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Article Title:
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Why A Brochure, A Website, And A Business Card Is NOT Marketing
Article Description:
====================
These activities certainly sound good and worthwhile. Having an
appealing website is great. So is a brochure with strong copy and
a great logo. Here's the problem. All of us have limitations
when it comes to time, money, and energy.
Additional Article Information:
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896 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2006-08-18 10:36:00
Written By: Judy Murdoch
Copyright: 2006
Contact Email: mailto:judy@judymurdoch.com
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Why A Brochure, A Website, And A Business Card Is NOT Marketing
Copyright � 2006 Judy Murdoch
Highly Contagious Marketing
http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
Recently, I worked with a local community group to develop
marketing that would help them grow their membership. The
organization I worked with is new and focuses on creating
opportunities for business, non-profit, and government work
together to achieve common goals.
At our first meeting, I asked the group, "What is it we want
to accomplish?" Some of the answers that came back were:
* "Redo the brochure"
* "Fix the website so it's easier to sign up for
events"
* "Do a documentary on member success stories"
And so on.
Sound familiar?
When you put the words "marketing" and
"accomplishments" (or "goals" or
"objectives") together, what we usually think of are
specific activities such as what to do with the website, or what
events to offer, or getting a classier look for the company's
promotional materials. That's what the work group participants
were talking about: the specific activities they thought would
help the organization increase membership.
These activities certainly sound good and worthwhile. Having an
appealing website is great. So is a brochure with strong copy and
a great logo.
Here's the problem. All of us have limitations when it comes to
time, money, and energy. Having lots of money helps but
ultimately, you can't implement every cool marketing idea that
shows up on your radar.
So how do you choose? How do you make sure that every marketing
activity will contribute to getting your business to where you
want it to be? How do you make sure that each action you take
contributes to your marketing effectiveness?
Here's where marketing strategy comes in. When you set marketing
objectives and create a strategy to meet those objectives, it's
easy to decide which marketing actions (or tactics) are going to
give you the biggest bang for your buck.
So what's the difference between marketing objectives,
strategies, and tactics and how does each insure that your
marketing gets results?
MARKETING OBJECTIVES are what you ultimately want your marketing
to do for your business. In other words, what role does marketing
play in the success of your business? Marketing objectives
usually describe the number of customers you want, sources of
revenue, and market share, just to name a few.
Example: The organization I worked with had two objectives: 1.)
to double their membership in 2006. 2.) to increase the percent
of members who own small businesses (versus non-profit and
government).
MARKETING STRATEGY describes how you will use your money, time,
people, and other resources to achieve your objectives. Some of
the issues addressed by marketing strategy are: what markets do
we want to be in? How will we reach our audience? What products
and services will we offer? How do we want to stand out in the
minds of our customers?
Example: An issue that came up again and again for the community
group was "it's difficult to describe what makes us
different without sounding New Agey." They had been trying
but they just couldn't say it in ten words or less. On the other
hand, everyone agreed "when the organization is right for
someone, they almost always sign up after attending one of our
events." That is, experience with the group is one of their
best marketing tools.
From a strategic standpoint, this meant: (1.) Don't spend time
and money on approaches that require strong copywriting to be
effective. This meant putting on hold any major changes to the
website and to the brochure and (2.) Time and resources should be
focused on encouraging prospective members to attend live
events.
To encourage prospects to attend, the group asked current members
to invite people in their networks who were likely to appreciate
what the organization had to offer-essentially, they chose a
word-of-mouth marketing strategy to grow the membership.
MARKETING TACTICS are the specific activities you do to fulfill
your strategy.
Example: Once they decided to focus on word of mouth marketing
(as opposed to changing the website or redoing the brochure) the
group needed to come up with activities members could do. They
created a simple "outreach" card which listed membership
benefits, where to go for event information, contact information,
and a coupon that gave a $10 discount to first time visitors.
Next they distributed cards with an emphasis on getting cards to
members who tended to be "connectors" (people who had broad,
diverse contact networks and who were enthusiastic proponents of
group).
Two final points here:
1. The Chinese general and philosopher, Sun Tzu said,
"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." To get
results from your marketing, you need to employ strategies AND
tactics. Companies that tend to get bogged in "analysis
paralysis" are those that have good strategy ideas but fall
short when it comes to executing tactics. Companies that overly
emphasize tactics tend to "spray and pray" by
implementing random marketing activities that don't support and
reinforce one another. Without appropriate balance between
strategies and tactics, you are likely to be wasting your
marketing dollars.
2. It's more important to set marketing objectives and
strategies that you'll use than it is to create ones that are
profound and/or impressive. If your marketing objectives and
strategy are three sentences written on a legal pad, fine. As
long as they support your goals for developing your business and
as long as you take action to put your strategy into practice.
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Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost,
effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals,
guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances.
To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt?
Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers
Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
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