What is on the horizon for local marketing?

I am always reading about what is going to be the next big internet marketing idea. Very few have discussed what is happening in local marketing. Most of the big national marketing ideas trickle down to local marketing; however, not all of them. Usually the new ideas are described in a national view and it takes a good marketer to figure out how to adjust things and make it work for their local area. Not all of the internet marketing opportunities out there today, work in all local markets.

Some communities are very resistant to change and can be years behind the rest of the nation.  The local business that is the first to utilize a marketing technique will get the greatest benefit long term. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience by the business owner, to allow the community to embrace the idea, but once they do – the flood gates open and revenue increases.

Now don’t get me wrong, just because you are the first to do something does not mean you will make lots of money. Do your research with an educated marketer and make a sound decision on starting something new. Like I said earlier – not all big national marketing ideas will work locally.

Here are a 4 marketing ideas I believe are about to take off in local markets.

1. Group online coupon buying – Groupon and Living Social are the two big boys playing in the big metropolitan areas. Can it work in a smaller community? Yes, you see it popping up everywhere. Local newspapers, local radio stations and independent entrepreneurs are starting these deal sites in small communities all over. The problem right now is that small businesses are skeptical – REMEMBER – the first to try will benefit the most!!! The local deal sites will be more successful in smaller communities because there is a big push to buy local in these communities.

2. Mobile Loyalty/Reward Programs – Four Square, Gowalla and Google are the big national leaders in this area. The great thing about this service is that it is designed to work anywhere in any community. All businesses should have a loyalty/rewards program and these apps are perfect for small businesses. Mobile use is not confined to the big city; it is just as popular in smaller communities.

3. QR Codes – As mentioned previously, mobile is not confined to the big city and when the smaller communities realize the power of QR codes, you will see them everywhere – just like stop signs!! There are so many marketing applications for so many different industries; I don’t have the time or space to mention them all. There is a marketing application for QR codes for every industry!! The businesses that are creative with the use of QR codes are going to be the most successful.

4. Social Media – I know what you are saying – social media is already a big part of local marketing!! I agree – but it is at the toddler stage and we are about to hit adolescence and the teens – and do you remember how fast you moved at those ages. Google is getting more social (+1) and you know Facebook is going to do everything they can to keep the upper hand. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the big three right now – I believe that the next big social media site has not even been developed. We will see!?

Just like national marketing opportunities are changing on an almost daily basis, local marketing changes at the same rate, but not at the same time.

What new local marketing opportunities do you think are the next big thing?

Why Do Small Businesses Outsource Marketing?

Small businesses today have to watch the bottom line closer than ever. Expenses are going up and it is difficult to raise their prices in the current economy. Business owners try to do everything themselves to not have to pay someone else. However, there are many aspects to operating a business and the business owner cannot be great at all of them. A business owner has chosen the industry because they have the education, knowledge and passion for the business. Successful business owners realize their strengths and weaknesses – they use their strengths and outsource to overcome their weaknesses.

All businesses are constantly facing change and it is difficult for the small business owner to keep up with the changes in their respective industry, much less the changes in taxes, marketing, legal system, insurance and other aspects of owning a business. This is why outsourcing can become one of the most important issues a business owner encounters.

Marketing for small businesses is changing on a daily basis. It is next to impossible for small business owners to keep up with the changes and operate their business.

The internet and social media have drastically changed the scope of small business marketing. It has changed from the old traditional marketing of purchasing an ad and letting it go – to internet marketing that is all about interaction and communication. There is a lot more time involved in today’s small business marketing.

Word of mouth is still the strongest marketing tool for small business; however, today’s word of mouth is a lot stronger. I am not sure where I heard this first, but the quote “Social Media is word of mouth on Steroids” is right on!!!

As strong as social media can be to build your business, it can take a business down just as fast. Bad reviews and poor word of mouth is poison for a business. A small business owner must know what is being said about their business on the internet and monitoring the internet takes time. They must respond to good and bad comments in a timely manner, or the bad comments could spread like wild fire on a dry windy day.

So, do small business owners have the time to blog, post on social media, keep up with SEO, monitor social media, monitor online directories and respond to all of this? NO!! The problem is they cannot afford to pay an employee to do all of this. This is where outsourcing the marketing is the most logical solution.

The small business owner will pay for what they get – they don’t have all the HR expenses of an employee – they have an expert providing a professional service – and they can spend time on running their business.

