Strategic Marketing: Developing Innovative and Creative Customer-Centric Strategic Marketing Plans

Introduction

Organizations that are successfully executing customer-centric strategies while seeking competitive edges and innovative strategies do one thing in common that will lead to their long term success:

They place the customer as the prime reason for every action they take within the organization. From the accounting department, through production and sales, into marketing and even the executive boardroom the customer is the most important focus for each and every activity that occurs.

In order to do this effectively the organization must develop a marketing plan that creatively incorporates customer values on many different levels.

The Marketing Plan

The successful entrepreneurs know that they have an advantage over the larger companies when it comes to the customer. They have the ability to get to know each and every client by collecting as much information about their spending habits, as well as their personal preferences and then utilizing that information to make the customer feel special. The larger companies often are focused on a greater mass-market target and cannot target individually, but the small companies run by the smart people, know how essential it is to take the time to get to know the customer and everything about them.

The Marketing Mix

Every successful marketing plan must encompass at least the following four essential points through answering these questions:

1) Product - What kind of product or service will meet the target market needs?

2) Place (Distribution) - How can we get the product/service to the customer in an efficient and timely manner?

3) Price - What kind of pricing system will best fit the needs of the market to induce maximum sales profitability and maximum customer satisfaction?

4) Promotion - What kind of marketing strategies will be most successful in getting the message to the target segment?

Do all marketing strategies need to be expensive? Not anymore. Even the company of one can develop excellent affordable marketing plans by utilizing guerilla marketing strategies.

Guerilla Marketing Strategies

L. Conrad Levinson wrote a book about "guerilla Marketing" a few years back where he explained how small companies can battle the bigger, more slow-moving entities through cheap marketing tactics. The prime points he specified are as follows:

1) Find a niche market and fill that market. - Trying to be everything to everyone will fail.

2) Don't just sell, entertain the client. - Provide added-value experience through "atmospherics".

3) Be unique in your product, service, and how you offer. - This will get you remembered and the customer will come to you to see what is different.

4) Create a business identitythat the customer can relate to. - People like relating to things.

5) Connect with customers on an emotional level. - It has been proven that 72% of all purchases are made on impulse regardless of how much prior research is done on a product in advance, therefore target the impulse triggers: emotions.

By focusing everything on the customer, the guerilla marketer will create an unforgettable experience for the customer which will bring them back.

Market Research

Small companies can utilize very few resources and develop comprehensive market research in order to design their business plan. The internet is an excellent way of collecting cheap, detailed information on the market segments that the company wants to get involved in.Perform the due diligence to collect as much information as possible on the market, the segment, the clients, the products and the services bydefining theproblem and thenthinking about how to solve that problem. Here are some steps on what kind of information to collect:

1) Collect the market data on individuals. - The ultimate market niche is "one to one" where companies can target individuals to design products that meet their special needs. Dell Computers is an excellent example of this kind of marketing.

2) Provide detailed product and service information to the customer. - This will allow them to make comparisons on the rival offerings and give feedback to the company.

3) Improve service through following through on customer complaints. - It is difficult to "fix" something that is right, but it is important to "fix" something that is wrong. If you accept complaints gracefully and then act on them, solving them and reporting back to the client, you can improve the product/service and show them that their voice was important. This customer-centric feedback will impress the customer.

4) Astonish customers through exemplary service and products. - Don't just sell them something they need, make them so absolutely happy with the product that they utilize the most powerful marketing technique: word-of-mouth to spread the word to their friends. Dissatisfaction kills business far faster than satisfaction produces it.

5) Know the customer's buying cycles and time releases. - Develop a "Just in Time Marketing" system to decrease wasted costs through inventory control and bring only that which the customer wants to the market when they want it. This is an excellent way to cut costs and gain a competitive advantage.

6) Calculate the long term value of each client. - It is possible to determine which customers are profitable and which are not through simple calculations. Spend more time and effort on your profitable clients, and let the less-profitable ones go away to the competition. Frank Purdue developed a very good way to determine how much buying power his average customer had over their shopping lifetime and he then developed a system that focused on them.

7) Collect personal information about the customer. - Learn what customers like and dislike and increase their target likes. Get to know their names and thank them personally at the cash register to make them feel special. Use membership cards for this purpose. Note the names on credit cards at the register and offer thanks (e.g. "Thank you Mrs. Dill, please come again."). Make the customer feel good about coming into the business and making a purchase.

It is possible through data mining techniques to gather huge amounts of "competitive advantage data" through mining, or looking through the customer buying habits on the data base and making relational correlations to products and services. Use that information wisely to improve the circumstances for the customer.

Pinpoint Target Marketing

Larger companies tend to market more to the masses. If a customer's tastes are different, they must compromise their needs and buy something that is not exactly what they want. The smart entrepreneur can exploit this hole in the marketing plan by pinpointing a target market that is very specific, determining how they can fill that hole by meeting the specific needs of the customer with their product or service. They can then create a clear image of the target and jump in to excite the customer.

Relational Marketing

As previously discussed, one of the most important things a company can do is to develop a long-term personal relationship with each customer through the use of a variety of tools. As clients continue to return and make repeat purchases the per-customer cost for advertising decreases dramatically. It costs five times as much to get one new customer to buy as it does to get a repeat customer to make the same purchase.

