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An Aspirin or an Autoresponder!
Tired of silly old email enquiries? Say hello to autoresponders! If there's one thing that drives us all crazy, it's not having enough hours in the day. You need hours to work out your internet marketing, your sales, your budgets, follow up on...
Are cyber-criminals "phishing" your identity from your computer?
Phishing (definition) (FISH.ing) pp. Creating a replica of an existing web page or HTML email input form to fool a user into submitting personal, financial, or password data. —adj. Today phishing seems to be one of the most serious new scams on...
Career Warfare - A Book Summary
This article is based on the following book: Career Warfare "10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It" By David F. D'Alessandro Published by The McGraw-Hill, 2003 ISBN 0071417583 216 pages It is a tough and...
Real Estate Post Card Marketing; Million Dollar Mailings
Real Estate Post Card Marketing is an underutilized real estate
marketing strategy known by many, but used by few. The test? How
many agents do you know market real estate with postcards. Not
many - that's what I thought!
Yet, those that do...
The "Other" 80/20 Principle: Insights on Selling to Women
Like most retailers, you are probably well aware of the 80/20 principle which states that 80 percent of your sales are generated from just 20 percent of your total customer base. This well-known theory highlights the 20 percent of returning...
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Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoids
" Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid This is a
pretty tough global economy and it is critical for a company to
leverage every bit of their marketing resources. So, if this is
the case, why are so many companies shooting themselves in the
proverbial foot by breaking some of the most fundamental rules
of marketing? It's a very simple question with complex answers -
here are some of the pitfalls to avoid:
1. Believing a second rate web site communicates integrity: So
many web sites are just plain funky looking (graphics, text,
menus, etc.) - nice professional term, but it's descriptive of
some of the dreck that passes for web site design. A company
should not forget that perception is reality on the web and
people aren't going to do business with a company that can't
field a decent web site - end of story!
2. Deploying a marketing strategy that's all over the map: Is
Yahoo a Search Engine, a Portal or a Hollywood Media company?
They are the classic 3D hologram advertisement for a company
that can't figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. A
company must pick a marketing strategy and then stay the course
- changing direction every time the wind shifts is not a good
business strategy and creates more motion than action.
3. Forgetting real brand development: Branding became the
".com" rallying cry for every newby wet behind the ears with an
Internet dream to become a billionaire by selling dog food on
the web (I'll leave the sock puppet out of this) - we all know
this didn't work. But that does not mean a company should ignore
brand development - it's important to remember that a good brand
is built one marketing process at a time; everything that a
company publishes, develops or communicate is part of the brand
building process, which in turn defines the company's market
position.
4. Ignoring distribution channels by selling direct via an
ecommerce web site: A company should not build and launch an
ecommerce site and start selling direct to customers and forget
about a distribution channel. It's imperative to give the
customer the choice to buy direct from your company or locate a
distribution channel partner via a look up capability on the
site. And, if you really want to win the hearts and mind of a
channel never sell below retail (SRP) - and afford the channel
the opportunity to discount your product so they can compete
effectively with you.
5. Making competitive analysis a low priority: Too many
companies forget about their competitors after the business plan
has been written. They don't take the time to review them on a
periodic basis and try and figure out how to deliver goods and
services differently, which in turn drives competitive advantage
and a long-term sustainable business model.
6. Poorly thought out Investor Relations press release: Do
companies actually think investors are just plain stupid and
don't really read an IR (Investor Relations) directed Press
Release carefully? Investors are typically very bottom line
oriented - they want to know about revenue growth and real
strategic partnership developments that help the company grow
and not much else. Just throwing fluff out in the market and
hoping this will drive investors to invest is just plain
shortsighted stupidity.
7. Thinking any/all consultants know your business better than
you: Reporters and consultants (including this one) have driven
just as many companies into the ground with bad advice as much
as they have helped them - companies must realize a consultant
is typically not down in the trenches and they can make some bad
calls - it's important to filter their advice.
8. Letting the inmates run the asylum - customers should help a
company refine its product marketing strategy by working as
partners. If engineering tells marketing "the customer doesn't
really know what they want but we do" the red lights should
start flashing danger - the company may be in serious peril and
at the very least need new focus and direction for product
marketing.
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of marketing experience. He is the
co-founder of a Northern California and Brussels Belgium based,
privately held, Marketing Services and Software Company,
Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com.
Intelective focuses exclusively on providing services to
small-to-medium-sized companies that need strategic and tactical
marketing services. He can be reached at Lee@intelective.com. "
About the author:
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a Northern
California based, privately held, profitable Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, and can be
reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com.
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