The Three Marketing Cornerstones

Before you begin any marketing efforts, you must have a grasp of the fundamentals. While there is no set formula for producing effective marketing and communications materials, if you check your message against these three marketing cornerstones you're guaranteed to have a solid foundation.

Target Audience

Your Target Audience is the core group of customers or clients who need or want your product or service. You can't be all things to all people all the time. Focus on your main target audience and develop additional niches within that market in order to expand your proucts, services and profits.

For example, when Hyundai started making cars they targeted an audience of value shoppers. Starting with only two models allowed them to gain market share. They waited until they established a strong footing and then began to add models that appealed to different niches of the same target audience - value shoppers.

USP: Unique Selling Proposition

This is the defining characteristic of your business; the thing that sets you apart from your competition. Fed Ex used to be the first name that came to people's minds when their package, "absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." And Domino's Pizza gained market share by offering a free pizza if it wasn't delivered in, "30 minutes or less."

Your USP doesn't have to be so dramatic. Just define what sets you apart from your competition and give it a prominent spot in your marketing and communications messages. Think of your convenient location, experience or length of time in business, high value for money spent, guarantees...you get the picture.

Features vs. Benefits

Features are the tangible aspects of your product or services - the technical specifications. Benefits are the intangible effects or results that the features provide. Think of it this way: the features are always going to be focused on you and the benefits are always going to be focused on your customer or client. And if you keep in mind that we all want to know, "what's in it for me," it will be easy for you to keep your marketing and communications messages centered on the benefits - not the features.