Marketing 201

I do not consider myself to be a marketing expert. But I do think that anyone who lasts more than five years in business has learned a great deal about it. After all, if you can't market, you can't survive.

What I know, I learned through reading numerous books on marketing, talking to others I believed to be experts, and trial-and-error. I learned a great deal from all three methods. All three methods helped me to determine what marketing is. To me, marketing is anything and everything that your customer sees, hears, tastes, touches, or smells that comes from or is about your business.

Marketing is not just an ad in the newspaper or a fancy brochure. It is not just a special sale or promotion. It is not just a unique logo or catchy slogan. It is not just taking customers to lunch. Once again, Marketing is anything that your customer sees, hears, tastes, touches, or smells that comes from or is about your business. Marketing is ........

• the cleanliness of your parking lot.

• the appearance of your employees.
• showing up on time for meetings with customers.
• retuning phone calls promptly.
• treating vendors respectfully.
• etc. .... etc. ......etc.

Think about this. What would be the larger determining factor in a buying decision .....

• seeing a large billboard advertisement, or receiving a hand-written thank you note for referring business to them?

• hearing an ad on the radio, or having the sales person show up at your son's baseball game to cheer him on?

• receiving a fancy brochure in the mail, or receiving a personal phone call from the owner of the company?

• receiving coffee mugs, T-shirts and a tote bag with a logo on them, or receiving a referral for your business?

Now read the above list again and ask yourself this question. Which is more expensive? Chances are the alternatives that you selected as most effective were also the least expensive.

Marketing does not have to be expensive to be effective. I like to repeat for effectiveness so here I go again. Marketing does not have to be expensive to be effective. I am not saying don't spend money on brochures or advertising or give-aways. I am saying THINK about what works best in each situation and what is best for YOUR company. My neighbor had no children. He had a really nice BMW Z4 which I would have loved to have. I have five children. Guess what we had for many years when my children were young - a mini-van, of course. What was right for them was not right for us. Just because another company spends a fortune on advertising does not mean that you have to do so as well.

Jeff Tobe of Coloring Outside the Lines, professional speaker and author of many books on creative marketing, said to me, "You need to out-think the competition not out-spend the competition." With that in mind, I usually avoided expensive marketing programs. I have looked for ways of promoting my businesses without spending a lot of money. When I did spend a lot of money, it was very targeted. I spent it on customers and potential customers where I could get the best return.

Here is an example. I held a speaker series. I invited current customers and potential customers. I selected four speakers to present topics that I thought would be both of interest and helpful to my customers. Each presentation was held separately. All four were held at a local country club in the evening at 6:30 to give my guests ample time to arrive at the club after work. From 6:30 to 7:00 I hosted appetizers and cocktails so the guests could network. The speaker made his presentation for no more than one-half hour. We allowed time afterwards for questions. For those that wanted to leave immediately afterwards, they were gone by 8:00. Others could stay later and network.

That was a targeted marketing program that was informative to my guests and gave them a chance to network with other business people. It was marketing for me that also benefited my customers. Win-Win. For me, it was an image builder. It said that I cared about my customers. I wanted to help them. It increased the credibility of my company. For my customers and potential customers, they learned about a particular business topic and they had a chance to meet and network with other business people. That did more for my business than any ad, promotion or give-away could have done.

That is just one example of many things I have done over the years aimed at out-thinking not out-spending the competition. Once again, I am not an expert. There are many of you reading this blog that have many great marketing thoughts and ideas. I would certainly like to hear what other business people have done that is unique. Please feel free to post in the comments section or email me at ron@sentrabusinesssolutions.com. If you find this blog useful, please pass on the name of the site to other business people that you feel would benefit from reading it.