By creating these personal relationships the customer will give the company a huge amount of data that can then be fit into the marketing plan so that the needs are met even better than before. As we get to know the client, they will provide us with more personal information which can then be used to provide personal marketing to each and every client (birthday discounts, anniversary sales, etc.) Their feedback is one of the most valuable "purchases" that the company can make therefore it is essential to invest in every action possible to gain their confidence. Once again, make the customer feel special, important, and satisfied. Small companies have the means to do this while large companies tend not to. Capitalizing upon this difference will allow the smart entrepreneur to gain a bigger customer base and improve profits.

Plotting a Market Strategy and Building the Competitive Edge

Companies that want to develop a competitive edge focus on the customer in the following ways:

1) Focus on the customer, not the product. - 67% of all lost business is due to a rude employee. 96% of all dissatisfied customers will never tell the company why they are dissatisfied and 91% of them will never buy again. 100% of unhappy customers will tell at least nine people of their dissatisfaction and this is a huge loss to business. Poor treatment loses 15-30% of all gross sales so by cutting the losses in profits through expending money, time and resources on creating very happy customers, in the end the company cuts costs and improves profits. It is essential to build this into the employees on a very deep level so the concept is not just "lip service". Ask the customer what can be done to improve.

2) Develop quality in products and services, not as the company defines it, but as the customer sees it. - This must be a Total Quality Management development that works its way through every single aspect of the business and every single relationship. There must be a continual drive for quality improvement in everything.

3) Make the experience as convenient as possible for the consumer. - Develop convenient locations for the customer to shop. Make the shopping hours convenient and appropriate to the market segment. Offer special services such as valet parking or a pick up and drop off service. Make payment easy and pain free. Be polite, efficient and speedy in every transaction. Allow employees to make their own decisions to solve problems rather than always having to look for a supervisor. Focus on the customer.

4) Concentrate on innovative products/services. - This is importantin order to continually excite the customer and keep them coming back for more. It also keeps the rivals one step behind. This is one of the greatest strengths of entrepreneurism.

5) Dedicate every aspect of the business and every single personnel in the company to service and customer satisfaction. - Astonish customers. Listen to them. Define superior service in their mind. Set standards and measure the performance against them. Hire the right employees and train them. Use technology to improve service. Reward employee superior service to empower them to work harder on customer satisfaction. Get top management support and not just lip service. View the customers as an investment and not as an expense.

6) Emphasize speed in every aspect of the business. - Most individuals have "no time" to wait and would rather go somewhere else than waste a minute or so anywhere in the purchase experience (parking, looking for goods, asking questions about prices, checkout, bagging, etc.). Reengineer all processes in the business to speed things up by cutting out waste. Create cross-functional teams to solve problems creatively and innovatively. Set difficult to achieve goals and push for them, sticking to the schedules. Redesign the supply chain (Wal-Mart is the God of supply chain efficiency). Use the latest technology to speed up all aspects of work.

It is absolutely essential that the company ingrains this into the essence ofeach and every employee in the business. This includes the executives, the managers, the HR department, accounting,the line workers; everyone must be devoted to the customer be prepared to do whatever it takes to delight them.

Understanding the Product Life Cycle

It is essential for a successful marketing attack to understand that like people, all products have a lifecycle that affects the profitability from sales:

1) Introduction Stage. - Customers are hesitant at first but then excited. The company must spend a lot of money at this stage on product development, marketing and distribution. This is a capital-heavy time.

2) Growth and Acceptance Stage. - Product becomes known and marketing costs decrease. Repeat purchases increase raising profitability to the maximum level.

3) Maturity and Competition Stage. - Other companies enter the market to take a piece of the pie. Profits peak here because more money must be spent on marketing tools to keep the customers from defecting to the competition. Competition forces prices down, and organizations need to find ways to cut costs in order to maintain profits.

4) Market Saturation Stage. - At this stage the market reaches maximum saturation, costs must be cut to continue profitability. Profits decline and the product loses some appeal.

5) Product Decline Stage. - New and more innovative products enter the market to replace the older products. Customers migrate to the newer technology and improved quality, service and lower price. The product enters the death phase and profitability is usually negative.

The entrepreneur that understands this cycle will be able to develop a timely exit strategy in order to leave the market before they start to lose more than they make, and before the rivals leave, forcing the barriers to exit higher. This strategy must be planned during the overall strategic marketing plan that the company develops into the business model.

Conclusion

Everything discussed above has one common thread: the customer is king and all attention should be focused on making the customer as comfortable, as happy, and as satisfied as possible while not only meeting their needs, but exceeding them. There are many ways to achieve this outcome and all of these tools should be employed to exceed the needs and expectations of clientele.

"To prosper while exceeding the needs and expectations of clientele and associates in all aspects of cooperation through mutually beneficial Win-Win agreements." - Intrmarket Solutions Mission Statement

Guerilla Marketing Rules and Regulations

Following the rules is an important step in guerilla marketing. Some people view guerilla marketing tactics as too aggressive, and many a marketer has been threatened with legal action.

However, if you're familiar with what you can and cannot do, you will not have to worry about this. Make sure you protect yourself!

Fairness In Advertising

Honesty is still the best policy. Consumers don't appreciate being lied to, and nothing spreads faster -- both online and in your community -- than news of a dishonest business.

Therefore, it's important that you practice fairness in advertising.

What it Means

Fairness in advertising is really a simple concept: don't claim your product or service does something that it doesn't. For example, a diet pill company claiming their product will "make you lose 50 pounds overnight!" is clearly mistaken -- this is a physical impossibility, unless you amputate your legs. Even with a quantifier like "practically" or "almost" (You'll lose 50 pounds practically overnight!), the statement remains implausible. Every person's idea of "practically" is different.

