Marketing Mix: What tactics must you embrace to compete in your industry?

Marketing mix refers to the combination of tactics a business uses to reach its target customers. It’s the winning recipe a business creates to grow and thrive.

There are three questions you should examine when constructing the marketing mix for your business:

What are the things you love to do?
What marketing activities are standard for your industry or profession?
What are the expectations of your target market?

Yesterday’s blog took a deeper look at how to incorporate the things you love to do. The basic premise is that you will be more successful engaging in marketing activities if you are passionate about them. The corollary I mentioned was that you shouldn’t be spending inordinate amounts of time on tactics you don’t enjoy. Right?

Well, there are exceptions.

There are marketing tactics that are (more or less) required for every particular industry or profession, whether you enjoy them or not.

Restaurants should advertise. Insurance agents should network. People who run communications firms should consider public speaking. And if you have a mobile food truck, you should be tweeting every day to let people know how and where to find you.

Ken Enjoys Public Speaking

There are two good ways to determine what makes sense for your industry or profession.

First, take a look at what your competitors are doing. Start by taking into account your direct competitors – the folks you run into at local Chamber of Commerce meetings. How are they marketing themselves? Look at their websites, blogs, press releases, etc. Next, examine what the major brand names in your industry are doing to market. These companies are successful for a reason. Study their brand messages and their marketing tactics, and see if you can emulate these successful brands on a smaller scale.

Second, investigate some of the trade associations that represent members of your industry or profession. Most trade associations offer market research, marketing guides, workshops, or mentoring programs to help people succeed at marketing. Trade associations are interested in the health of the industry as a whole, so most of them provide resources to help individual members compete. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all.

(Check out Associations Unlimited if you haven’t yet discovered the trade association that’s right for you. You can access the Associations Unlimited database through your local library.)

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the expectations of your target market.

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

About Ken

I love working with small businesses. I have been working with small business owners and would-be-entrepreneurs for nearly 20 years as the Associate Administrator for Field Operations at the U.S. Small Business Administration; as the founder of the world’s first LGBT Economic Development Program; and as the owner 2Bridge Communications, a public relations and communications management consulting firm. I’ve learned a lot along the way, mostly from clients who usually know much more about their businesses than they give themselves credit for. The goal of this blog is to share insights and demystify marketing and entrepreneurship for small businesses. There is so much entrepreneurial creativity and innovation taking place today. And while I hesitate to use weighty words like “renaissance” or “revolution,” I do think the world is heading toward a new social/entrepreneurial movement that rewards the businesses models that make sustainable and responsible contributions to the marketplace. I believe what goes around does eventually come around and that the decisions you make as a small business owner should be based not only on what is financially best for your company but also what is best for your employees and your community. This blog will help you bring pleasure to customers, value to the marketplace, innovation to your industry, job satisfaction to your employees, and new energy to the communities in which you live and play. Let me know what you are thinking, and please contact me if you need help taking your business to the next level. Ken www.2bridgecommunications.com/contact.html

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