December 2010 Top 5 Marketing Tips

Below are the top 5 marketing tips for December 2010 – simple tips to help you improve the effectiveness of your marketing.

1. Forget your USP and try a UBP – everyone always asks you what your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is but who on earth likes being sold to?  Look at it as a Unique Buying Proposition – what is it about your product or service that will make a prospect want to buy from you!

2. Meet (or exceed) the promise – too many companies focus on ‘the sale’ and don’t maximize the potential lifetime value of clients.  If your product and service lives up to the promise then they will return for ever more – and tell others about you!

3. Understand your environment – we don’t trade within a bubble.  Your business, like it or not, is affected by many external factors such as the economy, social trends, legislation, technology and competitors.  Make sure you know what is going on out there so you can adapt your business, otherwise you will get left behind.

4. Segment your offering – don’t try and sell everything you do to everyone!  Focus on your core offering to a specific target market and drill home that message.  Once you have a client on board you can cross sell additional products and services!

5. Test & measure – it is incredibly difficult to predict what marketing communication activity is going to work so start small and test and measure the results.

The biggest mistake you can make is not measuring the return you get from a specific campaign and continuing to waste money on a flawed concept.

If your return on investment is not acceptable – refine what you are doing and test and measure again.  If it continues to yield low returns – stop doing it and invest in areas that are working.