Cre8tive Flow

To have a successful business that makes satisfactory sales and profits requires effective marketing. However good your product may be, if prospects do not hear about it nor buy it, then all your efforts are wasted. Marketing is not just about designing corn flakes box. Successful marketing involves everything that will lead to growing your sales.

This series of articles provide the essential information you need to do successful marketing. There are seven articles in the series and each is about 1000 words long. The guiding principle has been to give you what is essential, to cut out all unnecessary prose, rather than to have you read a huge tome. In this introduction to the series, you will find some important concepts that help you in deciding what is essential. Some of the ideas are controversial and you are encouraged to comment to express either agreement or disagreement with what is written.

Setting Priorities — The Pareto Principle

We all live with constraints. There are limits on what we can do. It may be a question of cash, or skills or just the time available to complete tasks. For maximum effectiveness and indeed to preserve one’s sanity, it is important to have the time available to do what must be done. An Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto just over 100 years ago (in 1906) suggested the principle which can help here. It’s sometimes known as the 80 – 20 rule. He was applying it to wealth. He noted that 80 percent of the property was owned by 20 percent of the population. It is a very powerful principle that can be applied in all kinds of different situations.

Pareto Chart - Comparing percent of wealth against percent of population.

For example you may find that say 10 of the web pages on your 300 web page website bring in 50 percent of the visitor traffic. A first priority should be to look at those 10 web pages and make sure they are very effective in converting visitors into purchasers. Most of the other webpages can be left as a second priority if ever you get the time.

In assessing how to use the time you have, remember Pareto. Do only those things which will give you maximum effect. Thereafter make sure that you are not over-polishing some details that are really not too important. Pareto is something to keep in mind all the time and in many decision situations. Which customers are producing your best returns? Do more for them and do less for those who may even be time-wasters.

Having An Internet Mind Set

The Internet has caused a major change in the way societies and economies function. A large proportion of any population in the Western world will likely be functioning differently because of the Internet. The Internet changes power structures between buyers and sellers. It also means that more and more people will demand openness from agencies and companies. You cannot assume that things work as they did before the Internet was around.

Traditional (pre-Internet) marketing often relied on the push marketing approach. In your face advertisements were not always liked but were often tolerated. Such approaches are now likely to cause an extremely negative reaction. Pull marketing where you make it easy for prospects to contact you, when they wish, is the only effective way. Traditional marketing methods still have a role to play, but they should be carefully integrated with online efforts.

The Internet is very crowded

The Internet is superb for helping people to make connections with others. The problem is that, as more and more people use the Internet, it becomes a very crowded place. Luckily Google and other search engines do a great job of indexing the Internet and helping searchers to find what they are looking for. The computer-based search algorithms that the search engines use have their limitations. In order to be found via the algorithm, your website must be constructed so as to be search engine friendly.

Most websites will find more than two thirds of their traffic will come via Google keyword searches. It is a source of traffic that must be given some priority in assessing where efforts should be directed.

The Series Contents

The seven articles presented here cover what should be included in a marketing plan for a business startup. If your business is already off and running, it may be wise to re-examine some of the fundamental decisions which will be discussed here.

The list of article headings runs as follows:

1. Time Is Of The Essence

The concept of time has many important definitions, many of which have their impact on marketing. One of the most important is time as judged by the customer. It is the most important quality criterion but is often neglected.

2 . The Customer Is The Boss

More than ever the Internet puts the customer in the driving seat. Successful companies will adopt a customer centric viewpoint rather than just assuming that producing fine products is enough.

3. First Things First – The Plan

Scarce resources can only be applied effectively when a clear strategy has been selected. This should define why prospects should buy from your company rather than from the competition. With such a strategy, an action plan can be defined that sets out a suitably rapid timeline and a survivable cash flow schedule.

4. The Blog

A key part of the marketing process is dialogue with prospects and customers. This is most easily achieved with a company blog. Such blogs can also be extremely search engine visible. Many small and midsized companies, particularly in the service area, may find this is the only online presence they need. A traditional website is not needed.

5. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

In a pull marketing world, where prospects are searching for suppliers, search engines provide important channels. A full range of marketing initiatives are necessary to ensure search engine visibility.

6. Social Media Marketing(SMM)

Given that the Internet provides the best possible networking infrastructure, it is important to harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing that is available through social media, such as FaceBook and YouTube and so many others.

7. Grow Your Business

Marketing can grow the business by keenly listening to customers and learning from results. Fortunately the Internet with the indelible footprints that prospects leave provides detailed data to determine exactly what happened and how it can be improved.

Author’s Postscript

If you would like to know what I believe to be critically important in marketing, I thought a short video summary might help. The title is Marketing Right Now.