Archive for Marketing System
How I would Market your Company?
Posted by: | CommentsYou want me to start marketing your company today. Here is what I would do:
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Get all of the material you have and a list of all your listings and advertising you are running.
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Review your measurements on what is working and what is not, if you have them. If you don’t know, stop doing it!
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Review how your product helps your customer and all the material you have to support that.
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Create a list we can interview that makes up your buyer, present, past and NEVER. Oh, yes, interview them.
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Separate products/services into existing sales channels and map customer buying process.
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Use existing if applicable; create new media around step 5 to include print, media, internet and sales processes.
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Creating a content marketing strategy based on your customers buying process and needs.
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Create conversation officer position to support material and manage communications.
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Make a significant web presence through social media and communication channels with stakeholders. Create local presence, online and off-line.
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DO IT!
Inspiration provided by a post from David Meerman Scott.
Top 5 Reasons a Good Idea – Product Launch – gets shot down!
Posted by: | Comments5. Internal focus instead of external. Your engineers and developer are not all knowing, but your customers are.
4. Committed Resources : The resources that are built around a new project can get lost in the everyday shuffle.
3. Not funded properly: Yes, Guy Kawasaki can start things for pennies, but I can’t.
2. Having a system in place: How many times does a good idea fail because of a poor plan.
1. Time : People just try to do things to quickly without having a good foundation in place. Creating linkage takes time.
Can you think of a few more?
Check out my Product Marketing Process .
Dorothy, it’s about the shoes!
Posted by: | CommentsHow is your marketing doing in 2009? Have you increased it? We have just about completed the first 30 days and are you cutting back or moving forward? I am still talking to perspective clients that seem to lack direction. How can you not be focused by now? 
Case in point, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! She was running away from home for a better life. They did not understand her. I have 2 teenage boys, can I run? No, I understand that this is a part in their life that they need to find themselves. They need to find their own identity.
I have always thought many companies struggle with that. I talk to businesses everyday that define their target market as small business. I want for someone to take note here, SMALL BUSINESS IS NOT A TARGET MARKET.
So how do you define your niche? For starters, it is what you do well. Now, think about this – what do you do better, really better, than anyone else. What individualizes you more than any one single point. What would your customers say? What would your strategic partner say? What would a referral partner say?
I was taught the "Five Why" method. Keep asking why to each answer 5 times. At the end, you probably have the answer that you are looking for.
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Who(Why) is your target Market? Small Business
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Why? I work with companies that do not have an in-house marketing department.
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Why? Our system is set up to handle that function.
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Why? Because it is a systems.
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Why? Because systems work.
So now, who is my target market from just that short exercise, I can tell you right now. If you don’t believe a system works, you are not my target market.
How about Dorothy? Remember the words of the lion to the wizard. Yeah, and the wizard took off without her. Linda, the good looking witch came back and told Dorothy what? "You have had the power all along, you just had to find it." I encourage you as a business to find your niche and identify with it. If you want your marketing to work, don’t try to be everything to everyone. Find the power within your organization and tap those shoes together. It’s about the shoes!
