Avoid a Marketing Meltdown

I see it all to often. A business with a great product or service. They stretched all their marketing dollars "testing" multiple marketing venues and still no one knows about the product or service. They simply spread themselves too thin on the venues of marketing, and never made the commitment to using any them effectively. Instead of putting a focus on one or two venues of marketing, they focused on too many with too little. How can you avoid falling in this trap? 1. KNOW YOUR TARGET, AND FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS - And be realistic about it. Yes, it would be great if everyone from a 12 year old kid to a 95 year grandfather had a use for your product or service, but chances are your target customers demographics are much more focused than that. If primarily Women 25-54 buy from you - market to them where they are. If its Men 18-24 focus your efforts where they are. Luckily Radio is a medium that can focus on almost any demographic and EFFECTIVELY reach them anywhere when using stations that target your demographic. 2. BUY REALISTICALLY - Almost any form of marketing will take time for you to see a turn around on your investment. Why? Because you have to gain peoples attention... multiple times, before they will take action. Spending the absolute least to "test" a form of marketing is not going to yield many results, or give you an accurate view of a medium that if invested in correctly could greatly benefit your business. If you can not afford to market on a specific medium - save your money until you are able to afford to realistically test it. The old saying is true here - "you have to spend money, to make money". Simple rules that may be difficult to follow. We all want to spend the least amount possible to market our businesses. But the truth is, to see real results many times, a significant investment is needed to get adequate word out about your products or services. When done correctly - It will yield results many times over.