For example some shares (offer of the day) could be bought to yield an immediate return, some shares could be bought for a longer but safer term to mature and some are just high risk. A seasoned investor will probably have a portfolio that covers all these options.

To relate this to your business, do you have stock you need to sell immediately (special offers), are you advertising to bring long term brand awareness to your business or are you trying new forms of advertising that has never been tried before in the hope of a large return.

Just like the investor a seasoned marketer would consider marketing over all these sectors, immediate special offers, long-term branding and possibly a small amount of high-risk options. Spread the risk and then measure the return.

However some small businesses see advertising or marketing as an unnecessary expense and tend only to invest in it when sales are low or at start up. This often means they are only marketing for an immediate return, focusing on your special offers just to get customers in. Ironically if a longer-term strategy had been in place, the need for panic advertising might never occurred, sales could be more consistent and the products or services sold could be based more on market prices rather than on specially created deals.

Longer-term marketing is seen every day in the media as the biggest brand names in the world still consistently market themselves even though everyone knows who they are. They know it is cheaper to stay at the top than to get back up there, if their market share slips.

A seasoned investor would also regularly keep in touch with share prices to measure their return on investment. A mistake many businesses make is not to measure their costs against return on sales. Using reference numbers in adverts or just asking the question when receiving phone calls can give you indications of what advertising is working and what is not. You may find that just one simple advert in a local paper is paying you dividends, but the radio advertising is not bringing in anything. How do you know, unless you measure it? You can then adapt to bring the greatest return from the least investment.

Another point that marketing experts agree on, is that customers very rarely buy the first time they see any advertising for a product or service from an “unbranded” business. At best, initial advertising just raises awareness. It is only after the customer becomes familiar with the adverts, product or service, will the decision to buy be made. Of course within “branded” businesses, the trust with the customer is already there, so the decision process is much quicker. So if your potential customers don’t know you, don’t expect immediate custom. This suggests that one off panic advertising may still not bring in the custom you were expecting, even though you have a fantastic priced product or service.

This is also relevant for start up businesses. A typical strategy would be to form the company, put everything in place and then start your marketing. An experienced businessman would start the marketing plan much earlier. Knowing that the initial advertising would just stimulate interest and hopefully real sales would coincide with the true start date of the company.

What type of advertising is the next question? Look at what other successful related businesses are doing, and then do the same but to better standard. The key word here is “successful”. If they are successful, then they are doing things right and have already gone through the measuring stages.

High-risk marketing should only be done, at times when your other marketing strategies can support it, unless you have nerves of steel of course. Certain entrepreneurs have broke world records crossing the Atlantic in boats and hot air balloons and have built international mega brands through clever PR. So the rewards are there if done right but if it is done wrong, can bring no return and even damage a company.

To summarize, if you are running a businesses that is intended to be around for a long time, then see your marketing strategy as a long-term investment. Long-term customer awareness eventually brings word of mouth marketing, which is the best, and cheapest you can get. If you run one off Ad Hoc marketing campaigns, it is unlikely you will get the best return on your campaign until people know who you are, single “one off” adverts in your local paper rarely achieve anything. High-risk advertising is just that, can be fruitful if successful, but can be damaging with little or no return.

Finally, measure and review all your marketing costs against the return you are receiving then change your plan to suit. You wouldn’t invest your life savings on the stock market and not check how much you shares are worth, so why have a different process for your marketing costs.

Creating a marketing plan need not be scary or difficult. It does not require a marketing degree or a lot of experience. You do, however, need to put some quality time into writing your plan. There are different ways to write a marketing plan one of which is to create a marketing plan outline (or single summary page) through a five step process.

5 Steps to Creating a Marketing Plan

Those five steps are:

1. Gather and Analyze Information

2. Verbalize Your Main Challenge(s)

3. Develop Your Website Objective(s)

4. Create Strategies

5. Choose Marketing Programs

As you create your marketing plan fill in the knowledge you gained while developing the five steps.

Step 1: Gather and analyze information.

You will need information about your company, competitors, customers, and other industry players to reference while creating the plan. This includes all you can find about how the Internet is currently being integrated in your industry with respect to products, promotions, pricing structures, and distribution channels. From this information, you can complete industry and SWOT analyses as well as identify your target customers.

Step 2: Verbalize your main challenge(s).

Write down the main Internet related challenges you want to overcome as a result of your plan. Referring to these main challenges will help keep you focused while creating your marketing plan You may even want to write your challenges down in question form – “How do we _____________?”. When your marketing plan is completed, it will answer the question “How do I address these challenges?”

Step 3: Develop your Website objective(s).

The objective addresses the “big picture”. Your objective answers the question “How will I overcome my main marketing challenge(s)?” in broad, general terms. If your company’s main site-related challenge is figuring out how to use your Website to help build client business, for example, an objective for your Website marketing plan could be “To enhance online client service as well as build site awareness and interest with clients.”