The key is to find a local marketing expert that has experience in successful small business ownership. These individuals understand small business ownership and will partner with a small business to grow with them and create a successful team.

How Should B2B Businesses Use Facebook?

For the longest time, social media marketers said that B2B businesses will not benefit from being on Facebook. In a short period of time, the tides have turned and Facebook can be profitable for B2B businesses when utilized properly. How should B2B businesses utilize Facebook to get the maximum benefit?


The most common approach is to provide valuable information to your target market. Post research, benefits, updates, articles or general information about the products/services, but ‘Do not sell’ was the main message. That can be very boring. You can try to spice it up, but anyway you put it –it gets old and boring.

Another approach was to treat it just like B2C and offer deals and sale, sale, sale!! This does not work in B2B marketing. You will not keep very many true customers as fans on Facebook if you approach it this way. B2B customers are looking for answers to their problems – not deals and pushy sales pitches.

Just ‘socialize’ and have conversations with your B2B customers. The B2B customers don’t want to be your buddy and discuss weekend plans with you on Facebook. It is a business relationship that has a very clear line that most customers do not want to cross.

I have found the most effective way for B2B businesses to utilize Facebook is to create a personality and help center. What do you mean personality and help center?

Personality – depending on if you are a sole proprietor or a larger company – you will start conversations about current events in areas of interest to the owner or company. For example – the owner of the company is a big sports fan – start conversations about his favorite team that is in season. Ask questions and make it fun, not competitive. The company supports a certain charity - keep people up to date on the charity and things related to the charity.

Help Center – I stated earlier that B2B customers are wanting answers/solutions to their problems – provide the answer/solution. Post the most current news about the products and services you offer. Report how a customer used your products and services to solve a problem. Ask the question of how they would solve a specific problem. Keep it industry related, however, not always about your products and services.

By providing personality and a help center – you make your B2B business fan page both valuable and fun!!

Do you have any other ideas of how to be successful with a B2B business page?

What Types of Businesses Benefit From Social Media Marketing?

The debate on the internet about what type of businesses will benefit from social media marketing is plentiful. Both sides of the argument have some good points – the problem is that social media is always changing and growing. New social media sites are being developed daily and the established sites are constantly changing and adding features. What worked yesterday may not work today.

When debating the social media marketing questions they are usually discussing 2 types of businesses – business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C). The old school or traditional way of thinking in B2B must be face to face and salesperson driven and B2C is getting your name out to the masses.

I believe that everyone can agree that B2C companies will benefit from social media marketing. If you believe that there is a B2C company that exists that cannot benefit from social media – you are in a very very small minority. You have to realize that there are so many different types of social media today, that there is definitely at least one that will benefit all B2C businesses.

The obvious social media networks for B2C are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. It seems like new social media networks and social media types are popping up daily. Not literally, however, new social media ideas are being developed rapidly. FourSquare and QR codes are a couple of new tools in social media. Mobile loyalty/reward programs and coding online messages for your customers – just a few years ago who would have thought these would be in existence and successful.

Each of these social media outlets offers different benefits for businesses. It is important for business owners to understand the benefit, identify which one or ones will benefit their business and develop a plan. Do not just sign up and go – you will waste a lot of time and money and more than likely fail.

The traditional B2B marketing is still successful in many industries, however, is that the only way to do business? Are the customers in B2B starting to look for providers instead of waiting for them to come to their door? This is where the internet has changed B2B the most. First it was having a website to provide information about the company and that was sufficient 10 years ago. Now, the B2B customer is wanting to know more about the B2B provider. This is where social media is changing the landscape of B2B marketing. It is not the daily Facebook and Twitter posts that work in B2B, but the over 100 million member LinkedIn network.

Just having a profile and business listing on LinkedIn is just like having a website. Participating in groups, Q&A, recommendations and growing you network will give your potential clients the information they are looking for that will set you apart from the competition. Your potential clients want to know more about you and your business and they don’t want to ask you – so make it available to them and others.

So, ALL businesses can benefit from some type of social media marketing!!  Social Media is an ever changing market and the top site in 2015 probably is not even active today. I just read a blog today that used A.B.L. (Always Be Listening) as one of the ways to build a social selling machine. I agree ALWAYS BE LISTENING!!

Where do you listen?

Does Good Old Fashion Networking Still Work?

Networking has always been the number one way for businesses to grow and increase revenue. Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, networking has never been more important than it is today for business growth. You are in one of two camps in what you view as networking – 1) face to face, shaking hands, group networking or 2) social media networking.

