A new year is here. It is a time for setting goals and making
improvements. What better time to take a look at your marketing plan and find ways to make it better?
How do you keep your marketing plan fresh and innovative? Simple. Listen to your customers, and provide them a forum to interact with you. Social media is a great way to do that. Utilize tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to give your customers ownership.
Differentiate
- Create a unique business model. What are you better at than your competition? What are you worse at? Awareness of these things allows you to know what your strengths and weaknesses are.
- Watch your competition but don’t follow. It is good to know what your competition is doing, but make your business your own.
- Remember business model innovation is just as important if not more so than product innovation.
Be Memorable!
- When your customer searches for your product or service, you want them to find you, not your competitor.
- Make your brand name unique, but appropriate for your industry and target market.
- Being found is more important than having the most memorable domain name.
- Make sure your business and product name can easily be pronounced.
- Utilize tools to brainstorm innovative names (search on Amazon.com, combine words, use an alternative spelling, alphabetize, change a common word slightly)
- Do search engine tests to determine how common, and easily found you will be before making a final decision on a business name or brand name.
Build a Diverse Team
- Combine diverse backgrounds on your team to achieve synergy.
- Things are changing fast. Adaptability is more important than background learning. Know the right questions to ask.
- A good marketing team consists of various people to meet the marketing roles for your business. (Analytics, Reach, Content Creators, Conversion)
- Find talent outside your company, your industry and your comfort zone.
Remember, consumers are on line because it is a convenient way for them to get information fast. How are they seeing your business (or are they seeing it at all?)