Step 4: Create strategies for the marketing plan.

Strategies support your objective, defining the general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, strategies to support the objective outlined in Step 3 could include 1) improve online communication, information, and education, 2) build awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet, and 3) communicate the Website’s existence and advantages to existing clients.

Step 5: Choose marketing programs (tactics).

Marketing programs are where the action takes place – these are the things you will do to bring your strategies to life. Marketing programs to support strategy 2 in the above example (improve online communication, information, and education) could include 1) sharing experience and observations in your industry through participation in discussion boards, 2) offering an email newsletter, and 3) listing/submitting your site to targeted search engines and directories.

The Write Up

Once you have created a marketing plan summary by working through the five steps, there are numerous ways to create an expanded write up. If you are a company employee, there may be existing format and content you must follow. You can find some write up suggestions in “What to Include in Your Marketing Plan Write Up” at http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/Arts/WritePlan.htm [out].

After the initial plan is created, you should treat it as a work in progress. Tweak and adjust as needed in response to changing conditions. Many companies update marketing and business plans annually when developing budgets for the coming year.

Whether you are a one-person shop or part of a good-sized company, having a Website marketing plan can help your business prosper on the Web.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com, and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book “How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business,” ( howmuchforspider.com/TOC.htm ).

© 2002, 2004 Bobette Kyle. All Rights Reserved.

One of the corner-stones of business Philip Kotler defines marketing as human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes. The marketing activities commonly include market research, new product development, product life cycle management, pricing, channel management and promotion.

Two most conspicuous goals of marketing are the acquisition of new customers and the retention of the existing ones. Consequently, the effectiveness of marketing can be quantified and measured in numbers of new customers and new products purchased by the existing ones. Apart from this, there are aspects of marketing effectiveness that cannot be quantified. For instance, the status of a company, its ability to stay at the forefront of the customer’s mind are also considered the benchmarks for testing marketing success.

In today’s fast moving competitive business world measuring marketing performance is crucial to set future business goals, monitor progress, assess effectiveness and align objectives and tactics. To help businesses thrive marketers utilize analytical data to evaluate, recommend, implement and measure marketing initiatives, which can propel the marketing value of the business.

Marketing success is measured by certain performance metrics, which provide insights into better performance management. Some factors within the marketing framework contribute to enhancing performance management. They include aligning activities and resources with strategies and goals, linking marketing performance to financial performance, establishing and maintaining marketing team accountability, integrating and optimizing cross-functional spending, and improving the efficiency of marketing activities.

Many marketing system analysts argue that marketing performance is inherently ambiguous because it is difficult to say what is measured. Without well-defined performance metrics it is problematic to answer the question how the marketers calculate the value of a marketing campaign.

Marketing performance metrics differ depending on whether the aim is to evaluate performance for consumer or business to business companies. To diagnose the performance of both marketing communications such metrics as media effects analysis, integrated marketing communications tracking and customer satisfaction tracking are often employed. Other cutting-edge marketing performance metrics are brand equity and customer equity analyses.

However, depending on the situation different companies can focus on different types of metrics. Thus, efficiency metrics are aimed at describing the cost to execute marketing projects or campaigns, i.e. staff hours per project and cycle time per project. Program metrics are employed to measure effectiveness by comparing the costs and results. Brand metrics are used to measure attitudes related to a product by means of surveys. The knowledge of the brand, preferences for the brand, purchase intentions and product satisfaction enable marketers to predict future purchases. Customer value metrics help to estimate future sales by individual customers and customer segments. Segment results are of special importance because customers from different spheres of business, demographic groups and other categories tend to behave differently. The principle measures here are retention and purchase rate, which are derived from historical data.

It is essential to consider different metrics when building a system for marketing performance measurement.

If you are interested in marketing benchmarks, check Sam Miller new web-site.

Some say they’ve never done marketing and don’t need to because of good word-
of-mouth. Positive word-of-mouth is great, but not enough if you’re serious about
growing your business. Others do invest in marketing yet treat it as a necessary evil.
The problem with that mindset is that it’s driving with the brakes on. Those people
sabotage their efforts by making poor decisions, taking half-measures and often
resisting anything innovative.

When asked about the “one big key” to marketing success I reply that there’s
nothing more important than a “marketing mindset”. A marketing mindset is an
attitude, a way of thinking, that values and embraces the power of marketing. If you
look at the companies and brands that are most successful — Nike, Microsoft,
Virgin, Trump, Saturn, Kenneth Cole, etc — you’ll find someone at the top with a
marketing mindset. People like Trump, Cole, and Virgin’s Richard Branson may have
it instinctively. For most, however, it’s a learned attribute. So, if you don’t have a
marketing mindset yet, keep reading and start to get one.

Follis Fact #1

You need a Marketing Mindset.

