Troubleshooting Your Marketing

Written by Alfred Lautenslager


Article Title: Troubleshooting Your Marketing Author: Alfred J. Lautenslager

Contact Author: al@market-for-profits.com

Contact Publicist: exec@prforprofits.com

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Article:

Troubleshooting Your Marketing

© 2002 Market For Profits – Al Lautenslager

Troubleshooting marketing is almostrepparttar 121443 reverse of planning your marketing. Think of all those things you would do in marketing your business, products or services, itemize them and analyze each one to see whether they are working or not. Once you understand these components, they can be isolated, changed if necessary and re-tested for contribution significance.

Usually when you feel that marketing ins not providing some results orrepparttar 121444 results you had hoped for, it is due to one of 4 primary marketing components, and guess what? It is not one ofrepparttar 121445 4 P’s.

The 4 components to isolate, analyze, fix and test are:

· The message

· The vehicle

· The consistency ofrepparttar 121446 message

· The target audience

Let’s review each component.

The Message

Although sometimes subjective, you must check to make sure thatrepparttar 121447 message is clear, concise and attention getting to your audience. Does it create interest, desire and is there a call to action? Doesrepparttar 121448 message relate to you, your company, product or service or does it relate torepparttar 121449 challenge that you are offeringrepparttar 121450 solution for? If all is in order andrepparttar 121451 message is convincing or purposeful, consider on ofrepparttar 121452 other components. Sometimes there is one or more message that is ideal forrepparttar 121453 respective marketing situation. It is still ok to test messages. Testing always is a tradeoff to what’s working now. Ifrepparttar 121454 message you have is working now, it may be reaching your goal and you may decide not to mess with it.

The Vehicle

The definition of a vehicle is something that takes you somewhere. If it is not taking you somewhere and you want to go, you need to change vehicles. The same thing applies to your marketing. You may be using a nice letter in an envelope that appears as promotional in nature and is automatically discarded byrepparttar 121455 receiver when a postcard would dorepparttar 121456 job and be more effective. You might be trying to use television advertising when radio would be better. This is common inrepparttar 121457 business to business market. Another vehicle that sometimes is ineffective is a sales person with poor appearance, poor demeanor or poor selling skills. That would berepparttar 121458 wrong vehicle to carry your marketing message to your customer/prospect. In today’s world of technology, different audiences require different medium as compared to marketing of yesterday. This all has to be considered. If its not working and you know you haverepparttar 121459 right message forrepparttar 121460 right audience but its not getting communicated, changerepparttar 121461 vehicle, test its effectiveness and makerepparttar 121462 necessary corrections to optimize your marketing.

The Consistency ofrepparttar 121463 Message

This really has to do withrepparttar 121464 frequency your message is communicated to your target audience. Someone once said to me, “I tried direct mail once and didn’t get any business.” There are all kinds of statistics out on how many times someone must be exposed to you or your message before they take action. Once is certainly not ideal. Most will say 6-8 times while others have said even higher. This beingrepparttar 121465 case, have you given your message a chance before you stop or change it? Usuallyrepparttar 121466 person that tires ofrepparttar 121467 message first isrepparttar 121468 marketer him/herself. Usuallyrepparttar 121469 target audience doesn’t remember likerepparttar 121470 sender and still has potential for impact when receivingrepparttar 121471 message. Does this mean once a day, you communicate your marketing message? Usually not but sometimes you see or hear something related to consumer brands daily, e.g. Coca-Cola. This must be measure against audiences tiring of your contacts and effectiveness. Inrepparttar 121472 case of direct mail, once per month is probably optimal. Inrepparttar 121473 case of direct sales, it depends onrepparttar 121474 sales cycle,repparttar 121475 stage ofrepparttar 121476 relationship andrepparttar 121477 magnitude ofrepparttar 121478 sale. Different audiences will require different frequencies of messages. Each must be evaluated as torepparttar 121479 optimum effectiveness. If it’s not enough, change it. If it’s too much, change it. Consistency and frequency is just one more component to be evaluated when troubleshooting your marketing.

"Five Ways to Make Your Newsletter a Big Success"

Written by William Grant


Many businesses put out a monthly, quarterly, or annual newsletter, but most of them don't know why they are doing it. They know there are benefits, but they never really bother to think deeply about what those benefits are. Whether or notrepparttar newsletter they produce actually accomplishes any ofrepparttar 121442 benefits, depends on knowing whatrepparttar 121443 purpose of a newsletter is.

Let's lay down a concrete foundation of what functions a newsletter performs:

1. Developing name and brand recognition--The more people see your business' name,repparttar 121444 more familiar they will become with it. Try to remain consistent in each newsletter. Userepparttar 121445 same font and colors forrepparttar 121446 name. If you have a logo, keep it atrepparttar 121447 top where people can see it.

2. Tell people who you are and what services and products you offer--Be sure you are clear on these points. It won't do any good for people to become aware of you if your content is misleading.

3. Show that you are a credible expert in your field--Offer advice and tips that will show people you really know your stuff. Everyone loves to work with an expert.

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