What would be fair for our fictitious diet pill company to claim? It depends on what the product actually does. In this scenario, the company may be able to state that their diet pill helps you lose weight "faster than the leading brands" or even that you may notice results "practically overnight" (not 50 pounds worth of results, of course!).

Your wording is essential when practicing fairness in advertising. You can get creative, but there is a fine line between creativity and false claims. In most cases, it's best to let your product or service speak for itself.

Customer testimonials are an excellent way to incorporate fairness in advertising. Getting real statements from the people who have used your product or service not only keeps you honest, but also allows consumers to trust you more, because the opinions are coming from someone who has no vested interest in your business.

Don't lie to your customers, and they will thank you with their business.

One of the most pervasive myths in online advertising today is this: the more people you e-mail, the more money you'll make. But if you're using bulk e-mail to get there, you're on the wrong track.

No one likes spam. In the Internet world, the term "spam" refers to any e-mail advertising a product or service that you did not ask to receive (and not the lunchmeat-in-a-can pictured above). There are a lot of marketing "gurus" who insist that sending cold bulk e-mails still gets results -- and that may have been true when the Internet was still in its infancy, but today's online community is more perceptive than ever, and it's almost impossible to slip by the collective spam radar.

If you look, you can find several hundred places that will sell you lists of thousands of e-mail addresses for a few dollars. The temptation to buy these lists is strong... who can resist thousands of potential customers in one shot, without the many hours of research it takes to build a solid opt-in list of your own?

You can! Here's why you should:

• Spamming alienates potential customers. When people receive spam, often their first reaction is to delete it unread, and most will block all further communication from that particular e-mail address: yours.
• Many Internet users hate spam so much, they will take action to shut you down. This can range from reporting you to your ISP (Internet service provider), to flaming (sending hate mail) or "mail bombs" (sending hundreds or thousands of files with very large attachments designed to crash your server).
• Your business can be blacklisted. There is an actual Internet advertiser's blacklist that warns consumers about spammers, and you don't want to be connected with that list.
• Spamming just plain doesn't work! There are so many dangerous scams online today that most Internet users are reluctant to even open any unsolicited messages. Even if you write the most brilliant and enticing advertising message in the world, if you send it through bulk e-mail, no one will ever read it.

In short: don't spam. Do the work and create your own list of people who actually want to hear what you have to say. Your business will benefit enormously, and you won't be branded as a charlatan.

 

Weird Laws and Ordinances

As a guerilla marketer, it's important for you to obey the law. If a customer feels you are trying to con them, skirt legal issues, or harass them into buying your product or service, you could end up with a lot more trouble than a lost sale.

You can familiarize yourself with basic marketing dos and don'ts through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the government organization that regulates and protects consumers in the United States.

Does your city or state have strange laws that forbid a certain guerilla marketing method? Here is a sampling of some laws that might hinder your marketing efforts:

• In Alabama, it is illegal to impersonate a person of the clergy -- so don't dress up as a priest to promote your business.
• You can be fined $25 for flirting in New York. Beware of approaching strangers!
• Speaking of truth in advertising, a jail term of up to one year awaits you in Louisiana for making a false promise.
• Watch out, mobile billboard advertisers in Ohio: the Ohio driver's education manual states that you must honk the horn when you pass another vehicle.
• In Texas, it is illegal to sell one's eye. Keep your body parts close at hand.
• Florida forbids "unnatural acts" with another person... so forget playing Twister on the sidewalk. Also, it's illegal to skateboard without a license.
• Unless you own at least two cows, you may not wear cowboy boots in California.
• Seasonal business owners should note that in Maine, you will be fined for displaying Christmas decorations after January 14.
• Your profits will come in handy in Illinois, where you can be arrested for vagrancy if you don't have at least one dollar on your person.

What strange laws does your state have? Perhaps one of them will give you an idea for your guerilla marketing campaign!

Advice On Advantages And Disadvantages Of Guerilla Marketing

We'll start with the good stuff:

o Guerilla marketing is cheap. At the high end, you may end up investing a few hundred dollars in promotional items or a major, centralized piece that you can build a number of different campaigns around. At the low end, it's free -- and you can't beat free!

o In addition to growing your business, guerilla marketing involves networking, both with your customers and with other businesses. In the process of executing and maintaining your campaign, you will make a lot of new friends and allies.

o Guerilla marketing is specifically tailored to meet the needs of small businesses, whereas traditional advertising venues are complicated and expensive to the point of exclusion (bordering on snobbishness).

o Many aspects of creative guerilla marketing campaigns are just plain fun! You get to perform wacky stunts and engage in unusual activities, all in the name of working for a living.

o Guerilla marketing works. If you do your research, plan your campaign, and stick with it, you will more than likely end up with a better and more profitable business.

And now, the not so good:

o Guerilla marketing works -- but it is not completely fail safe. It is, after all, advertising; which is far from an exact science. The number of variables involved in advertising guarantees that nothing is 100 percent effective.

oAs with any advertising campaign, you will not be able to pinpoint exactly what works and what does not. Obtaining measurable results is difficult (but not impossible, unlike other marketing techniques).

o Guerilla marketing requires a greater level of dedication and energy than traditional advertising venues, which often consist of throwing large amounts of money at other people to do the work for you.

o If you are looking for a quick fix, guerilla marketing is not your solution. You will not see instant or overnight results stemming from your efforts. An investment of time is required in order to achieve your business sales goals.

o Guerilla marketing is not for the thin-skinned or faint of heart. At the very least, you will have a few detractors who find fault in your methods. At worst, you may be threatened with legal action (which is why it's so important to check your local laws before engaging in a guerilla marketing campaign).