Attracting vs. Chasing

A guy sees a beautiful woman in a bar, tracks down her name and number, calls her
up and says, “Hi, my name is Joe and I’m great in bed.” That’s cold calling. Another
guy sees a beautiful woman in a bar and gives her a napkin that says, “I’m Bill and
I’m great in bed.” That’s direct marketing. A third guy sees a beautiful woman in a
bar, has his ex-girlfriend go up to her and say, “See that cute guy over there? He’s
my ex, his name is Tom, and he’s really great in bed.” That’s PR. Last guy walks into
a bar, a beautiful woman approaches him and says, “Hi, my name is Courtney and I
hear you’re really great in bed.” That’s effective marketing.

Attraction is the essence of marketing. When you create enough desire to get your
prospect to come to you, they’ll always be more predisposed to buying.
That bares repeating. When you create enough desire to get your prospect to come
to you, they’ll always be more predisposed to buying. The challenge, of course, is
that your prospect is elusive prey. So, imagine the first rabbit hunters. They’d
exhaust themselves using spears and rocks until a more evolved Neanderthal got
the idea of using carrots. Or, imagine the girl who desperately wants a date, but
can’t understand why she scares guys away when she chases them. Unfortunately,
too many businesses act like that girl chasing for a date by putting lots into selling
and nothing into marketing.

Follis Fact #2

It’s always better to attract than chase.

Expense vs Investment

Those who don’t understand marketing view it as an expense. Those with a
marketing mindset know it’s an investment. They know that, if done right, it can
excite their prospects and produce a great return. “Done right” means well-
researched, well-managed, and generally handled by someone who knows what
they’re doing. Regarding expense, being a small business is a bad excuse to do
nothing. Start small, but do something. There are plenty of cost-effective, non-
traditional ways to do a test. So, if you want to grow, you can’t afford not to develop
a marketing plan.

Determine your Objective and Budget

Like building a house it starts with a solid foundation. Start with a clear objective.
The more specific you make it, the better you can develop an effective plan to
achieve it. If your company has no marketing director to create a plan, get help. A
marketing plan is critical and it involves the analysis of key market factors such as:

o the nature and traits of your product.

o the exact audience you’re targeting.

o the competitive environment.

o the traits of your industry/category.

o the maturity of your business.

o timing.

Your marketing budget depends upon the analysis of these factors as well as your
short and long term objectives. For some businesses, 5% of annual sales
is plenty to invest. For others, 10% may not be enough. Once the marketing goal is
determined it’s easier to determine the budget needed to achieve it.

Have a Great Product

At the risk of stating the obvious, a big key for marketing success is having a great
product. In his best-selling book, Purple Cow, marketing guru Seth Godin calls it,
“being remarkable.” It’s about having a product or service that’s exceptional.

Though many non-remarkable products may seem to do well because of great
marketing, no long-term success can be achieved without a great product. In fact, if
a product is not great, great marketing will usually make it fail faster. People will
buy it, not like it, and never buy it again.

Case in point: Ever see an exciting teaser for an upcoming movie? It can make a lot
of people run out and buy a ticket. The problem starts a couple of weeks later when
folks see the movie, hate it, and then spread the word. Before you know it, the
movie’s gone. Here’s another case. Remember New Coke? If not, you’re not alone. It
didn’t last long. Despite the marketing muscle that Coke put behind it, the Coke-
drinking public decided they were quite happy with the old Coke. Another case
involves a new tropical hotel. Eager to jump-start his business the owner got tour
directors and travel writers to check it out and hopefully generate some good buzz.
Problem was, the hotel wasn’t finished. Had he waited a couple more months he
would’ve gotten great reviews. Now he’ll be lucky if those tour directors and writers
give him another shot.

If businesses spent less energy trying to sell their product and more on improving
it, they’d have more success in the long run.

Follis Fact #3

Great marketing will make a bad product fail faster.

When product, client, and marketing are all exceptional the results can be a
beautiful thing — even if it doesn’t start off that way.

“Let me get this straight…you want my commercial to start with my competitor’s
tagline?”

That was the company president’s response when I presented the concept. I guess I
couldn’t blame him. Recommending that he put $350,000 behind a TV spot that
began with his main competitor’s tagline may not have seemed like the smartest
idea. Yet, I knew my concept was strong — if I could articulate it. But, before I
continue, let me step back and explain the scenario.

Sorrell Ridge Fruit Spreads was an unknown all-natural “spreadable fruit” product
(ie. jam) that had been selling in health food stores. Now, the tiny brand was ready
to battle the big guys on the grocery shelves of America. The main competitor and
undisputed leader in the category was Smucker’s. Smucker’s had a 30-year history
during which it built one of the strongest, most positive brand images in history.
Their tagline, “With a name like Smucker’s it has to be good”, was famous and
endeared by the American public. What’s more, their ad budget was about 20 times
that of tiny Sorrell Ridge. To say we needed a kick-ass campaign is an
understatement. But Smucker’s was vulnerable. Their preserves were mostly high
fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, and little fruit. Sorrell Ridge, on the other hand,
was all fruit. It was a big competitive difference and the stage was set for a classic
David vs. Goliath battle. So, back to our meeting…

“You want my commercial to start with my competitor’s tagline?”

