possible. It no longer takes an established firm to put up an ad. Any one anywhere can promote their ideas, products and even themselves through the thriving medium of the internet. 15-year-olds can now economically design and effect ads to promote their companies (yes, don’t look down on these young entrepreneurs). Any one could adopt different voices using voice changer softwares, and edit audio as well as video ads with the many music editor softwares and video editor softwares available. Because advertising could so omnipotently enable far-reaching creativity of expressions, it is relevant to our human society that values progressing thoughts and selective reception of ideas.

The staunchest critics of advertising might ask, what would be the future of advertising, now when people are able to get rid of the commercials. MythTV offers a plug-in that automatically filters out commercials during recording, whereas video editor softwares allow you to freely cut out unwanted ads from pre-recorded clips. Yes, people are actually paying to be free of advertisements.

But hey, think again! Advertising is not that inconsiderate. Have you ever listened to radio broadcasts so excessively loaded with audio commercials it’s impossible to follow? And advertising might be excessive and disruptive, but I suppose only to a minority few. In fact, like I have said, informative ads are actually desirable. Don’t you or your children feel excluded if you are not aware of the new iPod, or the latest music editor gadgets?

Trust the media. They are doing their work. Isn’t Google putting into place keyword-related ads to better suit your preference? Trust the authority, too. They approve all circulating ads, or at least those we often see. And most of all, trust the advertisers. We are mutually dependent; we need them for our TV shows, and they need our money votes.

Josh Nowell is a Media Morpher writer keen on advertising trends. He could be contacted at [email protected]

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I enjoyed some much needed rest, relaxation and time away from my business over the past few weeks and once again I found myself inspired and full of insights. That alone is a great argument for taking frequent breaks or vacations. Something many solo-professionals and entrepreneurs DON’T make the time for. I can relate … my office is in my home and I love my work. And, because I never seem to have a shortage of new ideas, there is always plenty of work to be done.

But as I look back over the past year, I can see that many times I have been working too hard. Almost forcing success to happen. Even though I know better. When I sit back and ALLOW success to come to me, the path is much easier.

So what does this have to do with marketing results?

Well, for the most part, I think many people are simply trying too hard. When instead, they could answer a few questions, create a plan, put that plan into action, and then let the results be their guide. Instead, what most of us do is try something without giving it too much forethought, and when it doesn’t result in an instant home run, we give up and move on and try something else.

Following are some steps you can take to get better results from your marketing more quickly so you can get that new business up and running, or take your existing business to the next level with the least amount of struggle.

1) Decide what you want to achieve.

Call it goal setting or visioning or whatever you want. The bottom-line is if you don’t know specifically what results you want to achieve, you’re going to struggle and get frustrated.

Deciding what you want, and writing it down has a way of grounding all of your actions. It helps you determine what to do to get there. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s still THE most effective way to create success.

2) Determine how much you are willing to spend on marketing.

The other day a client emailed me uncertain whether she should pay to post a press release online to promote an upcoming teleclass.

My response to her was two-fold: First, I asked her if it supports her goals for the year. If she pays to post this press release, will the potential results move her closer to achieving her overall goals?

Second, does the cost fit within her overall marketing budget for the year? If the answer to both questions is “yes” then she should pay to post the press release online. If the answer to either question is “no” then she should reconsider. Yes, it’s that simple.

3) Identify your most probable clients.

When you know WHO you are trying to reach, it’s pretty easy to determine whether or not you should be using certain marketing avenues. You decide what to do by how likely that marketing activity is to reach your ideal clients.

Not sure which magazines to advertise in? Find out who the magazines reach. Contact the advertising sales department and request a media kit. Carefully review the circulation data. If it reaches primarily your ideal clients, and it’s within your marketing budget, advertise. If not, don’t.

4) Identify marketing avenues that will put your message in front of them.

Clients frequently ask me “what’s the best way to market an __________ business? (fill in whatever kind of business you want). While there are some general rules, there is no hard and fast answer.

