Is Your Company a Triple Threat?

If you don’t take advantage of all marketing and promotions opportunities available today, your company will soon give way to more aggressive and faster competitors. So let me ask you, is your company a triple threat in your niche?

To be a triple threat your business must have all of the following:

Threat #1: Online marketing plan

Threat #2: Offline marketing plan

Threat #3: Leveraged distribution

Let’s take a closer look at each of the threats in a triple threat company.

Threat #1: It may be a little surprising, but some business owners still do not see the need to incorporate the Internet into their marketing plans. It has been often said that the Internet is the great global equalizer. For example a two-person company, based in a small town in Northern Michigan can be a very strong competitor to huge national and multi-national companies.

In fact, I personally know dozens of companies each having under 5 employees with annual sales of $100,000, $250,000 and $2,000,000+ annually. Most of these companies are selling their products/services in an International marketplace. This could not have been possible a mere 10 years ago. I also know a dozen or more companies where the owners refuse to even have a website. They believe their business isn’t right for the Internet.

Threat #2: Even if 100% of your sales are from your website, you still need an offline marketing plan. This could be as simple as selling your products to a local school for a fundraising event or having a booth at a local weekend festival. You need to decide what is the most appropriate offline strategy for your business.

Threat #3: My definition of leveraged distribution is selling your products to resellers, distributors, wholesalers, private label, etc. In other words, doing whatever you can do to maximize the number of people selling your products or services.

Let’s take a closer look at a triple threat example. I know many restaurant owners and managers and for some reason many of these people don’t see how the Internet can help their business. Many have told me since their business is so labor intensive, the Internet can’t help them increase sales. Here is an example of a triple threat restaurant:

Threat #1: The most valuable assets of a restaurant are the food and the service. One way a restaurant can capitalize on threat #1 is to create a website with photos, a blog and post sample recipes online. The benefit to posting photos is potential customers get to see the inside of the restaurant, ie, the staff, patrons, décor, etc.

A blog would allow the chef or owner to share thoughts and “stories” with potential guests. These would be the same types of thoughts and conversations she would share with the people sitting at her tables. Finally, by posting sample recipes, this would allow customers to actually get a “taste” of the actual food being served.

Threat #2: Most of us are familiar with the type of offline advertisements, so I won’t rehash this information.

Threat #3: Leveraged distribution: A restaurant could bottle and distribute its best-selling salad dressing to regional or national distributors. This additional distribution would allow people all over the country to taste this one-of-a-kind recipe.

As you can see, any type of business can be a triple threat to its competitors. Yes, it takes a little extra effort and time to implement these new ideas, but the reward will be worth the effort.

Determine how your company can be a triple threat and skyrocket to the front of your competitors, no matter what your industry.