Guerilla Business Plan

If you have been thinking of starting a business or already have one running, you need to be aware that a business plan is totally essential to your success.A good marketing plan is crucial to any business, but especially to a business just starting out. Equally important is a new business owner who wants to begin their business with an ethical, positive attitude, an attainable goal, and the means to reach it.

So how do you do it? This excellent marketing system gives five basic principles to cause your business to strive for those goals and then maintain or even exceed those goals.

o Have a good quality product or service. This may seem obvious to many but it can never become too important. If the quality is above average and doesn't wane, customers will come to know that and reward that business with their faithful repeat visits.

o Put your customers first. If the customer is made to feel special, and they can see that the business is serious in serving them, they will continue to return and bring friends with them.

o Determine, find, and then speak to your targeted market. Blanket advertising is minimal in reaching your targeted customer base and one of the most expensive advertising techniques. Stay within your niche for the most effective marketing results.

o Use business cards, flyers, newsletters, and promotional literature with your face-to-face customers always. Customers won't remember to tell others about your product if they can't remember what was special about it or where they got it.

o Listen and respond to your customers promptly. Remedy any complaint immediately to satisfy the customer. If there are numerous complaints regarding the same product or service, the business may need to reevaluate their product or method. Negative word of mouth advertising can be extremely expensive.

A business plan will give you a plan of action to closely follow in attaining your business and financial goals. Beginning a new business isn't easy. It can be expensive, time consuming, and very stressful. Those who have done it know that. That's why the wisest new business owners have used Guerilla Marketing 101. It cuts through the trial and error and has saved many businesses thousands in potential lost revenue. Click here to let us show you how you can avoid the pitfalls of past failed businesses.

If you don't have a business plan, take a few minutes each night for the next week to work on one. It cold make the difference in your business.

By the way, do you want to learn more about using articles like this to drive traffic to your website and increase online conversions?

Context is King! When Guerilla Marketing Crosses the Line

If you've been reading a lot of online marketing blogs, you've no doubt heard many espouse the benefits of generating lots of content to help bolster your SEO efforts. The phrase "Content is King!" is being discussed as the cornerstone of any online marketing effort but the reality is content, in and of itself, will not guarantee success in your internet marketing endeavors. Rather, marketers should place more emphasis in the context of your content to ensure your message resonates with established audiences across the web.

By the same token, businesses engaged in guerilla marketing should pay heed to the reasoning behind context over content. Guerilla marketing is not a new advertising technique but it's quickly gaining popularity among more savvy internet marketers. The basis of this marketing approach is rooted in the ability to leverage existing online communities in order to cost effectively distribute your message "en masse". Although not as targeted as other forms of online marketing, the goal of guerilla marketing is to get your message in front of as many eyeballs as possible with the hope that incremental conversions (e.g., sales, sign ups, etc.) will result.

The problem with this approach is that, without a keen understanding of what the community is primarily purposed with, much of the message content is overlooked or dismissed entirely. Worse yet, marketers who take this approach risk being filtered out as internet noise and, in the process, being ostracized from the community as a whole.

To understand the reasoning behind context over content is to look no further than the real life interactions you face each day. Let's say you happen upon a small social gathering at a party and they are discussing the recent Oscar winners. You join in on the conversation and immediately begin to talk about your new business opportunity. What do you think will happen? The likely answer is that you will be observed as an intrusion on the group and your comments will be considered completely inappropriate. The more obvious indicator of your unwanted contribution will be the group disbanding and later moving to another area to continue their conversation in private.

Social media is also about managing turf. Social media enthusiasts spend a great deal of time creating special interest groups to share common interests with like minded people. Encroaching on other people's turf with off topic messages is like telling people at a friend's party that your party next door is a lot more interesting than the one they are enjoying (I cite, for example, TV sitcom Frasier's party protest with upstairs neighbor Cam Winston). Unless your party offers a lot more of what they are looking for (for some of my friends a full keg would do it), then you'll assuredly fail at enticing people away from the current party.

Interactions through social media are really no different.

Social media has evolved precipitously over the past few years. It used to be that online engagement was all about self, however, recently the focus on "me" has shifted dramatically to an emphasis on "we". The social web is dominated by member communities that exhibit specific behaviors. Without a doubt, content is a priority in most social interactions but without context, the content has no real value.

That's the real point here - Value in Context. For the most part, people no longer consider social media the novelty it once was. Although social media is still used to a great extent as a tool to maintain connections or to get back in touch with old acquaintances, the fact is there is a great deal of importance placed on the value of online exchanges. Yes, there are still those out there who share everything under the sun (Do we really want to hear about your bad day at work?) but still those same people are talking about the great movie they saw, car they just bought, restaurant they dined or cell phone app they just downloaded. Within each of these messages lies a context that others may feel compelled to engage and interact with in order to derive some intrinsic value.

The only way to connect with and really have an opportunity to influence these online conversations is by adding more value in the context of the existing dialogue. The bottom line is a content strategy that doesn't bring a certain amount of value to the table is doomed to suffer the same fate as our dear old Frasier - a party with no guests.

The Ultimate Internet Marketing Business Plan - In Just Seven Sentences

If you're new to Internet marketing and have a product, a website and are ready to go, then this article can make your business run a lot smoother and more profitably.

Here's why:

I have interviewed a lot of Internet marketing and sales experts over the past several years. And not long ago I had the pleasure of interviewing a very big name in the marketing industry Jay Conrad Levinson.

And during that interview I did a detailed questions and answers session with him, where people on my list emailed me questions for me to ask Jay.

