Article contributed by Helen Down.
Sport’s clothing giant Nike was definitely on to something when they adopted the slogan ‘Just do it’. Because merely talking about it, buying the right shoes or paying a gym membership will not make you fit. You need to get off your chair, get out there and get your heart pumping. Marketing is much the same. All the time and resource spent on business plans, marketing meetings, and developing your database, amounts to nothing if your marketing efforts don’t reach your customers or potential customers on the ground.
Some common examples of how businesses can lose sight of what they’re trying to achieve with their marketing and how their execution lets them down, include:
- Collecting names and contact addresses of their customers and not doing anything with them
- Advertising a certain product, service or special offer but not informing sales staff of the details, or failing to adequately train them in the art of selling
- Developing a website and expecting lots of hits, without promoting it in any way or optimising it for search engines
- Promoting a product, service or special offer in the media, then having nothing in-store to support the promotion e.g. signage, posters, point of sale material, window display, sales scripts
- Or simply just talking about marketing and maintaining they are too busy to actually implement it.
In the words of Henry Ford, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do”.
Marketing is not just a part time activity that you pick up when you have a quiet moment. It impacts every part of your business and drives your sales. And to be effective, your marketing message needs to reach your customers and influence their behaviour.
