Or Are You Dropping the Ball?
We're talking about advertising and promotions as a key part of your Marketing. Let's make an assumption that you have good product(s)/service(s) (with reasonable price points) and good (differentiating, creative, truthful) message as well. Let's also assume that you've got a Sales group that can close deals. Great, those are all big prerequisites; otherwise don't waste your time and money implementing advertising and promotional initiatives. But if you do, you need to step up--and not drop the ball.

No Free Lunch or Magic Formula

Getting the word out regularly--and not just a half-hearted effort once and awhile-- takes some time, investment, patience, and common sense. No such thing as a free lunch--there's an investment (in money and time) to be made. There's not one approach or formula. No one size fits all. No magical A, B, C, D things to do or amount of money that you must spend. Rarely any immediate results (unless you have very short sales cycles).

Start with the attitude of the top people which is:
"We can't afford NOT to market ourselves continually" versus the more typical attitude of "we can't afford to do marketing."

Top excuses for dropping the advertising/promotions ball:

There are already too many messages out there now, and so what's the point?
Yes, it is crowded out there, but you can either give up and fade away or play. Is there really another choice?

We've tried and it doesn't work for us.
You've run a couple print ads, or sent out an email or 2 off an on, or done one or 2 direct mail pieces, etc, etc sporadically and in an uncoordinated fashion. You've wasted your money and set your marketing up for failure.

The people we care about already know about us.
Dubious statement at best, but even if that were true, you still have to remind them. Assume that you are NOT top-of-mind with many folks.

We can't track it, so I'm not going to spend any money.
Yes, you need to have at least a basic system in place that collects all lead information, the source(s) of the leads (realizing that it can be multiple), status, etc but you do not need a hugely cumbersome. ACT or even an Excelspreadsheet.

I need results now not tomorrow.
That's not going to happen unless you get going on a real advertising and promotional program today.

And the top excuse:
I can't afford it, stupid !!!!!!!

Maybe not network TV ads, but every company--even small companies--can afford a reasonable amount of time/money to do at least a 2-3 things on a regular basis. Costs of some vehicles are especially reasonable if you know your targets. Get a better excuse.

Just Go Out and Do It

Like the rest of business, Marketing takes some know-how, guts, faith, and more than a bit of patience. Getting the word out regularly--and getting tangible results. Don't try for "perfect;" rather, just do it--without dropping the ball.

Sincerely,