Art of Marketing

Is Your Marketing Strategy Working? By Shannan K. DuShane 9/30/12

Almost some time or another all companies have gone through a struggle. Business struggle, marketing initiative struggle, or loss of business, either way, the economy is hard-hitting, global opposition is a fact, and technology tends to superseded products in months. Your marketing strategy is more important today than ever. Making it work and knowing when and how to initiate a new strategy is imperative. I’ve seen too many companies living on a false hope that tomorrow will bring a different light to their already failing plan or that they have some hope of bringing back a past edge that will they can bring back the history to this decade. “We need to see what happens next quarter,” yet another alternative of false hope rearing its ugly head, I’m not sure if to call it hope or stupidity.  Most of the time it is laziness to develop a strategy and plan; because it is a long process to execute it correctly and in order.   The lack of first realizing that you need to have a new plan and approach, then hiring a marketing strategist to analyze your company is the first intelligent objective anybody could do for their company.  Sometimes a third party is the best way to move because of the non-biased opinion and view that they don’t have about the organization.  So the question to be asked, “how do I know if my marketing objectives are working?” Measure – Analyze – Make Changes – Initiate – Measure and so on, unless you can read minds or foretell the future. Communication is crucial; if you are not communicating the strategy and objectives with your sales force, you are not going anywhere; the sales team is your face and name of your company.  They are the ones selling your product and service and if they aren’t familiar with your marketing plan and marketing plan, you basically wasted your time and money. Poor and low generation of leads is another factor; this also leads off from the lack of communication.  Marketing creates opportunity for your sales force.  Your sales force like I mentioned above is your strength; you should take full advantage of this and if you are not generating leads and opportunities then your marketing strategy isn’t working for you.  I’ve seen it where the sales teams are ignored by management when they should be embraced and more at the forefront of the strategy.  Find out why the leads are not creating sales opportunity and fix it. Time management is yet another failure of problems; if you have a plan, and only accomplish about the first 2 months of it, then it goes cold, and you don’t set aside that dedicated time to spend  on your plan; then shame on you; that is not something that you want to be responsible for.  You need to stay current and up to date on what is going on all around your business; your clients and your competition are you best avenues of gaging how you are doing. If you don’t plan on using it don’t complain when you don’t get results or your leads drop off. Customers and clients are too often confused, not about you or your services they know what you do, but maybe they don’t understand why your service or product is the latest and greatest.  Why should they choose you over your competitor? This is the biggest question to answer. A new marketing initiative could put this into better perspective for your clients to understand your offerings and more. Lastly, you need to be where your audience is; you can’t force your audience to be somewhere they are not, get in front of them and make them remember your company. Utilize all of your avenues, and if you don’t have the time or patience, hire someone to do it for you; this is not an option if you want to keep your head above the water. Use social media, use internet marketing and ppc marketing, utilize banner advertising and a new website with marketing materials or find another path to fulfill the tasks at hand; more visibility that converts to more sales!  Don't Work It....Network It