Metaphorical Marketing

Before you begin to make changes in your business, before you begin making plans to roll out aggressive marketing initiatives, you need to evaluate where you are right now- before you start.

What positioning do you have in the market place?
Are you considered the cheapest in your area? Are you the luxury end of the market? Is there a perception that while you aren't the best, you offer a solid product at a slightly cheaper price? Or perhaps you've created your own catagory where direct competition is minimal?

If you can't answer these questions, you need to think about it. And if you can't intelligently "guesstimate" what the answers are to these questions, its time to go to your clients, and ask them. Pick your most trusted- the ones you might call friends if you can. Ask them some questions about what they perceive to be true about your company, and the differences between it and your competition. Get in as many questions as you can which will give you a picture of what comes to your potential client's minds when they think of you.

Some other questions you might want to ask include:

• Can I expand my business without hiring more employees? (almost everyone can)
• How much can I invest in marketing initiatives?
• How much am I investing right now?
• Am I measuring the response to my marketing, and do I know my ROI?
• What do I do best, right now, in my market place? (again you might want to ask customers than rely on your own perceptions)
• How much time do I spend marketing to existing clients?
• Am I using my existing client's good will to my favour?

These questions can go on and on- but these are top on my list.

Once you understand your strong points and where you stand in relation to the rest of your market place, you can place strong, effective and targetted messages that will get the attention of exactly the clients you want.