Maybe I just pay attention to marketing more than the average person, but I am continually surprised by the amount of wasted effort and money people spend on marketing. So much so, I thought maybe I would just simplify the process for companies and easily define for them 5 ways to waste their marketing dollars

Wasteful idea #1: Don’t collect email addresses.

One of the most cost effective ways to communicate with clients and prospects is through email. When you don’t spend the effort to ask permission to add your contacts to your email distribution list, you are not utilizing one of the most cost-effective ways to stay in front of them.

Wasteful idea #2: Get big Yellow Page Ads

I am constantly surprised by the amount of money still spent in this area. Do people still think Yellow Pages is worth the money? Come on! I have talked with companies who spend $1,000, $2,000, even $5,000 per month on ads.

Wasteful idea #3: Don’t put effort into your website

Your website is a view into your company 24×7. It speaks for you when you are not there to speak for your company. Many times, it is the first impression a prospect or “influencer” may have for your company. For many of our service clients, one or two new sales in a year as a result of website improvements can more than pay for the effort.

Wasteful idea #4: Sponsor events without purpose

It’s amazing how many opportunities small businesses have to sposor something. A table at a networking event here, or a sponsor at a community event there, or for $$ we will put your logo on this here. Unless you see it worth doing as “good-will” such as an opportunity to give back to your community (which is not marketing any more by the way), you must adhere to a couple of principles: first ask what you should expect as a return on your investment, and secondly ask to speak to someone who has done it before you to make sure they feel it was a good investment for them. Not always does that mean it will be for you, but you can learn an awful lot that way.

Wasteful idea #5: Buy print ads

You want to blow through a marketing budget quickly, buy print ads. They are as expensive as they ever have been, but now there are much more cost effective ways to advertise including Google ads, even Facebook ads if your target audience is found there. Be creative when trying to reach your audience. We have two clients that actually traded ad space. One placed the other’s ad on their website, and the other printed flyers and taped them to their take-out boxes. Little to no cost for each!

These points seem pretty simple when you step back and think about it. Be honest with yourself if you are spending money in the above ways. Are you just doing so because you want to do “something”? Is there a better way to spend your marketing dollars? If you want some help doing it better, give us a call.

And although our monthly email newsletter is titled “Hat Trick” it is more of a play on the hockey phrase as it relates to our name than it is a “tip of the hat” to the game. To be perfectly honest, that is probably all I know about the game – except for one other thing.

The great Wayne Gretzky once said something that has become one of my favorite quotes. He said, “Don’t skate to where the puck is…skate to where the puck will be.”

I love that quote because it says so much in so little. It speaks to me personally in how I try to live my life, but also how I hope we continue to run our business. It puts a focus where it should be. It is the definition of wisdom exemplified: knowing the outcome before it will happen.

So how can we get into this mindset with our business? How can we continue to operate as we need to today, but watch and know where our “puck” will be in the future? Well, would you believe our marketing efforts can help? Here are some thoughts on how.

Plan your marketing for where you want to go, not for where you are today.

It’s hard, I know, when you are muddling in the day-to-day issues of a business to stop and plan, but that is exactly what makes the difference between a long-term, successful business and one that’s short-lived. Market to the type of client you think will help your business long-term. You can certainly “sell” to those you do business with now (and do whatever a client may ask of you), but marketing is a proactive effort – so spend your effort (and your money) on where you see your business going, not on where it is today.

Budget for where you want to go, not for where you are today.

Now this one is easier said than done, but if you have planned correctly as we stated above, then you should have the confidence to spend the money you need to to move the ball forward. I don’t mean spending large sums of money as if you are where you expect to be 10 years from now, but spend to get yourself further down the path. Times are tough, I know first hand, but now is when you can “out-skate” your competition if you know (and are confident) which direction to go.

Speak to where you want to go, not to where you are today.

In your language (both written and verbal) speak like you want your business to be – not necessarily like it is today. Start setting the groundwork now. You will find that people will instinctively pick up on what you are say about yourself – and sharing the message of where you are going will allow those around you to help get you there faster.

Much like hockey, being good at business is about thinking two steps ahead and being at the right place at the right time. Allow your marketing efforts to help you get there. And much like hockey, everyone needs a coach (even the great Wayne Gretzky), so if we can help you in any way – just give us a ring.

Should I be using these tools to market my business?

We suggest the answer to this frequently asked question be a resounding, definite, straightforward, MAYBE!

Let me explain. First let’s start off with explaining that Facebook and Twitter are “social media tools”. Social media appears to be an ambiguous term and there are many different definitions floating around. Our interpretation of social media is web-based technologies used to stimulate social interaction and communication. At the end of the day, Facebook and Twitter are simply “communication tools”, and there are dozens of other “tools” just like them under the social media umbrella.

Now, back to the question at hand: Should I be using these tools to market my business? To answer this question, we refer to our three principles of marketing.

1. How are you different and why would someone what to buy from you?
2. Who is your target audience (in most cases, your buying audience)?
3. How does your target audience prefer to be communicated to?

Answering these three questions is the first step to every marketing initiative, and evaluating an investment into Facebook and Twitter is no different. It is easy to succumb to the peer pressure of Brian Williams and jump right into using Facebook and Twitter, but we are here to tell you….MAYBE!

The marketing principal of “How are You Different” is vitally important, but for this article, we are going to focus more on the “Target Audience” and “Communication Preference” principles.

