Generating interest in your company, be it an Internet startup or a new local eatery, requires entrepreneurship. Common sense marketing approaches abound, but be prepared to take risks and creatively interpret how those approaches should be applied.
Instructions
1. Lay out a budget for promotions and marketing. If you don't have a strict accounting of how much you put into your promotion efforts, it's very difficult to measure your success. You can use business software, like Quicken, to set up this budget. Get a precise dollar figure for promotions.
2. Read everything you can on the subject. Before pouring your limited resources into promotion venture, learn what avenues are available to you. Examples include cross-promotion (teaming up with another company to reach a mutual customer base), real media promotion (ad spots on billboards, kiosks, newspapers, sides of buses, etc), and virtual media promotion (ads on TV, radio, internet, etc).
3. Create a marketing plan. What do you want people to learn about your business? How can you tie brand promotion in with other sales and marketing efforts? What defines a successful plan and what defines a failure (revenues brought in, brand awareness, ability to drown a competitor's message, and so forth). Use numbers and guidelines.
4. Get good associates and partners on your team. Even if you're running a one man show, you can multiply your efforts by enlisting friends or temporary business partners.
5. Develop pilot programs (miniaturized ad campaigns and/or focus groups) to test various theories about market your brand and product line.
6. Commit to a strategy based on your pilot programs. Create one brand identity and stick with it. Make sure that the one or two messages you send don't contradict or obscure one another.
7. Once you've completed one promotional cycle, audit what you've done so far and make adjustments based on your strategic end plan.
Tags: based your, media promotion, pilot programs