Octopus Marketing

By Chris Cooper

President

Alternative Capital

If you’re like me, you are always looking for new marketing ideas and ways to implement them. However, if you are truly like me, there is never enough time in the day to get your work-at-hand done, much less to try out new marketing ideas. The solution is to follow a program that simply becomes your work-at-hand.

Over my years in the leasing business, I have tried a wide variety of marketing techniques and have fine-tuned a marketing program for my business I call “Octopus Marketing”. It is a proven, tested formula for success and if you follow this program, it will work for you. Why am I so sure? Simple…because it allows you to market in a wide variety of ways while focusing on the things you like to do most.

The key to any successful marketing program is to keep it focused, organized, analyzed and cost-effective. Oh yeah, it needs to be fun too! Octopus Marketing will provide you with a foundation to accomplish all of these things.

When you relate the octopus to your marketing program, the first image in everyone’s mind is all of its arms, or tentacles. While reaching out in many directions with your marketing tentacles is a crucial part of Octopus Marketing, there are other characteristics of the octopus that really relate to this program. For instance, an octopus is quick to adapt to changes in its environment and has a very complex brain. It will remember how to solve similar problems repeatedly and it learns by trial and error, as well as from experiences.

These are characteristics necessary to run a successful marketing program. You have to be able to market in a variety of ways, learn from your mistakes and experiences, adapt to the marketplace and to solve problems quickly.

Knowing all of these characteristics are important to become a successful marketer, and assuming that you have established your target markets, lets start by focusing on the tentacles. The octopus relies heavily on its tentacles for survival. It uses them to touch, feel, move, reproduce and defend itself. How could an octopus survive without them? Simple, it can’t.

Neither can you. You should also rely heavily on your marketing tentacles for the survival of your business.

What would happen if the octopus only used a portion of its tentacles? How would it survive? If it did, how healthy would it be?

It is crucial for your survival to use all of your tentacles too.

I will spend some time briefly describing each marketing tentacle and the areas that they should cover. I will also cover ideas on implementing them into your business in more detail over future articles. The eight marketing tentacles are;

Telemarketing. This tentacle will cover all of your phone prospecting. The key to a successful telemarketing campaign is to spend your time calling qualified prospects, not simply suspects. I would suggest spending a little extra on your prospecting list and setting criteria to help bring you the best-qualified leads.
In-Person Calls. This tentacle will cover face-to-face sales and prospecting calls. It is usually (not always) done in your local market and is the best way to develop relationships. This allows you to meet the decision-maker and other personnel on a more personal note and will help establish you as their leasing representative.
Direct Marketing. This tentacle will cover qualified prospects that you have earmarked as a priority for your business. You will typically introduce yourself to the decision-makers on a more personal note. You will do your homework on these prospects and have a distinct purpose or reason why you are marketing to them.
Bulk Marketing. This tentacle will cover mass marketing programs and campaigns to suspects via marketing tools like mailers, faxes and e-mails. You will focus on a lower percentage of interest from you’re a broader range of targeted suspects that may or may not be in the market for your services.
Networking. This tentacle will cover all areas of self-promotion and it is the strongest way to develop business. It should be an ongoing activity and happening for you all of the time. It should be done through business and personal activities and contacts, no matter where you are or whom you are with. Remember that people like to do business with people they know. However, they need to know what kind of business you’re in before they can decide to do business with you.
Advertising. This tentacle will cover all of your media. Whether you are running commercials on the radio or television, advertisements in trade journals or in your local paper or simply sending your message out on the side of the Goodyear Blimp, advertising is an important marketing vehicle for name recognition and prospecting. A well-planned advertising campaign can be extremely cost effective way to “spread the word”.
Internet. This tentacle will cover all of the ways you can market on-line. Your “on-line brochure” can be a very cost-effective way to develop business from many different prospect types. Whether you are looking to build credibility with your customers and prospects or are trying to be the first company listed on the search engines, the internet is an important marketing vehicle for you to address within your business plan.
Referrals. This tentacle will cover all of the leads given to you by others. It is important to always ask for referred leads from everyone you deal with, both personally and professionally. Whether it is your customers, vendors, friends, applicants or even your CPA., if you don’t ask them to send business to you, they probably won’t

Additionally, tentacle health is crucial for a well-balanced octopus. How do we know how healthy each tentacle is? How do we improve their health, when needed?

With octopus marketing, the tentacle health is measured by analyzing statistics, data and production. With the right system in place, tracking and analyzing the information and adjusting your program to maintain the health levels you are seeking is easy.

Remember that each tentacle is sure to stir up some activity. You must be able to service, in an organized fashion, each area, while tending to your business at hand.

In other words, you must be able to set aside the time each day and each week to make your telephone calls, track your in-bound calls, follow up your direct marketing, network and self-promote to everyone, manage your bulk marketing and advertising, ask for referrals at every opportunity and keep your internet site up to speed, all while you maintain the best service for your existing customers.

If you work this program with a definite purpose, use all of your tentacles and keep them strong and healthy, you will not only survive in your environment, but you will thrive there as well.

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