Before you introduce a new product or service, it goes through a lengthy design process and rigorous testing. You spend untold hours on a marketing strategy, getting everything just right. Launch day comes, though, and you realize you forgot something: Nobody told your customer-service department about the company’s latest and greatest offering before people started calling and emailing to ask questions.

“It creates a lot of confusion, is bad for morale, and upsets customers,” says the anonymous writer at the Service Untitled blog. “Having a more formalized process that keeps customer service in mind is a much better way to handle product launches.”

Service Untitled suggests these steps:

1. Educate everyone in customer service on its benefits and features. Even go so far as to require certification before they interact with the public.
2. Give them a clear sense of the volume you expect, and update them on promotions, discounts and special pricing.
3. Advise frontline staff on possible problem areas—if you’re concerned about something in particular, let them know. And be sure that they have the resources needed for resolution.
4. Update your website so the information customers see online matches what a customer service representative will tell them.

“Creating a process lets companies work through [a launch] like it’s second nature,” says Service Untitled. “[They] can be consistent and most importantly, they can go smoothly.”

Here are three simple steps.

1. Review your 07/08 marketing activities.  What was successful?  What was not?  Did you conduct your marketing activities according to plan?  Did you have a plan? What was the impact of your marketing?  Did it create greater brand awareness? Did it generate new business or leads?  Did you measure your marketing campaigns.
2.  What would you change? What would you do differently in sales, marketing or client relations if you had that time over again?  What did you learn from last year?
3. Plan and change.  Revise your marketing plan, make sure that it fits with your organisations objectives.  Be prepared to change your activities and be creative.

If marketing is a daunting task for you, step back and relax.  Your goal for 2008/2009 should be to focus on three marketing activities to deliver on and do well.  These activities as compared to those from last year should be remarkable.  difference to how your business you achieved last year.  These activities are going to help you get closer to your goal.   Don’t over commit yourself, but make sure you follow through and measure your chosen activities.

1. Tell everyone you have arrived. Get your name out there.  Word of Mouth marketing is the key to getting more and more people to know who you are and what you do.  The more that do, the better.
2. Contact your local media.  Let them know what you are up to.  Be sure to share your skills and knowledge with them.
3. Get your message heard online. You need a business website, but it needs to be search engine friendly.  Make sure you plan what you want to get from your website - what do you want your customers to do?  Search Engines are the key.  You can be searchable through organic listings to optimise your website or consider buying google keywords or adwords to get customers to find you.  Speak to your web designer for their advice on the best method to suit you.

• Does the ad clearly identify your brand?  Does it do so immediately and throughout the ad?
• Does the ad feature a tag line that reinforces the brand’s promise?
• Does the ad reinforce your brand’s identity?
• Does the ad connect with the reader on an emotional level?  Does it win the reader’s heart or capture his or her imagination?
• Is there something about the ad that makes the reader admire the brand?
• Is your ad significantly different from that of your competitors?  Does it look and feel different from anything else featured in the same media?
• Does the ad reinforce the positive value and values of your brand?
• Could no competitor make the same claim?  If you inserted a competitor’s logo in the ad, would it make no sense or be unbelievable?
• Does the ad lead the reader/viewer to believe that he or she will be better off in some way for having interacted with your brand?  Does it create a more favorably perceived end-state for him or her?  Does it leave a vivid picture in his or her mind?
   

So you need a marketing plan, but where do you start?  Here is some advice from Drew McLellan: 

1. You can be too ambitious. Most small businesses make the mistake of launching too many marketing initiatives when they don’t have the resources to follow through on each one. You’re better off doing fewer things, but doing them frequently and well.
2. Don’t depend on a single medium. Says McLellan, “No matter how much you believe in word of mouth, direct mail, e-newsletters or an interactive Web site, one of your goals should be delivering key messages through a variety of media.” It isn’t called a marketing mix for nothing. With a more diverse campaign you are likely to increase your reach and your number of impressions.
3. Remember your core audience. You want to attract new customers, and there’s a natural urge to invest all of your marketing resources in doing just that. But, warns McLellan, it’s a shortsighted strategy. “The two most important audiences are your employees and your current customers,” he says. “Be sure your marketing plan gives them enough attention.” These groups deserve at least half of your time and budget.

Source: Drew’s Marketing Minute. Read the original blog post here.

Ever hear those radio spots where the poor on-air talent is talking so fast it sounds as if they didn’t take a breath for the entire: 60 seconds?
That’s an example of the “shove it all in” thinking. 

Many business owners believe that they have to cram all the facts, figures and information into every single ad, sign, brochure and web page.  They are in a panic, imagining that they might never have another chance to tell their story. 

Of course, when they create marketing tools that are over-packed, that’s exactly what happens. The audience turns a deaf ear.

When you think about creating a marketing piece — think bite-sized snacks.  One piece, one message.

Have you ever over indulged at Christmas and when you finally pushed away from the table, you felt like you might burst?  Contrast that with how you feel when you eat several mini-meals throughout a day.

Your marketing tools should be like mini-meals.  Tasty treats that your audience will look forward to because they are not too filling and were created to delight the consumer.

Be a smart marketer.  Don’t drive your audience away by drowning them in details.  Give them plenty of time and space to slowly absorb your message.  One bite at a time.

Customers don’t understand quality. Most customers have no way to measure the quality of the goods/services you provide. All they know is the experience that surrounds the sale. Since we tend to base opinions about quality on the overall experience, don’t neglect to back up your great product with great customer service.

Customers need you to manage their experience. By anticipating what might confuse or concern your customers and mapping out the road ahead you can put them at ease. Put your best and brightest in key positions. These employees will enforce or kill your brand every time they answer the phone or greet a client.  

Or perhaps the problem is as simple as a boring, ineffective headline. You might even have forgotten to include one at all! Or perhaps you thought your business name is the headline. Well it’s not.

Here are a few tips to get that headline working for you:

1. Get to the point. Brief, punchy headlines work best
2. Make it active. Energise your headline with vivid, action verbs.
3. Grab the readers’ attention. Use copy that asks a personal, poignant or catchy question.
4. Use visual appeal. Use a white type on a black background as contrast.

Don’t expect the headline to sell for you.  But on the flip side, don’t expect the reader to stop without a show-stopping headline.