The first, face to face, shaking hands, group networking is the way it has been done for a long time. It works great for local businesses and B2B business owners will tell you this is still the strongest way to network. There are groups of professionals being formed in all areas that are networking to help each other in generating leads. Some groups are open and allow as many people as can attend and some groups are closed to just one individual per industry. The open groups allow you to meet a lot of people. The closed groups have more success generating leads. Typically you are not allowed to remain in the closed group unless you are providing leads to others in the group.  Both have their pros and cons and you must choose which is the best for you and your business.

The second, social media networking is taking the previous view of networking and multiplying it times 1,000,000. LinkedIn is the social media network for professionals that has done the best job in creating a place and environment for business networking. On LinkedIn I have a connection (individuals that you have a contact in common) to almost 2,000,000 individuals. All of my contacts (contacts are like friends on Facebook) are people I know and so I had these connections prior to LinkedIn. The big difference now is that I can see those connections. You can identify an individual you would like to meet for business, determine if you have a common contact, send a message to the contact in common and ask to be introduced. This is an incredible database that shows you how to meet other business leaders that will help your business grow.

B2B businesses have more success on LinkedIn than B2C companies. B2C companies have more success on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and others. These social sites are for the general population and are where individuals communicate about where they are and what they are doing. The numbers are larger on these sites for B2C companies to network with their potential customers. It works the same way as it did many years ago; you just have access to a much larger number of people. Communicate information and interact on your social media pages just like you would if networking face to face.

So, things have really not changed in how we do business, just where we do business.

http://www.davismarketingpros.com/

Is Website Optimization Necessary for Local Internet Marketing Success?

The answer is……Let’s talk about what are the components of a successful local internet marketing plan. As I have mentioned in the previous blog, there are certain components that are part of a successful local marketing plan. However, after attending a very good webinar on How to become a Local Marketing Expert presented by Hubspot, I have added a few new techniques.

Prior to this informative event, I would not have considered these ideas as being necessary or even effective in local internet marketing. However, when you integrate all of the different tools, you have a very successful local internet marketing plan that will allow a small businesses to compete with big business!!

Here is the list from the previous blog. If you want more information on these, see Local Marketing – Are You Sure?

1. Local Opportunities
2. Email Marketing
3. Long Tail Keywords
4. On-line Directories
5. Google and Bing Places
6. Social Media
7. Blog

Here are the additions:

1. Add Yahoo Places – this is another search engine I inadvertently omitted. Also in places, some businesses will want to consider tags and advertising. It will make your places listing stand out with a special tag on Google and get you placed higher in Yahoo. You are also able to offer special deals through the tags and upgrades. Monitoring is key with places and all other online directories.

2. Facebook Places – You still need the business page, however, every business should have a places page. The page allows you to show up in certain location searches on Facebook and allows customers to check-in to your business on Facebook, sharing it with all their friends. FREE advertising.

3. Foursquare – I have not been a fan of Foursquare up until now. I still do not think it is for all businesses. Businesses that have a lot of walk-in traffic and potential repeat customers, should use Foursquare. There are 6 million users on Foursquare. It reaches out to mobile users, makes visiting your business fun and builds brand loyalty.

4. Online group buying – Here is another marketing tool that I was not a fan until now. I still don’t think it is wise for a local small business to partner with a national company such as Groupon. However, if there is a local online group buying company that fits your demographics, then I encourage you to consider this tool. Be sure you offer a great deal, but don’t offer a deal that has the potential to harm your business.

You take all of the components listed above and any local small business can compete with big business.

So my answer is – NO – website optimization is not necessary to have a successful local internet marketing plan.

Local Marketing - Are You Sure?

Most locally owned small businesses think they are focusing on local marketing. Here are 7 things you must do to have a successful local marketing plan.

1. Local opportunities – Every community is different in what marketing opportunities are available for small businesses. Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper, local radio, billboards, etc. Business owners should research each local opportunity and gather the demographic information for each, before making a decision on where to spend their money. Remember - inbound marketing is more successful than outbound marketing. Make choices wisely.

2. Email Marketing – Every local business can be successful with email marketing. The type of email marketing will depend on the industry. A properly planned email marketing program will grow the business and build a loyal customer base.

