When I tell clients, audiences and readers that they must never stop communicating with their market, I often hear a version of this:

“But we don’t have millions of dollars to advertise on TV.” 

And I am not saying that you should. Not even close.

Rather, you should be talking to your market through these avenues:

• Your own list of customers
• Your own list of prospective customers
• Wherever possible, lists of customers of the competition
• Through the mainstream earned media (coverage)
• Through online earned media
• Through social media

How to talk to people is easy and inexpensive.

What to say to them  is the part that most companies get wrong. And this is where your work must focus.

Your message should focus on the value of your product or service to your audience — whether it’s life improvement or increased sales; increased productivity or decreased expenses. Whatever your product or service does for your customers — talk about that.

How do you know what you product or service really does for your market? You must ask. The key to good marketing is to have deep, qualitative insights from your customers and prospective customers. If you don’t have that, you’re just guessing from a conference room.

Once you know what to say, you have at your disposal a variety of avenues to effectively say it.

And none of costs very much at all.

I am a marketing consultant with clients that include TiVo, Logitech, T-Mobile, Sprint, Yelp! and ZAGG. 

My new book, Evangelist Marketing, has been on the market for less than two week, and is 288 pages on topics like this one.

The Evangelist Marketing infographic is here.