SMART MARKETING: Results-Oriented Marketing Practices

The process of marketing our services should, at best, be engaged in pro-
actively. For smaller- and medium-sized businesses and sometimes even for big businesses, the marketing process is often handled reactively. The difference very often doesn’t show up in the execution. It shows up in the results.

In order for marketing to take place proactively, there should be a marketing plan executed that aims at clearly defined goals and objectives. This takes time, effort and some fundamental knowledge of the marketing process. That’s probably why so few businesspeople do one.

There are a few things that you absolutely must know in order to develop and implement an even potentially successful marketing plan.

DEVISING A PLAN. First, you need to know your budget. How much, either in total dollars or as a percentage of revenues, are you going to commit to investing in the growth of your business? I have learned that depending on size and scope, businesses in our industry invest from 3 percent (abysmally low) to 10 percent (abnormally high) of gross revenues in marketing. This is all about money.

Second, you should clearly understand the elements of time and space your marketing effort should cover. How long will you be engaging in marketing your services (not including direct selling, of course) and how far need your message(s) reach? Some companies try to be out there all the time, while others concentrate their efforts during specific periods of the year. Some try to cover the world, while others focus on a tight geographical area. These are what I call the "calendar" and "map" issues.

Third, you should know (as much as humanly possible), who the target of your marketing will be. This is absolutely essential to the success of your effort. If you’re crafting a message to which men will relate, but are placing that message in front of women, in simple terms, you’re missing your target and throwing your money away. Feminine hygiene products are not advertised during football games! Beer ads don’t run during Oprah! This is basic. This is the human element.

Finally, try as best you can to condense your marketing message point(s) down into a single, easily consumable thought or idea. Don’t attempt to cram too much into one message. Consumers are barraged with information and need to be "talked to" in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Of course, you need to incorporate that single idea into everything you do. This is the creative component.

SUCCESSFUL MARKETING. There are four additional aspects that must be considered when attempting to a successful marketing plan. They are reach, frequency, effectiveness and efficiency. You can’t opt for two or three of these any more than you can for less than all four of the above-mentioned considerations.

Reach is about how much of your target marketing population you can touch with your message. Frequency addresses how often each of those folks is exposed to your message. Effectiveness involves not whether you’re saying the right things but whether your audience is hearing the right things. Efficiency has to do with how much all of this is costing you in relation to your return on investment.

Briefly, over-the-air network affiliate television reaches more people than any other single medium but it’s expensive, so most businesses can’t do much of it. Radio is more of a frequency medium. You don’t touch as many people, but those you do touch you touch more often. Print is effective because you can cut it out, carry it with you, stick in on your refrigerator and keep it around for when you need it but it only touches a relatively small universe of people. Outdoor advertising is efficient because each exposure costs less than most other media, but you can only put a very brief message before the customer. And this all doesn’t even begin to address things like direct marketing, point-of-sale materials, discounts and other incentives, structured referral programs, the Internet, premiums and specialties, customer retention activities, etc. It’s confusing and there are no simple answers. It seems like for every positive there’s a corresponding negative, so there’s no obvious solution. It gets even more frustrating when people think they know what to do based on their own likes and dislikes. Try to keep in mind that your tastes are not necessarily the same as those of your customers. And watch out for that especially glib marketing services sales representative. These folks, convincing though they may be, do not necessarily have your best interests at heart. They’re interest is in selling you whatever they’re selling you and that’s it!

Your job, or the job of the person or people you’ve hired for this purpose, is to create a marketing plan that best addresses all of these criteria, characteristics and issues. Once you’ve done that to your satisfaction, give it time to work and then measure your results.

The author is vice president of marketing/public relations for Massey Services Inc., Maitland, Fla. He can be reached via e-mail at