Get Your Marketing Wheels in Gear

Marketing Questions Your Team Should Be Discussing Regularly:

1. Are we dedicating enough time to creating new marketing ideas?
2. What is a marketing strategy that works better than it seems like it should?
3. How are we deciding who is in our target market?
4. What is our best marketing tool and why?
5. What is our most cost-effective marketing tool?
6. How are we deciding which media outlets to use?
7. How are we capturing and using comments from satisfied customers?
8. How are we measuring the success of marketing strategies?
9. How has our marketing changed over the past few years?
10. What is the source of our largest frustration related to marketing?
11. What company or organization has the best (coolest, most creative, most cost-effective, etc.) marketing ideas?  Why?
12. What marketing tool or strategy do we need to stop using?

Marketing Ideas to Consider:

• All great marketing starts with a great product or service to market.  Be great.
• Value people first, excellent work second, everything else third.
• Understand the most influential drivers that bring business in, bring business back and drive business away.
• Stay connected with and bring surprise value to your "Torchbearer 23 List" - 23 contacts that carry the torch for you and/or your business. (Read more about Torchbearers below.)  Never ask them for anything, though.  Just stay connected and serve his/her needs when you can.
• Learn where, when and how to start customer relationships.
• Learn where, when and how your competition is starting customer relationships.
• Make the most of your raving fans.
• Foster relationships that will lead to piggy-back, plan B, or other ways to provide value-added options for new customers.
• Create brainstorming moments with your team: Assign an unbiased discussion leader, capture everything, no filters, no initial judgments, pick one or two ideas to try on at low-cost. 

Brainstorming Rules:

• Schedule periodic brainstorming sessions to keep a steady flow of ideas flowing.
• Have an unbiased discussion leader who is in charge of keeping the discussion going.
• Capture everything.  Flip-chart ideas in the moment.  Take a picture of each one when the session is over and save those images for later.
• No filtering of ideas - no matter the cost, the legality, the chance of success, etc.  
• Keep initial judgments quiet.  There will be a time to give pros and cons.  A brainstorming session is not that time.
• At the end of the session, pick a few low to no-cost ideas and try them on.  Also, pick a few that will require resources to implement and make sure those ideas live to be discussed another day.

A Torchbearer:

1. Thirsty for helping company/organization grow.
2. Owns a strong allegiance.
3. Values and fosters relationships.
4. Gains part of identity from organization.
5. Clearly understands his/her role.
6. Knows and believes in company/organization's core values.
7. Speaks positively about the organization, it's leadership and it's members.

These ideas were shared as part one of a three-part series of business development seminars I presented for the BBB Serving Central Oklahoma on May 20, 2015.  Learn more about the series and value the BBB can bring to your business here.