Inquiry International

Do you have a plan? Need some Advice?

For the uninitiated, marketing in today's world can be an expensive and time consuming nightmare with only marginal results.

Even for the professionals, marketing is a daunting task, because the playing field is changing so rapidly, and the methods and techniques are literally evolving by the minute.

Today's proven methods are old news in very short order.

And the Guru's are growing. The hype is hypening. Everyone wants to be on Oprah.

So what should an entrepreneur do?

Stick to the basics of building a marketing plan and use common sense. The marketing world has always been changing. There are always new strategies and tactics that will confound and distract the entrepreneur. Differentiating one's self will always blend elements of innovation, finding the purple cow or the 22 immutable laws of marketing orBlue Ocean Strategy(see Resources) with other sage wisdom.

But some things remain constant over time and are proven recipes for success.

• Don’t get caught up in the hype. Don't forget you are being marketed to. They want you to get hyped up so you will buy their stuff.
• Understand the concepts of value alignment and ideal client profiling to include both demographic and psychographics. Marketing is about laser-like delivery of value to aligned prospective clients.
• Recognize the essential steps of the marketing process: lead generation, qualification, conversion and retention, and plan each step.
• Don't rush out and spend money on the latest shiny object.
• Don't believe the instant success promotions. Marketing is hard work, plain and simple.
• Do research. More money is wasted on charging down false paths than on anything else. Research is worth its weight in gold.
• Be realistic. Entrepreneurship is about matching resources with appropriate strategies and tactics and admitting that one must make do with what one has, prioritizing efforts and resources wisely.
• Walk before you run. It takes time to learn this stuff, to refine it and to master its delivery and fulfillment. Don't burn out in a blaze of initial hope.
• Understand the differences between marketing and brand development
• Manage your expectations. "Build it and they will come" rarely works.
• Practice: Try it out, then try it again, Marketing is a mastery exercise, like a martial art. Get out on the dojo floor and mix it up.
• Make mistakes. Be Thomas Edison. Don’t believe the notions that everyone can see your mistakes. No one can see you until you get it right. And big mistakes can get lots of attention, which is often good marketing.
• Return on investment: Everything should be measurable by return on investment. Every client has a cost of acquisition. If you are not setting up your marketing program with this in mind from the beginning, you are most likely leaking time, money and resources.

We have senior expertise in multidisciplinary marketing, including:

• Traditonal marketing and brand management
• Guerilla marketing – innovation in the trenches
• Internet marketing and Social media – the best of this field

But we first help our clients appraise their situation,manage expectations, set up a marketing plan and budget, prioritize their strategies and tactics against their resources and the potential benefits, and then help them implement... without blowing a fuse.

Good marketing has consequences too. It means the entrepreneur has to fulfill. Marketing should not be done in isolation. It should be part of an overall plan. Otherwise the sound of tap dancing and fartingâ„¢ will get very loud, very quickly.

If you would like to review your marketing needs and learn how we can assist, please contact us.