|
Contact us today and let us show you how to communicate more effectively with your colleagues and customers.
» Online Marketing Articles
»What to Ask Your Design Firm
»Podcasting
»Web Analytics Understood
»Five Best Practices of
 eMail Marketing
»Web Blogs
»I Can See Clearly Now!
»Direct Mail on Steroids?
»Multicultural Marketing Online
»Trade Show Antics
»How to Promote your Web Site
»TOP 10 Marketing &
Technology things to do NOW!
|
|
|
|
1. Know Thy Competition
The key to successful marketing is to know who your competitors are. To find out who they are and what they are doing can be easy and relatively inexpensive. Be sure to subscribe to all the trade magazines and clip out your competitors' ads. Call them and have them send their literature to you. Of course, be sure NOT to use your business address. By analyzing the materials they send, you will know what their current thinking and strategies are. This gives you an edge when competing for the same business because now you know what their strong and weak points are. After a while you will be able to predict their next steps and better yet estimate their advertising budgets!
Talk to their dealers, reps, and distributors. They are often too anxious to express their grievances against your competitor. Don't be afraid to ask former employees when you link up with them at job fairs, interviews and trade shows, they can provide valuable information.
2. Know Thy Customer
A very common mistake made by businesses is that everyone is a potential customer. You CANNOT determine who your customer is by the population of the region you are located in. Your customers are ONLY the group of people most likely to use your product or service.
A customer profile will help you identify your customers so that you can target and customize your promotions and marketing strategies to gain their business.
Your profile will help you pinpoint demographics like age, sex, ethnic background, education level, occupation, income, family status and geographic location of your customer. While psychographics will help you pinpoint the lifestyle, personal behavior, self-concept, and buying style of your customer. Use the demographics to tell you who will buy your product or service and psychographics to tell you why they will buy. This information will help you spend your marketing dollars wisely and target ONLY those likely to buy your product or service.
|
