Being more Productive with your Marketing Efforts

Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator blog has challenged us to come up with our most productive tips.

I've found a way to be more productive with marketing efforts by starting with the action you want your target market to take.

• Is it sign up for your newsletter?
• Is it compare your product to the competitors?
• Is it learn more about your services?

Then I try to list each one of the steps I think a prospect may need to take in the sales cycle. Then I create a marketing support material for each step. Some folks take an "elevator" right to the top and buy after the first touch. Others need 5 touches over 5 weeks. Others need 25 touches and aren't ready until they are ready.

So what does this have to do with productivity?

I try to keep the funnel in mind when creating the marketing program. Re use, revise, reiterate. Have a consistent message. Keep hammering the benefits (along with the features) but always the benefits! To me this helps stay focused on marketing. Otherwise it's very scatter shot.

What's the goal. Keep looking at the horizon. Focus on the goal. Visualize the steps to get there.

Just working on a close for the sale won't help every prospect make the decision. Realize that marketing is a process of learning, being educated, informed. Your prospective customer is not just a faceless person in your target audience, but an individual who is somewhere along in the sales cycle.

So how are you more productive in your [insert your profession here] efforts? I'd like to hear from the experts in their profession rather than just in general. The group I really want to hear from are the The Creativity Bloggers -- How do you get more productive with your creativity or stay productive and creative? Please tag back to me and to Ben Yoskovitz:

Before & After
Brain Based Biz
Creative Think
Quinn Creative
Idea Dude
Innovation Zen