3. Long Tail Keywords – One of the most effective ways to target locally when performing SEO, is to use long tail keyword phrases with the name of the location targeting. Some examples – ‘seafood Destin FL’ or ‘residential painter in Atlanta’.

4. On-line directories – This is another way for your business to be seen in internet searches. These directories are also used for customer comments. Not only should you be listed in these directories, you should be monitoring the directories for positive and negative comments. Respond to all comments in public. Some of the top online directories are Merchant Circle, Yelp, Manta and Local.com. There are others you may need to consider depending on your industry.

5. Google and Bing Places – Reserve your name and place on the major search engines. When someone types in a city to search for a specific business, the search engines will give you a map with the locations highlighted for your search results. A must for all businesses!!

6. Social Media – This has become known as “Word of Mouth on Steroids” and the foundation for most locally owned businesses marketing is word of mouth. Facebook has become the most powerful social media tool on the internet today. Start a business page and begin connecting and communicating with your customers and others. Offering deals, posting interesting information, commenting on local events, etc. will have people to ‘Like’ your page to see what you have to offer.

7. Blog – The latest statistic I heard about blogging was – businesses with an active blog receive 55% more traffic to their website than those that do not blog – this coming from Hubspot. Blogging adds new content to your website, pages to your website, increases traffic to your website and increases links to your website – all of these will increase your ranking with search engines.

Do you have anything to add to the list?

Social Media - The New Customer Service?

Social media is intended to be two way communications. Too many times, businesses use social media as a one way communication tool. These companies usually have very little success or no success with social media. In a two way communication model, the customers have an opportunity and are asked to participate in a conversation. This is very scary for many businesses because they are afraid of what the customers may say about their business.

Let me tell those businesses – if you have unhappy customers – they are telling somebody about the bad experience and you just don’t hear it. Wouldn’t you rather give the customer a venue and opportunity to voice their dislike where you can respond and turn that angry customer into a ‘fan’? There is no doubt if you care about growing your business, you will choose to have the opportunity to respond.

Customer service is to create a memorable experience for the customers so they will come back and make another purchase. If customer service did not succeed the first time, they must get a second chance to win that customer. Social media has become a great place to make that first impression and to get that second chance. This will significantly add to the bottom line. A 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent. Repeat customers spend, on average, 67 percent more than new customers. Source: Bain and Company

I am sure you can see where I am headed with social media being the new customer service. According to industry research carried out by customer experience research consultancy Technical Assistance Research Programs Inc., customers that complain to you, and then see the problem solved, are up to 8% more loyal than those who didn't even have a problem in the first place. (Increasing Customer Satisfaction, U.S. Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO, 1986)

If you do not have a loyal customer base that continues to come back and purchase from you, then you are spending a lot more money in generating new customers than it costs to maintain customers. Customer service plays a big role in this, so if you are having problems getting customers to purchase from you more than once, evaluate your customer service policies. “The cost of acquiring a new customer can be as much as 5 times the cost of keeping an old one.” (Source: Peppers and Rogers)

By having conversations with your customers and potential customers, it gives them a level of comfort to post comments without feeling in the spotlight. It takes time and effort to build that environment on a social media page. The worst thing a business can do is not respond to a comment on their social media page. That is just as bad as ignoring a customer in your physical store. Bad customer service.

Just like in traditional customer service, you may not always make the customer happy; however, you always make a very strong attempt to resolve the issue. One thing to remember, always ask what will resolve this problem. Then as a business, you must determine if you can meet the request. Be honest and open, in the worst scenarios, others will many times see the customer is being unrealistic and you are trying to make it right. This will go a long way for those watching the conversation.

Create an environment on your social media business pages that encourages others to comment (good and bad) and you respond openly and honestly. You will then have taken your customer service to a new level on social media.

What experiences have you had with customer service in social media?

What are the keys to Facebook success?

Business owners are always asking what they need to do on Facebook. You need to set goals and have a plan, to just post randomly will not produce the best results. Take opportunities to test different things and monitor the results and repeat what produces the best results.

Here are six things for businesses that are the basics to success on Facebook:

1. Daily posts – you have to post something everyday to keep information flowing and keep your name in front of your fans. How many a day? If you have something to post about, post it. It could be once a day or sometimes 5 times in a day.

2. Variety of types of posts – don’t post about the same thing every day. Don’t post the same type of post every day. Questions, current events, articles, quotes, videos, special deals, contests and product/service features are just a few different types of posts.

