Santa’s message is short--joy. His target market-- children and young at heart. When you think of name Santa, you automatically associate it with giving, kindness, thoughtfulness, joy, magic, and usually a lighter heart.

Yet, his campaign began long ago in another country with a different brand. There have been songs about him, plays, movies, and more TV shows than any other brand.

Let’s examine how Santa markets. Afterwards, let take a few minutes and see how it compares to you. It is natural to feel intimidated being compared to Santa, everyone feels that way at first. First, kick intimidation in "ass"ets. You can't compete and you don't want to.

Be inspired. Santa’s given you proof it can be done. Santa looks invisible until you see children’s eyes and smiles. Even as adults, we set aside our worries and allow joy in. And Santa does this without saying a word -- proves power of nonverbal communication. And let’s not forget his profitability!

Santa uses a solid yet standard psychological system that has stood test of time and distance. His first main marketing principle is consistency. For hundreds of years he’s delivered one brand, one message and a powerful visual image. It works for him, thus, it will work for you. Consistency includes ripple effect. Every one of your contacts ripples world. The tree that falls in quiet forest is heard.

Your message needs to be consistent everywhere in your business -- voice service, web site, you're your shopping, or sitting waiting for a bus. This means being consistent 24/7 and being whom you want to attract. It is walking our talk. Consistency makes bank accounts ring jingle bells.

Take another moment, think of where you are or want to be consistent in your business. Make a list of three each day and go make changes. Check your e-mail signature and tone, business card, and web site. Is it consistently saying one word that you want people to remember? One uncomplicated word. People remember simple. KISS it -- keep it short and simple.

Like Santa’s "joy," what one word do you want people to walk away with every time they connect with you or your business? Mine is "inspired." It is one word that I want everyone to receive whenever they connect with me. What is your word? This is a word that tickles your Twinkie and you want it to ring bells whatever roof top it lands.

The word will have derivatives, like inspirational. If you look up "joy" in "Flip Dictionary" (Barbara Ann Kipfer), its derivatives are: amusement, beatitude, bliss, cheerfulness, delight, ecstasy, elation, enjoyment, excitement, exhilation, felicity, festivity, gaiety, gladness, glee, happiness, jubilation, mirth, pleasure, rapture, satisfaction, and solace.

Santa’s second marketing principle is his ability to leverage resources and spread his message. He provides message, doesn't wait until we figure out what to say, and tell you exactly what he wants you to say to others. Give others tools to smoothly give your message away. People appreciate having "right" words.

Third, when you connect word with positive energy it becomes a trend. If you focus on negative aspects then it is a fad. Words connect feelings and energy and can be rocky or smooth. Smooth is easier to share. Fads are still important because they help with short-term revenue and keep trend alive and moving. Many toys are fads placed inside Christmas trend.

When our company pitches benefits of having a web site, we emphasize that a web site is not a form of advertising. An advertisement is owned by vendor who sells it to you. It runs for a specified amount of time and then is gone. It’s a one time shot to make an impression. A web site is a marketing tool that is up 24 - 7, specifically used for communication. It is owned by you forever, and you use it to communicate with outside world and through it, outside world can communicate with you.

Other communication tools used by companies are telephones, fax machines, snail mail and personal contact. You can sell and advertise with these tools, but their benefits are far more versatile as are benefits of your web site. And just as you have to pay your phone bill, though you own phone and fax, you must pay web hosting bill – but phone, fax machine and web site are your property and part of your company’s assets.  

Once your web is launched, it's time to start marketing with it. Most web designers will offer to do this marketing piece for you for a fee, but we encourage our clients to assign a person in house to do marketing piece. Why? Because web marketing is not difficult if you have a plan. It's an ongoing process. The Internet is constantly changing, and someone inside company should be familiar with status of web site and its growth and how it’s adapting to changing cyber world. It can take as little as one hour a week, and a person on inside is naturally going to have more zeal for seeing that your page rank is climbing and your visitor traffic increasing.

Here are our company’s Ten Suggestions to Marketing Your Web Site.

1. Check your web stats daily if possible.Pay close attention to number of clicks by unique visitors and referring site. These fields indicate how many individuals are visiting your site and where they came from. It will also show which search engines brought visitors to your site.

Most servers provide traffic analysis tools. There are also commercial programs that will give an abundance of web traffic information and analysis. One good web based traffic analyzer that has a good FREE version can be found at www.statcounter.com.

2. Scan major Search Engines for your company.

Run a search using your company’s name in major search engines (Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, alltheweb). Wherever your company shows up, check with that website to see if they will include your URL where your name is listed. It is best to call personally, and then follow up with an email.

3. Search your competitors.

Run searches on your competitors with major search engines to see where they are listed. See about getting your link listed on these sites or similar sites.

4. Check your area Chambers of Commerce.

If your area Chambers have web sites that list URLs of members, it may be worth your while to buy a membership with that Chamber – especially if that particular Chamber’s web site gets a lot of hits.

A Chamber advertisement is good for a whole year of membership. When you break it down to a monthly cost of having your link on their site, is generally is affordable. If your chamber has a high page rank, having your site listed there could boost your rank.

5. Put your web address everywhere.

Be sure to include your web address on ALL advertising materials (business cards, newspaper ads, web ads, flyers, brochures, stationary). A good rule of thumb – “if you put your company name on it, put your web site address on it as well.”