Tips for prosperous marketing

1. Position yourself to be a market leader. Prospective customers must have a good reason to do business with you rather than your competition. Set yourself apart by developing your own value proposition.
2. Audit your marketing and sales functions. Perform a systematic and comprehensive review of your marketing and sales efforts to assess your company’s marketing function and process.
3. Re-evaluate your product and service offerings. You need to differentiate your product in the market place; look for opportunities to provide more value, or develop a line that can accommodate smaller clients and clients with reduced budgets.
4. Embrace your database. Reactivate dormant accounts and leads with new products, promotions and services, and contact current customers for referrals.
5. Measure your MROI (Marketing Return on Investment). Always measure outcomes to see exactly where to invest for the greatest return. The more relevant data you get, the more effective your marketing will be.
6. Controlling cost does not mean cutting cost. It means being smarter with the budget you do have, and wringing greater value from every dollar you invest in your marketing program.
7. Launch a targeted, integrated new-business campaign. Set specific goals and tight cost controls, and strive to sell product and build brand. Target your best customer profile, and speak directly to them with your message. Develop an integrated campaign across different media, with a focus on results-driven online and offline direct-marketing techniques, as well as low or no cost PR strategies, such as speeches.
8. Re-evaluate your marketing service relationships. Choosing the right agency to partner with is a critically important investment. The expertise is expensive, but the cost of investing your limited resources in the wrong areas can be catastrophic.
9. Enhance customer service. Do you provide “bullet proof” customer service? The cost of getting new customers is much higher than getting more business from existing customers.
10. Increase customer insight. The more you know about your customers, the more accurately you can target your market. Engage in direct contact with customers through phone surveys or interviews, or ride along on sales calls.

Source: Ken Wilson, Wilson Marketing Group Inc.