I hate summer time colds, and of course I’ve gotten one.  As I was sitting here this morning nursing my achy muscles and congested sinuses, it made me start thinking about marketing.  You see, when we get a head cold, it comes on suddenly, and we wonder what happened to make us get it.  Then, we’re suffering through it, wondering how long it’s going to last.  Marketing can be very similar.

With marketing, we often do things because they “worked in the past”.  Then when things don’t work out so well, we wonder why.  As our bottom line starts to suffer (much like the achy muscles of being sick), we wonder how long it’s going to last, and what we can do to end the suffering.

Well, here’s a few tips that act like Dayquil for your marketing:

  1. Know your numbers! You have to know where you are before you can get to where you’re going.  If you start marketing, and you don’t know your numbers solidly now, you have no way of understanding the impacts of your marketing effort.  For more on this, check out the post on iMediaConnection
  2. Define your market. A great way to drain your wallet fast is to hire a marketing firm and tell them “find me customers”, but not help them identify who the potential customers are.  If you’re going to succeed with your business, especially in tough economic times, you must be able to define your market specifically.  Are you targeting 12-16 year old girls in suburban America, or 30-50 year old  men who play golf?  The more specific you can be, the more likely you are to actually convert traffic into business.
  3. Know where to find your market. This is much different than defining your market.  Even though you may be able to identify who your market is, can you identify with them?  This is what’s going to spell the next step of success.  If you don’t know where they “hang out” (e.g., Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc), then you won’t reach them.  Further, what’s going to attract them?  What’s their “trigger” or their “hot button”?  Find out.  This is where some market research can come in handy.  Market research can be as easy as doing some basic keyword research for your particular market niche.  Want to know more about keyword research?  Check out the this training produced by Google.
  4. Go out and get ‘em tiger! Finally, once you understand where you are, who you’re targeting, and how to find them, you have to go get them.  Some people get right up to this point, then don’t pull the trigger.  Remember, if you don’t ask, you won’t receive.  So go out there, and get e’m tiger!


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