One of the questions someone asked was how to develop a good, solid marketing plan.

Jay's answer was so good I think every single person selling anything online should write it down, study it and use it every time they do business.

Here's what he said:

The thing he always recommends is writing simple seven-sentences he calls "guerrilla marketing plan."

And the seven sentences go basically like this:

The first sentence tells the purpose of your marketing; what physical thing do you want people to do -- visit a website, call an 800 number, look for your product the next time they're at the store, answer your email, clip a coupon, etc. In other words, what do you want them to do physically?

The second sentence tells the prime benefit or competitive advantage that you need in order to accomplish your purpose. You may have 100 benefits. Pick the main one. Specifically, pick your competitive advantage that your competition doesn't offer.

The third sentence of your marketing plan lists your target audience or target audiences.

The fourth sentence lists the marketing weapons that you'll use. For example: article marketing, publicity, pay per click, search engines, referrals, etc.

The fifth sentence tells your niche in the market place. What's the first word you want to enter people's minds when they see your product? Your name? Maybe your company's name?

The sixth sentence tells your identity (not your image) -- your distinct personality. You don't want to be a cold, faceless institution in anyone's mind. You want to be a flesh and blood person with a real personality.

Finally, the seventh sentence tells your marketing budget, which should be expressed as a percentage of projected gross sales.

And that's it.

Jay's simple plan works almost like magic for people.

It keeps you on track, keeps you focused, and keeps your goals in line and easier to achieve.

Next time you have a new product or business to launch, use this simple guide. It can make everything go down a lot easier, faster and more profitably for you.

7 Free Marketing Tips For Your Restaurant

Understanding how to promote our restaurant is the most important thing in this business, this are seven free merketing tips for your restaurant

• Understand what business you're in (it's not what you think!)

If you take away only one thing from this article, let this be it- You are NOT in the restaurant business, you are in the restaurant MARKETING business. Understanding this distinction is key to being successful and it is the single biggest mistake I see most restaurant owners make. Few if any independent restaurateurs  consciously understand this critical point. Often, successful restaurants fall into their success by accident, but make no mistake, understanding that the name of the game is marketing is key to being profitable.

• Who ARE you?

Before you can create a marketing plan, you need to define who you are and who your target market is.

The first question is usually answered by the creation of a USP or Unique Selling Proposition. Many businesses create one- virtually every chain restaurant has a clearly defined USP and they spend millions of dollars and great effort to create them and instill them in the public and their employees. What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word "Disneyland"? Many of you probably said "The Happiest Place On Earth". What about Domino's"? If you're old enough, you'll probably say "30 minutes or it's Free". These USPs are immensely powerful and define exactly who and what a company is.

Don not rush through this step. Spend as long as you need and think long and hard about what makes YOU and your business unique. If you can't think of anything unique about your business, then you'd better spend some time creating something that sets you apart from your competition. If you don't then you'll be an afterthought in people's minds.

Another thing- The more focused and direct your USP is, the easier it will be to create your marketing.

• Bigger isn't "Better"

Listen, your dream might be to eventually have a 1000 stores across the country and run it all from your yacht in the Mediterranean. Go for it! But, right now, you're the little guy and the worst thing you can do is allow

yourself to consider that a weakness. Sure, the big chains have advantages in budgets and economies of scale, but they can't be the one thing you are- LITTLE! So, embrace this and use it to your advantage. Little means "personal". Little means "community". Little means "speed and efficiency". Little means "unique and original". Little means you can "change on a dime".

Think of all the things you can do that the big box down the street can't and use any and everything you can think of.

• Work ON your restaurant not IN your restaurant

This is a biggie! It's a mistake I've made myself. Think about where your time is best spent. You might need to spend a lot of time initially getting your restaurant running up to your standards, but make sure throughout your planning that you set as your goal a commitment to focusing the bulk of your energy on marketing.

Consider the value of your time. Is your time worth the same as the minimum wage cook or busboy you hire? It shouldn't be. another way to look at it is this- What activities can/should you be engaged in to bring the greatest return to your business? Can your spending time working with the local Chamber or donating time and product to a charity bring a greater return than the cost of paying someone to cover a shift in the restaurant? The answer had better be yes or you shouldn't be the owner!

• You don't need a massive budget

I know there's never enough money at the end of the month to spend what you'd like on marketing. There never is! But, consider this, there are many things you can do that aren't expensive. Mostly, it's about being an ambassador for your business, which means you should almost always be in marketing mode and always looking for ways your business can bring a benefit to others (and, by extension, to you!).

This is where you need to get creative- Look up "guerilla marketing" ideas online. You'll find lots of fun and different ideas that aren't expensive, but will get people talking. Stay away from the obvious- don't waste money on yellow page ads, think hard before you plunk down your dollars for coupon ads in your local green sheet or pennypincher. These aren't bad exactly, but you only have so many dollars. Make sure you get the most out of them. Which brings us to another important point...

• If you can't measure it, don't do it!

Every, and I mean every last one, campaign you attempt must be trackable. In other words, every ad you run or promotion you offer must have a coupon or some other method of knowing if it is working. This is absolutely vital. "If you can't measure it you can't improve it." Do not ever allow yourself to be talked into any advertising that does not contain an offer and have some way of tracking the results.

And, obviously, make sure that you take the time to do the tracking carefully. Repeat what works, throw out what doesn't.

• Get Online!

I know, I know, you've heard it before. But this is the reality. If you're not online, you don't exist for a large portion of the population.

This doesn't have to cost a fortune, in fact it should give you a great return on your investment. If you can't do it yourself, then pay to have it done, but you need a strong web presence and this is only going to become more important as time goes on.

