Are Your Marketing Efforts Working...Or Could They Use A Little Help?


Marketing is a broad business subject that encompasses arange of activities including advertising, public relations,sales, and promotions. Generally, you will find that peopleoften confuse sales with marketing, when in fact the two arequite different. Marketing is all about getting a product orservice into the market, promoting it, influencing behavior,and encouraging sales turnover. Sales, quite distinctly, isthe actual transaction of getting a product or service intothe hands of your customers.

With so many messages being propelled towards all of usthese days, it is more critical than ever for a company toget their product noticed. This means marketers haveevolved to being creative. Marketing is not an exact scienceand managers who know little about it are afraid that themarketing staff within their firm is often wasting valuablemoney. The truth is that marketing is an investment thatalways pays off; it just may come back in ways that are notnecessarily measurable. So even though one campaign maybring moderate results, another will bring astonishingprofits.

Companies not committed to a marketing program are at adisadvantage in today's business world. Those who are stillfocused on their products, rather than their customers, aredoomed to experience lots of failure. Knowing what yourclients' expectations are and working to exceed them isthe key to ultimate business success.

There are millions of marketing ideas just waiting to bespawned. If you need to generate ideas, start bybrainstorming on paper or on the computer. One small ideausually leads to many other ideas. Alternatively you cando a web search for the specific marketing ideas you arelooking to use in your marketing program. If you lack thetalent or time to be creative and generate your ownmarketing ideas, there are marketing agencies that canassist you to build a complete marketing program.

When you are planning your marketing program, keep in mindthe hurdles you may face, and think of ways to eliminatethem. Some things that may hold you back from implementingyour marketing ideas include budget shortfalls, lack ofskill, or being understaffed. Think of ways around this asyou plan your strategy for the future.

Finally, think about the specific actions that you can usein a marketing campaign. Your marketing actions mightinclude advertising, sponsorship, branding, and publicrelations. Or, you may want to stick with direct mail,product packaging and creating promotional materials such aspens or caps. Whatever method you choose, make sure youare pointing excited energy in that direction. It willbe reflected in the results!

The author has discovered one of the secrets to getting the word "out there" regarding your product or service. She has shared this information with hundreds of business owners over the last 20 plus years and helped them to improve their business.

Andrea Lee Churchill is passionate about marketing and is the webmaster of FWS Marketing