Using hit and miss strategies in your Business?

Marketing is not a hit and miss strategy – it is 24/7/365. Surprised? Don’t be! Too many businesses don’t have good marketing strategies to begin with – so how can they market 24/7?

I have seen it over and over, small business owners buy marketing on a hit and miss basis. They see a sale on newspaper ads, or the local radio station calls and offers them a deal that they cannot refuse.

So for 2 weeks, or 2 months, a business advertises – likely with a poorly written ad that looks pretty and then cancel the advertising because it was not effective.

Who gets blamed in all of this? The marketing expert. People say – marketing does not work – but have no substantial statistics to prove it.

When your advertising efforts are ‘hit and miss’ there is no way to truly measure the efforts – or to tweak it to become more effective.

So what do you need to do to make sure that your marketing is effective?

Know your market:

WHO really buys your product? (Not who ooo’s and aaaah’s over it – who buys it?)
Where do they live?
What do they drive?
Where do they go?
Do they have time to read the paper?
Do they surf the internet?
Do they read community news?

These are only some of the questions that need to be asked before you spend a dime on any kind of marketing.

Determine a budget

If you expect to sell something – you will need to let the right people know why they need to buy it. Good ‘copy’ is essential. Otherwise you are simply putting a pretty picture in front of people and fail to give them a reason to read it or to DO something after they read it. What will you spend your money on?

Research to identify where to advertise
Make sure you have good copy
Find effective ad space
Create an ongoing program
Be Patient, Measure and Tweak

Measure everything.

Find out what is working and build on that. Get rid of advertising that has a poor ROI. In other words if you busy an ad that costs $400 and no one calls – consider how you can better get some inquiries for the same amount.

A newsletter that gets sent to a current data base might cost the same amount for full design and mailing for a full year. This means you have 12 – 24 opportunities to get in front of your audience instead of once.

If you are featured on the internet for less than $20 a month or can buy an ad linked to your website for less than $400 a year – you are way ahead of the game compared to one or two ads in a magazine of newspaper costing you the same or more.

Finally though, the real trick to running great marketing campaigns is to recognize - nothing happens over night. Marketing efforts must be consistent and target your market correctly. Remember, Marketing is a 24 hour 7 day a week task. Finding better marketing strategies is a great idea. But getting rid of marketing all together is not a wise decision.

If you don\'t know where to start - invest in good advice. . There is no better time than now. You have the time - and need the help.

Marketing requires a strategy, a budget and commitment. Even if you start with $50 a month, you will be farther ahead than if you use a hit and miss strategy.

Look for 24/7/365 opportunities that cost you less than a cup of coffee a day. This will give your business a bigger boost than that java fix – that lasts only 30 minutes!

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