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Tips to Help Your Enterprise and Family Succeed

One Message, One Voice
Integrate Your Marketing Communications


Small-business owners tend to lump all communication that informs, reminds and persuades under the broad category of “advertising” or “marketing.” If you take a closer look you’ll find there are actually several distinct ways to present your promotional message.

Your first step is to identify the differential advantage you offer your target market. This is, quite simply, what sets you apart from your competitors. There are elements about your product or service that are especially important to your customers. They might consider you to be the best value for their money. Or, they might see you as the company offering top-notch quality for discriminating consumers.

Once you have articulated your differential advantage you can coin your unique selling proposition (USP). The USP often forms the basis for your company’s slogan or tag line. This phrase should clearly and succinctly communicate your differential advantage.

Consistent presentation of your USP is at the root of what makes integrated marketing communications (IMC) effective. IMC involves carefully coordinating each type of promotional activity and ensuring they all present the same message. Each of these elements should be viewed as separate entities that offer their own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Advertising

Advertising is marketing messages you control because you pay for them. In general, you pick and choose when, where and how your message will be displayed. Advertising clearly identifies the sponsor and showcases your product or service. Advertising allows you to reach a relatively large audience fairly easily.

Advertising, however, is not without it’s disadvantages. Your advertising message can easily get lost among the clutter of the thousands of other ads that bombard people each day. The unfortunate fact is that many ads are simply ignored by consumers.

For these reasons, advertising is most effective when combined with the other elements of the IMC mix. If traditional advertising is the only way you present your promotional message, you’re likely to be ignored a majority of the time.
Sales Promotion

Sales promotion generally consists of short-term campaigns and special events. Successful sales promotion activities can produce an immediate increase in interest or sales. Some examples of sales promotions include coupons, giveaways, samples and contests. These may or may not be coupled with a special event.

Sales promotion is the perfect compliment to advertising and personal selling. These two elements usually play a huge role in the actual promotion event. You must get the word out about the promotion or event through advertising and use personal selling skills when you interact with potential customers who express interest in the promotion.
Personal Selling

Personal selling involves face-to-face interaction between buyer and seller. This promotional element is crucial for many businesses. Sellers are able to have exclusive contact with the buyer and clearly articulate the benefits of the product or service. And buyers are able to get personal attention and have their questions answered fully. Small businesses that have mastered personal selling focus on forming a relationship with a buyer rather than simply trying to close the sale. Relationship selling fosters a mutually beneficial situation in which both buyer and seller feel they are meeting their objectives.

Many view personal selling as the most critical part of integrated marketing communication. All the other elements of the mix focus on informing your target market and encouraging them to try your product or service. If your personal selling skills are not razor-sharp, you won’t achieve your ultimate goal of making a sale and gaining a customer. All the money and effort spent on the other promotional elements will essentially be wasted.
Public Relations

For many small-business owners public relations is synonymous with publicity. This is definitely an important part of PR, but not its exclusive purpose. Public relations is the ongoing evaluation of public attitudes toward your particular field, product or service. Your PR efforts should focus on generating understanding and acceptance not only among your customers but also your entire community.

Publicity is an important part of developing this feeling of goodwill. Of particular value is coverage you receive in the local media with messages other than advertisements. A quote from you in a news story has unique value that goes above and beyond advertising. You gain credibility from a message displayed in a source that is considered impartial. But, you usually have little control over when, where and how information about your business appears in the media. Constantly monitor sources where coverage about your business might appear so that you can immediately refute negative comments and capitalize on positive ones.
Direct Marketing

A variety of activities fall under the category of direct marketing. These include--but are not limited to--direct mail, telemarketing and catalogs. The best direct marketing efforts focus on a strictly defined target market of current customers and key prospects. Direct mail can be used to reach a much larger audience but this usually results in waste when people who are not at all interested in what you have to offer receive your message.

Your direct marketing efforts should convey your unique selling proposition in a recognizable way. Many small-business owners fall into the habit of presenting vastly different messages each time they produce a direct marketing piece. This creates confusion among your audience and fractures your promotional voice. The overall look and feel of your communication must be similar. Make sure that you preserve your core message by using the same logo and/or general design on everything: business cards, letterhead, Web site, ads, etc.

The successful practice of integrated marketing communications means achieving balance among all the promotional elements. Your primary focus needs to be on what works best for you whether it’s advertising, sales promotion or personal selling. But be sure that you don’t totally neglect a promotional element. Each is important for a particular reason and all work together and complement one another.

 

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