Time for A Marketing Tune-up

If you have been in business any length of time, I can assure you that habits, not conscious thought, are guiding your marketing actions. Many business people are great optimists, or they probably wouldn't have gotten into the game to begin with. They keep doing everything they've ever done in the hope that one day it will produce results. STOP! It's time to get the brain back in the game!

If you are like most people, each time you come across a new marketing idea you add it to your existing approach. You never think to weed out the approaches which haven't yielded any fruit yet. You just keep adding more. Time for that to change!

Marketing strategies and actions tend to accumulate. They hang around and continue to siphon off time from your day (even when they may not be working as well as you'd like). We get into habits of actions. Seldom do we take time in our busy schedule to really assess how we are spending our time.

To improve your marketing, you'll need to clean out some old ways of working.

Start to make this a habit. Every week, at a minimum, schedule time in your busy day for a marketing tune-up. Ask yourself the following questions during that tune-up:

1)What's working in my current marketing efforts?

2)What's not working at all?

3)What's not working as well as it should and how can I improve it?

What's Working?

These showed be hard to find. They are all the marketing actions you are taking which are successfully getting your name in print, driving traffic to your website or blog, making the phone ring, and selling product.

What will we do about these? Keep doing them! In fact, is there a way to expand on a currently successful marketing tactic? Expand the places where you do traditional advertising? Write more articles? Advertise in more women-related ezines? Try to expand the marketing actions that are working.

What's Not Working At All?

Pretty obvious what we should do with these, right? Quit doing them. Don't live on the false hope that someday these tactics will surprise you. You don't have time for that luxury. Concentrate on what's working now and what can be improved.

What's Not Working As Well At It Should & How Can It Be Improved?

Many of your marketing tactics may be yielding results, just not to the level you would like. It's time to assess these and determine ways to improve them. Maybe a lot of traffic is coming to your website but your conversion to sales is small. Then you need to redesign the website. What would make your site more attractive to potential customers? Don't know? Ask them! Add a survey form to your site. Ask your customer what they would like to find on your site. Be as ruthless as you can in assessing your site. Ask others to give you candid advice about your website and LISTEN TO THEM!

In this same way, you will look at every marketing tactic which is yielding results but could do better. As you do this, you will be well on your way to improving the results of your marketing efforts and freeing up time from those actions that are failing you now.

The hardest part of tuning up your marketing efforts is getting started. The time is NOW! Ready?

Michele Schermerhorn has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com), authors a marketing blog (http://www.imarketblog.com), and regularly conducts free online seminars. Online Business Institute Inc. exists to "Create Successful Online Business Owners One Person At A Time".

---

Hello, My Name Is . . . What Your Name Tag Says About You

When you attend networking functions, what kind of name tag... Read More

Trapped in Your Comfort Zone? Break Out and Send Your Marketing Skyrocketing

A marketer whose advice I generally respect recently published an... Read More

Networking the Media

The media is a business's absolute best friend. It is... Read More

Why You Buy, Part Two

More of the findings of the recent studies in behavioral... Read More

Cave Paintings, Baseball and Connecting

There's no such thing as a captive audience--any of us... Read More

Tooting Your Own Horn

"If he who has a thing to sell Goes and... Read More

Six Ways To Attract New Customers To Your Restaurant

Without new business, your restaurant won't be able to grow.... Read More

10 Surefire Ways to Add Sizzle to Your Brochures

Businesses rely on brochures as their front line in communicating... Read More

Direct Mail Response Rates Low? Eliminate These Mistakes

Are your direct mail response rates lower than you expect?... Read More

Baby Boomers - Marketing to the Me Generation

Unless you've been in a dimly lit cavern for the... Read More

Raise Your Income!

How often do you sit around and wonder how to... Read More

Grab Your Audience by Focusing on Benefits

Have you ever chosen to pay attention to someone just... Read More

Global Market in the Cyber world?Go and Get It !

With the Internet opening up the doorway to the global... Read More

Small Business Pricing Strategies

Think the best way to get more customers is to... Read More

Promotions for Mobile Detailers

Mobile businesses are quite unique in the way they must... Read More

Why Instant Gratification Marketing Condemns Businesses To Losing 90% Of Their Potential Customers

Most businesses target only people "ready-to-buy". These hot prospects are... Read More

Discover 7 Hidden Profit Producing Secrets

Would you like to learn the lessons of the businesses... Read More

12 Lessons I Picked Up from Attending Seminars

So you just dropped a tidy sum to attend a... Read More

Promotional Freebies

What's a promotional freebie? A promotional freebie is something you... Read More

Corporate Branding and Trade Shows - 8 Tips for Marketing Managers

Trade shows are part of the marketing mix and the... Read More

Mail Orders Most Common Mistakes

THE GREAT MAIL ORDER MYTH There are a number of... Read More

5 Ways to Market for Immediate Results

Sales are down, and I need more customers now! Sound... Read More

Recipe for Success

Special event and a special recipe- hand it out on... Read More

10 Proven Ways To Accelerate Your Profits

1. Make copies of your web site in many different... Read More

Direct Mail Response Rates Mislead if You are Careless

I could tell you that the average temperature in the... Read More

How to Make Profits With a Commission Mailing Business

There are many mailorder publications that will list... Read More

How to Conduct a Successful Fax Marketing Campaign

1. Focus your fax marketing on one objectiveFax is a... Read More

Getting the Maximum Marketing Mileage Out of Your Nametag

As a small business owner, you must always explore creative... Read More

An Example of Understanding Consumer Thinking

A church in my community provided me with one of... Read More

Want To Be A Stronger Marketer? Work Your Marketing Muscles!

You want to be more flexible? You have to stretch... Read More

The Power of a Survey

How many times have you been asked to participate in... Read More

Are Your Prospects Walking Out on You?

After 11 years in sales, I've put together and delivered... Read More

Cause-Related Marketing

Altruism. Corporate responsibility. Philanthropy. These are often used to describe... Read More