How Can Marketing Help My Competitive Advantage?

Entrepreneurs continue to search for ways to increase their competitive advantage. Winning business from competitors isn't easy. In fact, trying to gain new clients can sometimes take quite a long time - time that most companies do not have if they intend on staying in business. In the weeks to come we'll discuss more about competitive advantage and how to increase it through specific marketing initiatives that perhaps you know - but just haven't had time to touch on in a while.

Let's explore areas that will pollinate your competitive advantage by revisiting the following - Get a pen, write it down, or print it out for your own strategy sessions:

• Increase the time it takes deliver your product or service (increase efficiency)
• Survey your clients to find out their level of satisfaction (know your customer)
• Build strategic alliances so that you never lose a contact (make contacts work for you even if they are not your direct client)
• Lean your processes (better understand supply chain management)
• Touch base with your sales force more often (treat your sales force first class, they are in many cases the first contact with client and they know their pains and needs)
• Know your unique selling proposition (revisit your positioning statement to enhance differentiation)
• Have planning sessions for your business (make sure to spend a time each week that focuses on your businesses no matter how busy you get)
• Create a board of directors or group of people that you can learn from (in many cases, professionals will join forces to share best practices, insight, and planning opportunities)
  

You probably know exactly where I'm coming from, but in order to increase your competitive advantage through marketing here are a few specific items to consider.

1. Build a strong relationship with your customer by getting to know them thoroughly - do a little research, keep a database of pertinent information that will help targeted messages
   
2. Implement technology that will better serve your client - examples include: email marketing, dynamic Web sites, and customer relations management software
3. Create stickiness - develop memberships, incentive programs, reward programs, or added value for your clients
4. Make sure your brand is relevant - meaning, make sure that your brand means more than just the offering of your product or service - for instance, community initiatives
5. Enhance the customer experience - create a culture that is customer-focused, making sure that your clients have this experience every time is developed through your systems and execution

These are just a few things I recommend in creating competitive advantage. It has worked for hundreds of small to medium sized enterprise and can work for your business too.

Apply these concepts and you will Augment Your Marketing efforts ten fold.

Trisha Ahlman is a marketing strategist and small business owner. She has worked in just about every marketing function possible for nearly 20 years. Augment Marketing Group's specialty is helping small businesses build strong brands, increase visibility in the market, and generate sales - this is called the B.I.G. system. To contact, email trisha@augmentgroup.com.

What works best for small business - PR or Marketing?

I haven't written in a while - I've been just a little busy lately, but I wanted to address the question posed tonight at the Indio-American Chamber of Commerce. I was invited to speak regarding marketing and PR for small businesses. What works: Marketing or PR? Which one can set small businesses apart from their competitors? The answers that resonated are that marketing is everything you do for you business, but PR is one very important marketing initiative that can generate BIG results while gaining credibility as an expert in your field.

I've spoken before about B.I.G. results. In essence, it means to: Build awareness and trust, Increase interest, and Generate sales. PR is a way to build trust and funnel buyers through the decision making process non-offensively. Specifically, we spoke about education marketing and educating consumers about your products and services rather than selling them. With public relations, we tend to think what we hear or see is believable or acceptable rather than a sales pitch or marketing ploy.

I think that marketing and sales professionals get a bad wrap for the most part because of all the high pressured sales people of the world. Quite frankly, car salesman and insurance salesman have given us all a bad name. None the less, we still need to sell our products and services, right?

How do we do this? The answer is PR. Build credibility with your consumers. Here are a few tips from tonight's excellent panel discussion on PR and Marketing for Small Businesses:

1. Spend time blogging or writing articles that demonstrate your expertise in your field.
2. Make sure you have some kind of online presence.
3. Use an integrated approach to marketing - if you do use traditional media for advertising, make sure that you use other guerrilla marketing tactics and online media to help support initiatives for the best results.
   
