Strengthen Your Business Without Flexing Your Muscles

Four “Soft” Pathways to Your Next Customer

By Mary Kay Claus, President and CEO, Blue Shamrock Communications

Congratulations! You’ve established a business, begun to tap the potential of your great idea and survived a harsh economy, to boot. Now is the perfect time to flex your confidence by implementing a plan that includes long- and short-term strategies and that healthy mix of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ marketing.

Most successful business owners understand that an effective marketing strategy is like a healthy salad: it includes a variety of tools, goals and expectations . . . logos, sales presentations, community sponsorships. Each element on its own is, well, just a lonely slice of raw vegetable on a plate. Tossed together, they make a lovely lunch—and a strong marketing approach.

Techniques that increase exposure to key audiences, improve your positioning and reinforce brand value probably won’t include a single word from your carefully developed elevator speech. No marketing-speak, no keywords, no direct call to action. Talk about messaging gone wild!

The best news? These soft marketing techniques are effective, easy to implement and (usually) budget-friendly. They will increase your exposure to customers, prospects and the press, without resorting to the ‘reeducation camp’ model:

Be an Authority.
Speaking engagements and article writing are two effective approaches to building your reputation as an expert. Convention organizers, chamber of commerce members, community leaders and business networking groups will appreciate your offer of informative, non-sales focused content.

Be an Educator.
Free seminars are opportunities to demonstrate your expertise while helping customers learn how they can use your product to improve their lives. For example, friends in the financial sector have had great success with sessions on estate planning and Health Savings Accounts.

Be a Good Neighbor.
Sponsor or host community events. Parades, sports teams, competitions and book signings are all great ways to engage your company in the local scene. Corporate goodwill is an intangible, but bankable, asset.

Be “The Best.”
Ever wish you had the chance to stand up and thank the “little” people? Well, step up! Award competitions and business recognition events are publicity opportunities waiting to happen. Industry awards strengthen your reputation and exposure.

What kind of results can I expect?
Good question. And if you expect either of the words “instant” or “gratification” to pop up in my answer, then you’ll want to avoid the inevitable disappointment and stop reading now.

A broad, robust marketing strategy defines long- and short-term goals. A direct mail postcard, for example, delivers immediate, measurable results, easily connected back to the action. Soft techniques, like those introduced here, are generally more difficult to track. They are meant to impact the strength and enduring value of your brand. Yes, it is true that face-to-face interactions at seminars and networking events can produce timely, tangible benefits. In general however, soft techniques produce difficult-to-measure results—goodwill and brand recognition being the most valuable of these—and they do require continual reinvestment. (In other words, the goodwill you cultivated by sponsoring that pee-wee team back in 2006 is probably dried up today.)

“Our marketing plan is multi-faceted,” says Kathryn Whitecotton, general manager of Air Treatment Company, of Vienna, Va. “Some of the techniques we use are responsive and help us achieve immediate goals. But some, like our annual sponsorship of the Vienna Halloween Parade, we consider building blocks, there to strengthen the foundation of our brand. We’re a 50-year-old company, so it’s safe to say that we view marketing as a long-term investment strategy.

”Small business owners sometimes place exclusive emphasis on the messages they’ve worked so hard to perfect. Periodically letting go of the sales pitch to add value to customers’ lives is an almost unnatural undertaking.
Think of it this way: adding value strengthens relationships, and strong relationships are the key to continued success.

An experienced marketing professional, in-house or outsourced, can help identify the opportunities that put your business in front of the target market, and they can manage time- and labor-intensive activities such as article placement, ghost writing and award submissions. Help is out there if you need it.

Mary Kay Claus is president and CEO of Blue Shamrock Communications. She may be reached at 703-648-3290 or mkclaus@blueshamrock.net.