Which Ingredients to Choose

You can choose any of the ingredients listed under your chosen stage of the Universal Marketing Cycle, but you should look most closely at those designated for the marketing strategies you selected in Chapter 2.

Each ingredient shown in the Success Ingredient Shopping List in Figure 4-1 displays an icon to the left that indicates for which of the six marketing strategies that ingredient is typically used. (The icons are reviewed for your convenience below.) Some ingredients, such as “business cards” or “website,” have all of the icons because they are tools that can be used with any of the strategies. The others are marked with only those icons representing the strategies which each specific ingredient supports.

For example, under the filling the pipeline stage you’ll see “prospect list” as a Success Ingredient that supports the strategies of (1) direct contact and follow-up, and (2) advertising. This is because you might require a prospect list either for the direct contact strategy of cold calling or the advertising strategy of direct mail.

The best way to use the shopping list is as a source of ideas rather than as a prescription. You may already know exactly what ingredients are missing in your marketing. As you read through the list, keep asking yourself why you can’t be or aren’t being successful in your stuck area. Place a check mark next to each ingredient you suspect might be missing for you.