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Submitted by: Allan Starr
Recently, our marketing agency in Phoenix commissioned a sampling survey of the 8,000-plus subscribers to our newsletter. We did it in order to get a handle on a profile of our readership across many categories. We found that the majority are 29-54 years of age and are either an entrepreneur, a general manager or sales and marketing executive for a (on average) 36-employee firm.
Something else of interest was our discovery that out of the 282 individual communities represented by our readership, a full 68% were in marketing areas of well over one million residents. And because, as they say, all business is local, it got us thinking about the importance of the visibility within a community of a marketing agency, or any other kind of business.
Regardless of what percentage of your business is national in scope, even placed by decision makers in far away places in some instances, you must have a broad-based local contact network for things like supply chain support and referrals. In order to reduce your community to a manageable size, it is desirable to have as strong a presence as possible where you are based.
Rising like a Phoenix
Like that mythological, rising Phoenix Bird that rises from the ashes, the Phoenix, AZ of my birth, to this day, our headquarters, has risen from a community of some 100,000 to become the nation s 5th-largest city, fast approaching four million persons. Obviously, the local marketplace of today bears little resemblance to that of 34 years ago when our company was founded.
As a boy in the 40s, walking down Central Avenue with my dad became a seemingly endless succession of him greeting friends and the exchange of pleasantries. Today in Phoenix, one can spend the better part of a day in the midst of a crowd and see nary a familiar face. Alas, what is one to do in order to gain even a glint of recognition, let alone become a household word?
We’ll leave the proposition of becoming a household word to those dealing with Verizon- or McDonald’s-sized marketing budgets and, for our purposes, relate this message to those among us who have smaller-niche prospect groups, yet feel a need for visibility within them. What it comes down to is that old marketing line that goes, “If you want to hunt elephants, you ve got to go where the elephants are.”
Advertising, and publicity releases aside, to me what this axiom speaks of is the concept of “rubbing elbows” with the decision makers you seek to attract. To network with them through memberships in organizations is the obvious answer. But because your time is your most precious commodity, the emphasis must be on selectivity.
And — take it from a wizened old “networker,” surface superficiality does not “cut it” on the networking art s best practices chart. Rather, the magic word is involvement. You must, over a protracted period of time, become immersed in the organizations you choose, up to and including leadership roles. In short, the key is to become a “household word” within smaller but carefully selected community segment`s.
Making an investment
There is one more key word to consider in any discussion of networking. That word is investment. And, I refer not just to your time and money, which are givens with any meaningful affiliation, but an investment of your abilities, input and effort. The success and recognition gained from any group involvement will be in direct proportion to what it is you have contributed to the advancement of the mission of that particular group.
About the Author: Allan Starr founded Marketing Partners of Arizona in 1976, which serves a local, regional and national clientele with services including strategic marketing, advertising, public relations, sponsorship procurement, e-mail marketing, Website optimization and other online initiatives. Starr is former governor of the SW District of the AAF, two-term president of The AZSBA and served six terms on the board of directors of The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.
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