Over the years, I have become a ‘bit of a marketing junkie.  I am always checking out the latest trends, following successful marketing techniques and trying to figure out how each works. For those not as familiar with the idea, marketing is the process associated with promoting the sale of a good or service you provide.

Successful marketing can be the saving grace for a failing business.  Here are three simple marketing ideas you can use to help your business, web site or project.

Don’t Be Afraid to Follow the Trends

You do not want to jump on every band wagon out there, however you should keep an eye on which ones are gaining popularity.  Many business out there are setting up Twitter accounts and Facebook Fan pages for their users to give them feedback, get updates from, or just socialize.  These days you can not have a successful business or project if you don’t have a fan base around it, willing to support you.

An example of this would be how GoToMeeting started to offer special deals and promotions for people running video and audio podcasts.  Rather than following a social trend, like a Twitter or Facebook, they followed a content trend.  They had the foresight to see this type of content was going to become popular, and the people into it are a ‘bit geekier than the rest – the perfect type of people who would use GoToMeeting to collaborate on data rather than fly across the country.

Customize Your Marketing to Your Niche of Customers

More traditional forms of getting your name out there are good, but not every marketing strategy is good for every business.  For an example, it does not make sense for a shoe salesman to advertise on a cooking show.  Sure, people who cook often do wear shoes, that is a fact.  However, you should target an audience that would be more appealing to your needs.

The shoe salesman in question could visit area track meets, speak with the athletes in attendance, and pitch to them why your shoes might be better than the pair they are wearing right now.

A Sale is Not the Answer to Everything

While running a sale is a good idea, it is not the answer to everything.  While lowering your price (if you are selling goods) is a relatively good thing in this tough economic time, it can often lead to brand decay because the user doesn’t know what the package should really be valued at.  Also worth mentioning is that everybody and their grandmother can run a sale, and there will always be somebody who can undercut your prices.  Focus less on running special deals, and more on the quality of the service or goods you provide.

Going back to the shoe salesman, rather than cutting the price on new shoes by 50%, he should maybe cut that back to 20% to 30% and play the role of Captain Obvious, pointing out the thing that makes his service better than the rest.  He should point out each pair comes with a free set of shoelaces, that he will be staying open two hours later to help you meet your holiday needs, he should be bending over backwards doing something special and unique to get your attention.  Anybody can run a sale, but few can lead in more sales without the need of losing your profits. You can always choose to go the entertaining route too.  What type of reaction would a shoe salesman have if he ran a “buy one shoe, get one shoe free” sale? You laugh now, but it does get your attention.

You might not see results overnight, but over time (if you do things right) success will follow.  What you have to remember is that marketing successfully is about creating a customer, keeping a customer, and making sure that customer is satisfied.