“The idea here isn’t to promote Smucker’s tagline, it’s to dismantle it,” I replied
passionately. The president’s eyebrows raised. I then walked him through the simple
30-second TV spot which opened with the Smucker’s tagline filling the screen…

With a name like Smucker’s it has to be good.

The announcer began: “For 30 years Smucker’s has been telling us they have to be
good. But in fact, Smucker’s Preserves is mostly corn syrup, refined sugar, and only
some fruit.” At the mention of each ingredient a pair of hands popped up from the
bottom of the TV screen and patched over the last line of type, “it has to be good,”
with a succession of modifications starting with “it’s probably good”, to “it might be
good,” and finally, “is it really so good?” We then cut to the Sorrell Ridge jar as the
announcer explained that “Sorrell Ridge is 100% fruit.” The final stake in the heart
was our tagline which played directly off Smucker’s:

Sorrell Ridge. With 100% fruit, it has to be better.

Holding my breath, I glance over at the Sorrell Ridge president who now looked like
a kid on Christmas morning. I then presented a “50 cents off” coupon ad with side-
by-side visuals of each jar positioned under their respective tagline. Like the TV, it
was simple, but compelling, and he loved it. But now came the legal questions.
Could we even do it? After some nail-biting delays, and a few minor copy changes,
the lawyers gave us the green light. But not without stern warnings that there was
no guarantee that Smucker’s wouldn’t sue. To the president’s credit, he pulled the
trigger on the campaign and we held our breath.

We didn’t have to hold it long. Sales spiked and within the month were up a full 90%.
Our thrilled client immediately doubled his media spending by scraping together
every dime he could muster. When the dust finally settled 12 months later, Sorrell
Ridge had a 50% national increase while sales for the entire jams category increased
only 3.5%. The Harvard Business Review wrote it up as a case study and Forbes
wrote it up as a 2-page feature. My partner and I got covered in a dozen trade
publications and appeared live on CNBC. And, despite all our legal fears, Smucker’s
never did take action. Everything we said was true and obviously Smucker’s knew it.
Though they probably could’ve tied us up in court, the last thing they needed was
more press. We simply had a better product and we got the message across in an
exciting way.

Follis Fact #4

The better your product, the better your marketing can be.

© 2005 John Follis. All rights reserved.

John Follis is one of the 12 “Best Advertising Minds of New York” as voted by The New York Ad Club. His campaigns are in 3 college textbooks, he has written for ADWEEK, and he has taught at 3 New York universities. Currently, John works on select projects, consults, and speaks. He may be reached at john@follisinc.com

For John’s booklet: How to Attract and Excite Your Prospects: A Guide for Getting the Best Marketing Results, visit: http://www.follisinc.com/booklet.htm

For consulting info, visit: Marketing Therapy: http://www.follisinc.com/therapy.htm

For speaking info, visit: Follis Speaking: http://www.follisinc.com/speaking.htm

There are similar stories in business.

One example is that of the “Marlboro Man”. Before the Marlboro Man, the Marlboro brand of cigarettes was ranked 31st – almost rock bottom.

After the introduction of the Marlboro Man, and the guerrilla branding campaign to promote it, Marlboro became the #1 brand in a multi-billion dollar industry.

It may shock you how many of the “big business” names (that are now household words) started out as struggling small businesses.

The history of the ascent of these icons is the history of guerrilla marketing.

Until 1984, the principles of guerrilla marketing were known only by a select few people in the world. They jealously kept this information quiet with almost fanatical secrecy. And who can blame them? If you had some special knowledge that allowed you to rise to the top of your field, would you want this information to be made public? Of course not!

The balance of power was dramatically upset by a maverick marketing genius named Jay Conrad Levinson – a man who is arguably the most respected marketer in the world.

He is the man who coined the term “guerrilla marketing” and introduced these secrets to the average Joe (like me). His concepts are so successful that he has published 27 books on the subject (in 37 languages), his books are required reading in the most respected MBA programs in the world, and he is now the most widely read and respected author of business books in the world.

And Jay did all this “from scratch”. That is, the success of the “Guerrilla Marketing” brand is a testament to the very principles Jay himself teaches.

It just so happens that he is also one of the creators of the Marlboro Man. (Think what you will about tobacco, but you can not deny the power of the marketing behind Marlboro – arguably the most successful marketing campaign in history, and the most widely recognized brand in the world.)

So, what then, is Guerrilla Marketing all about?

Let’s take a segment from Jay’s new book “Guerrilla Marketing for the New Millennium” to learn:

“Marketing is absolutely every bit of contact any part of your business has with any segment of the public. Guerrillas view marketing as a circle that begins with your ideas for generating revenue and continues on with the goal of amassing a large number of repeat and referral
customers.

