The Biggest Marketing Keys To Ensure You Get Big Results In Your Business

This article is for business owners who are serious about growing their business, want to take action and just not sure how to go about it.

Like it or not Marketing Your Business is the key to growing your business.

The difference between successful and non successful marketing is that the majority of business owners undertake ad hoc marketing strategies - you know the ones like advertising in the local paper or sending a one off direct mailer.

Unfortunately business owners get so frustrated with the lack of results from these marketing tactics - that they market their business less or stop all together.

However what often happens is that when the current clients move on - there is a gap with new clients coming in the door.

Ask yourself, "How do prospects know that you exist, how do you get yourself out there."

So, the next step to get the best results from your marketing is to move away from undertaking ad hoc marketing tactics and developing a marketing strategy or plan for your business.

One of the most important elements of Success is to create a clear plan of attack of how you are going to get there.

Sounds hard, not at all.

We are going to share with you the Marketing Keys To Ensure You Get Serious Business Results, so stayed tuned.

1. Define your customer base

It sounds easy, but you would be surprised how many businesses actually don't have a clear picture of who their target market is.

When you take the time to get clear in your mind and then put it on paper you will notice how things seem so much clearer. And so will your results.

Define your your target market by identifying the following:

* Who needs and can afford what you are promoting? Are you targeting a specific age, social, or ethnic group.

* Are they hungry? That is keeps them awake at night.

* How accessible will my product or service be to your target market?

* Who is the decision maker? Is your target market the decision makers/cheque writers?

* Will they spend money to solve it/They invest in themselves

* Can you reach them - do they congregate? Where? Give us a list of where?

* Have others succeeded before you and are still succeeding?

* Is the market large enough that it's worth the effort and you'll get a return on investment?

2. Integrate all your marketing as a whole

It's so old-hat to only list your offline marketing tactics for the next year ie advertising, direct mailers etc.

These days, smart marketers combine both online and offline marketing all into the 'one' plan. All these mediums have a significant influence on each other and should be considered collectively.

We see so many businesses treat online marketing separately to more traditional marketing ie print and radio, when in reality the two 'must' be integrated. Your online and offline strategies will have similar messages, branding and call to actions, so make sure you are consistent across all mediums.

Interestingly, many businesses wonder why they get minimal results from ad hoc marketing tactics ie advertising or direct mailers. Most of the time because their marketing strategies model what other businesses are doing rather than what it best for their own business.

3. It's time to try something new

All businesses need to push the boundaries from time to time, and marketing is an area of your business in which you should look to extend yourself. If you're still using the same advertising mediums that you were using two years ago, then it's time to try something new.

Consider dabbling in email marketing, or maybe public relations. Either way, make a decision and include it in your action plan and go for it.

It's so important that businesses realise that marketing isn't an expense, it's a legitimate business building activity.

4. Make a real social media push

Whether you like it or not - consumers and businesses are moving online.

One of the great online marketing mediums is Social media.

Social media gives businesses the ability to engage directly with consumers, educate their prospects and allow them to get to know them, like them and trust them.

This all helps to build your database of potential clients to market to on an ongoing basis. Your goal as a company is to be Top of Mind.

It's free to set up a fan page on Facebook or a Twitter profile to engage with prospects and if you launch something new into the market, engage with your community and see what they think of it, get there feedback and then tweak it.

5. You need to measure your Return on Investment

Depending on how much money you're willing to dedicate to measuring your return on investment, there are a range of measurement tools available to businesses which can give you real insight into whether your marketing dollars are being spent wisely.

And with the growth in the number of measurement tools in the market, half the battle is wading your way through the tools on offer and finding one that best suits your needs.

So what tools are available to a business wanting to measure how effective its online marketing activity has been?

Many in business agree that one of the first ports of call is Google, which offers a range of products to help measure online return on investment without charging a cent ie Google Analytics.

6. Utilise email marketing

Email marketing continues to be a favourite marketing medium for companies given it's one of the cheapest and most measurable forms of self-promotion around. But there are some hard and fast rules that businesses should stick to when it comes to email marketing.

You need to make sure that each campaign:

* focuses on a single message that's delivered succinctly

* manage your database carefully and

* always include an unsubscribe link.

With all of this said, be weary that many people are also receiving an abundance of emails every day and struggle to get through the flurry of emails.

So your goal is to be marketing Only to your target market, grab their attention with an Attention Grabbing Subject Title and have clear and concise messages.

7. Get FREE stuff out into the market

There are things you can do to market your business that doesn't cost a cent, so make sure you consider including marketing approaches that are free in your marketing.

Gain momentum by engaging the local media by distributing press releases and newsletters about your business. Provide a free ebook or dvd.

Social media is another free medium. If you're unfamiliar with social media or online marketing tools, the best approach is to get onto the internet and actually try them.

9. Be the brand

Smart companies are putting themselves front and centre of their branding, often with great results.

And it's not just for big business.

Your overall strategy and marketing plan should include points on how you can stretch your 'brand' across all your marketing mediums.

It really depends on your business whether you are the face of your business or not. This all comes out when you are in your planning phase.

10. Make sure you tackle SEO Search Engine

Optimisation (SEO) is the non-paid section when you search Google.

Think about it when you are searching Google you generally look at the sites on the first page and rarely any pages after that.

So that is your goal to get your website on the first page of Google.

Google works by promoting sites with lots of visitors, quality and relevant content

* search engine's ultimate goal is to show the most relevant result for each key word search phrase

* if you have a genuinely useful, high quality site which users find valuable, then you'll rank well, although it might take awhile

* there are plenty of ways to speed up this process ie blogging on your site is one good way to achieve this.

* also look at backlinks - which means who is linked back to your site. Most major search engines see someone linking to you as a vote of confidence, therefore ranking you higher in a search.

Your next step now is to get planning and take action in your business to get results.

Good luck!

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