3. Shock’em every once in a while – post something off the wall or outside the box. Do something to get their attention and have your fans wonder why did you post that. Be careful and do not do anything too controversial and offend your fans – but shock’em.

4. Create discussions – don’t just post information. Ask for information and create a forum for your fans to ask questions and get answers concerning your products and services. The best way is to ask open ended questions that will require at least a one sentence response.

5. Continue discussions – always respond to a comment on one of your posts. Treat it like you are having a discussion with that individual – you would not ignore that person if they were standing in front of you. Don’t be afraid to respond to a negative comment – those need a response more than the positive comments.

6. Perseverance – be patient. It will take time and effort to meet your goals. You cannot be successful on Facebook in a few weeks. Keep working and test several different ideas and see which one gets the results you want.

Facebook should be an important part of your total marketing plan. It should fit with what you are doing and link to all other marketing strategies. Set goals, work hard and test different strategies with your posts.

What do you do on Facebook that you have found to be successful?

Email Marketing – Is it taking a back seat to Social Media?

Not with my clients!! They are realizing the strength in a well planned email marketing program. Social Media and email marketing should work together to reach the goals of the business. Properly used, they can both complement each other and make the other more effective. If you are seeing a drop in your email marketing numbers, you should evaluate your plan, because you are doing something wrong.


To ensure that your email marketing program will be a success, you must first determine who is the audience. Segment your email list into different categories – i.e.: if you are a clothing store – you would want to segment your list at least by gender and age. If you have the capability of tracking purchase habits – this is another very effective segmentation. You are able to get more valuable information in an email to that individual by segmenting. This also enables you to target market throughout the year depending on the time of year. For instance – before Mother’s Day – you would send an email for women’s clothing to all the males and those under age 20 – these are the groups shopping for Mother’s Day gifts.

After segmenting your lists, you must then determine what is considered valuable information to these individuals. Retailers are sending sales, specials and new product arrivals. B2B is sending information that is of value to their customers and potential customers. The information should be different for customers and potential customers. You do not try to sale to your customers – just provide them information about updates, upgrades, how to, new products, etc. This will give them information of value to them to improve efficiency and productivity with the products/services they have already purchased from you. For potential customers, you are selling a little. Don’t go overboard like retailers, but you need to let them know when you have special deals. It is still about educating and providing value so you are seen as the expert. Then when they are ready to purchase, they come to the expert.

Another effective use of email is to provide information and/or deals to your email customers only. This will help in building your email list and gives the members a sense of being a part of an exclusive group of customers. Everyone wants to be a member of an exclusive group.

Integrating all of your different marketing tools is a must. You should have links to your website, social media, landing pages and blog on all of your emails. Vice versa – all of these mediums should publish your email when it is sent. By integrating all of these tools, they all become stronger together and provide a seamless stream of leads and new customers.

Any small business that is not participating in an email marketing campaign is missing out on generating leads and building a loyal customer base.

Is your email campaign generating leads and providing new customers?

Social Media for Local Small Businesses - Does it work?

YES - when used properly. Everyone can spend a lot of time on social media accounts with no results. Many local small businesses don't believe their customers use social media. Others don't want to 'bother' people on social media sites with their sales tactics. Some are scared to use social media. Once you have answered all their questions - which is easy to do - now figure out what strategy is appropriate for their business. I have two different social media strategies I recommend for my clients: 1) Sales and Deals and 2) Help and Education.

Sales and Deals is for mainly retailers that have walk-in and/or ecommerce traffic. The  main objective is to attract customers to come into the store and make a purchase. This can be obtained by offering sales, deals, contests and events. To determine what gets the greatest response - test different offers and track what customers saw it on the social network. This enables you to improve your effectiveness of each post.

Help and Education is for businesses that require a sales force - usually B2B - however - it can be some B2C. The main objective is to provide meaningful information to your prospective and current customers that will assist them in making a decision about your products/services or helps them improve their business. Do not sale your products and services - provide solutions for your customers issues. This can be in the form of tips, articles, research, etc. Remember you are helping and educating - not selling.

One other use of social media is to utilize a local social media page to post your sales/deals or just advertise your business. Sites such as Hall County Hot Spot on Facebook is a great example.

Social media is a great inexpensive tool for small businesses. How are you using social media for your business?

What is the most important marketing tool in your proposal?