“The three key words in that paragraph are EVERY, REPEAT, and REFERRAL. If your marketing is not a circle, it’s a straight line that leads directly into Chapters 7, 11, or 13 in the bankruptcy courts.

“HOW IS GUERRILLA MARKETING DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL MARKETING?

“Guerrilla marketing means marketing that is unconventional, non-traditional, not by-the-book, and extremely flexible. Eighteen factors make it different from old-fashioned marketing: “

Jay then goes on to list 18 things that separate guerrillas from “mere mortals”.

(See below for info on his new electronic book – it’s recognized as his most powerful work yet – and can’t be found in book stores.)

So, how then, does this information apply to those of us marketing on the Internet?

Far more than you think! The Internet is not just a new guerrilla battlefield – it’s the *ultimate* guerrilla battlefield. There have been more small business mega-success stories in the last 5 years than in the combined history of business.

And there are clearly two factors that have influenced this more than anything:

1. The Internet

2. Guerrilla Marketing

Ever wonder why big businesses are totally blowing it online? Because they are not guerrilla thinkers!

These big bloated bureaucracies are sluggish and set in their ways. This means that someone like you can step in and out-maneuver them. (More and more big businesses are turning to small business entrepreneurs to teach them how to market online – the tables have turned!)

So, start thinking like a guerrilla right now. You have the advantage – all you have to do is take it.

Here’s the definitive place to get started – where you will find an easy to follow step by step plan for launching a “guerrilla attack”! History is full of stories where tiny, unadvanced armies have handily defeated better equipped and much larger armies.

Mark Joyner is the CEO of http://www.markjoynerseminarvideos.official.ws To quickly and easily start using free viral traffic building as he recommends in this article, we recommend you get a copy of these seminar videos.

Most attorneys have some sort of referral network (if only a small one) however; attorneys really don’t know how to manage their lawyer marketing so that their referral network expands. The first step in this expansion is to know where you are and then you can figure out how to get to where you want to go. Yes, it is important to understand the geographics, demographics and psycho-graphics of your referral sources/clients for sure and you need a lawyer marketing management system. By understanding more about how to manage your legal marketing referral sources, you can grow this referral network and boost your attorney marketing efforts with less work on your part.

What Your Expanded Lawyer Marketing Referral Base Delivers To You

What does having this lawyer marketing management system in place mean for you? If you are working your legal marketing referral sources well, you are building a base that will make a significant impact on your bottom line, as I am sure you know. You will be sent more business and be able to retain more quality business that will in turn send you more quality business. You will have an easier time saying no to mediocre or poor cases and holding out for top dollar cases. You can even pass on work that simply does not appeal to you personally if you know that your lawyer marketing referral base will consistently deliver.

Professional marketers know the process of wooing a referral base involves creating “know, like, trust, relationship, credibility, and top of mind awareness (TOMA)” with your legal marketing referral sources. I think you see the benefits clearly so lets move on to giving you the management tool to make it a reality.

Measuring a Lawyer Marketing Referral Base

Lawyer marketing is not always and exact science and that does not keep us from keeping statistics. The “game” of legal marketing will be improved just like keeping statistics in baseball, football or hockey improves performance. The tool we will use consists of four basic lists to measure your legal marketing referral base as it exists currently and see where your attorney marketing time needs to be focused thus putting your resources into those referral sources with the potential for the most return.

The first list is called the “Top 20″ List. If you only have a few lawyer marketing referral sources, obviously, it may only be the Top 10 or even the Top 2 List. But the first objective after listing your top lawyer marketing referral sources is to increase the list to 20 if it is not there already so that is why we call it the Top 20 list. In order to qualify for the Top 20 List, a referral source must have sent you X amount of business in the past year and has hit that level consistently over the last three years. Depending on your practice area, X may be one, two, or three very profitable cases. For example, if you are a PI lawyer you might consider X to equal the referral of at least one case that netted the practice over $25,000 in contingency fees (or set the benchmark higher or lower as you see fit). If you practice residential real estate then X might equal someone who sent you a minimum of 3 closings per month (again you can set this benchmark higher or lower depending on your current situation). Bottom line here is whether for PI, estate planning, family law, or real estate legal marketing, you will know what level is appropriate for your Top 20 level of lawyer marketing attention.

The second list is the “Farm Team” List. Here we are using a baseball metaphor of your Top 20 being the “major leagues” and this second list being the farm team in training for moving up to the big leagues of the Top 20. Your Farm Team List consists of those legal marketing referral sources who are between having at least tried to send you someone up to whatever you have set the threshold of being a Top 20 list member. This trying to send you someone can be as casual as a friend asking if his or her neighbour called you after being given your card by your friend. We all know that lawyer marketing is sometimes this accidental.

The third list is the “Who You Know” List and is similar to any standard networking list. It includes everyone you know, even everyone your spouse knows, as well as those people known by your family and your staff. Take this one out as far as you like. The bigger it gets the better for lawyer marketing.

