Growing top line revenue is survival. Without setting the table, you have no chance to make a profit, or even just stay in the game. With so much hype around the Internet and social media, more established forms of marketing are being discounted. Yet the elevation of social media as an end all, be all strategy does a disservice to those who must plot the direction of their company’s marketing efforts.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in small business where owners and managers are bombarded by sales pitches for different types of tactics. Some owners will be swayed by a good pitch and buy the tactic. Others will not feel comfortable and will not do anything. If neither of these persons has identified their customer, neither choice is helpful to their business.
Who is your customer? That is the single most important question you will ask in your business life. If you’re smart, you’ll ask it again and again because the answer is always changing. Most owners never ask it. The majority answer “anyone.” You can’t market to ‘anyone.’
We recently interviewed Meeting Planners about what they look for in a potential Speaker for their events. Here’s what they had to share about the submission process.
Many business owners think that EVERYONE is their customer, so they create a coupon, find a monthly delivery system (a coupon magazine or coupon mailer) and hope for the best. But, understanding your target customer can give you insights into how to price, how to promote, how to utilize media and what special offers will appeal to them.
What do you get when you mix consumer perceptions of a brand’s quality, value, satisfaction, and reputation, along with impressions of the brand and propensity to recommend it? Overall brand health, per YouGov’s BrandIndex, which has 
U.S. employers 
Dispatches From The Front 