Choosing My Own Promotion Mix

Every proper company ought to do some marketing communication (promotion) both to position itself in the proper market and to attract customers. And there are five general ways of promoting one's business:

1. Advertising,
2. Sales Promotion,
3. Public Relations,
4. Personal Selling, and
5. Direct Marketing

image: lam09.weebly.com

And how to constitute the mix depends greatly on what type of market you want to reach and the type of product/service you sell. If your market targets are other businesses (meaning you run a business-to-business company) and you provide business services (not a physical product) you are going to focus more on personal selling, direct marketing and public relations. And should sparingly use sales promotion. Finally, you should let your branding materials do most of your advertising. You shouldn't run a nationwide advert and have a services brochure that looks a TV manual (unattractive and destined to be thrown away).

And that is the category I fall under -- a B2B that render business services. And now I'm realizing the things I have been doing wrong and the ones I should be doing more of. I ought to do a lot of personal selling, going from one company door to another selling my business service. I need to have a system of directly marketing to potential clients who are not yet convinced that they need my service and those who aren't ready yet. Building a one-to-one relationship that proves our competence and shows them the value we can add to their business.

The only thing I have been doing well is public relations. I have been so helpful to so many people that they willingly tell others about our services. The Microsoft MVP award has been a good PR too. And my blog, YouTube videos and forum contributions. But I could do more by nudging everyone I have rendered our business service to to give a testimonial we can use on our website and brochure. 

Finally, by choosing to position myself as a B2B company providing business services I am changing my competition from every business outfit that renders Excel training. My competitions are no longer the businesses that post Excel training offers on DealDey or the ones that cater to individual customers. I am ultimately positioning myself to compete with management consulting firms like KPMG, E&Y and PwC. And by focusing on Excel based business intelligence/data analysis, I am putting myself in a white space that the big boys aren't covering. I'm creating the differential edge that I need to slowly build up my business arsenal before expanding. I want to also turn my service into a luxury product. Characterized by my personal touch, the best service possible and very costly.

It's a big goal. One that can't be rushed or easily achieved. And today I'm redirecting all my steps towards achieving it.