Marketing Strategy is probably one of the most insulted of all terms. Just because a company has an advertising plan for the year or have its promotions lined up 6 months ahead, they call it their marketing strategy.
Sometimes,marketing professionals fall into this trap in their excitement to sell their ideas. After all, a “strategy” sounds so much more cool than a mere marketing plan. When you have a strategy, it must be backed by an excellent execution plan.
To gain 5% market share is a strategy (one element of it only, I hope!). To have national advertising and a direct marketing program, is execution. Without a clear strategic objective all the grand plans would be nothing more than the mindless gyrations of a huge marketing budget. Lots of things happening, but will not get you anywhere. For a small business, this becomes even more crucial.
The strategy of a small business needs to be more aggressive, more focused. And the execution of that strategy needs almost pin-point precision. You don’t have a penny to waste. This is where a good marketing agency comes in. Do not imagine for a moment that you can just “wing it”. A start-up might have no choice. But once your business is off the ground and you are shooting for some real growth, get together with professionals. They can help you achieve your goals much faster.
Take time to find your marketing partner. It is not just the glitzy presentations and pitches that an agency makes – you need concrete evidence. The guiding principle here is this: don’t use an advertising agency that is 10 times bigger than you are, and don’t use one that has no domain knowledge of your industry/market.
Too huge an agency and you will not be on their A-list. You will get the kind attentions of the big wigs during the pitch, and you never see them again, except, maybe when it comes time to renew. A smaller agency is good. But if your account is more than 50% of their size, then again, be wary. Can they scale and grow with your business? Maybe they can. Talk to them. Find out about the people behind the company. When you are a small business, relationships are the most important. My friend Vivienne over at Versa Creations wrote a nice little post on “4 Great Tips to Selecting The Best Marketing or Advertising Agency“. You should read it.
[tags]marketing plan, advertising, advertising agency, marketing agency[/tags]
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