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Drawn from The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses
by Jay B. Lipe
#1 Taglines (p. 174)
In 10 words or less, a good tagline reinforces a company’s
reason for being. And for smaller companies, it can be one
of the most efficient marketing tools. Develop one on your
own, or turn to a consultant for help. Then, marry it up with
your company name and logo whenever you can to tell the whole
story about your business.
#2 Search engine positioning (p. 199)
These days having a high-quality website, by itself, doesn’t
translate into success. A large number of qualified prospects
visiting the site does. If you’re not spending equal
amounts of time and money on search engine positioning, your
website isn’t working hard enough. One client of ours,
who located us through a search engine, ended up generating
a whopping 1,500%+ return on investment for our site.
#3 Consistent branding elements
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a rancher would
mark his cattle with a unique brand. This brand, depicting
a unique image, distinguished his cattle from another rancher’s.
A small business’ branding effort works the same way
(Chapter 14, p. 167). The consistent use of branding elements
(i.e. name, tagline, logo, colors, fonts, and typestyles)
clearly identifies your operation from its competitors.
#4 Calls-to-action (p. 194)
It’s not enough to just rattle off your product’s
features and benefits. You must go one step further by telling
your reader exactly what you want her to do next. Too often
marketing materials effectively present a company, then leave
the next step up to the reader’s imagination. This is
a missed opportunity.
You’ll want to spell out exactly what they should
do next. “Visit www.oururl.com and register to win”,
“Call our estimating department for a free quote”
or “ Email us with your suggestions” are clear-as-a-bell
calls-to-action that should be sprinkled liberally throughout
your selling materials.
#5 Key messages (p. 183)
Remember back in English class how we were taught to write
out a paper’s thesis before actually writing the paper?
This thesis statement was the argument you wanted to assert—the
central point of the paper. Think of key messages as the thesis
statements for your marketing effort.
So, before writing any copy at all, jot down the three most
important things you want to communicate in this piece. If
you can identify these key messages first, you’ll find
writing copy to be a much easier proposition (Chapter 15,
p. 183).
#6 Testimonials
Buyers of your product or service—especially first-time
buyers—have lots of reservations about doing business
with you. Will your product deliver? Will you answer your
phones? Will you be around next month? Written testimonials
from your satisfied customers, scattered throughout your materials
and website, smooth over buyer fears.
#7 Metrics
Can you imagine a doctor examining a patient without a thermometer?
Yet, this is precisely how many small businesses approach
the analytics behind their marketing. Without metrics to track
the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, decisions are
just…guesses. Develop 2 or 3 key metrics (i.e. # of
new leads/month, cost per inquiry, or sales calls/month) that
provide glimpses into your business’marketing health
(Chapter 13, p. 153).
#8 Timelines
A timeline is a year-at-a-glance calendar for your marketing
efforts (Chapter 11, p. 128). A good one captures, week by
week, launch dates and intermediate deadlines for all your
marketing tactics. A complete timeline helps you better manage
marketing implementation in the heat of the battle.
#9 A Marketing Plan (see p. 65)
The cornerstone of any successful marketing effort is a
marketing plan . Why? First, a marketing plan lays the groundwork
for action. Once you’ve developed a plan, you’ll
know the “why” behind each task. Second, a plan
breaks the effort down into manageable chunks. The whole task
doesn’t seem so daunting with your plan in place. And
finally, a plan always gives you something to go back to in
slower times. If your phones stop ringing, revisit the plan.
It’s almost certain, you’ll discover new initiatives
to address the problem.
#10 An Implementation Process
Developing a marketing plan is only half the battle. Without
proper implementation, your marketing loses momentum—fast.
Weekly project meetings, quarterly checkpoint meetings and
active marketing management (Chapter 12, p. 141) are all needed
to ensure successful implementation.
Clearly stating who is responsible for each project, when
it’s expected completion date is and how much the project
is budgeted for, begins the process. Ongoing progress meetings
ensure it continues.
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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