Marketing is NOT having a single mega website that is responsible for driving all of the traffic to your business. That’s 1990’s thinking and it will not work in 2009. Do that and you will lose you current clients, not to mention countless potential future clients. Stop saying “mission accomplished” after you’ve finished your first site, and keep going to create landing pages all over the internet with links back to your main site. Then you can start to unfurl a flag.

Marketing is NOT putting a heavily bordered ad in the yellow pages. If your clients are between the ages of 20 and deathbed, they know how to go online and check all possible vendors; the internet is up to the second, not up to the last annual publishing date. Nearly everyone has either a laptop or upright PC and they are using them! Phone books make great booster seats for your own children or those of friends, so I’d keep them for that reason alone. In eleven years, I've only used mine two times: once for a plumber, and the other to clean out my air ducts.

Marketing is NOT a 4-color brochure, or an expensively printed business card with textured paper. Before you pat yourself on the back about how good your materials “feel” remember that numerous people will toss whatever you give them if they don’t find it of immediate use. That’s $1 gone…and another…this one is crumpled; that one is shredded. How much money can you afford to waste?

Marketing is NOT talking a mile-a-minute in a speed networking game of musical chairs. Don’t fool yourself that anyone will remember your name, let alone what you do from such nonsense. It doesn’t work to find your mate in a speed date, and it doesn’t generate clients for a business. It‘s just the latest fad. In the end, you just get a lot of cards, which you can crumple, shred or toss. Your choice.

Marketing is NOT something you do once, and then call it a year. Those that market correctly are ever vigilant for opportunities to expand their territory. It does not matter that you’ve been in business 20 years when you are up against a “guerilla marketer” who sees opportunities at every turn. They are not passively waiting for someone to call them.

Marketing is NOT a series of lunches with a seminar attached on a trivial topic like “Dress for Success.“ If you do not know how to dress, you certainly are not ready to be a CEO. A CEO is known by what they do, not by their attire. You either have the backbone, or your don't. Plus, if your association is still technophobic with only one site, as discussed above, you are paying for some very expensive lunches, ladies!

Marketing is NOT putting all your eggs in one basket, like in a 30 second movie, radio, or TV spot. It’s well-known that TV viewers prefer to watch TV without commercial interruptions; they intensely dislike the 5+ decibel increase in volume (that Congress has thus refused to regulate). With a little planning and a DVR (digital recording device), they can zip through the commercials and still end the show at the same time, or just watch it another day at their convenience. Those under 40 are gladly paying the small monthly service fee to NOT watch the same commercials six times a night.

Marketing IS a well-crafted plan that drives traffic to your business via many sources-- podcasts, blogs, press releases, videos, and social networking--to reach not just any buyer, but those in your target market, directly.

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