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When many people think ofmarketing, they think of ads, brochures, websites and newsletters. But the truth is that everything we do in our day-to-day business life can be filed under “marketing.” At Electrum Marketing, we stress that your brand is your greatest asset, and must be reflected in everything you do, say and even send via email. From the appearance of your lobby to the design of your business card, here are five things you may not think are marketing… but are.

How you answer the phone
The way your phones are answered can set the tone for the entire company. Have a real person answer the phone rather than an automated system. Nothing can replace personal interaction. Select a personable receptionist with a pleasant tone. If the receptionist sounds harried or annoyed, you’ve lost the client before the call has even been transferred. If you provide your receptionist with a phone script, it will help keep things consistent.

Your office space
Another simple but effective marketing tool is a clean and well-organized office. Walking into a clutter-free space instantly gives the appearance of organized authority. Keep waiting areas stocked with your brochures and always offer clients water or coffee as they wait. It’s the little things that make all the difference.

Your email
Your email is prime marketing ground. Your emails should always include a signature line complete with all your contact information. You may choose to add your logo and tagline. Branding your email makes it instantly recognizable and gives clients immediate access to your contact information should they have questions or concerns.

Your business card
Business cards are often the first impression clients may get of your company, and should always be clean, clear and concise. Make your logo the center of attention and your contact information complete and easy to read.

Everyday interactions
Remember, you’re always marketing. Potential clients are around every corner, so be prepared with your 30 second commercial or two minute branding message. Both messages should sound unrehearsed but avoid stumbling as if you’re not sure what you do.

When it comes to catching customers, casting too wide of net can be expensive. Using the wrong bait can be a waste of resources. What’s the solution?

1. Decide what fish you want to catch. Who is your target market?
2. Locate their habitat. Where can you reach the right audience?
3. Determine what bait attracts them. What message is going to get their attention?
4. Use a technique that gets them to bite. What strategy will motivate a response?

Electrum Marketing can help you answer all of the above. And once you know who you want, how to reach them, and get them to respond – what’s to stop you from catching your limit? Absolutely nothing.   Stop telling your “Big Fish” story about the customer that got away. Let Electrum Marketing create a direct mail strategy to effectively get your message in the hands of your future clients.

1. Premature Advertising – Spending money getting the word out before deciding what the word should be.

What is your competitive advantage?  How is it delivered to your customer?  How can that best be expressed to your audience?

2. Media Envy – Placing expensive ads in publications dominated by “the big guys.”

If your media budget isn’t as big as theirs, you’re wasting your money. Chances are you don’t need to cast such a wide net anyway.   Today’s environment offers many highly targeted, less expensive ways to reach your audience.

3. Myopic Selling – Focusing so much on products and services that you miss the opportunity to develop relationships.

People buy from people they like and from where they’ve had a good experience.  They also tell their friends!

4. Dust Collecting - Creating a 40-page business plan, putting it on a shelf and forgetting about it.

A true business plan should focus on maximizing your strengths, minimizing your weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and recognizing threats.  It should have specific action items and should be reviewed continuously.

5. Marketing Misplacement – Treating marketing as a support function instead of a business strategy.

Ever hear of guerilla marketing?  It’s a war out there.  Marketing is anything but passive.  What ever happened to Underalls, Coleco Vision, and Brim?

6. Following the Leader – Modeling yourself after others instead of breaking away form the crowd.

Find your competitive advantage and focus all your efforts on it.  Do everything you can to not be like everyone else.

7. Skeet Shooting – Reacting to whatever is presented without a clear method to gauge it’s relevance to your plan.

A marketing plan will keep you on track to reach your goals through targeted, concentrated efforts.

8. Playing Doctor – Performing your own surgery, replacing your own fillings, diagnosing your own illness.  After all, you know your body better than any health care professional.

Don’t try to market your company or product yourself.   Let the experts help while you focus on running your business. 

9. Penny foolishness – Having no budget to market your product to your audience.

“You have to spend it to make it.”  People say it because it’s true.  Don’t rely on luck to market your product or service.  What good is a great product that no one knows about?

10. Marketing-phobia – Operating under the belief “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is okay.

Accept new ideas if the old ones aren’t working.  Today’s ever-changing world is quickly making traditional forms of marketing such as television, radio, and television obsolete.  What’s your digital marketing plan?  Search engine optimization (SEO) budget?  Viral marketing strategy? 

11. Introspective branding – Basing your brand’s identity on what you think it is.

A brand is what and how the buyer thinks and feels about your product.  Product quality isn’t always the determining factor.  It’s often more about brand image and relationship.

Need help avoiding these marketing pitfalls?  Contact Electrum Marketing, your brand marketing experts.

As Ralph Walso Emerson once said, “Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis” and I couldn’t agree more.

Your tagline or slogan, from the Gaelic sluagh-gharim meaning war cry, should positively differentiate you from the competition in the minds of consumers.   A tagline is not a summary of your business plan.  Your tagline can herald your product’s key benefit but should never list them all.  If your tagline has punctuation, it’s too darn long!

Since a tagline provides consumers with additional insight into your brand message, it can be very effective when launching a new business or product.   When done well, a tagline can create a lasting impression of your brand image – but only as part of a fully executed brand strategy.  If you heard “Just do it”, “When you care enough to send the very best” and “We try harder” without the rest of the marketing, you would never guess they were selling athletic gear, greeting cards or rental cars.

A few examples of taglines created for Electrum Marketing clients include:

A forensic accounting firm whose expertise has been instrumental in achieving many positive trial and forensic outcomes – Strategy from numbers.

A business that leads clients through the intimidating and esoteric industries of hedge funds and insurance – Simplifying the complicated.

An online eyeglass lens distributor who can quickly deliver quality lenses – Our vision is value.

A financial institution that doesn’t want to be considered just a bank, rather a resource to get ahead – Bank forward.

Are you in need of a war cry?  Perhaps you need a new one.  Contact Electrum Marketing – Building your brand from the inside out.