BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Plan to Win

Most business leaders and entrepreneurs want immediate results from their marketing: quick response and instant solutions. So do we. Problem is, planning, research and strategic execution take a bit of time. Here are the points we go through to develop a successful marketing strategy.

• Know your company goals and objectives
• Understand your brand
• Research your customers’ wants, needs and trigger points
• Budget marketing dollars
• Create a marketing plan to reach your customers, project your brand and reach your goals
• Make it look great
• Develop methods to evaluate results against your business goals
• Course correct and keep going!

That’s it! May sound overwhelming but it really isn’t. If you need help building your marketing plan, call us. We can walk you through the process, take the marketing piece off your plate so you can stay focused on all the other things you need to do to build your business.

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Get Your Piece of the Pie

Consumer confidence seems to drop every day and the economic outlook is not too bright. It is difficult for many businesses to make last year numbers, let alone beat them. To remain competitive, this may be the right time to be more aggressive with your marketing. That may sound crazy but hear me out.

When the economy is strong, money flows freely and customers seem to drop out of nowhere. Advertising and marketing make a good thing even better. Even if you make a few mistakes, no big deal, business is great.

Not so in tougher times. During a tight business climate, a typical reaction is to pull back on marketing, staffing, maybe housekeeping and other support functions. When you are not able to easily measure results, it seems logical to eliminate the expense. But that may create further erosion of revenue or sales, certainly not your objective. Holding all expenses, including marketing, to a higher standard make much more sense. Spend wisely to retain market share.

Depending on your product or service, you'll want to build campaigns around value versus price, quality, customer service, payment terms or warranty. If you offer online purchasing, let people know you provide a gasoline-free option, maybe even sweeten the deal with free shipping. Offer features and benefits that make sense to weary consumers. Add some fun, make 'em smile, differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Necessities are taking a larger piece of every customer's budget, their spending pie. Stay in touch with customers, give them a reason to choose you when they do make a purchase. Don't let the other guy get your share of the pie!

OPEN SOURCE & FREEWARE

Free Animation Software

We haven't played around with this one yet but it sure looks like fun. Pencil is a free, open source, drawing/animation program designed for creating traditional 2D hand-drawn animation. If you've ever wanted to try your hand at creating your own animations but couldn't justify investing in expensive software, this is worth checking out.

Take a look at some sample animations on the Pencil Gallery page. It has a thorough online Users Manual and even a forum where you can ask questions of other Pencil users and view tutorials. The application has been pared down to its most essential elements making it easy to use. But it's no lightweight, it produces high-quality animations and drawings. Fun stuff... if you play around with it we'd love to see what you've done. Send us a file or link and we will feature your animation in a future issue of fuse. Download Pencil here. It's free!