I was consulting with one of my business clients the other day when the concept of marketing came up. He quickly explained to me that:

1. he doesn't need any more advertising,
2. it costs too much, and
3. he just didn't know if it was really effective.

These are the valid concerns that many business owners have. And they each have answers. So we talked about having a quantifiable marketing strategy.

Let's s dispel a few myths...

When I say "marketing" most business owners think of "advertising". Marketing is not "advertising". Marketing is the process you use to garner clients and customers. Marketing is composed of many parts including market analysis, copywriting, and advertising... (there I finally said advertising) but marketing is not advertising. Advertising is a small part of marketing. Many business' get caught up in the concept of advertising and forget about the bigger picture. The Big Picture is that you build your business through marketing.

When I say businesses "need to market", most business owners often think of big firms and top shelf marketing budgets. This is another myth. Marketing isn't for only major companies. Marketing is for any business that wants to succeed. Chances are you already have some level of effective marketing, like referral marketing in place, but did you know there are over 40 different marketing avenues to your business? I like to think of each marketing type as a road, an "avenue" actually; a marketing avenue. That avenue allows you to drive customers to your business. When you have a business on main street you have one big road going by the front of your business. That's one marketing avenue. If you could have more roads to your business, then more prospective clients would see your business and walk through your doors. This is where marketing comes into the picture.  Even tough not everyone is on main street, there are over 40 marketing avenues that you can use to start driving customers to your business! This provides you with many different options and price levels to effectively grow your business.

How can you track the results of your advertising? Marketing should be trackable and provide quantifiable results. you need a plan in place to do just that.  If you haven't already started tracking and quantifying your advertising information you need to start now. The good news is that a marketing professional (such as myself) will help jump start your marketing plan to remove a lot of the hardships and get your marketing plan to start producing results right away. Part of any marketing plan should be a method for tracking and analyzing the results of your marketing efforts to make future marketing is more effective. Paying for a big billboard down town is a little tough to quantify the results, where as launching a website campaign may be easier to track... but both need to be tracked to provide you with the hard facts of how each one produces so you can make them more effective.

Any economy has potential for business opportunities, not just a flourishing one.  Marketing is even more important in down economies to help you survive and squash your competition - because competition is getting fierce.  Marketing is the lifeblood of your business.  It's an ongoing process that needs continual refinement. If you are not effectively marketing your business, your business will perish. An effective marketing plan is necessary in order to succeed. Do you have a marketing plan? And can you clearly describe your plan to grow your business?

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As a special offer, I'm offering you a completely FREE marketing consultation. It's yours COMPLETELY FREE with no strings attached because of this special online offer.  Give me a call today to set up an appointment. We will sit down and discuss what you currently are doing and how we can improve on it. By the end of the meeting you will have a fresh plan for taking your business marketing to the next level, garnering more customers, and increasing customer satisfaction.

Contact me today so I can help your business thrive!

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