Sunday, December 27, 2009

New Year Plans and Directions, 2010 an exciting Marketplace

Many aspiring Entrepreneurs have felt frustration of the "Market Conditions" of 2009 and may be suffering some shell shock when looking forward to 2010.
I came across this article by Heidi Cohen of Riverside Marketing Strategies


Seven Point Checklist to Get Your Marketing Back on Track

It's critical to adapt today's marketing to meet current market dynamics, but as Fleetwood Mac sang, "don't stop thinking about tomorrow." To get your marketing on track for the future, here are seven points:

* Listen to the conversation. Through the use of online social media tools, consumers are more willing and able to share their views about your products, brands, and organization. Use multiple forums to hear what's being said about you and your competitors and why. Remember the conversation is multidirectional. Use Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and other relevant social media forums to listen to your target audience. Also, don't forget to collect feedback from your own sales and customer service staff.

* Provide content related to your offering that consumers and prospects find useful. Use your Web site, blog, Twitter, and other vehicles to distribute information. Have a plan for distributing new, relevant content on a regular basis. Think like a media entity editor whose goal is attracting prospects when and where they're focused on needs related to your offering.

* Deliver continuous communications via a variety of distribution channels. This includes e-mail, social media, and mobile. Since your goal should be relationship building and engagement, move away from constant promotional blasts. Increase your informative content to promotion ratio. Think in terms of information rich newsletters and behaviorally triggered messages. Don't forget to include social sharing tools in your communications to encourage sharing and to extend your reach.

* Use events to connect with prospects and consumers to extend your relationships. These events can be live or digitally delivered. Consider the use of social media tools like Meetup, Video, and Webinars. Tap these events to provide more education about your offering, engage new prospects, and test new products. Remember that these tools provide the means to share content and comments after the event.

* Continually test different aspects of your marketing. This includes new tools. Since the market is continually evolving, you must constantly look for new ways to engage prospects and close sales. Remember to track performance to determine which promotions and tools deliver the better results.

* Use offline marketing to support your online efforts. This includes offline advertising, retail outlets, live events, and your product packaging. Consider how you can use each to extend and enhance your online efforts.

* Measure the results of your marketing efforts. This will help determine which programs are most effective in expanding your audience and closing sales. At a minimum, track traffic or participants, the number of prospects and customers, response and conversion rates, and revenues, costs, and profitability.

In the dynamic interactive marketplace, keep yourself in the know and continually adapt your marketing to ever-changing trends. Continually assess your marketing to determine whether it's cost effective, attracting the right audience, and effective at driving sales. Use metrics to stay on track and tweak your marketing to meet evolving needs.

Thank you, Heidi
Heidi Cohen is the president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, an interactive marketing consultancy. She has over 20 years' experience helping clients increase profitability by developing innovative marketing programs to acquire and retain customers based on solid analytics. Clients include New York Times Digital, AccuWeather.com, CheapTickets, and the UJA. Additionally, Riverside Marketing Strategies has worked with numerous other online content/media companies and e-tailers.
Prior to starting Riverside Marketing Strategies, Heidi held a number of senior-level marketing positions at The Economist, the Bookspan/Doubleday Direct division of Bertelsmann, and Citibank.
Since 2002, Heidi has been a member of the faculty of NYU's master of science in integrated marketing program, where she received NYU's Outstanding Service award.
Heidi is also a popular speaker on current industry topics.





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