Marketing

I’ve had many conversations with many people of late about marketing their business – or for that matter, any business.  It’s true that when times are tough, the first area historically that businesses cut will be their marketing.  And what’s more, they may even decide to do it in-house themselves!  Now why do people believe they can do this?

I heard a great keynote speech recently that went something along the lines of:

“Do you pay a professional Accountant to manage your end of year accounts? Do you pay a professional Financial Advisor to manage your financial affairs?  The answer of course is YES.  So why then do some business people believe that they can cut costs by doing their own marketing?”

The truth is that good times or bad times, marketing is paramount.  Your brand reflects your business, which in turn reflects your reputation.  Refer back to your business strategy and remind yourself why you are doing business?  Where are you headed?  Remind yourself of your long term and short term goals.  It is all only achievable by getting your marketing right.  Here are some tips that don’t cost a fortune that will may help:

1. Know your goal, know what you want to accomplish
2. What impression do you want to leave?
3. When you come across a business with a “home-made” flyer, what’s your first impression?
4. If you need to increase visitors to your site, make sure you have a way of processing this information, moreover make sure your site makes it easy to do this.
5. Focus on what you’re good at.  Even more, specialise in what you’re good at, and partner with professional people to cover the areas where your business needs expertise.

The moral of this story is, focus on what you do and do it well.  If you need professional help with your marketing, it doesn’t always cost the earth.  Feel free to drop me a line or call me, I’d be happy to help!

Don't be blond about your marketing