Businesses today tend to operate on three speeds; fast, faster and yesterday. In Marketing, the speed we tend to hear from our new customers the most is yesterday. As you spend more time running your business, you can quickly find that technology has taken away the luxury of not having to plan your marketing approach, a luxury you may have gotten away with in the past using traditional advertising. “I need this marketing piece yesterday” is a statement heard by marketing professionals around the world, a statement that signifies something is drastically wrong with the Marketing Plan.

Marketing is one of the most important elements of growing a successful business. Waiting until you are not busy to promote yourself can often be too late. With the “Yesterday” Marketing Method, a company has waited until a crucial point where sales have slowed down, an event is quickly approaching or the company is in dire need of promoting itself to survive against a new competitor.

With a proper Marketing Plan, a company can set a plan of action in place to reach the company’s goals based on things like competitive analysis, market research, trends and public relations. Not only can proper planning improve the quality of your marketing and the results, but it can also save you a substantial amount of otherwise wasted money by outlining how to reach your target market efficiently.

A key question commonly received from business owners is, “What works best?”. There is no right answer to this question when it comes to marketing, as there is no one way to market every business. Each business is unique, find a marketing firm that truly understand this and you will find a company that knows the importance of planning strategy.

Next time someone tries to tell you they know how to market your business, ask yourself: Have they gone through these steps and do they truly understand my business market?

What Is This ‘Social Media’ Anyways?

Social media is a collection of online tools allowing people to connect and engage with each other via the Internet. Some examples of social media are: e-mail, websites, facebook, twitter, e-newsletters, e-blasts, videos, photos, etc. These are all tools that work together in efforts to strengthen your brand; referred to as ‘Social Media Marketing’ – A key component in small to medium business’ marketing plans.