Virtualize My Business!

From day one, marketing should not be an overlooked priority. You should set aside a budget equal to at least 10% of your net revenue, dedicated for marketing. Most marketing people will say it should be closer to 15%, but no matter what your budget, you need to decide how to define it. Spend money to market your company, and the money will come back to you tenfold. Spend it wisely though, because spending marketing money that is not giving you a return is just spending money. There is allot of information about this subject. There are many, many marketing techniques, each that apply to their own individual Vertical Market.

Do not confuse marketing with sales. While the purpose of marketing is to produce sales, sales are not necessarily contingent on marketing. Also, a common error many small businesses make is forcing their sales force to also be their Marketing Department. While some sales people can perform a hybrid role in marketing, it may be risky to go down that road. Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole here. At the very least, differentiate the two.

Find information that relates to how you need to market your specific product. For example, the most important element of your marketing campaign might be local publicity. You will need to approach that differently than if you want to find vendors from all across the country to resell a product you manufacture. Those would be marketed to differently than if your selling a product using the internet.

Marketing may require building a database of names that fit certain criteria, a direct mail campaign, or straight up advertising. Watch out, all this gets really expensive! Think of marketing more as promoting your business. Find ways to promote your business that don’t cost much.

Build a website. It’s one of the best marketing tools you can create, without spending much money. Visit our website section now for more information. Promote your website through Search Engine Optimization. The best  and online advertising services like Google Adwords.

TIP  Get the best set of tools to build your website with 1and1. We use them, and have sent them many happy customers. They have some of the best, easiest tools, at the lowest price anywhere. Go see what they can do for your business.

Use your local phone directory and find a local marketing agency. Call them up and ask to meet with them. They’ll almost always jump at the lead. Small marketing angencies are often hungry and can be negotiated with. Really good one’s however probably won’t be hungry, or as easily negotiated with.

Marketing agencies frequently bill you a rate by the hour. Try to get them to do “bid” projects. That means they “bid” on the project, presumably with other bidders, and you take the bid from the company with the best value. That does not mean the company with the lowest price. Let me say that again, that does not mean the company with the lowest price. You need to decide for yourself what constitutes value.

TIP  Save money. Use your marketing agency to make your written marketing plan. Maybe have them do some artwork, but use the tools at Vista Print to take their artwork (or use Fotolia.com’s artwork), write your own text, then compile your own marketing material and save money.

Here is the most imporant thing about marketing agencies: Always get a Written Release from them for any custom work they do for you. Otherwise, they may be able to file a lawsuit against your company for using their works, and get a percentage of your revenues. This is rare, and usually justified, but protecting yourself up front never hurts.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 09:31 and is filed under 3. Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.