Helping You Connect and Stay Connected
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AIMS -
Accelerated Innovative Marketing Solutions Helping You Connect and Stay Connected |
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Small Business and
Marketing |
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Growth is the natural
result of
possessing and successfully implementing all the factors necessary
to achieve business sustainability –– |
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Many small business enterprises are built on shoe-string budgets with the bulk of investment capital going into essential infrastructure addressing equipment, inventory and distribution needs. These needs tend to reflect the first tier of small business development. The second tier, moving forward and increasing profits, involves addressing expanded production. Expanded production requires consumer demand. Consumer demand requires an informed consumer who chooses your product or service over a competitor. Informing your customer base involves smart marketing - that is, determining, targeting, reaching and effectively communicating with your market. These elements work together like building blocks - each a function of the other - lending support to a sound foundation, working to sustain top tier growth. In order to help sustain growth, a percentage of your annual budget should be devoted to marketing. The amount you invest depends on whether you desire to maintain your current market share, embark upon slow growth or leap ahead with major expansion. Of course, your marketing plan and materials play a large part in how best to invest your marketing budget. Communicating your product or service is vital to the sustainability of your market share. 'Word-of-mouth' advertising is among the oldest, most effective and least expensive ways to trumpet yourself to your customer base; but, a new business in town faces a dilemma - how to initiate word of mouth? This is best accomplished by launching a strong marketing campaign from a sound business platform. It need not be elaborate or even sustained, but it should be strategic and comprehensive, pointing your core market base in your direction. Your first efforts, and indeed your continued efforts, are necessary to achieve at least three important business objectives: 1) Announce your company and your product or service; 2) Distinguish your company and your product or service from your competitors; and, 3) Maintain accurate customer perception of your business image and product or service. All these objectives depend upon an integrated, effective campaign to enhance brand recognition. Businesses in smaller towns, which may be enjoying the expanded market base of rapid growth, have the flip-side burden of competing with the sudden commercial participation of ‘big box’ retailers, whose vast, department-styled structures command a hefty slice from the purchasing power of smaller communities. Utilizing a high-dollar and comprehensive marketing approach generated by their own marketing divisions located states away from the markets which they serve, large retailers present local small businesses with both an immense challenge and unique, competitive opportunity. Consider your business performance over the past year. Are your sales figures simply not meeting expectations? Are you losing client base? Do you know where you want to go but are not sure how to get there? Do you want to command more of the market share but are frustrated by your failure to connect?
The wrong communication will send
the wrong message or no message at all. Careful attention must be
paid to every detail and nuance of your business communication in
order to achieve the maximum, desired result. Well crafted marketing materials serve as the vehicle to drive customers to the door of commerce. Without it, a message can be lost, and many ‘could be’ / ‘would be’ customers won’t follow through with actual contact. Don't miss another vital opportunity. Get more mileage from your advertising budget. Capitalize on the right communication. As your one-stop small business marketing and promotion resource, AIMS offer attention-getting graphics, powerful advertising language, as well as design and layout services. Inventory, rent, utilities - all revolving expenses. Building your promotional infrastructure doesn't have to be debilitating and continual. Refining your image and message throughout the life of your business is important; yet, it is possible to create materials which add longevity to your promotional investment. Call AIMS to find out how we can achieve this goal together.
