Step1
Start with messaging and branding your company. What is the purpose of your business? What makes you unique when compared to your competitors? What is the primary promise you are making to your current and future customers? These questions largely fall into the category or messaging and branding. You increase your chances of success, all other things being equal, if you can answer those questions clearly. This is beyond the elevator pitch (see my eHow on this subject too if needed). Messaging and branding are the content on your website and how the website looks in addition to everything else used to talk with prospects.
Step2
Next move to sales driven marketing (see more detail in my eHow on mapping marketing to the sales cycle) Sales driven marketing is producing what is necessary to support people selling. You need to provide them with the tools they need, and the tools needed to map directly to the sales process. Again, it doesn’t matter what business you are in.
There will be a process 90% plus percent of your sales follow from
prospect to suspect to money. Matching the marketing programs or
materials to the sales process is common sense, but far from a common
practice. Don’t waste time, effort and money on any programs that fail
this test. Fail to provide sales people with tools, and they will make their own, which is scarier than you can possibly imagine, trust me.
Step3
Next is building awareness of your company, which I will freely admit is a bit of a squishy subject. There are people you want to know about your company, whether that’s venture capitalists, the news media or most importantly people who will buy from you. This includes using public relations, direct marketing, advertising or generating attention at the largest conference in your industry. This means you have to stand out in a positive way. Most early stage companies need to focus on public relations or conferences. Public relations efforts tend to be done well or they tend to be done in a ham-handed way. Have something important to say before you even begin the process of public relations and identify the right reporters to approach. Conferences are an opportunity to gain the attention of your industry.
Step4
Stand out and don’t be one of 250 other companies in the crowd. Find a way to stand out with your booth design, promotions or how you appear. The most successful tradeshow approach I participated in was with a 1950’s style diner. We attended sales and marketing conferences and the booth alone was creative enough to stop traffic. People would actually talk to us rather than require roping them and dragging them into the booth. Be creative, stand out, but be appropriate for your audience.
Step5
Welcome to the dark side? I’ll admit there of are times when I joke about bringing people to “the dark side” as they gain an appreciation of marketing. However with all the perceived and perpetuated mysticism, there are really only three things that matter in marketing. All of three are ultimately tied to moving a business forward through growth and expansion. All three things drive the real need of a business, which are sales.
Enthusiast 
