9 Tools that will make a Difference in 2010
:Part 1:

Sleeping companies will be playing catch up
According to a recent Associated Press story, Wal-mart’s chairman believes “the recovery will be a slow one. That’s why Wal-mart is on the move.”
Other large sized companies like HP, GE and many others are taking big marketing steps to raise their visibility. Not only are they looking to the future, they are determined to capture more existing business.

Customer blindness causes most marketing failures
Most marketing efforts fail because enterprises are more interested in what they want to accomplish instead of what their customers want, need or appreciate.
Making it easy and convenient to interface with your organization is also paramount. Doing whatever it takes to make a difference to your customer is the big job.

Never lose contact with customers
This may seem obvious, yet many organizations do not have on-going or follow up communications with existing customers. One easy way to stay in touch: a weekly or monthly e-newsletter. You can have news, helpful tips or quick satisfaction survey. This helps build your relationship & keeps your customers updated with the latest happenings.

Keep your CEO’s hands off the marketing
There are notable exceptions, but most CEOs are so focused on the company, they can have trouble seeing the customer clearly. Good marketing requires objectivity, and that requires distance and the absence of ego. That lets out at least 90 percent of CEOs.

Be wary (very wary) of marketing fads
And this includes the social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, etc. Just because something is the current rage and you don’t want to be left out doesn’t mean you should drop everything and wade in up to your eyeballs.
There is no marketing panacea and there are no short cuts.  Marketing takes time, energy & money. Unless your company is ready to commit the time and resources to develop a following on the social media, you may want to look in other directions.

Source: John R. Graham President of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm in MA. CANVAS Magazine, December 2009.