CC – A blog about business, finance, money

Recently, I was asked to participate in a recipe exchange program. Now, this is a laugh, as I pretty much only cook what comes in a box or bag – but it got me thinking about other types of recipes. Specifically, developing the right “mix” of ingredients to successfully promote your business in an integrated marketing campaign.

Basically, there are three primary “food” groups to promote your business: advertising, marketing and public relations. Of course, there are many subgroups within each of these groups, including direct mail, radio advertising, community relations, Web sites, marketing brochures, press releases and so on, but you get the idea.

As with any good recipe, it’s critical to have the right ingredients, in the correct quantities. A cake recipe asks for salt, but if you use a cup instead of a dash, the results are completely different. The same goes for promoting your business. If you focus too much of your efforts on television advertising, you may be totally missing out on people who might read about your company in their local newspaper. Likewise, if you believe that just having a Web site – no matter how good it is – is enough, you are missing out on many other opportunities to get your product or services in front of potential customers. Don’t be afraid to experiment. All good chefs do and masterpieces are created.

It can be difficult to determine what ingredients, and what quantities, you need. Carefully analyze each opportunity, making sure that it’s a good fit for your target audience – and of course, your budget. For example, don’t spend a small fortune advertising on a radio station that targets listeners who are 25-35 years of age if your product appeals to a more mature audience. We worked with a client once who wanted to advertise on Paul Harvey’s radio show. He thought it would give his company instant credibility, and it was what he listened to. Trouble is, his potential customers were more into Howard Stern! Radio, television, newspapers and magazines are happy to provide you with their demographics – that is, detailed information on exactly who their target audience is. After all, they want you to repeat your business with them, so they want you to be satisfied with the results.

In some instances, your product or service appeals to a very small audience. In that case, a good choice might be to advertise and provide potential articles in trade newspapers that are specific to the industry that buys your product. Attending trade shows specifically for this industry is also a good suggestion.

The “quality” of your ingredients is as important as it is in a food recipe. You may be tempted to go with the cheapest methods, but in the long run, you’ll get what you paid for. The old adage “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” definitely applies. You may think that you’re saving money by printing your postcards on less expensive paper, but if it doesn’t hold up in the mailing process, then what good is it? A note though: cheap does not equal inexpensive. There are frequently ways to do something in ways to save money without jeopardizing the quality. It just takes research.

As with any good recipe, success doesn’t often come with the first effort. Rather, it’s a trial and error process, trying different ingredients, in different quantities. The key is to keep at it and don’t give up if your efforts aren’t immediately successful. One direct mail postcard is usually a waste of time, while six to eight may lead to good results. You may send out 10 press releases and the 11th one actually gets reprinted in the newspaper. The first 10 weren’t a waste of time; they helped build credibility with the media.

A great example of a very successful promotional campaign that utilized may different ingredients was the campaign by Frontier Airlines to send “Flip” to Mexico. Of course, not many businesses have the budget that Frontier does, but you get the idea about how you can utilize different methodologies to successfully promote your business. It will take practice – and you’ll have some failures – but if you keep at it, you will be successful.

One final note: as with any good recipe, you should periodically review your efforts to make sure that the methods you are using are still current and producing the results you desire. Don’t be afraid to update and change the mix of your ingredients. After all, yesterday’s television is today’s You Tube!

Confused about how to get your recipe for success right? We can help. Contact us for a complimentary one-hour consultation to review your marketing needs.

Deborah Krier, president and founder of Wise Women Communications, is a marketing and public relations professional with experience in media and public relations, internal and external communication, crisis management, integrated marketing campaigns, brand management, event coordination, Web site design and development, and community relations. She managed corporate communications programs for the Denver site of ING Group, served as a media and communications coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Region of the American Cancer Society, served as the director of public relations and account manager for Linnell & Soreide Marketing Partners, a full-service marketing and advertising firm. In addition, she provided lobbying support at a state and local level for Corporate Advocates, a Denver-based firm. Deborah holds an MBA degree with an emphasis in marketing from the University of Colorado and an MS degree in communications management from Colorado State University.

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Do you know the difference between word of mouth and referral marketing?

And more importantly… Can you leverage both for greater profits?

First let’s identify the difference…

Let’s say a customer really likes your product and they tell four friends about it… And two of those friends come to your business and buy products.

