11 Steps to Marketing Success

Marketing is a critical component of any business whether it is focused on attracting new business or retaining existing customers. And like any other business activity it must be managed to ensure its effectiveness and avoid wasted resources. The points below are building blocks of successful marketing. Click on the bullet heading to view the entire article.

1. Define Your Target Market – Knowing your customer is the key to providing service that will attract new customers and keep existing ones. Being a ‘Jack of All Trades’ dilutes your service offering, diminishes the quality of what you provide and can negatively impact profitability.
2. Know How to Reach Your Target Market – Being in the right place at the right time requires knowing what the right place is. Delivering the right message in the right place requires knowing what is important to your target market.
3. Develop a Marketing Strategy – The most effective marketing strategies promote the things that differentiate a company from the competition. Define your marketing message so that it will highlight your competitive advantage and pique the interest of your target market.
4. State your Marketing Objectives – Objectives are statements of what you want to accomplish through your marketing efforts. The goals must be realistic, achievable, specific and measurable.
5. Clearly Define Your Marketing Programs – It is important to state a clear objective and target audience when defining a marketing campaign. The more focused the campaign – the better the return on investment. If the goals of a marketing effort are not stated the results cannot be measured.
6. Make a Written Marketing Plan – A marketing plan takes the decisions that were made in defining and reaching the target market,  marketing strategy and marketing objectives and formulates them into a detailed plan including the dates they will be executed, costs incurred and projected results. The marketing plan should be developed annually and adjusted no less than quarterly. 
7. Know Your Customer Acquisition and Retention Rates – The effective use of customer attrition, retention and acquisition rates involves applying them in the successful allocation of marketing resources. Sales and marketing efforts must at least attract enough new business to replace the lost business. Developing marketing programs and sales projections with this goal in mind will enable higher quality forecasts and plans
8. Make the Most of Online Marketing – Is your website optimized for search engines? Search engine optimization is about telling people you’re there. A great website will be ineffective if no one visits it.
9. Reap the Benefits of Online Reviews – Online reviews can increase awareness of your business, boost search engine rankings and bring business to your company.  Studies have shown that a large percentage of people that evaluate automotive service offerings are significantly influenced by online reviews.
10. Match and Beat the Competition – Understanding the competition and knowing how best to deal with their efforts are the makings of a good defense. But a winning offense must be included in the development of a successful strategy.
11. Evaluate Your Marketing Results – Without understanding the return on investment (ROI) of marketing programs, critical resources can be misdirected and poorly utilized. To this end, measurement capabilities must be built into the program at the point it’s established.