By now, we are all tired of hearing how the world is coming to an end.  The financial markets are down, companies are struggling and people are losing their jobs every time we turn around – times are hard and we’re all suffering.  But quite frankly, we’re tired of talking about it.  So instead, this month we’re focused on all around best practices that we should all be applying in any economy.

Optimizing your marketing mix for success – are you doing it?  If so, how’s it working for you?

As marketers, we have a lot of options for reaching our audience.  We use some for overall awareness and others for one-to-one contact with our customers, prospects, media contacts, etc.  And in most cases, we are building programs using a variety of tactics to get our desired outcomes.  Here at ReachForce, we categorize tactics into two buckets – air wars and ground attacks.

Air wars are things like PR, social media, and SEO.  All necessary but can be difficult to measure real ROI.  Ground attacks are direct one-to-one initiatives, things like email programs, webinars, and targeted live events.  You have to have both to get the results you really want.

We’re going to be exploring the following questions over the next few weeks on The B2B Lead, be sure to check back in.

• So how do you decide what combination of activities is driving the most value for your business and your audience?
• Are you just spinning the wheel of luck and hoping it lands on new customers?
• How are you measuring your programs for success?
• When do you decide a tactic isn’t working and you need to cut it out of the mix?
• How often are you adding new tools and tactics that help you drive ROI from your efforts?
• Is there a specific combination of activities that work with specific audiences?