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OK these Ten Commandments didn’t come from the Mountain.
And they’re not carved on clay tablets, but on a high-tensile
polyfiber instead. Yet any marketer worth his or her salt
must follow these commandments in order to find the Promised
Land.
I. Thou Shalt Not See Marketing as a Department
When you get right down to it, everyone in your company
is a marketer. From the receptionist whose voice is the first
thing your buyers hear, to the delivery person whose rear-end
may be the last thing they see, every one of your employees
plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of your marketing
efforts. Good companies imbue every employee with healthy
reverence for the customer so that the company, from every
point of contact it has with its market, knows how to market.
II. Thou Shalt Follow the Ninety Day Rule
Your customers, prospects and champions (those who refer
business your way) should hear from you every 90 days. People
are just too busy to remember you otherwise. If you don’t
follow the 90-day rule, you risk getting shouted down by any
competitor of yours who does.
III. Honor the Concept of Tinkering with All your
Heart
If you’re a 70’s child like me, you remember
the hugely successful rock group Fleetwood Mac. But I’ll
bet you didn’t know that their seemingly overnight success
came only after years of tinkering. That’s right, before
the release of their monster album Rumours, they endured no
less than 14 personnel changes across 10 years. In marketing,
as in rock and roll, success seldom happens with your original
line-up.
IV. Thou Shalt Not Quit
Moses and the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years
without giving up. You owe it to yourself (and maybe Moses
too) to try any new marketing initiative at least three times
before throwing in the towel. Your prospect could have been
out of the country the first time you ran it, and tending
to his sick mother the second. Repetition is a marketer’s
best friend.
V. Thou Shalt Feed Thy Prospecting Funnel
Suspects become prospects, who then become customers. And
these customers then generate referrals who create more prospects
and the cycle begins anew. For thousands of years, this marketing
process (also known as the prospecting funnel) has governed
marketing activities for all companies, and I feel safe saying
that it will continue this way for another thousand years.
VI. Remember Thine Marketing Time by Keeping it Holy
Successful marketing campaigns don’t take the summer
off, nor are they created “when I have the time.”
You must make the time. I’ve found it’s helpful
to consistently carve out the same day and time each week
to work on marketing tasks. For me, it’s Friday afternoons;
for you it may be different. But whatever day and time you
choose, honor it with all your heart.
VII. Thou Shalt Jettison One Program Every Year
I can’t count the number of stressed out marketers
I’ve seen over the last 15 years. As task after task
is added to their plates , nothing is ever removed. Stop this
madness at once, and identify one marketing task each year
to eliminate. Too often, someone keeps doing a task (e.g.
issuing a report), yet it’s not adding value. Eliminate
one marketing task a year; your health depends upon it.
VIII. Thou Shalt Not Cut Marketing Spending During
Slow Times
From 1980 to 1985, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies
and their marketing spending. After 1985, McGraw-Hill concluded
that those firms which had maintained or increased their advertising
during the recession in ’81-’82 boasted an average
sales growth of 275% over the next five years. But those companies
who cut their advertising saw paltry sales growth over the
next five years of just 19%.
When is the right time to market your business? All the
time.
IX. Thou Shalt Honor Exiting Employees
I once had a travel industry client run a report that showed
where their new referrals came from. The second highest category
was ex-employees. It turns out vacation shoppers were asking
these ex-employees where they could book a Vegas package just
like the neighbor’s they’d heard about, and the
ex-employees were referring them back to their old employer.
When you treat your departing employees with a dose of good
will, they may just turn into your unpaid sales force and
refer business your way.
X. Thou Shalt Thank Often
Sadly, we live in an age of boorishness. But a savvy marketer
can do his part to bring civility into an otherwise uncivilized
world. Among the countless ways to thank customers are thank
you notes, gift certificates and appreciation lunches to name
just a few. These thank you’s don’t have to be
showy. Just make sure the thank you is classy and considerate,
and the kindness will eventually be repaid.
Sure, we all break these commandments from time to time
and end up seeking forgiveness. But if you consistently break
these Ten Commandments of Marketing, you risk an exodus—a
customer exodus.
Author Bio
Jay Lipe, aka the “Plan Man”, is the CEO of
Emerge
Marketing; a firm that helps growing companies improve
their marketing. He is the author of the book The
Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson
Press) which is available at major bookstores and online
at www.amazon.com.
He is also a sought after speaker and seminar leader, and
can be reached at (612) 824-4833 or lipe@emergemarketing.com
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