{"id":24,"date":"2009-01-27T19:16:41","date_gmt":"2009-01-28T00:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/?p=24"},"modified":"2013-03-08T08:55:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T13:55:57","slug":"have-a-sound-marketing-strategy-in-place-before-you-start-investing-time-and-money-creating-marketing-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/2009\/01\/27\/have-a-sound-marketing-strategy-in-place-before-you-start-investing-time-and-money-creating-marketing-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a sound marketing \u201cstrategy\u201d in place BEFORE you start investing time and money creating marketing tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is an \u201conly-one advantage\u201d and<\/strong><\/em> how can it put your business on the road<\/strong><\/em> to higher profits?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Joseph Cekauskas
\nMarketing Consultant & Strategist
\nJC Marketing Communications<\/p>\n

\"JCMany salespeople or business owners jump quickly into creating their marketing tools without first having a comprehensive business\/marketing \u201cstrategy\u201d or \u201cplan.\u201d Consciously…or not…they skip the fundamentals and go right to the \u201ctactic.\u201d By \u201ctactic,\u201d we mean the physical execution or creative aspect of their marketing tools.<\/p>\n

Those include:
\ndesigning & placing ads\u2014writing & building a website\u2014
\ndesign & printing of brochures\/postcards\/sales letters\u2014
\nwriting TV or radio spots\u2014creating billboards…
\n……….AND SO ON…<\/em><\/p>\n

Oftentimes, the rush to development is caused because there\u2019s deadline pressure to get the message-to-market. On other occasions, it\u2019s simply way more fun to work on the design and creative. Another reason planning gets back-burnered, is that this \u201cstrategy\u201d phase takes effort. No matter which, JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) believes as a proven, accountable and reliable professional\u2014it is OUR responsibility to educate our client(s) of potential pitfalls should they choose to perform their \u201ctactic\u201d before \u201cstrategy.\u201d The importance of having a sound marketing strategy in place before you start investing your time and money in creating brochures, ads and other marketing tools cannot be over emphasized…AND we can prove it.<\/em><\/p>\n

How would your income or<\/strong>
\nlifestyle change if you developed an <\/strong>
\n\u201conly-one advantage\u201d strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having an \u201conly-one advantage\u201d is a desirable method of sustaining a presence in people\u2019s consciousness without compromising integrity. An \u201conly-one advantage\u201d is the unique reason why people should<\/strong> do business with YOU versus your competition. Most businesses don\u2019t make the effort to develop an \u201conly-one advantage.\u201d As a result, they are forced to compete based on price.<\/strong><\/em> Their profit margins and market share suffer. It doesn\u2019t have to be that way.<\/p>\n

What if there was something about your business that literally forced people to buy from you? How would that affect your income and your lifestyle?<\/strong><\/em> Not possible you say? Please consider the following exercise. It will help you develop a \u201cstrategy\u201d as a means to gain market share and leave your competition baffled. Throughout this exercise, you should analyze all your items from your customer…or buyers point-of-view.<\/p>\n

Step 1\u2014Do your homework:<\/strong>
\nBegin by making a list of all the things you do for your customers. Do a \u201cdata dump\u201d of everything you offer from price…to products…to service<\/em>. Take your list and cross off every item that is also offered by your competitors. Once completed\u2014is there at least one thing left that your competitors don\u2019t do?<\/strong><\/em> If not, ask yourself: why should people do business with us…versus our competition?<\/strong> Take a moment to evaluate your services in terms of relevance to your customers. Unless you know specifically what is meaningful to your customers\/prospects, none of the items on your list will be the reason that makes you indispensable.<\/p>\n

Step 2\u2014Quantify your data:<\/strong>
\nThe simplest and best way to know that your benefits are significant is to ask your current and past customers what they like best about what you offer.<\/strong> This part of the process just might be a highly rewarding AND profitable exercise for your company. Once you have identified what your customers really desire, you can focus on those benefits in your advertising and promotional efforts. Ideally, at least one of the things your customers like about you will be something that your competitors don\u2019t offer. You can then test market this as your \u201conly-one advantage.\u201d Or it could be that what your customers like about you is also offered by your competitors, but they don\u2019t publicize it. If you are the first to publicize it, you can preempt your competition. If you don\u2019t have an obvious \u201conly-one advantage,\u201d you may have to create one.<\/strong> Remember to TEST your data first\u2014to make sure it\u2019s both meaningful to your customers and profitable to you. Be patient, perform a quick and easy feasibility study before you spend lots of energy and money. Poll your existing clients<\/strong>\u2014if their feedback indicates that your offering is valuable or unique, ONLY then should you take the next step.<\/em><\/p>\n

Step 3\u2014Be innovative:<\/strong>
\nWhat if you\u2019ve thought and thought and you can\u2019t seem to come up with anything that makes sense? We suggest you use a fall-back advantage. It\u2019s a methodology that has been effective for companies such as Dominos, Fedex and Sears.<\/p>\n

JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) can help you take that next step for alot less money than those companies expended. Call us at 860.621.8866\u2014you will have access to the answer to this question, as well as solutions toward your \u201conly-one advantage,\u201d brand development and marketing research\/consulting. AND BEST OF ALL, we develop high quality CONTENT-DRIVEN marketing materials such as websites, brochures, direct mail postcards, ads, sales letters, tradeshow displays, video, radio commercials, etc.<\/p>\n

Skeptical?<\/strong>
\nJCMC is unique because we produce marketing materials with a marketing mindset. It means we produce CONTENT-DRIVEN materials that include measurable, trackable strategies into your marketing materials.<\/strong> <\/em>Unlike many of our competitors, we bring an \u201caccountability\u201d factor to your marketing effort because we employ our \u201cdirect response marketing\u201d methodology.<\/p>\n

One quick phone call to JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) can launch your business toward accelerated growth, larger market share and higher profits. From your infrastructure through your marketing strategy and materials\u2014JCMC implements proven methodologies to increase market share, thus adding money to your bottom line. Call while the thought is still fresh in your mind<\/em>\u2014860.621.8866.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is an \u201conly-one advantage\u201d and how can it put your business on the road to higher profits? By Joseph Cekauskas Marketing Consultant & Strategist JC Marketing Communications Many salespeople or business owners jump quickly into creating their marketing tools without first having a comprehensive business\/marketing \u201cstrategy\u201d or \u201cplan.\u201d Consciously…or not…they skip the fundamentals and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jcmcom.com\/jcmblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}