Strategies and Tools
for
Greater Effectiveness

A newsletter by Dr. Mike Beitler
www.mikebeitler.com

This week's guest author is Judi Lawson Wallace. Judi is a leading expert on marketing and public relations. Her advice is extremely valuable for you external consultants. You internal consultants and managers will find her advice helpful too!

- Dr. Mike Beitler

This edition:

Good Marketing Requires a Road Map

by Judi Lawson Wallace, MBA, APR

Business is great. In fact, there's so much to do you're concerned about meeting your customers' demands. You don't even need to do any marketing because you've got all the business you can handle. But suddenly the demand slows. What do you do?

If you've planned ahead, you have a marketing plan so you know exactly what to do next. Unfortunately too many consultants spend all their energy focusing on providing their service to the exclusion of their marketing plan. They must believe the old saw that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.

The analogy I prefer is traveling without a road map. When you start off to parts unknown, if you head off in the right direction but without a road map, you might be able to reach your destination through trial and error. It will usually take longer, however, and you might run out of gas along the way. With a good road map, your energy is more efficiently spent moving directly toward your goal. A good marketing plan can keep you focused on your business goals.

Developing a good marketing plan forces you to think through many aspects of your business plan and focus your resources more effectively. So, before you can determine marketing strategy, you need to be able to answer these questions:

What makes your product or service distinctive? Don't say quality, service, and competitive price. Everybody uses those descriptives. Do some research. Find out what's going on in the marketplace. There may be a specific niche that will give you the distinction you need.

Who are your target audiences? Potential customers, you say. But where do you find them? The more specifically you can define the demographics of your audience, the better you can target your marketing dollars and the better the return on your marketing budget.

What's the best way to reach these audiences? The usual means are radio, TV, and newspaper. Today the growth in these industries has produced many more options. If you're a movie theater owner, you'll want the broadest daily exposure, so newspapers make sense. However, if your product or service has a smaller audience, you might find a specialized newspaper, cable channel, jazz radio station, or direct mail to be more appropriate. Reaching large numbers is not always better, especially if you're not reaching your particular audience.

Don’t forget about public relations! Public relations can be an effective and relatively inexpensive way to establish your credibility and expertise as a consultant. In addition to press releases about achievements, contracts, new staff members, public relations also includes such strategies as speaking engagements, articles for trade and professional publications, sponsorships of nonprofit organizations/events, promotional items, websites, and many others.

What kind of marketing budget do you have? A typical guideline is 3 percent of projected sales, but you'll have to adjust this number for your industry and your business objectives. With a new product or service, you may want to spend much more upfront to make a big splash followed by regular visibility. Advertising folks will tell you that it's the regular visibility not necessarily the size of the ad that will be effective, although size is surely a consideration. You'll want to select the media that give you the best value for the amount you can afford to spend.

It's time we modified that old saw. It should say, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will buy it only if they know you have it and why it really is better."

About The Author

Judi Lawson Wallace, MBA, APR, helps her clients identify key audiences, develop strategic messages, and communicate them effectively. She is president of Wallace Consulting & Training, Inc., which facilitates success for organizations and individuals through marketing, public relations, training, and coaching. She can be reached at judiwallace@triad.rr.com or 336.768.3339.

All Article Content © 2006 All Rights Reserved – Judi Lawson Wallace

 

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