The biggest attractions to these communication tools seems to be:

1. Everyone else claims they’re doing it, and
2. It’s free…we’ll, kinda

There are a tremendous amount of people, possibly even your target audience, using Facebook and Twitter but you must determine if they are the “right people”. So, you must ask yourself, “Is your target audience on Facebook and/or Twitter?” Both of these tools are Internet based, which means we have a tremendous amount of data to help us answer these questions. Spend some time defining your target audience, and performing research to determine if they are in fact using these either or both of these tools.

This is where the free part comes into question. The tools are free, but there is time required to determine if they are appropriate communication tactics for your business and what your plan is for reaching your target audience. Furthermore, there is time associated with setting up these tools, and actively using them to communicate and participate in conversations with your target audience.

That’s right, having conversations! An important aspect to both Facebook and Twitter is interaction. These are not your traditional one-way broadcast tools like TV or Radio. Those that are your Friends/Fans on Facebook and Followers on Twitter expect to have a virtual conversation with you. If you approach these relationships by just broadcasting information and not interacting, you’ll soon find that no-one is listening!

There is time associated with defining and building the measurement system to evaluate the effectiveness of your social media marketing plan and if you are receiving an appropriate return on investment. There may not be a cost to purchase these tools, but they certainly require planning and strategy along with time to use them properly – and time is money!

So MAYBE! Make sure you address the three principles of marketing and if you conclude that social media marketing is right for your business, spend the time to plan your work and work your plan.
If you are not already, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Correct or not, it has presented an anology that has been used in business over the years and I would like to make the point we see many businesses doing this with their marketing as well.

Here is a common conversation we have with business owners.

3hats: “So tell us what marketing activities you have done in the last 6 months.”
owner: “Well I had an ad in the local coupon pack.”
3hats: “Did it work for you? What was your goal for doing it?”
owner: “I don’t know….”
3hats: “What was your reason for doing it?”
owner: “I don’t know… I guess because my competitor did it.”

Often times business owners take actions with their marketing efforts solely based upon the actions of their competitors. Why is that wrong? Well, even though you are competitors and may offer customers similar products or services, there are many more things different between your businesses. Potentially your budget, your ideal customer, your geographic target area, your capacity, your services, your profit margin on certain products or services, your business model, your business goals, your vision, etc.

Instead, we advise companies to stick to the following for their marketing activities:

Follow your goals

Understand what you are trying to accomplish with your business (as well as your marketing) and stick to it! Set goals for yourself and determine the best ways to accomplish them in the most cost effective way. Know what your competitors are doing, but try not to let that influence the decisions you are making for your business – because as we pointed out above, you may not understand why they are making those decisions and as a result, may not be the right ones for you.

Follow your audience

Make sure you know where your ideal client is looking for the type of products and services you offer, and how they like to be communicated to – then go it ‘em. Be creative in how you reach out to them. Understand under what circumstance do they have a pain you can fix with your product or service and reach them then.

Follow your plan

Almost weekly businesses are presented with new marketing opportunities and new ways to spend their money. Develop a plan and weigh each marketing tactic against that plan. Is this the best way to spend these dollars? Do I know what I can expect as a result of spending this money? Does what I expect align with my business goals?

A little bit of thought and a little bit of discipline with your marketing can go a long way to help you reach your business goals. If you would like to discuss marketing planning or evaluate some of your marketing tactics further, please give us a call.

• what are the objectives?
• what is your expected ROI?
• What tactics will you implement to achieve your objectives?
• How will you measure your tactics to ensure success?

I posted this same question on the Linking Indiana group of LinkedIn and Michael Seidle asked the same question back to me. So, I thought I would blog my response…

We are launching our new marketing campaign this month to guide the growth of Three Hats Marketing. Our campaign is broken down into two primary categories – Branding/Awareness and Lead Generation. We are still a young company so our marketing focus at this point is on awareness and lead generation rather than client retention, staff recruitment or to demonstrate our community involvement. All of which we will use marketing for, but in due time.

We are utilizing social media and networking as our primary tactics to support our objectives. We are utilize tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Smaller Indiana and Facebook to increase our brand awareness and establish relationships with vendors & partners. The measurement of brand awareness is tough, but we use tools like Twitter Search, Technorati & Google Alerts to measure how many conversations we are a part of, and our total impressions on the targeted sites/communities. Additionally, we’ll measure the effectiveness of our brand awareness by the amount and level of quality with our partners and vendors relationships.

As for lead generation, we’ve found that in selling marketing consultation is all about building a relationship and trust. To accomplish this, we’ve identified 5-6 organizations we invest our time in via general attendance and board memberships. The monetary cost associated with networking is relatively low but the time commitment can be high. Keeping in mind that our time has a worth, we have expectations of how much time we invest in each group and measure that against the leads and relationships we are able to establish. Each account manager has a target for active leads and projects and we hit each month.

For Three Hats Marketing, the chase is not found in gaining the most leads/clients but rather the right ones! Our cost per sale can be high – sometimes up to 4-5k, but we are working to build long term relationships and most of our clients are repeat or have annual engagements.

To make sure we stay the course, we are measuring our primary activities monthly and performing more frequent spot checks occasionally. We have some ambitious goals this year and look forward to executing our plan to achieve them!

Have you created your marketing plan for 2009???