One of the frustrations of helping new businesses start-ups is the amount of poor marketing advice that is doled out, usually by marketing consultants as a means of getting a company with little funds to splash out on a glossy brochure or a flier. There is nothing wrong with good marketing collateral, and indeed it should be a key part of brand and profile building, but not without a marketing strategy, a sales model and a good understanding of what you are trying to achieve and how.
So how delighted was I to receive through the post (I must have ticked a box somewhere) a Business Link book offering an Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing. Not only that, the book had a bright yellow additional cover emblazoned with my own personalised title – ‘Mike Herd’s book on Marketing to Win More Business’. Stunning, if it had been a book on how to sell pointless marketing material to Business Link, I would have been impressed, but as example of how to use marketing to win more business it bombed.
Should you judge book by its cover? Hope not!
Mike Herd
Sussex Innovation Centre – November 2008
You are so right on this matter. What I find most frustrating is that these guys give “marketing” a bad name when it fails to deliver the increased sales promised. Nobody tells these small businesses that promotion is only 25% of marketing and actually its the other 75% thats more important: product, price and place!
Mike
Brochures seem a little ‘last century’ to me anyway. On receipt from the printer, they are already ageing.
Can I recommend a company creates and articulates a compelling purpose to exist first; the brochure can wait!
That’s a nice analogy, Andy (the 25%/75% thing). In starting a new business it’s so easy to get suckered into spending a fortune on marketing and marketing advice that doesn’t actually achieve very much.