Most of us, particularly those who regularly deal with a wide swath of public, know how to adjust our conversation according to experience level of our audience. If someone asks to see a particular camera, a retailer explains it differently, depending on whether person seems to know as much as he does about cameras, or next to nothing. An oncologist explains same case of cancer differently to patient than to patient's doctor.

On paper and on Web, however, we tend to orient our promotional material to just one kind of audience and only one level of sophistication. If we do this strategically, great. If we make a conscious choice to target one audience rather than another, because former accounts for higher profits, terrific. But that's not what I saw at camera store sites.

For beginners, people who don't know much about a product or service, it's a huge mistake to lead with detailed product information. Too much "APS 505 AiAF f/2.8 2x" overwhelms when I'm wondering whether a digital, 35mm or disposable point-and-shoot camera would fit my needs.

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please include resource box.

Please send me a copy, if possible. Many thanks.

**

Summary: Your marketing supports your business. Stop marketing, and your business bleeds to death. it doesn't matter what marketing you do, just market.

Total words: 750

Category: Small Business

DDT: Do, Don't Think. Just market

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

You see funny things when you're walking your dog. A couple of summers ago, late every Sunday afternoon, I'd be out walking my dog and I'd look up to see a sky-writer.

Puffs and streaks of white smoke against a blue sky spelled out name of a local telecommunications company. Every Sunday, for months.

I wondered what it was costing them, and whether they were getting results.

Guess not. That winter, telecom went bust in spectacular fashion.

Sky-writing's one way to market your business, but what's best way? The short answer is that there's no best way. Nothing works all time. Some things work sometimes. Many things work most times. Constant marketing works all time.

So here are my two rules of marketing:

* it doesn't matter what you do, just do some marketing every day; and

* watch your mental images, because your images control your emotions, and your emotions determine how much energy you'll put into marketing.

=> It doesn't matter how you market

That's a lie. It does matter. If your marketing efforts consist of expensive advertising and gimmicks like sky-writing, you'd better have deep pockets.

Ideally, you'll use a mix of paid and free (except for your time, which is in no way free) marketing tools.

I'm not going to give you a long list of marketing tools. You can use everything from sky-writing to sticking magnetic letters onto your car.

(Check out Marketing Diary in each week's issue of Creative Small Biz, to see what I'm doing --- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Creative_Small_Biz/ )

What's important is that you put major time into marketing each day. This is because results of your marketing take time to kick in.

Let's say that you start by sending out a couple of hundred direct mail letters each week. You combine that with making 30 telemarketing calls to businesses each day.

You're dogged about this. You don't think about it too much, you just go ahead and do it, because you want your business to be a success, and it is a business, it's not a hobby.