Which is that? Word of mouth or referral?

Now let’s say you ask a different customer to identify four friends or associates who they think would benefit greatly from using your product… Or at least from talking to you about how your product can help them solve their problems. Then, with your customer’s permission, you call up their friends and associates and mention your customer’s name, that they wanted you to call, and then work with these four new people to determine if your product is a fit for their needs. You get two more customers this way.

Is this word of mouth or referral?

The first is word of mouth. The second is referral. Did you get them right? Good!

But do you understand the difference?

Very basically – word of mouth is passive, referral marketing is active.

I’ll break it down further…

Word of mouth is a mostly passive process – it happens without a specific associated action on your part.

I say it’s “mostly” passive because it does depend on you doing one thing very actively – providing the best possible product or service to your customers… A product or service worth raving about to their friends.

But once you’ve done this, word of mouth happens without you doing anything. That’s the passive part. Your customers are promoting your product through word of mouth without you asking them to do anything. It’s viral – and for this reason it’s coveted like nothing else! I’ve seen companies grow like wildfire with mediocre marketing just because they had amazing word of mouth.

On the other hand, referral marketing is a completely active process. Referral marketing involves putting processes and systems in place where you ask customers to put you in contact with friends and associates that will benefit from your products and services. This can be with or without an incentive – meaning, you can give them a gift for referring others, but you don’t have to. The one thing you do have to do is acknowledge their referral, and thank them for it.

So how do you implement an effective referral system? That topic is worth a book, but I’ll try to condense it here.

Step one, know who you want as a customer. Define exactly what they look like. If you’re looking for owners of businesses that do between $500,000 and $5 Million in business per year, who could use more effective marketing systems, processes, and tools… say it! Define your ideal customer as specifically as possible.

Step two, tell your current customers who that ideal customer is, and ask if they know anybody like it. This is best done when they’re talking about how much they like your product. This might go something like this:

CUSTOMER: “Man, I’m telling you. That sales letter you wrote for me is bringing me more leads than I’ve ever had! I’m even thinking about hiring another person just to answer phones, so I can focus on serving all these new customers. I don’t know how to tell you thank you enough!”

YOU: “Wow. Well I’m glad it’s working so well for you. I knew when we were looking at your product that if we could just put the right appeal in front of these people… That they’d beat your door down. Now it looks like that’s happening!

“You know, my business thrives because I can help people like you succeed. And I’m sure you’re at a place in your life where you know a few other people like you – business owners whose businesses are doing between $500,000 and $5 Million per year, who could use more effective marketing systems, processes, and tools like that sales letter I wrote for you.

“Maybe you know them through a local professional group like the chamber of commerce, maybe you go to church with them, or they’re your golf buddies. I don’t know where you know them from, but I bet you could think of three people like that right now – people who could really benefit from at least talking to me about their marketing.

“And the best way to say thank you to me, as well as to really help your friend out by pointing them towards a service that could help them make more money this year – for their business, their family, their hobbies, whatever – is to put them in contact with me so we can talk about their marketing and see if I could do anything to help them succeed. Which three people do you know who’d like a no cost, no obligation marketing consultation from me? Can we call them together right now?”

Step three, call the referrals you get, and introduce yourself:

YOU: “Hi this is Roy Furr. Bob Jones wanted me to call you. My company, Fresh Look, Inc., helps business owners increase profits without spending more on advertising. Right now Bob is flooded with new leads from a marketing package I helped him put together. He’s even thinking about hiring a new person to help him handle the extra business. Did he tell you how well he’s been doing?”

REFERRAL: “Yeah, he mentioned something about it when we were out golfing.”

YOU: “Good! Well, Bob thought you might be interested in working on your marketing and seeing if you could make it more profitable. I told him I’d call you and – because you’re an associate of Bob’s – offer a no cost, no obligation consultation. It’d be about an hour long, at your office if you’d like, and we can do it this week, whenever it fits in your schedule. I’d just like to see if there’s anything I could do to help you get results like Bob is. When are you available this week?”

You think this guy’s going to have a hard time saying no? Right! In fact he’ll be excited to meet with you. Now do this with the other two referrals Bob gave you.

