How up to date is the marketing information you use? I ask you this, because it’s extremely easy to be working hard implementing ideas or using tools, which are so outdated that they have very little potential to help you achieve the bankable sales results you need.
Marketing basics stay the same, but the tools change
Although the basics of marketing have been around for many years, the tools we use to market products and services change all the time; as does the effectiveness of these tools. If you are currently basing your marketing on ideas and insights you garnered even 2 or 3 years ago, there’s a very good chance you are missing out on a stack of great opportunities to boost your sales and reduce your marketing costs.
Mail shots and social media marketing
For example; just a few years ago, response rates from direct mail or mail shots, was lower than it is today and some were even writing it off, (pardon the pun). However, with so much small business marketing now being conducted via email, marketing letters, especially those that have been individually signed, have become a more personal, polished and powerful way to introduce your services to a prospective client or customer.
Most marketing books and programs that are more than 2 years old, totally fail to mention social media as a marketing tool; even though social media is rapidly becoming one of the highest yielding forms of marketing available.
The pace of change these days is such, that marketing books, especially those based around social media marketing, are often out of date within months of being published. Even books written earlier this year, which included how to market your business using services like Facebook or Twitter, will miss all of the new features added to those services this year. The same is true of books and courses on commercial blogging. Yes, many of the basics will be there, but the powerful new features and opportunities will not.
Marketing tip
If you are currently not getting the bankable results you want from your marketing, take a moment to review the information you are using and the assumptions you are making. Examine the various marketing tactics and marketing tools you are using. Are they appropriate for the 2nd half of 2010?