With your research and strategy in hand, it’s time to implement your go-to-market plan  and extend your reach.  Make the most of your time and budget by setting objectives that are realistic as you evaluate the best ways to promote your offering.

Which tools should you use to extend your reach?

Depending upon your objective, who your customer is, and the customer touch points you want to influence, there are various communication tools or vehicles you can use to help you extend your reach.

Lead generation activities  – such as direct mail and email campaigns, events, a website, etc. – create opportunities to pitch your product or service to prospects or customers.  When they respond to your pitch, that’s when you capture their contact information and try to learn more about their interest level.  More…

Direct mail and email campaigns enable you to pitch your offering to your target market.  Both types of campaigns are useful, but their value depends upon your objectives.  There are many factors to consider when you roll out your campaign, but whatever your lead gen objectives are, make sure you follow best practices and understand the do’s and don’ts.  More…

Sales tools help your target audience – whether internal to external to your organization – learn about your product or service offering, and are typically tangible in nature.  Found in many forms, common sales tools include collateral, product demos, and websites.  More…

Having a website is a must-have for all businesses.  An online presence establishes your brand, educates your target audience, facilitates advertising, enables customer communications and supports social media efforts. You can use your website to help generate leads, showcase a joint solution with a partner or to show their support for your offering(s), and provide a mechanism for purchasing and product delivery.  Your website can even help nurture on-going customer relationships through customer service, professional services, and technical support depending upon your business offerings.  More…

Social media allows people to connect online with others who share similar interests.  Popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube enable communication between two or more people at the same time, in real time, at any time.  Businesses looking to stay top-of-mind with prospects cannot afford to ignore this form of outreach.  With growth trends being clear, it’s best to develop a social media strategy to make the most of your implementation efforts.  More…

Events provide a venue or forum for prospects and customers to learn about your offerings and are useful for uncovering valuable information about a prospect’s needs and expectations.   Ensuring attendance isn’t easy, however.  Fortunately, there are some basic event planning guidelines you can follow to ensure attendance at your event to help you achieve your objectives.  More…

With advertising and public relations (PR), try to understand your prospect’s lifestyle and business interests, then place your advertisements and public relation activities in those venues, or where common interests reside, to maximize resources.  Having a detailed customer profile and solid understanding of customer touch points is key to campaign development and rollout.  There are many more factors to consider, but don’t let them hold you back.  Remember:  If you don’t promote your business, no will know you exist.  More…

Use a multi-channel communication strategy

For best results, use multiple communication tools or channels (web, blog, newspapers, advertising, etc.) to deliver your message and influence customer touch points. With a multi-channel communication strategy, you can to reach different customer touch points – such as advertising, direct mail, online marketing activities such as social media, e-newsletters, and articles.  With the proliferation of mobile devices, be sure your online marketing activities also consider the device and applications customers use to engage with your business.

Consistent branding and messaging is crucial

Each channel or vehicle  – whether advertising, partners, web or other –  used to extend your reach should include similar messaging and consistent branding to maximize results.  When each vehicle reinforces your message, users are more apt to recall and/or take action due to repetition of exposure.  Because this integrated marketing approach typically requires many vendors to implement it, being consistent in your messaging is more difficult to achieve.  To alleviate this issue, develop a style guide to help you keep internal personnel, partners, and vendors marching to beat of the same drum by delivering a consistent message to your target audience.

Tips!

  • Implementation is key to success.
  • Setting objectives will help you obtain desired outcomes.
  • A style guide will help keep your branding consistent.
  • Use your go-to-market plan as a guide for extending your reach.
  • Learn and share best practices with other professionals to help improve results.
  • Use planning tools to ensure tasks are tracked and managed to align with objectives.

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