If you are considering choosing a marketing agency here in Las Vegas it means that you are serious and committed to growing your company. Enlisting the help of a marketing professional can greatly help you market your products and services.

When choosing a marketing agency or consultant here in Las Vegas, there are certain things you should investigate about the potential marketing agency:

• Look for local Las Vegas Marketing Agency. You will be able to meet face to face and it keeps business in our community. Check out my company’s website at www.perkolate.com.
• Review their website. You can learn a lot about a company from reviewing their website closely. Look for the staff’s experience, view who their clients are, ask questions if you call them.
• Can they work within your budget.  Yes, marketing requires a budget, but a good marketing agency should be able to work within your budget, however big or small
• Are they responsive? When you call or email the potential marketing agency, do they return your call or email within one business day?
• Does the marketing agency you are considering have supporting services you might need, like web design, web development and graphic design?

If you are a company that is focused on doing business in our fine city of Las Vegas, then there are great benefits to understanding your target market when marketing your business here.

A dog grooming business, for example, would not be trying to sell their services to people who own birds; they need to find effective ways to reach people who own dogs in town. Furthermore, they may find that their target market of dog owners is narrowed down to a few zip codes near their place of business.  By identifying who your target market is, you’re not just taking a “shot in the dark” with your marketing efforts.

The official definition of a “target market” is the specific group of customers that you market your products and services to. They are the customers that are most likely to be interested in your products and services. Unseasoned marketers or business owners might attempt to market to “everybody” which is a very unwise strategy to take.  Aim for your target and you will have a far more successful shot at a “bulls eye” with your marketing efforts.

Las Vegas is a metropolitan area of great extremes. There is everything from the underbelly of Sin City to conservative business people, entertainers, blue collar workers, people of many different types of religions, families, young and old.

Here are some points to consider in helping you identify and understand your target market:

• Is your target customer a man or a woman (or both)?
• What is the age range of your target customer?
• What geographic area/s do your target customers live?
• What is their income and what do they do for work?
• How does your target market thing and feel?
• What messaging and what offers will appeal to your target market?
• Create an email or written survey to find out more about your target market.
• Talk to customers, ask questions, what they like, what they don’t like?
• Keep tabs on your competitors to see how they are communicating with your target market.

For more information, visit:

• Wikipedia.org – Definition of a Target Market
• AllBusiness.com – Understanding Your Target Market
• ezinearticles.com – Copywriting Tips – Understanding Your Target Market

Over the past seven years I have worked with countless companies in Las Vegas and even some of the largest companies in town are weak in one way… their consistency in branding themselves. I’ve seen the use of up to 4 different logos, several fonts, non-consistent color schemes, and even using different names for their companies.  If you are trying to establish credibility with your customers and within your target market his should never happen.

Think about the websites you have visited, let’s say, where the logo, fonts and colors on the website don’t match the look and feel of a PDF you download from the exact same website. It makes a visitor feel uneasy, that something isn’t quite right. Or if you meet someone, they hand you a business card, then when you look up their website on the internet, the logos and company names aren’t even the same. Again, it makes you feel like you may not be dealing with a reputable company.

This is a very common scenario in Las Vegas, and in a city where credibility is a key factor, you need to keep your corporate image polished, consistent and professional at all times.

Here are some tips to help ensure your branding consistency:

• Have a professional company design your logo. They will ensure that all of the colors are defined and that the logo is in the proper format for use in any print and electronic materials you develop.
• Have a Style Guide developed for your company. A professionally design Style Guide or Graphics Standards Guide can help your materials remain consistent.  It should include the logo you use, a color pallet, the color definitions defined by the color pallet, the fonts you will use for headlines and body copy and other graphical elements to be used in all of your print and electronic marketing materials.
• Have one single company develop all of your marketing materials.  I often find that a company has one marketing and design firm develop a logo, another vendor develop a brochure, while yet another company develop a website.  All of these vendors will see things differently.  A style guide will help bridge the gap sometimes, but if you work with a single company that can provide all of your marketing design needs, they will ensure that all of your materials are consistent across the board.
• Develop a 100, 50 and 25 word description of your company’s products and services. These come in handy when you have to provide short descriptions of what your company is offering and what your competitive advantage is to your target market.
• Use one strategically written tagline. A tagline can help expand upon your company’s competitive advantage. Using more than one tagline leaves a potential customer feeling confused.