Options for keeping costs down- Check the local college for students who have computer skills. They'll work for cheap (maybe even in trade for food!). There are many inexpensive programs for creating web pages and companies like GoDaddy can provide domain name and hosting for very modest budgets.

And the future is coming more quickly than ever! Don't neglect cell phones. Connecting to your customers through their phones is going to be the next major direction and the sooner you get on board the better.

And, conversely, don't allow yourself to have a bad web page- this is worse than not having one at all. I will absolutely guarantee you that a bad web page will lose you customers and quickly.

These are some basics of the mistakes I've made and seen others make along with some ideas on how to set yourself apart from the crowd.

And that is the key- differentiation. You've got to be different than everyone else, but don't worry, you already are! Now you've just got to show it to your guests and the public!

These are just a few things to think about, but they're the most important points to consider.

Experiential Marketing - A Guide to Guerilla Marketing Techniques and Practices

Experiential Marketing is a set of methods that enable you to distribute your promotional messages to the public in non-traditional, yet very aggressive way. Also known as Guerilla Marketing, it has been repeatedly proven to be very effective and money-saving for any given marketing campaign. Experiential Marketing can custom-fitted to your individual promotional situation and professionally designed to accommodate your specific sets of variables.

Creativity is a key component for the experiential marketer. Alternative promotional methods like using a team of beauties on stationary bicycles - all wearing your company's logo on their shorts - act to captivate the attention of your targeted audiences both instantly and undeniably. Trend-setting methods like these get the people talking on the streets. Grassroots networking is activated and there will be droves of individuals excitedly talking about what they have seen - and mentioning your company as well as it is the new, cool sponsor of the "show".

Of course, there are many other models for experiential marketers to follow in order to grasp the attention of the masses. There are an infinite amount of them actually.

Here are just a few:

o Glass trucks;
o Street performers;
o Segway trains;
o Living window displays;
o Publicity stunts;
o and so many more...

The true beauty of utilizing experiential marketing techniques as a method of product/service/company promotion is that there are absolutely no rules to follow. That enables you, as a marketer, to present your message to the exact audiences you choose in completely original ways. The people of the streets appreciate originality as they drudge through their ever-so-predictable days. Guerilla marketing strategies appeal to their need for entertainment and light-heartedness.

Experiential Marketing techniques are especially favorable for implementation by small businesses as they help to greatly diminish branding times. When you create a buzz in the streets, it is infectious. We have all always known that word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. That is exactly what these innovative marketing techniques stimulate.

Experiential Marketing techniques allow you to:

o Lower advertising costs by using creativity and innovative approaches instead of capital investment;

o Utilize the latest online and offline technologies and tactics to get directly in touch with your targeted niches;

o Simplify the promotional aspects for your messages;

o Measure the amount of success that you are experiencing in profits - not sales;

o Build overnight customer loyalty and appreciation;

o Stimulate grassroots networks that cause amazing word-of-mouth responses;

o Decrease branding time to a high degree;

o and much, much more!

There is a new way to approach advertising and promotion and its name is Experiential Marketing. Across the US and the world, these guerilla marketing techniques are being seen everywhere. They are fresh, targeted, innovative, fun and appreciated by all. They get people talking and force positive word-of-mouth. Marketing campaigns are instantly effective like never before when employing experiential marketing tactics.

Remember "Guerilla Marketing?"

I recently retrieved an old notebook planner to use that had some notes on a presentation that I attended in April, 2001 on Guerilla Marketing by Jay Levinson. Jay is the author of a series of books on Guerilla Marketing that was very popular at the time and in fact is still popular.

I had started a project management consulting practice in the fall of 2000 just before the big Internet dot com bubble burst. The "irrational exuberance" of investing in speculative Internet ventures has disappeared, but in reality the transition to doing business on the Internet has grown exponentially. The Internet has become one of the key elements of a viable marketing plan for organizations.

The date struck me because it was before the September, 2001 World Trade center national disaster. I could not help but reflect that while a lot has changed since April, 2001, Jay's message is still 100 percent on target. Technology and Internet based marketing was obviously in existence during his presentation, but even he said that it should not be where all of your marketing efforts are focused.

Key Takeaways

Invest in Jay Levinson's books, they are well worth the investment. Here are a few of my key observations from the presentation.

The key metric to measure the success of your marketing efforts is, no surprise, profits. There may be some supporting metrics that you can correlate to increased profits, for example web site page views. However, if improving your web site page views does not generate new business, then it is not a very good leading indicator that you are going to have a good year.

Marketing is any contact. It's a repetitive ongoing process with the primary investment being time, energy, and imagination. It is important to remember that you are doing business with real People who appreciate the small things. These People will reward you with repeat business and referrals when you provide them a valuable product/service in a professional and friendly manner.

You will have to "touch" your prospects on multiple occasions to remind them about what you do before it will occur to them that you have something that they need or want. The response rate for sending out a single direct mail piece to an audience is extraordinarily low. However, if you send the same piece out three times the response rate goes up. I am not suggesting that direct mail might pass the cost/benefit ratio for your company, I am just using it as an illustration.

Taking action is the key to success. Small businesses have the ability to move faster. If a mistake is made, it's not a big deal. The intended audience is not so large that it will take a long time to correct the mistake. Having a sense of urgency to do the important marketing tasks is crucial to success.

Fast Forward To Today

Non Stop Portals provides innovative Internet marketing solutions. However, we clearly communicate that there are other pieces of the puzzle that are not driven by technology. Implementing a technical solution without changing the underlying business process often does not lead to improved profits.