Finally, there is the lawyer marketing “Categories List”. This is a list of professions and occupations in general that would have the capacity to refer business to you. There are no names on this list, only general occupations/professions. For example, a PI lawyer might list nurses, physical therapists, medical technicians, chiropractors, neurologist, plastic surgeons, orthopaedists etc. while a family lawyer might list psychologists, social workers, marriage counselors, CPAs, hairdressers, real estate lawyers, etc.

Working a Lawyer Marketing Referral Base

Now you have measured your lawyer marketing referral network what do you do with that list? Just to be sure I need to say every lawyer has as their best referral source category other lawyers so be sure to list all other practice areas that would have a particular ability to refer to your practice area on your categories list. Also every lawyer marketing system needs to list “current clients” as a category and put those clients on the Top 20 and Farm Team list as they move out of the Who You Know List since clients should be on the Who You Know List. Also some of your clients are in the categories you have listed and they need particular attention first in legal marketing.

The way you use the list in lawyer marketing is to pay particular attention first to building and maintaining relationships with your Top 20 and Farm Team List members. As you deepen and develop those relationships they will send you more clients than ever before since you are building “know, like, trust, relationship, credibility, and top of mind awareness (TOMA)” with these people. Ask the Top 20 and Farm Team members to introduce you to other people they know in the categories that have the ability to refer to you and they will. See if any of the Who You Know List members are in the categories you are seeking and cultivate those members. See if the Who You Know List members can introduce you to people on your categories list. You get the idea here. Over time you will fill your Top 20 and Farm Team lists thus only have time to devote to maintaining and building from them I am sure. Not sure how to do this entire legal marketing building from a communications perspective? Well, that is the subject of future articles, worth a visit to my website for more information or contact me and we can work on that together. You can master lawyer marketing I am certain.

You can download free now the 125 page Report titled “31 Proven Law Firm Marketing Strategies” by Henry Harlow and much more. You can increase your income; reduce your work hours as you serve your clients better than ever – guaranteed. http://www.Law-Firm-Marketing-Coach.com

1. Defining Marketing
There is clearly a general tendency in employing the notion of Marketing within a confusing mix of Public Relations, Advertising, or Media Planning. Regardless of the degree in evolution and growing of Marketing, many of us still cannot understand what Marketing really is and only see the its extreme manifestations. Many believe Marketing is a useless, fancy field, eating up budgets and giving little in return. Others see Marketing as an artistic field, where all you need is creativity to develop a memorable ad.

2. Marketing is still confused with Communication
This common mistake is, again, the result of sufficient understanding of Marketing. Marketing professionals are often thought to be responsible for creating advertisements, logos, slogans. What people usually see is the mere top of the iceberg, forgetting that there is a product, a price and a distribution strategy to be developed before even thinking of advertising.

3. Under- or overestimating the role of the marketer
On one hand, the marketer is often seen as a must-have within a company, but (s)he has an indefinite role and ends up doing a little of everything (Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Customer Care, Account Management etc.) On the other hand we might be faced with the other extreme, where the marketer is an omniscient, all-powerful creature eclipsing everyone else.

4. Segmentation
In spite of the abundance in resources and consulting services aimed at researching the consumers base, segmentation is still done intuitively at least at small-business level. Large companies might have whole departments assigned to work on segmentation research and strategy, and still not be fully failure-proof.

5. Marketing for the sake of it
This is an attitude I have met in too many occasions not to mention it. People (and again, small-business owners are the usual culprits) do marketing because everyone else does it, because they heard they should do it, because it is a fashionable thing to do.

Surely, the list above is not exhaustive, and it only points at several attitudes leading nowhere on the Marketing battlefield.
Marketing is surely not an art, thought it does employ a certain flaire and creativity. Marketing is not a science either, but it operates with precise instruments. Marketing is not for everyone and not to be performed regardless of the conjuncture around the business.

We should keep in mind that Marketing operations have a clear objective: increasing the profitability of a business. To bring money, to be more clear. Marketing is therefore just as important as everything else in the company: if a product has functional faults we would blame the production department, but when a product does not sell for reasons beyond production it is usually the Marketing department to take the blame.

Otilia is a young certified professional with expertise in e-Marketing, currently working as independent consultant. She has recently launched MarketingWHO.com, a professional Marketing Directory and she publishes TeaWithEdge.com, a Marketing and eMarketing articles portal. You can contact Otilia through her personal web site, BRAINmarketing [http://www.brainmarketing.net].

Although he did not disagree with the concept, he re-focused the discussion on the importance of an enterprise establishing their marketing message and objective even BEFORE contemplating their traditional or Internet marketing strategies. What an excellent point! What about you…

o Have you created a clear and concise marketing message?

o Have you defined your customer benefits and integrated them into your message?

o Have you established a measurable objective to determine your success by?