Step four, call your referrer back! Say:

“Bob, I called Tom, Jane, and Bill – and all three were interested in sitting down to talk about their marketing strategy. I really appreciate you putting me in touch with them, and want you to know that I value our relationship and the relationship you have with them – and I’ll do my very best to get them exciting results like the ones I was able to help you get. I just wanted to say thank you.”

Nothing more than that. Unless you want to send a card, or a gift card, or a gift certificate for your services. Or even – I really like this one – a donation to a non-profit organization that they support, in their name.

Step five, provide really good service to the customers you get by referral, so you can start the process all over again.

As I said above, word of mouth is viral – a quality unmatched by referral marketing.

But with referral marketing, you have control, and each customer you get can reliably be turned into a source for two or three or five or ten more.

This double-barrel approach will get you more customers quicker than you could imagine!

Increase profits without spending more on advertising. Roy Furr is President of Fresh Look, Inc., a marketing consulting company based in Springfield, Oregon. Fresh Look, Inc. helps you leverage your business’ hidden marketing assets to increase sales without spending more on advertising. For quick tips about how to make your marketing, advertising, and selling more effective, hop on over to the Fresh Look, Inc. blog at http://www.FreshLookInc.com/blog

The marketing mega trend of the decade is unquestionably the need to be “green”. Call it what you like: clean-tech, low carbon footprint, environmentally conscious, eco-friendly, the impact of global warning, or just common sense. It’s for real and it represents a major marketing opportunity, while some might say it will be a political necessity. Sooner or later, it will be mandated by law.

While it is true that use of the word “green” or “natural” has been largely unmanaged and often abused, it should be used as an expression of the provider’s commitment to a better environment and a healthier planet. It can also be measurable; for example, we can measure the impact of an electrical appliance which uses less electricity, paper products which are made of recycled paper, or the impact of using alternative fuels such as ethanol.

From a political perspective, conserving oil is a unilateral political party platform agenda item for the upcoming U.S. presidential election (thanks to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore). All major candidates are eco-friendly at least in rhetoric. Meanwhile, our current president, George Bush, has pleaded with the American public to cut the use of gasoline in his last State of the Union Speech.

Just last week the price of oil topped $96.00 per barrel. My guess is that this conservation message will soon become an economic necessity. We simply cannot afford to continue to plunder the diminishing fossil fuel reserves. This means the consumer needs to change their habits pronto.

This is where good marketing kicks in and saves the world. It starts with the right messaging from smart marketers like you and me to create the awareness with the consumer. Interestingly enough, a recent Gallup poll of U.S. voters ranked the war in Iraq, healthcare, and the economy to be greater issues than the need to become carbon neutral. This is particularly vexing when you think that two of the three top issues are directly related to oil-namely the war in Iraq and our current economic malaise.

It is up to us marketers to help the consumer understand the benefits of leaving behind a carbon neutral footprint-cleaner air, less dependency on foreign suppliers of petroleum products, less waste to bury or burn, and a healthier environment for our children and their children.

The spoils earned by the providers who commit now to a greener earth will be the chance for increased sales and profits. The market is ready for this message. Go green or watch your business erode.

John Bradley Jackson brings street-savvy sales and marketing experience from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. His resume also includes entrepreneur, angel investor, corporate trainer, philanthropist, and consultant. His book is called “First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing”.

Check out his website at: http://www.firstbestordifferent.com or his blog at http://www.firstbestordifferent.com/blog

No more going blind for overseas investors, key successful for any business is the marketing as we always hear “Any Fool Can Make Soap, It Takes a Clever Man to Sell It” here is the main point I have meet with many of business men in Dubai who don’t know exactly what to do regard the marketing as many companies offer unsatisfied solutions for these business men.

So I would like to explain more about the marketing and media in Dubai and the effective types that can deliver you for success and more income.

#1 – Marketing Consulting: This is study for your business and find out the best solutions to market your services and products built on the consultant wide experiences!

#2 – Advertising: find out for you the best Advertising solution from the cost and the effective to arrive you services to every one

#3 – Website: as Google other SE become the #1 directory you need to be listed strongly on the SE in Dubai so you don’t miss finder for your services or by your name, because after advertising they will look back to you from Search Engines.

#4 – Online Marketing: which by emailing people who currently living in Dubai, email your services email your offers and let them talk about it.

