The 'Beating Heart' of Local Marketing - Making the Right Tools Work for Your Business

How to make the right marketing tools work for your particular business

The question I'm asked most when I first meet people in business is, "what's the secret to good marketing?"

The truth is there is no secret to marketing; it's as simple as that. Creating a marketing strategy that consistently delivers and that continually grows and adapts to the needs of the business isn't something that happens overnight; that said, with a bit of patience, a basic understanding of the marketing tools that you have at your disposal and a focused and continual effort you will see the payoff a lot sooner than you may think.

But... and it's a very big but; before you can begin to consider how you will market your business, you need to have a clear and definitive identity, meaning the business has to convey a clear, simple and definitive message through the marketing.

This identity, message, brand, position in your market, whatever you want to call it is what you are, what you offer and how you offer it. It will lead you to market yourself in a certain way, to market to a particular market; it will influence the message you send out, how you position that message and most importantly it will determine which marketing tools will serve you best.

Your identity should be the beating heart of the business and of the marketing; after all it's what you are.
Not getting this part right first is probably one of the biggest causes for marketing efforts to under-perform and here's why; if you consider that your identity will ultimately decide the message you deliver, it will also guide your strategy or plan on how you are going to market your business.

For example; if your identity is best described by quality and expertise then part of your plan or strategy would be a blog or a platform to share free articles with useful and relevant information, something that would position you as an expert in your field. Your website would represent a quality business, the information would be up-to-date and accurate, there would be lots of free resource for me as a visitor or prospect and my overall experience of being on there would be an enjoyable one.

The point I'm trying to make is that your identity will ultimately guide your marketing and it will help you map out an achievable, successful strategy. It will also help you identify which tools and which mix of tools will serve you best but more importantly, to identify and stop the ones that don't.

So How?

Clear your mind and think about your business; for this part forget about the marketing just think about the business.

What do you sell, offer, provide?

You will have probably settled on the key service that you provide or the product that you sell, for example; Recruitment Consultant, Solicitor, Estate Agent, Car Dealer, Retailer, Restaurant, Gym, Spa, etc.

Now take it one step further and pick which of these, currently, best describes your business;

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