You must identify all the possible ways you can reach your ideal clients. Then pick the ones that best reach them at the lowest cost. Choose as many marketing avenues as your budget will allow. And, be sure to do each of them consistently over a minimum of 3-6 months (one-shot marketing rarely works). If you’re wondering if you should market online using pay-per-click ads or article marketing, ask yourself, is my product or service something my ideal clients search for online? If so, online marketing makes sense.

However, as one of my clients recently lamented, she spent an entire year spending a lot of time, energy and money on Internet marketing, only to realize that her audience doesn’t use the Internet to find her type of services. No wonder she wasn’t getting the results she wanted.

Know your product or service. Know how your ideal clients search for information on it, and be sure your marketing is THERE. If you are unsure, do some informal research. Call and talk to past clients. Do a quick survey. Knowing this information helps you make marketing choices that will get the quickest results, and will keep you from wasting money on marketing that is destined to fail.

5) Select the marketing avenues that best reach your audience and that are within your budget.

For any given audience, product or service, there are a variety of ways to market, at a variety of price-points. Your job as a business owner is to select a mix of marketing activities that will reach your ideal clients repeatedly over time, within the budget you have available.

The first year I launched my company, I spent very little on marketing, because I simply didn’t have the budget. So I focused on public relations, article marketing, email marketing and relationship marketing, which for the most part only required my time. Because back then I had more time than money.

I went from zero web presence to tens of thousands of references and links to my online business in less than a year. I also received national media exposure. All through consistent, concentrated free marketing efforts.

Now that I have more budget and less time, I utilize marketing avenues like paid press release postings and pay-per-click advertising. Yes, they cost, but they also generate broader, quicker results.

Both strategies yield great results as long as I implement them with focused, consistent efforts.

6) Put your marketing to the test.

By far, the quickest path to success is through testing. If you are currently doing marketing and you are not tracking your results, you could be wasting valuable time and money. When you choose marketing avenues that you can test, you know immediately whether or not they are working. And you can constantly fine-tune them to make them work even harder.

For example, when I introduce a new product, I test it for at least a month to determine if there really is a market for it (does anyone buy?).

I test to determine the best price (you may be surprised that sometimes a higher sales price generates more sales). I test my marketing, including headlines, copy, graphics, offers, bonuses, etc. And only when I know what gets results, do I roll it out. If something doesn’t sell well, I don’t spend any more time or energy on it. I use what I’ve learned and move on to test a new idea.

If you feel like you’re hitting your head against the wall to get anyone to buy your product or service, it’s time to re-evaluate what you are selling and how you are marketing it. Test all elements and if it still doesn’t sell, move on!

7) Fine-tune based on your results.

When you test, you are able to constantly improve your results. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Test different marketing strategies against each other to see which ones works best for your product or service and your audience.

For example, when I run pay-per-click ads, I always run two ads at one time. I test different copy to see what generates the highest number of clicks and sales.

And I retire the least-performing ads each week and replace them with new ads. In this way, I am constantly improving my results. And when you fine-tune every week, you can increase your results very quickly.

Keep doing what works.

If you find something that works, keep doing it. Remember that you will tire of it faster than your audience will. Continue to track your results and stick with it until your results start to diminish. And when that happens, move quickly to test something else.

There is no glory in going down with a sinking ship!

9) Stop doing what isn’t working.

We can’t always know what is going to work. Sometimes we try things and we are confident they will work, and then they don’t. Sometimes we don’t even understand why.

Often, our pride prevents us from admitting that it just didn’t fly. Push your pride aside … don’t take it personally … and move on. The quicker you stop wasting time on what isn’t working, the sooner you can begin testing new products, services, and marketing to find out what will work.

10) Don’t over-think any of this – trust your gut and follow your instincts!

When all is said and done, pay attention to that little voice inside. Sometimes, we want something to work so badly, that we look for all the rationale reasons and research to justify it. When if we had just listened to that little voice we would have moved on long ago.

Don’t take your business personally. Know when to stick and when to quit . Give things time to work, but when your gut says its time to give up, don’t delay. Move on and you’ll expedite your path to success!

© Copyright 2009 Debbie LaChusa

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