Marketing Big Results With Small $$$

How many times have you wished you had a lot of money to spend on marketing your business or skills just like the big companies? Wouldn’t having thousands or even millions of dollars to spend on advertising and marketing seem like a great idea?

Actually, successful marketing is widely misunderstood. One of the biggest misconceptions is that it takes a lot of money to make it happen.

So what are the great marketing principles that can be implemented for little or no money?

The first, and most important principle to understand is this – marketing is not just a department within your company – it is your entire business. This means that everything you do should be seen as a marketing move.

It also means that everyone in your company is a salesperson for the image of your business. Everything, from how you sound when you answer your phone, to how you look is marketing your business.

Smart business people know this. They know that the janitor is as much a member of their marketing team as anyone else because he is as responsible for how the company looks as is the person who designs the company stationary.

Next, when planning your marketing, don’t just think of your business, think of your skills. There’s a huge difference between the two.

What are you really good at doing? Stop looking at your business description or formal resume titles and think about what you’re good at doing again and again.

Southwest Airlines, like every other airline, is adept at flying people from one place to another. But what they’re really good at is delivering people on time to their destinations and making sure everyone has fun in the process.

One of the biggest mistakes made is a misconception of what a company is really selling.

Ask that question, and the answer you most likely will get will be the description of the product or service of the business. Yet, what we are really selling is not that at all.

What we are selling is a relationship. People buy from other people.

Therefore, people have to want to do business with you the individual or they will go to your competitor.

Satisfying the person, versus the client means really listening to them. It means how to adapt and fit your product or service to them – and not the other way around.

Remember when businesses spoke of their “customers” rather than “consumers?” If you’re thinking, “that was a long time ago,” you’re right.

Many businesses now see their customers as depersonalized consuming machines rather than human being. Worse, more and more businesses believe that sheer technical competence will ensure their success.

Those things that make a person or business popular in the first place are those that will naturally act as powerful marketing tools to create the edge and set you apart from your competition.

Marketing really is a popularity contest that is vital to win.

Finally, be professional, but most of all be personable and likeable.

When people buy you, they’re buying your personality. Credentials, reputation and industry stature are all important to be sure. But if “the chemistry isn’t there,” neither will the purchase.

Remember, good marketing is about relationships and feelings. In bad ones, the feelings are bad. But in good ones, the feelings mean $$.

Marketing Big Results With Small $$$ - To learn more about this author, visit Riley Cardwell's Website.

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