I that predict within the next ten years we’ll see a robot marketing assistant. Can’t you just picture it? Robo-biz XR-17 ... he can help you grow your business while fetching your slippers!

Here in the present, at least, you face an abundance of marketing technologies, and most of them make similar but contradictory claims. They all tout their ability to take your marketing to new levels. But how can this be?

I’m not accusing these companies of being dishonest, but how can they all claim to be the best thing going? More importantly, how can you decide what you need and what you don’t? Where do you even start?

Here’s a simple, systematic way to go about it:

How to Choose Your Marketing Technology

Step 1 -- Determine your marketing goals

Step 2 -- Determine what you must do to achieve those goals

Step 3 -- Research available technologies that can help

1. Determine Your Marketing Goals

Before considering the technology out there, you first need to think about your marketing goals. Write them down on paper, starting with the most important goal.

Think about the big picture, not the technical side of things. For instance, maybe one of your goals is to get more business from first-time buyers. Armed with this awareness, you can move on to Step 2.

2. Determine How to Achieve Those Goals

Again, forget about the technology for a moment. Look at your goal(s) from the previous step, and then write down the specific things you need to do to achieve the goal(s). Using the first-time buyers example from above, the list might look like this:

• I need to locate first-time buyers.



• I need a way to communicate with first-time buyers.



• I need to generate a response from them.



• I need to offer them something of value to generate this response.

3. Determine the Technology Needed

Now that you’ve got the important stuff down -- your goals and the individual steps that make up those goals -- it’s okay to think about technology. In fact, that’s exactly what you need to do. Go down the list of items from Step 2 and jot down the technology needed to accomplish each step.

For example:

Must find potential buyers.

Technology required: None yet.

Must communicate with first-time buyers.

Technology required: Direct mail.

Must generate a response.

Again, direct mail can do the job.

Must offer something of value to generate a response.

Maybe a first-time home buyer’s class (technology: PowerPoint). Probably a good idea to create a web page to help promote it (technology: web publishing software, or pay a web designer).

Look at that. In three easy steps, we’ve gone from not knowing where to start, to having the basis of a marketing plan and the technology needed to drive it. Not bad!

4. Research the Necessary Technology

All that’s left to do is research any technology from the list above that you don’t already have. If you’re familiar with PowerPoint, then all you need is a direct mail program and a website. If you’re also a direct mail pro, all you need to do is create your message and possibly make a website landing page to support it.

You’ve taken a world of potential technology, and boiled it down to one or two items for further research. And you’ve done it in only four steps.

Conclusion

No technology is going to do your marketing for you. It can only help you carry out a program you’ve already devised. So shop wisely and use only what you need. Identify your goals, identify the necessary steps to accomplish those goals, and then (and only then) look at technologies that can help you do it quicker, easier or more affordably.

That should at least hold you until Robo-biz XR-17 comes out.