A Shot of Marketing Focused Energy

While I never actually measured or inquired about his foot size, Ray Barry definitely left me big shoes to fill with this column. He taught us valuable lessons each time he wrote here. I wish him success in his new role at Access and I’ll do my best to continue the standard of excellence he set.

In the context of the work I do within the industry, I observe that many owners and executives find marketing a difficult business priority to implement. While there is intellectual ascent about its importance, proof is limited that marketing is actively engaged as a systematic, nonnegotiable priority within the business. The evidence is a lack of consistent leads.

Conversely, the companies that are actively growing today—and not just resting on their historic laurels—live and breathe marketing as a fundamental business activity. Marketing makes its presence known deliberately and consistently. And the evidence of this priority for these companies is the steady flow of leads into their sales funnels and, as a result, a consistency in the acquisition of new business. If you want to achieve success, marketing must have prominence in your business as well.

So, I’ve taken it upon myself to prod you and push you to elevate marketing to mission critical status in your business. I’m going to provide you with a regular marketing jolt to ensure its importance is never far from your mind.

My goal with each issue is to give you a shot of marketing focused energy—a caffeine-like pick-me-up deliberately designed to provide you a new perspective, practical idea, action item or example to consider and then to implement in your business.

I’ll begin with a marketing structure you can use. Each aspect, while simple, is profoundly important. You need:

• An identifiable and reachable market predisposed to do business with you (You must focus your attention on a select group of somebodies, not on everybody—You most likely don’t have the budget for that. );
• Viable media to reach your select audience;
• Content and a message to deliver to your audience; and
• Defined systems and procedures to attract, organize and manage new prospects, leads, opportunities and clients. (Without these, your marketing investment is lost.)

Evaluate your current marketing plan against these points. Most importantly, you must implement your plan ruthlessly and persistently. This is the secret of success.

Tom Adams is a records and information management and information destruction marketing expert. Check out his regular marketing and training tools at http://TomAdams.com/SDB.