Your Marketing Objective Defines Your Results

Business owners and marketers have a tendency to think in broad terms about their marketing objective by focusing on ones such as “generating traffic” or “designing a website.” Instead, the effectiveness of their internet marketing strategies should be driven by specific marketing objectives established from the end result required of the business to be economically sustainable.

For example, “generating traffic” is not directly tied to a financial objective like “generating a cost per sale of $75.” The common misperception of “traffic equals sales” has wasted tremendous amounts of business’ capital on poor quality website traffic. In addition some businesses have developed negative attitudes towards Internet marketing by falsely associating poor results to it instead of to a lack of an objective.

Recently a new client described his horror story of spending a significant part of his budget on contracting with a paid search service provider. The resulting paid search campaign was a major failure in terms of satisfying the client management’s net profit objective. Actually, to be precise, the campaign caused a massive negative net profit.

After asking further questions to understand why the situation occurred, I discovered that the blame could not be attributed to the service provider’s failure to perform but instead to the client’s failure to define the correct marketing objective.

The client contracted with the service provider under an objective of “generating traffic” versus “generating a positive net profit.” The goal of “generating a positive net profit” involves a more strategic performance-centered setup and management of a paid search campaign which this particular service provider was not capable of delivering through their business model.

Unfortunately, directed by the client’s defined objective, the service provider delivered massive volumes of paid search “visitor traffic” which failed to satisfy the client’s non-communicated but expected increase in positive net profit.

Your Marketing Objective is the Balance between Determining Success and Failure.

By defining a measurable objective, an internet marketing strategy is regulated by the resulting increase or decrease of it. From this perspective, a simple “yes/no” decision is made as to the success of a particular strategy: “Yes” it achieved the marketing objective and should be maximized; or “No” it fell short of achieving the marketing objective and should be dropped or the message adjusted and tested again. Without a measurable objective, the success of an internet marketing strategy is determined by subjective means versus real data.

A Clear and Concise Marketing Message Ensures Achievement of Your Objective

The marketing message is essential for generating performance from your Internet marketing strategy. Rather on your website, landing page, or paid search ad, the message attracts visitor attention, qualifies the type of visitor and persuades the visitor to complete your defined marketing objective.

An excellent book written by Doug Hall titled, “Jump Start Your Business Brain” outlines three essential components every effective marketing message should include. They are:

1. Overt Benefit: answers the customer-centric question of “what’s in it for me?”

2. Reason to Believe: what persuasive credibility shows that you will do as you promise?

3. Dramatic Difference: what is your uniqueness to the customer?

The rudimentary knowledge gained from these three essentials is that you must focus on your visitor and answer their buying questions. By satisfying your visitor’s needs in a manner that persuades them to buy, they will correspondingly satisfy your needs.

Are You Satisfying Your Visitor’s Needs?

An easy way to assess whether your marketing message is even capable of satisfying your visitor’s needs is to count the number of times your website copy states “you or yours” versus “we and us”. Although primitive, this exercise will immediately tune you in to where your marketing message is directed. If you’re talking more about “we” then about “you” then you’re focusing on the wrong message.

Instead of spending more time on developing a traffic generation strategy, re-focus your time and thinking on developing an effective marketing message with a measurable objective. Ultimately your traffic generation strategy will achieve higher returns and stronger results when you attract the most qualified visitors through an effective marketing message and gain “data-driven” insight from a measurable objective.

Kevin Gold is a Partner and Co-founder of Enhanced Concepts, Inc., which specializes in turning website visitors into leads or sales through tested website conversion strategies and performance-focused search engine marketing. To learn how to generate greater performance from your search engine marketing and to turn more website visitors into leads and sales go to http://www.enhancedconcepts.com

The most successful businesses have a strategic marketing plan in place and they refer to it often. They use it as a living document and not something that sits on the shelf collecting dust.

When developing your strategic marketing plan your first priority should be how you weight the different marketing activities available. Here is a suggested breakdown for you to consider when developing your strategic marketing plan:

Spend about 50% of your time and money on a combination of marketing through organizations and referral marketing.

Spend about 20% of your time and money on doing things related to speaking and teaching and seminar marketing. This part of your strategic marketing plan includes your solo seminars as well as those that you joint venture with accountants and other niche technology providers.

Third priority in your strategic marketing plan is direct mail. Plan to spend about 20% of your time and money on direct mail. Here, targeting is extremely important. In fact targeting is a factor for consideration with all of the elements in your strategic marketing plan.

The last and smallest facet of your strategic marketing plan should be the marketing activities that tend to work for some and not for others. These are all the other types of marketing activities available from door hangers and telemarketing to targeting specific industries. This part of your strategic marketing plan will include a lot of hit and miss items but you won’t know what works until you actually test it.

