Smart, efficient marketing is crucial. If you run a company, you need to know that marketing is one of the most important variables in your business strategy. Don’t take it lightly.
I understand marketing may not be your expertise, and I am not saying you should dedicate half of your time to another position within the company. What I am saying is, don’t ever leave your marketing totally up to someone else. Be active-involved. Marketing your company is not “someone else’s job.”
Are you wasting advertising dollars? Almost without fail, new clients who contact my firm say, “I know I’m wasting a lot of my advertising dollars, but I don’t know exactly where the waste is.” It’s a gut-wrenching feeling, but chances are you’ve probably felt it, too.
Are you spending your advertising dollars where you should? Are your media buys based on detailed psychographic research, or are they simply based on old-school, one-dimensional methods, such as an age demographic only? Does your media buyer have many years of personal, multidimensional, media-buying experience at a marketing firm? Or did he/she simply spend a year or two on the sales staff at a local media company? Do you have a marketing firm on your company’s team? Or do you “work direct” with local advertising companies, trying to somehow save money?
Today’s business is on a fast track. Competition is getting tougher by the day. As they say, you’re either on the bus or you’re under it. Get serious about your company’s marketing. What type of advertising do you do: TV, radio, print, Internet, mobile, outdoor, B2B? Why?
If you don’t know why, you can’t be sure you’re making the correct advertising choices.
Always ask, “Why?” You should also know the efficiency of each advertising medium you choose. This is important data for you to know and understand. Without this information, you’re just shooting in the dark. If you owned a manufacturing company, would you not take a special interest in knowing the bottom-line cost for all raw materials and for all areas of distribution? This information is directly related to your net profit, correct? Marketing information, efficiency and experience is no different and no less important.
Einstein was right: It’s all about relativity. Think value. For example, occasionally I hear people say, “I’m not sure I can afford broadcast television because it is so expensive.”
Is it really? Would it surprise you to learn that when you consider the massive market reach that it offers advertisers, Oklahoma City broadcast television can be one of the most affordable and efficient forms of advertising you could purchase in the market on a cost-per-thousand basis? Again, it’s all relative. That is just one example of an efficient form of advertising within our market.
There are many others, as well. Try alternative advertising avenues. Be different from your competitors. This difference is your company’s niche in the market. Don’t run from your difference – embrace it; it’s your key to success. If everybody in your industry is doing something, do something else. Sometimes, it’s good not to fit in.
Oklahoma is a great place to market a company. Our marketing landscape is much like our real estate: a great value for the money. This goes hand-in-hand with the recent, national announcement positioning Oklahoma City as an amazing city to begin a new business. It’s true: Someone opens a new company, and before you know it, the business is thriving. Lower overhead costs are a positive variable in these success stories.
Looking for a New Year’s resolution? Commit to learning more about smart, efficient marketing. This education can be the difference between your company thriving or just getting by. Or, in today’s economic times, even making it at all. If you are not an experienced marketing expert, find one. We are fortunate in that Oklahoma City is the home of many quality advertising agencies and marketing firms. However, you must do your homework. Ask around for referrals. Interview several, credible firms.
To market wisely should be a sincere goal for your company, moving forward. Smart, efficient marketing must be more than a promise from someone. It should be proven. Take the time to re-analyze your company’s infrastructure. Are you positioned to grow locally or nationally, based on your current marketing structure? Are you sure? Or are you rolling over to the next year what you’ve always done in the past because you are not comfortable with change? Get aggressive!
Marketing wisely requires technical knowledge and experience. Because, believe it or not, marketing correctly can be rocket science.