Many Las Vegas companies may decide to follow a shortcut method of planning their marketing communications strategy. Whether you’re an individual business or a company, skipping this step of business development will hinder your sales growth long term. It is important to recognize the focus on advancement by those that take the time to develop an effective marketing communications strategy. You will definitely spend several hours putting this together, but you will know that it’s useful because a marketing strategy provides you with a plan of how to handle projected successes and when it’s completed, you will have gained valuable intelligence about your target customers, brand strengths and weaknesses, competitive landscape, and finally the marketing objectives that will lead you to the top.

Start with what you know.

Take a few moments and capture your thoughts on the ideal target customer for your business. Write it down. Your final notes will give you the detail you need to formalize your Marcom strategy. Consider who you are and what you represent. What image would you like to project in the marketplace? What’s most appealing to your customer? This should be your perspective when putting a marketing communications plan together. Question everything from the customer’s point of view. Note common themes that come to mind – industries, trade associations, demographics, or anything else you notice.

Next, decide where you want to go.

Brainstorm ideas of how you can promote yourself to gain awareness of your brand as you advance through this process. Evaluate your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Follow the basic marketing S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) formula by developing several bullet-point statements to define each section of the analysis. Create a list of competitors in your industry, region, or specialty. You may even wish to complete S.W.O.T.s for your top, three competitors as well. It’s good practice to spend the time getting to know your competitors and this will make you much, much smarter in the end. Everything you do should be viewed through your customer’s eyes. If you have more than one, majority-type of customer, include each perspective throughout your strategy.

Now map it out.

Now that you’re fully armed with detailed knowledge of your customer base, company goals, and strengths you are in a perfect position to map out the marketing venues that will lead you to success. Begin this process with what I call a ‘zero budget.’ Author your dream list. There are no monetary blocks here and this encourages you to consider all possibilities. Explore advertising paths, customer events, trade shows, associations and chambers of commerce. Refine this list with a dose of reality then put it into action. Remember to design your ad promos from the customer’s perspective. 

Try to have fun with this process and take some time to review these web sites for great tips and tricks:

More on marketing intelligence and considerations:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm

Great tips for individuals looking to market:
http://self-employed-marketing.suite101.com/article.cfm/create_a_marketing_strategy

Marketing strategy formats with templates:
http://www.businessballs.com/freebusinessplansandmarketingtemplates.htm

For professional Las Vegas Marketing Communications consulting, contact Perkolate at 702.341.0085 or visit our website at www.perkolate.com.

As I always say, next to a business card, a professionally designed and sound web site for your Las Vegas business or company is essential in entering the Las Vegas market place. A professional web site can lend to your business’ credibility and help find leads online through search engine results, if properly constructed.

The following are tips to ensure that your web site is professionally designed:

• Design – a professional design is essential in establishing trust and credibility with your target customers. You must deliver on this promise to ensure you at least are in the consideration set of a client visiting your website
• Content – a close second. Your content must be well-written and must drive your visitor to take action, call you, email you or fill out a request for a proposal on your web site. Copy for your website must be written with a clear marketing objective in mind and convince visitors that they need your services and that by employing your service, it will make their jobs easier.
• Plan – take the time to plan out what pages you think would be best suited for a web site in your industry. Research other competitors web sites and ensure that yours will be different, better, etc.
• Keep it simple – people visiting your website are looking for information, not videos, complicated navigation, too many photos, too much text, etc.
• Optimize – organic search engine results (SERPs) come from a properly optimized website that has been properly submitted to major search engine and directories.

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