Bottom Line on Strategic Marketing Plans

Start thinking about building your strategic marketing plan at the very beginning of your business planning exercises. Your strategic marketing plan will hold you on course as you wind your way through the many different marketing techniques available. If you follow the percentages above, your strategic marketing plan will force you to concentrate on proven marketing strategies and only pursue the most risky alternatives in small amounts.

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First and foremost, success in marketing endeavors requires strategic planning. Like a football team preparing for Sunday’s game by watching tapes and running drills, marketing professionals need to research current trends, audiences, public perception, and a variety of other factors to determine the best course of action for success. Strategy is the primary component of the marketing plan because it tells you what your goals are, how you will reach them and how you will know when you have. Without strategy, marketing activities will fall short of their own potential. It is important to establish an objective for each of your tasks, and to ensure that they work to serve each other and the overall goal.

Once the marketing strategy has been determined, it is time to hit the field and begin the game. The marketing game, like most games, involves an offensive side and a defensive side. Clear identification of these two sides and the desired results of each is essential to a cohesive operation of the two together.

The Offensive Side of Marketing

Offensive marketing covers all of the proactive aspects of promotion. These are the operations intended to introduce your company to the target audience. They are the initial steps that you take to plant your image in the minds of the consumer. Offensive marketing is all about branding your company in a unique and memorable way in order to establish yourself for further marketing efforts. The tactics of offensive marketing include:

Press Releases – Well written, properly distributed press releases can serve as the lifeblood of your offensive marketing strategies. The most effective press releases are written in a news format, and pitched to publications that are appropriate to the topic itself, and to your target audience. One press release can do more than a thousand expensive ads in the early phases of your marketing plan if it is done right. Press Releases are important because they establish early credibility for your company or product and pave the way for other messages from you down the road.

Informative Articles – Like a press release, an article has the ability to establish you as a leader in your field and build standing for your company. Articles are different than press releases in a couple of key ways. A press release centers on a newsworthy event. But an article is a written as an informative piece on a topic that is of importance to your company and your customers. Because press releases focus largely on news, they are typically placed in daily or weekly, news-oriented publications. Articles are tailored more toward trade-specific publications or special sections in newspapers.

Special Events – Nothing gets people talking about you and your business early like a special event. Types of special events include charity fundraisers, product rollouts, grand openings, informative presentations and company anniversaries. There are literally hundreds of different types of special events that you could host. The important thing is choosing an event that will appeal to the audience that you need to reach and draw the attention of the media.

Direct Mail – Direct mail campaigns are a unique offensive strategy because they allow you to control your audience, your message and the timing of your delivery. While direct mail alone typically doesn’t yield incredible sales, it is a great way to establish your unique brand by putting your materials directly in the hands of those you are hoping to reach. At the very least, it fosters an early identification with you and your product.

The Defensive Side of Marketing

Defensive marketing covers the reactive strategies of your plan. It is your company’s method of reacting to the effects of the offensive strategies that you implemented earlier. The success of your defensive marketing will be directly related to the quality of your offensive marketing program. Here are some examples of defensive marketing tactics:

Advertising Campaigns – One of the strongest misconceptions in the world of business is that advertising is the most effective (or only) way to draw attention to your product or company. Advertising works best as defensive strategy, building on the effect of your offensive marketing. It should maintain the credible image that you have already established through PR. Advertisements are self-serving, paid endorsements for your company, and your audience approaches every single ad armed with that information. But they are much more likely to believe what you are saying through advertising if they have already been exposed to the message from a secondary source like the media, or have experienced it themselves.

Telemarketing – Telemarketing is an extremely effective way to follow up on a direct mail campaign. It reinforces the preliminary image that you established with your mail piece, and also offers further insight, as well as the opportunity for a sales pitch. An often overlooked function of telemarketing is the phone survey. Telesurveys are very useful for gauging the effectiveness of your overall marketing campaign. They help you to determine audience familiarity and perception of your company.

Websites – A website is a priceless resource, able to inform your customers of all that you have to offer at their own convenience. As a defensive marketing strategy, a website is an excellent tool for creating that second or third contact with your audience by offering them a place to go to learn more. You can monitor traffic on your site to determine what aspects of your business are drawing the most interest. Tracking can also help you optimize your site according to the ways that potential customers are searching for you and your products. Websites today essentially serve as branch locations, with enormous potential for the growth of your company.

Achieving Success in the ‘Marketing Game’

The most successful marketing plans are able to integrate offensive and defensive strategies together on an on-going basis. In these plans, there is seamless interaction between the two sides as they constantly feed and receive from the other. From the outside, the sides blend with cohesion making it very difficult to even identify them as two separate functions. But, from the inside they are clearly identifiable and serve as the basis for success of any marketing program.

KolbeCo Marketing Resources is a St. Charles MO (St. Louis) based marketing and public relations firm. Scott Kolbe has over 10 years experience in the sales, marketing and public relations world.

© KolbeCo Marketing Resources, LLC

Scott Kolbe
KolbeCo Marketing Resources
http://www.kolbeco.net