The core of marketing is communication, so anything that begins to degrade your communications by increasing noise and decreasing signal should be avoided. One of the biggest challenges in this regard is the fact that marketing communications start out with a handicap because people by default expect to have to engage the baloney filter.
Marketing doesn't just happen prior to the sale. Everything your business does after the sale contributes to the establishment of your brand. It all needs to be examined as communication. What message are you sending?
Excellence is your secret weapon - have your marketing articulate to prospects how your bring it to the table. This positions your business as the go-to answer for solutions, and helps foster loyalty.
Benefit from the wisdom of kings. Bringing an outsider in to lead a strategic insider discussion about marketing communications can bring fresh perspective that opens up new possibilities.
Good marketing communications have a wedge shape to how they are put together - they lead with the core essentials, and then broaden out to unpack secondary and tertiary messages.
Making yourself stand out gets you noticed. If you can deliver the goods, and also create something worth talking about, then word of mouth spreads. I ran into a restaurant in Maryland that took this idea and exploited it in a fun way.