Marketing and Sales in today's world...

Yes, you still have to keep a little of the old but if you are not utilizing social media, blogs and google words; you may fall out of search. Today the power of word of mouth is only as strong as your worst review. Consumers tend to tell more people when they have something negative to say about a business and not share as many of the positive experiences. So you have happy clients, great, get a review and publish it online. It is important to have repetition out there of positive statements in multiple places.

You miss the days of in person meetings and appointment? Many of these meetings have been replaced by conference calls with zoom or Skype. Most don't even happen anymore due to lack of returned phone calls or unanswered emails. That doesn't mean this art is dead. You want that face to face meeting; attend a networking event, join a board or help with a charitable organization. There are still ways to find a foot in the door but it has changed a little. Find out their interest and find the solution.

If you are not computer savvy then you need to hire or outsource someone who it. You don't have to know it all but they say the best leaders have the best staff supporting them. Hire what you are not good at and train what you are good at. You are only as valuable as the people working for you and the people to replace you. You can never move up if you don't have your replacement ready to go!

This is very true for most small business owners. There are great companies you can hire if you do not have the budget to have a full time marketing person. For larger companies, they are already ahead of the curve as they have full teams executing on all cylinders. But for both, don't forget to train and grow your employees.

It may be time for a re-brand to match with today's society and to ensure all your materials look the same. The big box companies do it best...Target, McDonald's; you know it's their commercial before you ever see their logo. That's because of branding and brand recognition.

Make sure you know your target audience. You may have a lot of great ideas and execution but if it reaches the wrong audience, it doesn't help you. Do your market research and find out who your clients are and while you're at it, find out who your competitors are and what are they doing. Is it good? Could you do it better? Could you reinvent the wheel? The answer is yes....so what are you doing about it?

#brainstorming #intheoffice