Five Ways to Multiply Your Marketing Efforts

The top line in your income statement is "sales" - but what drives sales? Marketing. Point blank period, if you're not marketing, then your sales will suffer.

Any marketing tool you utilize should be designed to increase sales. If you use traditional media like print newspapers, magazines, direct mail, television, radio, and word-of-mouth you want to increase sales.

Perhaps you prefer palm cards, party cards, flyers, posters, coupons, even refrigerator magnets designed to increase sales. Some of you use social media with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, foursquare; podcasts, blogtalk, text messaging, video marketing, mobile marketing, SEO and video web conferencing to increase sales.

And then there's event marketing, sponsorships, branded content, product placement, in-store, point-of-sale, street teams, ad sense and ad words to increase sales. We can't even identify all of the creative marketing tactics and tools to utilize here, but they all share a common denominator which is "increase sales."

Now with limited economic resources,competition at heightened levels, consumers holding their purses tighter than ever, the person who makes the best marketing allocation decisions is going to realize the most bang for their marketing bucks.

How can you determine and utilize the best marketing tools for your unique situation? Here are five marketing tips to move you to the front of the line.

Tip 1) Identify your target market. It all starts here. Who in the heck are you trying to reach? And guess what -- it ain't "everybody". Too often amateur marketers think that "everybody wants my stuff". Sorry it just ain't so. There has to be a target for any product.

Tip 2) Know the size of your target universe. If you're targeting Black people in America, and the Census Reports there are 40 million in the U.S. that's the maximum size of your universe. If you're targeting African American people with household income above $75,000 then minus those people from the audience and there's your target.

Tip 3) Know where your target audience resides and "fish where the fish are." You have to know where your audience hangs-out, lurks, and networks. If your target audience is online, guess where you should be? Exactly - online with them. If they're off-line and don't touch computers, then you need to be face-to-face or even using geographic targeting tactics.

Tip 4) Know what percentage of your target market is reachable? Can you meet them at the mosque or church? Can you find their contact info on a list? Can you buy a billboard that they'll pass on their drive to work? What percentage of your target market can you effectively reach?

Tip 5) Cost. Develop a marketing budget. Even if you're "word of mouth" - or say "I do my own marketing" -- you need to put some money aside on a consistent basis for your marketing efforts. If you sold $1000 worth of services this month, and you decide to allocate 10% to your marketing budget, then set aside the $100. And leave it there!

By applying the five tips above your marketing muscles should grow. If that happens I'm sure I'll see you flexing in the marketplace.