How to Increase Sales with an Integrated Marketing Plan

Marketing your small business or professional service firm effectively is the first and most important contributing factor to your company’s success. The more cohesive your marketing strategy is the better it will act as a conduit for new business.

All too often small business owners take what amounts to no more than a shot in the dark with their marketing.

Do the elements of your marketing strategy reinforce themselves or do they run amuck by themselves, hoping someone responds to them?

Here are some ideas for integrating the elements of your marketing plan.

Put your web site in the middle
The speedy evolution of the Internet has vastly improved your ability as a small business owner to effectively market your company. The Internet provides the World Wide Web, email, database functionality and file transfer capabilities that empower you to accomplish two key marketing goals.

The first goal is to continuously grow your list of prospects. Prospects become clients. However, only a certain percentage of your prospects will indeed become customers. You therefore need to continuously grow your list of prospects. You can use your web site to gather new prospects’ contact information (along with their permission to continue marketing to them).

Hence, the second goal is to stay in touch and demonstrate the unique value of your products or services. Email is an awfully handy tool for such communication and there are very affordable resources available to help you reach your goals.

Use free marketing vehicles
How can you gain exposure for your business at no cost? There are two great ways. The first is to write and publish articles about your area of expertise. The other is to network effectively. Neither of these strategies have to cost you any money but you will have to spend some time writing or attending events.

By writing articles you demonstrate your expertise to people who are seeking information about what you do. There are many web sites that will publish them to help satisfy their need for content. Your articles may also be picked up by traditional newspapers and magazines and can even lead to television and radio interviews.

When you network, your goal should be to develop a network of referral sources. Far too many business owners fail to realize this important fact and walk away from events frustrated because they didn’t generate any new business. When you network go in with the attitude that you help people. Ask questions to determine if the people with whom you are speaking can refer you to people who will benefit from your expertise. Your goal should be to gather business cards and information from likely referral sources.

On occasion you will meet someone who immediately wants to know more about doing business with you. As tempting as it is to don your salesperson hat, the better option is to politely ask for his or her card, take some notes and schedule a time in the future to discuss the person’s needs. It’s more important to stay focused and use your time to develop referral sources. If your overzealous fellow networker is truly interested in doing business with you, you will make the sale or close the deal at a future date.

Use your marketing message
Having a web site that no one visits, writing articles and placing ads to which no one responds and networking without clearly explaining what you do, would of course, be a colossal waste of time and money.

With an attention grabbing marketing message you will increase response to your ads, have more people visit your web site and clearly communicate who you help and the value you provide.

When you integrate your marketing message into every aspect of your marketing strategy you help position your business in your prospects’ (and clients’) minds as the obvious solution to an urgent or future problem. Use your marketing message to consistently remind your prospects of the problems you solve and the results you provide.

Email Jeremy Cohen