Avoid the Shotgun Approach to Marketing Your Business

Are you doing everything you should be in the marketing of your business or is there something that's slipping through the cracks that could bring you a ton more money?

Are you spending your dollars wisely or hap hazzardly to which ever sales rep walks in the door each day?

Do you have an actual marketing plan?

These are some of the questions you want to be asking yourself AND THEN - figure out how to fix this so you are making SMART MARKETING DECISIONS.

If you're like most small business owners, you get so busy working IN your business that when it's busy, you don't concentrate much on marketing and advertising. In fact many clients I've spoken with have said they often tell their advertising sales reps "just run the same ad as last month" when they call for new ad copy. They do this because they don't have time to think of what to do next.

But if you PLAN out your ads ahead of time, making sure your headlines, offers and messages are timely AND that they accurately and effectively will make your target market take notice and act on your ad then they will be much more effective and give you better results.
Or when you have clients you don't make time to market for new ones until those ones are gone; then you wonder "where did they all go? I'd better do some marketing". This isn't smart marketing either because then you'll be so desperate to get new clients you'll do anything and quick!

Preparing a marketing plan is your first step. You might need to conduct some market research to determine who your ideal client is, what their needs are, how you can meet their needs, where you can find them, how you will reach them, and the daily activities you need to do to keep your funnel full. If you know the answers to these questions then you're ahead of the game (BUT ONLY AS LONG AS YOU ARE REALISTIC WITH THOSE ANSWERS). Some of these activities may include networking, speaking, advertising, seminars, teleclasses, and e-zines. All of these are active forms of marketing that take your time, unless you can delegate some of the activities or automate them.

- Katrina Out