The Internet continues to change at a rapid pace. Twitter has become a national media superstar. You can not turn on the television without someone talking about "Tweets" and their Twitter address. Twitter was formed as a company in April, 2007.

The ability to develop imaginative and creative marketing with web sites, blogs, paid advertising, email campaigns, and social media has never been greater. Even the printing industry has moved to the Internet. Send Out Cards is an Internet platform where you can develop customized cards and send them out with your signature. The cost of implementing these types of marketing efforts is much lower than traditional advertising AND your message will reach a global audience.

Five Steps For Expanding Your Customer Base With Guerrilla Networking

As a single company, it is impossible to provide your customers with all the services they desire for every aspect of their life; but with guerrilla marketing, you can come close. By partnering with companies that provide different, yet complimentary, services to your business, you can create a network of reliable resources for your customers. In turn, your company will gain credibility and strength from the size and stature of the group. The goal of the guerrilla network is to expand your customer base by being a part of a diverse web of companies that will appeal to a wide range of customers. Because your company will be the only one in this web to offer your unique product category, every customer who enters into the web will be referred to you for that specific service.

1. Brainstorm

To establish a guerrilla network, you must first consider what other resources could be provided for your customer outside of the products and services that you have available at your company. Get to know your customers to discover what other services they generally need when considering your products. Could they use a designer to help decorate a home gym for the new treadmill they just bought from you? Or how about pet supplies for the dog they walk when using their new pedometer? Whatever it is, think outside the box! More variety means more customers.

2. Make a list

After brainstorming potential additional services, it is time to narrow your search and prepare for the recruitment process. Make a list of the product and service categories that you think will be beneficial in the guerrilla network that you wish to create. Then, list specific companies that fall under these categories. Naturally, you should start with companies that you have referred customers to in the past, and who have, in turn, referred customers to you. Expand that list by thumbing through your local yellow pages or searching the internet. Choosing local companies will give you the flexibility of working with partners who are able to make marketing decisions at the local level, without the inconvenience of running it by their corporate office first. Add companies that you instinctively feel may be fitting for your network. Do not forget to continuously update this list, even after you have moved on to the next step. The longer your list, the better chance you have at building a large and powerful network.

3. Do your homework

Once you have a substantial list of companies in which you are interested, begin researching them. You will want to know if they are a high-end store and if you want their customers frequenting your business. Determine whether or not the company is one you would like to be associated with. Do they exemplify the values that are most important within your own company? Be selective and remember that you will be sending your best customers to their company. Their service will be a reflection of your company and its values. Look for companies that have taken the time to create and maintain an impressive website. This will give you the opportunity to learn more about their business and will provide countless opportunities for marketing within your network in the future. You should also try to recruit companies with strong brands, so that your brand will strengthen when you co-brand with them.

4. Establish contact

After you have learned about the companies on your list, you should begin establishing contact with them. Your means of presentation will vary depending on what you are comfortable with and how you feel you will best be received. A letter is obviously not the most effective means of initial contact. It can be impersonal and easily discarded. It does not demand their attention like a personal visit will. However, it is a simple way to cast a wide net and see what you catch. You should use this method if you simply do not have the time to visit these businesses individually, or if you have enough relationships already established in your community to recruit 3-5 companies into your guerrilla network right from the start.

I recommend that you simply ask the owner for a few minutes of his or her time. You can initiate this meeting through a letter, by phone or by just walking in. Because you are not selling anything, this meeting should be relatively easy to set up. These few minutes with the owner will allow you the chance to determine if they are the type of person with whom you can work. You will also explain who you are and what you will accomplish through this partnership with local companies. Impress the owner with a professionally designed and bound brief of your strategic plan. These professional packets include company logos on a few conceptual pieces that could be used in a guerrilla marketing program. It goes unsaid that this network will generate more traffic for your business, so focus their attention on the benefits THEY will receive from the network. Let them know that you have already noticed that some of your customers would be great referrals for their business. The promise of immediate results will be sure to catch their attention.

5. Follow through

After you have established a relationship with the company, be sure to follow through with your arrangement. Everything you and your guerrilla partner agree to do needs to be thoroughly discussed and put into writing. You should set up parameters and expectations of the marketing program and agree on a specific date to begin and end each program. When the regulations of the agreement are clear, both parties will be more likely to follow through and benefit from the guerrilla network. The ideal partnership is one that remains balanced: each company putting in an equal amount of work and reaping an equal reward. By becoming a part of a strong guerrilla network, you will be a major resource for each customer's unique needs. Your company will gain ideas, support and loyal customers from partnering companies and your marketing audience will expand dramatically without the costly risk of traditional advertising.

Context is King! When Guerilla Marketing Crosses the Line

If you've been reading a lot of online marketing blogs, you've no doubt heard many espouse the benefits of generating lots of content to help bolster your SEO efforts. The phrase "Content is King!" is being discussed as the cornerstone of any online marketing effort but the reality is content, in and of itself, will not guarantee success in your internet marketing endeavors. Rather, marketers should place more emphasis in the context of your content to ensure your message resonates with established audiences across the web.

By the same token, businesses engaged in guerilla marketing should pay heed to the reasoning behind context over content. Guerilla marketing is not a new advertising technique but it's quickly gaining popularity among more savvy internet marketers. The basis of this marketing approach is rooted in the ability to leverage existing online communities in order to cost effectively distribute your message "en masse". Although not as targeted as other forms of online marketing, the goal of guerilla marketing is to get your message in front of as many eyeballs as possible with the hope that incremental conversions (e.g., sales, sign ups, etc.) will result.