#5 – Fax Marketing : Still many people who don’t give a good listening to Emails and electronic staff, there many emails for company have been changed your only way to be sure you reach them is the fax marketing its work brilliant in Dubai.

#6 – Graphic design : any service ever need a graphic design start from the company logo to the rest of info attached to service even letter head, choose well your creative attractive designs that make you remember able and different.

#7 – Word of Mouth Marketing: Try to figure out always promotions and discounts to your services and let people know it will turn always in very good results into your word of mouth marketing, plus adding a new unique services and products it will add more value in the word of mouth marketing.

Dubai Marketing Power Dubai Marketing Power Company Dubai media and marketing show

A Marketing strategy is crucial if you want to really succeed in your marketing. Amongst its advantages are:

1. Helping you to focus your marketing attention.

2. Better complete utilization of resources

3. Helps in increasing sales; and

4. A powerful resource of winning over your competitors.

Every company applies some kind of marketing strategies to maintain existing customers, attract potential customers and also to maintain and enhance their reputation in the market.

When designing a marketing plan, first a marketing strategy is taken into consideration. The marketing plan consists of steps to be taken so as to attain success in the implementation of the marketing strategy chosen. Big projects involve selection of different strategies at different levels. Usually a strategy consists of well-sketched tactics. They are meant to meet the needs and finally reach marketing objectives.

Each of the strategies has pre-calculated results because when a particular strategy is chosen at a particular level, its outcome becomes the goal of that particular level. If there is an absence of a well thought out strategy in a marketing plan it means it is supposedly lacking a good foundation. A reasonable marketing strategy should not only facilitate marketing goals, but also the action sequence of a campaign.

At regular time intervals the firm should analyze the marketing decision. This is done with the help of strategic models. The 3C’s model is usaully considered for this purpose. The 3C’s model determines the factors, which leads to the success of a marketing campaign.

There are three key parties involved in this model. These are:

>>> The corporation

>>> The customer; and

>>> The competitors.

The involvement of all the three key parties leads to positive results and this involvement is known as the 3C’s or strategic triangle.

The role of the corporation is to increase the strength of the company in the success critical areas, when compared to that of the competitor. The customer and his interest form the basis of any strategy. The competitor also plays a vital part. The competitor-based strategies are based on the functioning of business competitors like design and engineering, sales and servicing, and purchasing.

When making a marketing plan some particular strategies known as mix strategies are used. 4P’s model is used to calculate whether the plan is sticking to the strategies or not.

The four Ps stand for product, price, place and promotion. Products are goods produced by the company on a huge scale for the purpose of selling them and earning profit. Price is the money paid for a product by the customer. The price is based on many factors like competition, market share, customer perception and product identity. Place where the product is sold can be either physical store or store on the Internet. It is also known as distribution channel. To make the customer knowledgeable about a product, the marketer does promotion. It involves advertising, public relation and point of sale.

There are different types of marketing strategies based on some criteria. Some of the common marketing strategies are:

1. Market dominance strategies – Market dominance strategies are used to dominate the market. Examples of these are Challenger, Leader and Follower.

2. Porter generic strategies – Porter generic strategies are built on strategic strength or competing abilities and strategic scope or market penetration. Cost leadership, Market segmentation and Product differentiation are types of porter generic strategies.

3. Innovation strategies – Innovation strategies are meant to trigger the rate of product development and model innovation. It helps you as a business to incorporate latest technologies. Close followers, late follower and Pioneers are types of innovation strategies.

4. Growth strategies – Growth strategies facilitate the growth of the organization. Intensification, Diversification, Vertical integration and Horizontal integration are types of growth strategies.

5. Marketing warfare strategies are conjunction of marketing strategies and military strategies.

A marketing strategy or a mix of them is chosen only after thorough market research. A marketer should always be ready to face any kind of situations like if the strategy is changed in the middle, he should be able to perform another market research so as to choose the proper strategy, within a short period of time. This can be done easily if you have the experience.

Copyright © by Chadrack Irobogo 2007. All rights reserved.

Chadrack Irobogo is a writer with a passion for helping people achieve their personal and professional dreams through the provision of inspiring and empowering content. The over-riding mission of his website http://www.themarketingmouse.com is to reveal proven and tested tactics and strategies to help you generate real and consistent revenue from your online business even when you are on a shoestring budget.