When you ask typical marketing consultants what their company does, they will usually limit their discussion to tactics, such as website design, blogs, social media, brochures, and traditional media. Certainly, knowing what tactics to use and carrying them through professionally is an essential ingredient of successful marketing. However, the strategic side of marketing is usually senior in importance.
Tactics Versus Strategy:
Knowing the Difference
Marketing your services with the right tactics and wrong strategy is like an army entering a battle with archaic weapons that fail to defeat their enemy. Your strategy is your weapon. With superior artillery to your opposition, you win battles.
So, what is strategy? Your strategy is your message. It is defining your target markets and determining what you need to say each to capture their business. You need to create a powerful message and repeat your message often. The goal of your marketing strategy should be to convince your prospective patients or clients and referral sources that they would be making a huge mistake to choose any practice other than yours for the type of services you provide. Few professional marketers realize this what the true goal should be and how to achieve it.
How We Rose Above Our Competitors
Marc Aronson, the owner of Business Builders, considers himself fortunate. He believes his competitive advantage is the result of just happening to be in the right place at the right time. Marc will tell you that having a college degree in marketing is essential. However, university marketing schools place little focus on how to market small businesses. After all, most marketing graduates traditionally go to work for major corporations. Marc contends that marketing a small business requires constant study and practice in addition to a university education.
After graduating from Arizona State University, Marc returned close to his roots and took a marketing position with a manufacturer/retailer in New York City. He reported to the vice president of marketing, whom he considered a genius. This individual taught Marc the importance of strategic thinking and how to apply strategy to small businesses. The skill his mentor taught him, coupled with his university education, provided Marc a unique perspective.
This vice president of marketing, taught Marc that there are three ways to capture the attention of prospects through marketing communications. One is to use a headline and illustration that are unusual, like so many commercials we see today. Another is to use a headline and illustration that contain something people are familiar with, like a celebrity. The third, however, was and is still rarely used. It requires additional effort but is more effective. Marc’s boss called this third choice uncovering and using emotional hot buttons.
Marc conducted surveys on the sidewalks of New York using a form of primary marketing research we call emotional attitude surveys. Over time, he gained expertise in developing the survey instruments and interpreting the findings. He learned how to use survey conclusion to develop marketing content, and, in time, became adept at creating persuasive messaging using emotional hot buttons.
Marc has employed what he learned from his mentor throughout his career. However, in the late 1990s, Marc realized he had to raise his skill level further, as he was no longer attaining the consistent results he once enjoyed. Thus, he searched and read marketing books that incorporated a similar philosophy to what he had previously learned and perfected because this approach is honest and ethical. This was not a simple task. Finally, in 2001, he found three authors with similar approaches to his he considered more advanced. He discovered that incorporating their ideas with his previous knowledge lifted his prowess to an entirely new level. Through the vast knowledge and experience he had attained, Marc was able to develop and spend a few years refining his approach, which evolved into what we now call The Formula for Market Dominance.
The Perfect Formula
Regardless of the Economy
The Formula for Market Dominance is the ideal system to use irrespective of the state of the economy because it enables businesses to significantly increase their market share. Thus, during times of recession and reduced spending the right strategic approach can enable a business to thrive. Should consumption by your target market decline 33 percent and you increase your market share by the same percentage, you will likely maintain your prior volume and profitability while your competitors struggle.
The time to prepare for a future recessionary period is now. If you have a strategic and tactical plan ready for launch, you could implement it at the first sign of economic turmoil. The occurrence of a soon-to be-felt economic calamity is inevitable given the runaway inflation and the number of business closures caused by governments reactions to COVID and the obsession of reducing carbon footprints.
The Formula for Market Dominance and how to apply it is our competitive advantage.