The problem with this approach is that, without a keen understanding of what the community is primarily purposed with, much of the message content is overlooked or dismissed entirely. Worse yet, marketers who take this approach risk being filtered out as internet noise and, in the process, being ostracized from the community as a whole.

To understand the reasoning behind context over content is to look no further than the real life interactions you face each day. Let's say you happen upon a small social gathering at a party and they are discussing the recent Oscar winners. You join in on the conversation and immediately begin to talk about your new business opportunity. What do you think will happen? The likely answer is that you will be observed as an intrusion on the group and your comments will be considered completely inappropriate. The more obvious indicator of your unwanted contribution will be the group disbanding and later moving to another area to continue their conversation in private.

Social media is also about managing turf. Social media enthusiasts spend a great deal of time creating special interest groups to share common interests with like minded people. Encroaching on other people's turf with off topic messages is like telling people at a friend's party that your party next door is a lot more interesting than the one they are enjoying (I cite, for example, TV sitcom Frasier's party protest with upstairs neighbor Cam Winston). Unless your party offers a lot more of what they are looking for (for some of my friends a full keg would do it), then you'll assuredly fail at enticing people away from the current party.

Interactions through social media are really no different.

Social media has evolved precipitously over the past few years. It used to be that online engagement was all about self, however, recently the focus on "me" has shifted dramatically to an emphasis on "we". The social web is dominated by member communities that exhibit specific behaviors. Without a doubt, content is a priority in most social interactions but without context, the content has no real value.

That's the real point here - Value in Context. For the most part, people no longer consider social media the novelty it once was. Although social media is still used to a great extent as a tool to maintain connections or to get back in touch with old acquaintances, the fact is there is a great deal of importance placed on the value of online exchanges. Yes, there are still those out there who share everything under the sun (Do we really want to hear about your bad day at work?) but still those same people are talking about the great movie they saw, car they just bought, restaurant they dined or cell phone app they just downloaded. Within each of these messages lies a context that others may feel compelled to engage and interact with in order to derive some intrinsic value.

The only way to connect with and really have an opportunity to influence these online conversations is by adding more value in the context of the existing dialogue. The bottom line is a content strategy that doesn't bring a certain amount of value to the table is doomed to suffer the same fate as our dear old Frasier - a party with no guests.

Guerrilla Marketing Cost Breakdown - Money Versus Effort

What is worth more: your money, or your time?

This is the trade-off involved in guerilla marketing. You don't need a lot of money, but if you don't invest your time, your efforts will not pay off. The principles behind guerilla marketing (listed in the beginning of this chapter) require planning, groundwork, and effort.

How can you tell whether it's worth the trade-off?

Here is a brief, hypothetical example.

One popular marketing method is to send out e-mail announcements in the form of a regular weekly or monthly newsletter. You could build a mailing list and create your own newsletter (the guerrilla method) or you could buy advertising space in another business's newsletter (the traditional method).

If you choose to advertise in another newsletter:

• You will spend somewhere between $100 and $1000 for premium space in a widely read newsletter ) with a big subscriber list. You may end up spending more for consecutive ads, since consumers typically need to see your message 3 to 7 times before they'll buy.
• You will spend a few to several hours researching e-zines, writing your advertisements or article, and contacting the e-zine owners in order to schedule your ad's appearances.
• You will typically see a conversion rate (number of people who read your advertisement compared to number of people who become your customers) of 2 to 5 percent - slightly higher than the conversion rate of a direct mail campaign. This rate typically goes up a few percentages with subsequent advertisements, depending on the effectiveness of your copy (the wording of your message).

If you create your own newsletter or e-zine:

• You will spend $0 to $100 (you may decide to invest in desktop publishing software, list management software or services, or an upgraded Internet service provider plan to handle additional web traffic).
• You will spend several hours to several months building your opt-in subscription base, through methods like sign-up boxes, refer-a-friend programs, e-zine directory listings, and word of mouth.
• You will realize the typical conversion rate at first (2 to 5 percent) - but you will never have to spend another penny for advertising, because you own the newsletter or e-zine. Your subscription base will continue to grow, and your sales resulting from your newsletter will increase exponentially, rather than in the measured bursts you can expect from the "traditional" method.

One thing to be wary of when you're building an e-zine subscription base is buying bulk lists and using "free traffic" programs to bulk up your subscribers. Though this will give you some impressive numbers, the majority of these will either delete your e-mails unread, or unsubscribe as soon as they've met the requirements of whatever benefit they signed up for. The best results will come from a carefully targeted subscriber list that you have built yourself.

Determining your money-versus-time factor
How can you figure out whether the time you'll invest in a given guerilla marketing campaign is worth the trade-off in advertising dollars -- assuming, of course, that you have a substantial advertising budget to begin with? (If you don't, no worries; you don't need one!)

You can get a rough estimate of your results by performing the following steps:

1. Determine a traditional advertising venue that most closely relates to your intended guerilla marketing effort.

2. Estimate the total monetary cost of each method.

3. Estimate the total time investment involved with each method.

4. Assign a reasonable dollar value to each hour of your time you would invest ($15 an hour is a good average).

5. Add monetary costs and per-hour time costs to each method, arriving at two separate totals.

6. Calculate a projected profit resulting from each of the methods (don't forget to factor in the "snowball" effect gained from guerilla marketing through repeat business and customer referrals - most traditional advertising venues are one-shot deals).

7. Subtract total cost from total profit.

This will give you a general idea. Usually, the guerilla marketing campaign will end up looking like a much better deal.