Most businesses that are not well-versed in marketing believe that there must be an elusive “silver bullet” marketing thing that will be the save-all for their business.  Occasionally someone will stumble into a “silver bullet” that will be magical for their business.  In reality, this happens less than 1% of the time, or with the help of massive advertising budgets.  For those of us in the real world, we have a different reality.

That fact is that for nearly every business, marketing is the result of all of the cumulative efforts that you put into your business, from all sources, including all marketing and advertising efforts.  Statistically, very few businesses have found their “silver bullet” and market in a wide variety of manners.  That’s why most businesses devote a minimum of 6-12% of their gross annual sales to their marketing efforts.  Highly successful companies devote more, especially if they are bringing new products to market, or if they are marketing “difficult” products or services.  This is especially true if they are developing new “brands” or corporate identity (but I’ll save that discussion for a later date).

I have developed a term that I call the “marketing cloud“.

  This image depicts what a marketing cloud might look like for a contractor or construction company of some type.  It shows graphically where that contractor might need to look for their leads.  This is where a marketing plan will also help tremendously (to focus your efforts).  A marketing cloud will look different for businesses that offer different products and/or services.

This is my opportunity to plug my assertion that the #1 source for new leads for your business should be from customer referrals, no matter what type of business you are.  If you don’t care what your customers think about you and your business, then there is a bigger problem with your business than just your marketing plan.  If you have a bad business reputation, your #1 priority needs to be about changing your reputation and having a clear evaluation of your customer service.

Some might accuse me of meddling when I work with clients regarding their marketing.  In order to be effective in marketing, one must examine business and sales processes prior to developing an effective Marketing Plan.  To develop your marketing cloud, I need to find out about your business, products and services.  I need to know what you have tried previously in marketing, and find out what was successful and what was not (and why not).  In order to advise you correctly, in short, I need to become your business limited partner.

What does your marketing cloud look like?  Have you examined your current and target customers?  Where do your current customers come from?  If you don’t like your current customers, and you want new target customers, you may have to change how you attract and keep customers.

For help, please contact me.

Allen Beck

AKOR Services

#Marketing #Marketing Cloud #AKORServices #AllenBeck

Copyrighted 2013, All Rights Reserved.