Eight Tried and True Marketing Tips for 2012

By Bev Jenkin

Marketing your product or service is an on-going daily event. It can help take your business to the next level, or it can make you feel like you’re spinning your wheels.
Start the year off right, by getting your marketing initiatives in line; and make sure that everyone in your company is aware of those goals and shares your business philosophy. They should be as dedicated to the success of delivering a quality product or service as you are. Below are eight more insightful tips to help position your company in its best light for a prosperous 2012.

1. Know Your Audience
It is important to make sure you “stand out” in the mind of any potential client. The goal is to understand your client’s needs and determine how you will meet them. Ask yourself these three questions: 1) What has the audience already heard? 2) How was it communicated to them? 3) Is your writing different in content and style?

2. Establish a Marketing Offer
This is your most critical step. Never establish this offer based solely upon pricing. Doing so leads to a discounting war and lower profitability. The object is to focus on creating so much value that the perception of price becomes insignificant.

3. Design A Planned Image
Design a planned image that gives a meaningful and distinct competitive edge in the minds of the target audience. The end result is to create a market-focused value proposition with a clear statement of why people should purchase your product or service.

4. Consistent Messaging
Consider image before launching your campaign. Be sure that every venue used to market has a consistent message. Develop a Tag Line and determine what logo you will use and put it on every website, piece of correspondence, promotional item, or professional tradeshow banner you use.
5. Venues
Consider multiple forms of testing in each marketing discipline. Never rely on one form of marketing to carry you to success. Use multiple sources to meet your marketing goals and protect your business in the event that one or more sources of marketing dry up.
6. Teamwork
Teamwork allows for creativity to flow. Never work alone. Start with an idea and brainstorm with other creative individuals. Open communication can only enhance the product or service you are trying to sell.
7. Experience
The old adage about how “nothing is a substitute for experience” still rings true. Nothing can replace actual experience. It will make you a stronger marketer and more successful in the long term.
8. Follow Through
Focus as much of your energy on building relationships with established customers as you do with prospects. Satisfied clients may tell one person, but dissatisfied clients are certain to tell at least ten. Good marketing involves following up with the client to be certain they received what was promised, deadlines were met, they are satisfied, and, most importantly, that they know you will be there for them after the product or service has been delivered.
Bev Jenkin is the VP, Healthcare Operations, Health Informatics Consulting. She is a practice management and operations consultant with a specialization in human resources and marketing strategies. www.myhic.net

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