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Why
You Need Professionally Created |
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Stay Ahead of the Pack The commercial market is in constant flux - at minimum even a small business should be reassessing promotional materials every two years. The pace of business is often set by one competitor emulating the latest innovation of another competitor - including product/service innovation and effective communication. In order to stay ahead of the pack, you must constantly implement techniques which work. Many of these are based on age-old, tried and true techniques, while some are new and just as effective. Finding out what works for you is your marketing plan. Refining it and keeping it fresh will help you keep pace with and ideally ahead of your competitors. The Guarantee Of Business Security Is As Thin As The Emperor's New Clothes Whether your company is long-established and enjoys a solid base of loyal customers, or you're the new kid on the block, as a business owner, you must think about community and market changes and how they may affect you. Is there a recent influx of professionals? A new super store? Have your clients' needs grown beyond your product or service? Regardless of your market's shifting patterns and whether the economy is weak or strong, in order to survive and thrive, your business must compete for the consumer's dollar against fluctuating consumer priorities and competing businesses. Keeping your business at the fore of consumer consciousness, by keeping your company's image and message in clear view, will go a long way toward keeping the customers you have and winning new ones. You sweep the front walk, smile, shake hands and polish your windows. Reach beyond your physical location to a questing market. Unless you can promote your product or service by directly placing it in the hands of every consumer who desires it, and unless that product or service is completely self-service from that point on, you will have to communicate with your customer. When you are not standing directly in front of your customers, you are trying to reach out to them. How? With your business communication. Whether on a business card, a radio ad, a billboard, the back of a menu, a newsletter, a phone call - you name it, by combining verbal content, illustrative design and utilizing principals of consumer association, you are attempting to connect. It would be cost-prohibitive to hire and train individual representatives to personally carry your message to as many customers as you'd like to reach, which is why the bulk of your promotional materials will be in print or otherwise broadcast. Dynamic communication is the promotional foundation of your company and a catalyst for its growth. Your Website Is Your Virtual Store Front
The internet is a powerful, cost-effective and nearly indispensable marketing device in today's market.
However, it is fraught with misconception, over-expectation and
complicated realities which must be considered by the business owner.
When investing in world-wide outreach through a web site, the prudent
business owner will leverage their investment by implementing several important factors
to
better result in a
site which effectively communicates their business image and product
or service while appealing to consumers. “Search Engine
Optimization” is a vital area of website design which delves into the promotional potential of website content
analysis. In the constantly changing 'cyber' world, AIMS'
web design experience can
help you achieve the difficult yet critical balance between search
engine optimization and consumer appeal. Don’t Spend A Dollar To Save A Dime Work with a professional communications consultant who is tasked to design specialized, integrated communications -- not simply place advertising in directories, newspapers, magazines or on the radio. While you may think you're saving money by utilizing in-house mass-media staffers to create your communication, don't risk making the grievous mistake of trusting your business image to a potentially poorly trained or poorly compensated employee whose interest may be less in promoting you and more in simply fulfilling a quota and collecting an hourly wage. Further, by placing your ad in mass or broadcast media, your competition isn't simply others within your industry - it's everyone in the publication! Everyone is competing for the limited attention of the consumer. You need an individualized approach which builds brand recognition with your target market. Your investment is better leveraged by hiring a professional communication specialist to design and create your materials, while working with advertising providers, whose fundamental understanding of their market can help you place your materials within their most effective advertising media. Combine and coordinate the best of both, different and unique services by using each to your greatest advantage. Trust a Communications Consultant to Create Your Communication Materials Business owners and consumers tend to see a product or service and its desirability from two distinct and different points of view. A communications specialist will integrate the two perspectives by using techniques which place your product or service in its most favorable and useful light. A combination of commercial writing, visual design and fundamental marketing principals is required to integrate and refine a message designed specifically to perform multiple promotional functions simultaneously. Do-it-yourselfers often overlook many of these specialized, essential components. When it comes to effective communication, it pays to invest in training and experience. Your Future Is Within Reach Most small businesses require only a handful of core marketing materials to launch their marketing campaign. These powerhouse advertising vehicles are varied in their content and outreach. When integrated, these components can carry your business message to your target consumer market in a number of ways, all of which help ensure your message is heard. Contact AIMS today to receive AIMS' free on-line marketing report "Top Ten Powerhouse Marketing Methods" to learn what these powerful communications tools are, what they can do for you, and how you can quickly and affordably build them into your business growth plan. The Bottom Line You're a business owner, leading your company's growth and investment decisions. Make the decision to take control of your advertising message. If you're looking for the best in product, service and customer care at competitive rates in order to secure powerful communications materials you can use, should you choose, for the life of your business, call AIMS today.
Here's the bottom line.
AIMS is here to help you succeed. |
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Innovative Marketing Solutions, and/or Lisa Bracken and/or other owners
where stated 1995-2010 (present). All Rights Are Reserved. Reproduction and/or Distribution is Strictly Prohibited. For copyright permission,
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