Every time I present a marketing strategy proposal, I get the question 'which one of these marketing tools is the most important?'  I know that you are not suppose to answer a question with a question - however - my response is 'what are your goals?'.  I cannot answer their question without knowing what is their most important goal for their business.  Adding new customers? Bringing back old customers? Increasing sales to existing customers? Just increase the bottom line?

I was actually asked that exact question today during a presentation today.  My answer for this particular company was a new website and SEO.  The website is the foundation to all their marketing strategies.  It has the greatest potential for generating leads and providing the most information for potential customers.  If you are an ecommerce site - then I don't have to explain that one.

I know what many of you thought when you saw SEO. I am not talking about just keyword phrases. I include inbound marketing and blogging in my SEO package. You cannot provide a successful SEO program without including inbound marketing and blogging. Call-to-actions, landing pages, links and social media are all a part of an inbound marketing plan. Blogging can increase traffic to your site by up to 50%.

Don't get me wrong - other traditional advertising, email marketing, internet marketing and traditional media can all be important components of a successful marketing plan. However, small businesses many times need to start slow and a little at a time. Know what a small businesses goals are and match the appropriate marketing strategies to their goals.

What are your goals for your business in 2011 and does your marketing plan match those goals?

Marketing's Missing Link

Great article about Marketing Strategy by Laura Patterson

Published on August 10, 2010

As I work with marketing organizations around the world, a common gap stands out: the lack of marketing strategy. Perhaps it's because the difficult economic climate has forced marketers into a more tactical mode, with leaner teams trying to execute more with less.

Whatever the reason, the lack of a marketing strategy has huge implications on an organization's marketing effectiveness. When strategy is neglected, the price paid goes beyond just lost revenue; the price is fewer opportunities from the target market, lower inquiry rates, and fewer sales conversions.

Rushing to implement marketing programs and tactics in the absence of a strategy means setting the stage for potential failure.

When we ask what strategy is being deployed, we often here marketers say the strategy is social media, direct marketing, public relations (PR), or advertising. But those are not strategies; they are tactics, and each can be deployed to support any number of strategic options.

So what is strategy? Strategy is how an organization is going to achieve its mission. And marketing strategy is the critical link between marketing goals and marketing programs and tactics.

Moreover, marketing strategy should reflect an organization's overall strategic approach. You probably are already familiar with some common business strategies. Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, has identified three generic business strategies:

1. Differentiation—used by organizations that focus on the uniqueness and prowess of their products or services by leveraging innovation, design, quality, etc.

2. Cost leadership—used by organizations to offer products at lower prices than competitors' by leveraging supply-chain management, distribution, process/manufacturing efficiencies, etc.

3. Niche—used by organizations that leverage domain expertise, service quality, etc., for a particular customer or market segment

A strategy provides focus and enables an organization to concentrate limited resources on building core competencies that create a sustainable competitive advantage that allows the pursuit and securing of the best revenue opportunities.

Marketing strategy complements an organization's overall strategy, keeps marketing in line with the organization's overarching mission, and provides guidance and direction for channeling the organization's marketing resources toward achieving market traction, penetration, and dominance.

Types of Marketing Strategies

So if PR, collateral, events, and direct mail are tactics that an organization can use to drive awareness, consideration, and preference, what are examples of marketing strategies?

The vast number of potential strategies cannot be listed here, but we can discuss some of the more-common ones and explore selection criteria.

For example, three common product strategies that both B2B and B2C organizations use are trial, product placement, and bundling.

1. Trial is the opportunity to evaluate and experience a product before committing to purchase. Trial can take the form of a sample (often used in consumer packaged goods), an evaluation (used in the software industry), or a test drive (used in the automotive industry).

2. We are all familiar with product placement (e.g., seeing cars, computers, and phones, etc., in television shows and movies). But product-placement strategies can be deployed just as successfully by B2B firms, by placing products (medical device, computer, software) as teaching tools within an academic environment, for example.

3. Bundling involves offering several products for sale as one combined product—again a strategy commonly used in the consumer packaged goods industry (e.g., toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash all in one package); the technology industry (e.g., software plus a computer); and the automotive industry (e.g., subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, hands-free calling free for a year when you buy the car).

Other common strategies that B2B and B2C organizations use involve people, such as third-party endorsements, seals of approval, celebrities, customer testimonials, etc., or grassroots efforts (where other people become interested in, excited about, and supportive of your organization, product, or service and then help create market momentum).

And a third category can involve the market, such as divide-and-conquer, stepping-stone, tipping-point, and kingpin strategies.

