Smart Marketing Strategies for Niche Markets
Marketing an Observatory
Marketing plays a central role in any company. But when it comes to an observatory, your ability to market your brand can be the deciding factor between barely making it and achieving stellar industry success.
If it's executed properly, marketing spans the gap between your brand and your audience. If you fail to recognize the primacy of good marketing you'll quickly find your observatory cut off from the marketplace.
What to know the characteristics that distinguish leading observatories from average companies? Surprisingly, the ability to create clear brand messages often outweighs product quality and other considerations.
Broadcast Advertising
Broadcast advertising has clearly taken some hits over the past couple of decades. The number of consumers who tune-in to local TV and radio has plummeted, and the industry has struggled to regain its footing. Broadcast advertising is down - but it's not out. Today's leading observatories continue to find ways to attract audiences to their brand through broadcast media. Best practices for the use of broadcast advertising require businesses to evaluate their target audience's listening or viewing patterns and then tailor their media purchases to specific media outlets rather than blanketing the geography with brand messaging. When marketing observatories, a combination of marketing venues is preferable to relying exclusively on local broadcast opportunities.
Industry Resources
Lone rangers don't survive long in an observatory. Although there is a tendency to believe that the challenges you face are unique to your business, your competitors face many of the same marketing hurdles and obstacles. To overcome those obstacles, you'll need to tap into industry resources. Even though trade journals have value, we've found that the best insights are often gained through face-to-face contact with industry insiders.
Cost Tracking
The economy is a constant concern for people who own an observatory. When businesses buy mailing lists, they expect a return for their investment. Unfortunately, they don't always get it. More often than not, you'll get a better ROI from highly rated list providers than you will from cheaper alternatives. Good mailing lists are money in the bank; they deliver leads, revenue and most importantly, new customers.
But mailing lists aren't the only way you can reduce costs. Most accounting software solutions have features that allow you to track costs in multiple expense categories and receive alerts when expenses suddenly swing outside of normal parameters.
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