4. Make a lasting impression with your clients - don't forget the old hand shake and customer relations.
5. Make sure you under promise and over deliver.
6. Be unique and make sure that your marketing mix has a specific message to a specific target - the more targeted the better.
   
7. Use a platform that allows you to tell your story - you finally have it all together, you know your marketing, you know your client, you know your brand ... talk radio is just one way to utilize a platform that gives you more than just a 60 second commercial.

These concepts and so much more were discussed this evening. Everyone participated and we all gained a great deal of insight from the conversation. If you would like to know more about tonight's meeting, please email trisha@augmentgroup.com.

Trisha Ahlman is the CEO of Augment Marketing Group and has over 15 years experience in marketing for corporations and small businesses. She sits on several creative and strategic development boards nationwide. "Inspired by growth" from its inception, Augment's mission is to inspire growth in all businesses large or small when developing strong brands. We believe in inspiring, learning and growing.

Augment Your Sales: 2 things you can do immediately!

Marketing and sales is what keeps your business going, right? An infusion of both can help your business soar. If you are feeling a little stagnant and need to augment your marketing and sales read these two tips and put an action plan in place to implement immediately.

1. Overcome fear and develop courage and self-confidence. Part of that comes from practice and knowledge (knowing your product, competitors, and potential rejections). Having a well thought out presentation is also helpful. That doesn't mean to over do it and get all stressed out. Have a professional presentation printed on quality materials and dress well. Confidence shows!

2. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call your prospect. The worst that can happen is that they say "NO". What always works best for me is to be patient. Just keep calling (not harrassment), but keep in touch. Being in the right place at the right time is critical. Increase your call number by at least 5 people a day. This will get you more sales ultimately.

These tips are designed to be easy enough to implement immediately. Just a few ideas each day will help your business to grow.

What do you to overcome fear, break barriers or increase sales?

Become the Expert and Win Business

Everyone will listen to experts, right? How do you become one? Unless you are highly qualified already and have multiple certifications and/or degrees, it might be a long journey to becoming "The Expert" trusted adviser in your field. However, I believe that this is a long-term strategy that can be a won if you follow a few simple techniques:

1. Write articles for your local newspaper. Don't you remember writing letters to the editor? Pick up a magazine or newspaper and read the style of that journal. Once you get a feel for the type of writing, give it a shot. If you do get published, this clearly gives you a great start to a portfolio that will build lasting credibility. If your not a great writer, there is only one way to get better and that's to start writing.
2. Know your target audience. You will hear me say this a million times. I don't know how many times I have to tell my clients to narrow their audience. The more defined the easier to target.
3. Always be prepared and do your homework. I spend at least 1000 hours a year studying marketing and case studies. Anything and everything that has to do with marketing, PR, online marketing, etc... I'm reading about it. With fast changes in every industry just about, you have to be cutting edge and knowledgeable to speak as an expert.
4. Develop a long-term strategy. Another bit of advice you will hear from me often. Becoming an expert isn't an overnight plan. In fact, if you do not develop the mind set that it's going to take time to build your credibility, you will not be able to get past the quick fix syndrome that many small business owners have. Think about posting articles, starting a blog, speaking engagements, educating consumers, or building a portfolio of events and press releases that demonstrate your expertise.
5. How about a newsletter and email list. A small article in a local newspaper can generate an email opt-in list if you give away free advice by directing them to sign up for your newsletter online. It's really quite simple. Think about all the topics you can cover. Plan them out over a year. Develop the articles and send out a blast at least once a month but typically no more than three.
   

Credibility is a journey not a quick fix solution. Your action plan is to write down five things you can do to start building your credibility and the title of being "The Expert" in your field. List the five things and then spend a few minutes each week building a to do list that gets you from A to Z. Start now and before you know it, you'll have five published articles, three speaking engagements, eight press releases and a host of credible resources for your portfolio.

Most of all, credibility builds trust and trust generates sales. You have to crawl before you can walk. Plan today!