A tipping-point strategy entails tipping from one point of equilibrium to a different point of equilibrium—the idea being that an organization can create a tipping point by capturing enough of a particular market so that other segment members gravitate toward that organization, product, or service.

An alternative strategy is a kingpin approach, where you focus on capturing those customers who have the greatest control in a segment; and once you acquire them, the rest follow.

A strategy consists of a well-thought-out series of tactics that brings the strategy to life. As marketers, you will leverage various marketing channels, from digital marketing to PR to traditional advertising and others, to implement the strategies. And although each of those tactics will apply, how they are used to create marketing programs will vary.

Five Strategy Criteria

Once you identify potential strategies, how do you select one? Consider these five criteria when selecting a strategy:

1. Impact—the proposed strategy must conclusively demonstrate that it will contribute to the achievement of the specific marketing goal.

2. Proven—the proposed strategy should be firmly grounded in evidence-based research that indicates the likelihood that the strategy will work.

3. Context—the proposed strategy should take into account the current environment (business, political, social, and market).

4. Feasible—the organization should have the capability to successfully carry out the proposed strategies.

5. Appropriate—the proposed strategy should be consistent with the organization's mission, culture, business processes, etc.

Steps for Strategy Development and Evaluation

It's probably become obvious that a marketing strategy serves as the foundation for your organization's marketing plan. In fact, the marketing plan contains the specific plan of action that your marketing organization is going to use to successfully implement the strategy.

So, in closing, remember the five key steps for developing and evaluating your marketing strategy:

1. Define the business outcomes that marketing must influence. Without them, the marketing team will not understand what constitutes success for the organization. If Marketing doesn't know the business outcomes, then how can it develop appropriate strategies?

It is the C-Suite's responsibility to establish the business outcomes and communicate which ones Marketing is expected to have an impact on and how Marketing will have made a difference.

2. Develop measurable marketing goals to support the business outcomes. Once Marketing understands the business outcomes and its own role, Marketing needs to define how it intends to move the needle vis-à-vis those outcomes. Those goals provide insight into the strategic options.

3. Evaluate and select the marketing strategy to achieve the goals.

4. Create programs with corresponding tactics and activities to implement the strategies.

5. Monitor results and make course adjustments as needed.

Because we live in a dynamic environment, marketing strategies need to be dynamic. The marketing strategy or strategies you choose will be based on your unique situation and the market in which you play.

Selecting and deploying a strategy that supports the organization and is based on your knowledge of the market and its customers will go a long way toward making your marketing more effective. And though you want to be deliberate in your approach to and selection of a strategy, you may also need to be flexible and agile.

Laura Patterson (laurap@visionedgemarketing.com) is president and cofounder of VisionEdge Marketing Inc. (www.visionedgemarketing.com). Her most recent book is Metrics in Action: Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing Organization (Racom Communications, 2009).

Don't Touch That Marketing Budget

I am encountering and hearing of businesses making cuts to their budgets. Whether it is staffing, capital purchases, benefits, marketing and many others; they want to cut expenses and increase revenue. Most are not successful increasing revenues. Just because you cut expenses does not automatically increase revenue.

This chart to the left, provided by Laurie McCabe, a Partner and Analyst at the SMB Group through HubSpot Blog, shows that companies with increasing reveues are more likely to view marketing strategically, and invest more in marketing than their counterparts with flat or declining revenues.

Marketing is one area that a company can not expect to cut and also increase revenue. I know there are exceptions to every rule, however, the majority of businesses that decrease their marketing budget will see revenues flat or decrease. Small businesses find this more challenging than larger businesses.

For small businesses the internet and social media can be the answer. Web-based marketing and social media tools are usually less expensive than traditional marketing. It can be easier to use and more effective than traditional marketing. This is also true for larger businesses.

Using internet and social media marketing does not require you to commit to long term contracts and tie you into a stationery marketing strategy. A continually adjusting and changing marketing strategy is more relevant and effective. You are able to try different approaches with out making changes to a long term agreement. Trying different messages at the same time to determine which is effective is a common strategy.

In order to be effective in internet and social media marketing, you must have a plan. Now that is another blog for another time. It will not take a long term contractural agreement, however, it will take time to be effective.

If you are going to decrease your marketing budget, you must have a marketing strategy that will continue to reach your target market. Internet and social media marketing may be the answer.

