Seven ways to keep your marketing on track

Alastair Campbell of the Ideal Marketing Company has identified the seven key areas of marketing that companies should focus on if they want to survive the predicted economic downturn.

So the 'nice' decade is over.

While 'nice' in this context actually refers to 'non-inflationary constant expansion', its fundamental meaning remains the same and the message is fairly stark: time for businesses to tighten their belts.

For many companies, one of the first places they will look to make reductions is in their marketing budget - a short-term solution to a long-term issue.

Even in gloomy economic times, your business should be aiming for growth - and effective marketing is one of the most sure-fire ways of achieving this.

So, instead of a knee-jerk reaction to all the ominous media predictions, take the time to reflect calmly and rationally on where you need to trim waste and where you should focus your marketing efforts.

I suggest that a good place to start is in the following seven key areas.

1 Make the most of what you've already got.

Before launching an expensive and time-consuming campaign for new business, take a fresh look at your existing client base.

Your satisfied customers are the easiest people to sell to, so make sure they feel valued.

Have regular contact via newsletters, special offers etc and make sure clients are aware of all the products or services that you offer.

Tell customers how you can help them and reward loyalty with preferential rates and special offers.

2 Make the news.

You may wonder how some companies do it - open the paper or turn on the TV and there they, benefiting from all that lovely free PR.

But this doesn't happen by accident.

Those businesses actively pursue publicity by regularly contacting editors and reporters with press releases and stories that they think might be of interest.

An editor is a busy person, so if you can offer them a story that is relevant to their readers or viewers, you're half way there.

If you can link a survey, news release or article to a topical news story, so much the better.

3 Give to receive.

We all like the idea of something for nothing so use the law of reciprocity to your advantage.

This means that if you give a customer something, they will have the urge to give you something in return.

An example of this in practice is food samples at a supermarket deli counter.

The customer tries the product and likes it - so they are more likely to buy it.

This really works - research has shown that shoppers are 15 times more likely to buy sampled food than non-sampled food.

Using this principle, try offering special reports, insider information and free talks or tips booklets - anything that may be useful to the prospect.

It should be cheap to produce but will be of value to the recipient.

In addition to establishing you as an expert in your field, your prospect now feels an unspoken obligation to give you something in return - hopefully their business.

4 Become the expert.

Many companies make the mistake of trying to appeal to as wide a market as possible in the hope that this will generate more sales.

In fact, spreading yourself too thinly can have the opposite effect.

A far more effective strategy is to develop a niche market and become known as the company with the skills and solutions for that particular market.

One way of achieving this is to create a different brochure for every specific sector of your market rather than a general coverall.

(This rule also applies to direct mail letters, email shots, sales presentations etc.) Decide what precise problems your target customers are facing, and then provide the solution - if you make a name for yourself in a particular market, prospects will seek you out.

5 Trace the source.

For many companies, marketing is a hit and miss affair and people often don't know which activities have actually brought in custom.

It's so important to know where you clients come from and how they found you, so put a reference code on every type of marketing that you produce; this way you can trace back how customers found out about you.

Make it company policy that any new business enquiry is traced and its source checked - that way you will know which techniques are working for you - and which are a waste of time and money.

6 The power of the web.

Websites have come a long way in the past decade: a brochure website, no matter how nicely designed, is simply not enough anymore.

If you want your site to capture attention and rate in search engines, it must be regularly updated with press releases, articles and reports.

This isn't as time consuming as it sounds - one of the easiest ways of doing this is to put a blog on your website and keep it up to date with news and views.

By creating regular content and referencing articles from other sites that you think are of interest to prospects, you will dramatically increase your site's Google ranking - I've done it and it works.

7 Don't give up.

It's easy to get disheartened when people turn you down, but the reality is that some sales can take months or even years to close.

When someone said 'no', they may mean 'not yet' or even 'I don't know enough about the benefits of what you are offering'.

Clients are not always ready to buy now and they don't always respond to the same messages.

Make sure that your customers know the benefits of the product or service (ie what's in it for them, not just how great you are) and create a target group of customers and hot prospects.

If your product is good, the benefits are clear to the customer and your targeting is right, they will buy from you - sooner or later, so persevere.

Alastair Campbell is Managing Director of The Ideal Marketing Company and offers regular free marketing seminars for SMEs in addition to the Marketing Mentor programme designed for small businesses.

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