In this economy, I do feel that marketing is extremely important, and that doesn’t mean spending a ton to advertise and get your name out there. If you do choose to advertise, here are my five, somewhat random thoughts that you should consider:

1. Define a budget.
Before you decide to advertise, make sure you have a do-not-exceed budget in mind.
A lot of times, clients will call and ask for a plan or ideas before they have a budget. Chances are, you will get a proposal that far exceeds what you had anticipated spending or what you can afford. With a budget in hand, the planning and strategy process is much more concise and accurate.

2. Define a measurement of success.
If you commit $5,000 to a campaign, what would be a positive return on investment, and be realistic with your goals. The best way of setting realistic goals is to have some knowledge of the cost per “sale.” Make sure to share these goals with your marketing partners and your staff. Everyone needs to understand the company’s expectations and objectives; otherwise, you’ll never be able to measure success.

3. New business acquisition.
It will be important to understand when going after new business that the time investment and also the monetary investment will be greater. For people that don’t know you, it’s a much longer selling process. Another important point is you have to know who your target market is in order to go after new business effectively; otherwise you’ll be shooting blanks and wasting resources.

4. Leverage your database.
It’s surprising, but a lot of businesses neglect the potential for a successful database. Meaning, every customer, every meeting, every unit of traffic should be put into a database. Now, you can buy fancy software to track leads and sales, but really all you need is excel. Keep a running list of your past clients and new ones, their names, address, email, phone, what they purchased etc. And, try and keep this as clean as possible. Marketing to people that already know you, and better yet, have “used” your services or product in the past are golden! In comparison to new business, your database will have a shorter response time, and take less money to convert.

5. Always have a LIVE person answer your phone during normal business hours.
(ESPECIALLY IN TODAY’S MARKET!)
This is very important. For some reason, in a bad economy, even though everyone understands that people are losing their jobs, that companies are under-staffed and having to wear multiple hats, the expectation of better customer service is greater! Remember, that customers’ attention spans and patience levels are oftener shorter, and nothing is more annoying than an automated message. Sure, you can find the person you want to talk to you if you have their extension, but who really has that number? Whether it’s a cell phone you have strapped to you at all times, or whether all the employees chip in to answer the phone, make availability a priority. They can’t, and a lot of times won’t, buy from you, if they can’t talk to you.