10 Things You Must Do For Your Facebook Business Page

Facebook (FB) has become a norm in developing a branding/marketing strategy. Just having a FB page is not going to produce results to increase your revenues. If you do not have a FB business page, sign up as soon as you finish reading this blog.

There are the obvious things to set up a business page. Business profile information is something easy to do and should be a short description of who you are and what you do. FB does alot for you by just having the page - like button, photo, email contact, website link, etc. Another common tool used on FB is FB ads. These ads are not for everyone.

Here are the 10 things you must do for your business page:

1. Daily posts about what is going on in your business. Share with your fans what is going on. This will build a very strong loyal customer base. It will also start conversations in other groups. You want you business talked about positively as much as possible. You have the opportunity to direct the conversations about your business.

2. Create a Products tab. Make this an online window shopping experience. You do not have to show everything. Remember it is a window shopping experience. What do you put in the front windows of your business? The most attractive products. Create a WOW factor.

3. Create a Pictures tab. This is not for products. Post pictures of interesting things about what is happening at your business and with your employees. It could be pictures of an employee outing to a baseball game. A picture of the customer service employees so your customers can put a name with a face - make it more personal.

4. Create an Email sign up tab. If you do not have an email marketing campaign you should seriously consider this high ROI strategy. Check out this link for more information about email marketing. The email sign up tab will increase the number of your email addresses to include in your email campaign. This type of inbound marketing is very important in any branding strategy.

5. Create Other tabs. This depends on the type of business. Many businesses have rewards program, events and coupons. If it is an important part of your business and marketing strategy, you should have a tab for that item. I know many restaurants have a coupons tab to list the current special/coupon for the week. It is a great way to get someone to make that decision to come see you.

6. Use the Store locator application. Whether you have one location or multiple locations, your customers need to know how to find you. Do not make them go to another site to get information on how to find you. That is the best way to lose them.

7. Create a Video tab. One of the most popular ways to market a business today is through video. You can do alot of things with video to show off your products or create funny videos about your products. Think of unusual helpful ways to use your product and show it with video.

8. Use the Featured Product application. You always have a featured product. Show it off. Whether it is a new item or one you are trying to move inventory - feature the product to make more sales. Make sure it has some WOW power - either price or item - it must draw attention.

9. Create a blog connection to your company blog. The connection will post the published blog post on your business page automatically. You will be sharing your blog posts to all your fans and reminding them of the company blog. This will increase traffic to your blog. This also allows you to share your business with more people.

10. Use the Favorite application. By listing your favorites on your FB business page, it allows you to link to other businesses and organizations (hopefully they will return the favor). This also allows you to show your customers the other businesses you support. If you share something in common with a customer or potential customer, it increases the chances that they will do business with you.

This list of 10 is not an end all and is not for all businesses. It is a great starting point and will increase your presence on FB and the internet. You must have a plan to follow in using any social media or you will waste alot of time. FB can be a huge asset to your business when used properly.

Email Marketing - Why Not?

Email marketing is a great way for businesses to build loyal customers. Why don't more businesses use email marketing? The number one reason I am told why businesses do not use email marketing - "my customers don't want to give me their email address". This usually comes from a business owner that has been in business for 10+ years. People at one time viewed giving out their email address like giving out their phone number.

A new attitude is prevalent in today's market place. If a business does not ask for my email address, then they do not want my business in the future. Businesses should show interest in their customers and communicate with them on a consistent basis. If you want to have loyal customers that come back time and time again, make them feel wanted. Give them special offers that only loyal customers receive.

Businesses can set themselves apart from their competition by using email marketing to make their customers feel important. Providing information to customers with no strings attached shows that the business cares about the customer. It takes the seller/buyer relationship to a much more personal level. The great thing is the amount of time spent on email marketing compared to individually speaking to each customer is hundreds of times less.

IBM noted in a study that an email contact is worth $948. Compared to social media, unless you have millions of fans, $3.60 per fan (Value of a 'Fan' on Social Media, Brian Morrissey) does not compare to the value of an email contact. How much time is spent on social media fans compared to an email list? A thorough analysis will enable you to determine and realize that your ROI for email marketing is much higher than for social media. "The cost of acquiring a new customer can be as much as 5 times the cost of keeping an old one." (Source: Peppers and Rogers)

An organized and well planned email campaign will build you a more loyal customer base and will in turn, increase your revenues. "A 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent."(Source: Bain and Co.)

If you don't ask for your customers email address - you don't want their business in the future.