Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA)
“The biggest winner is not the brand that’s first into the market-place, but the one that’s first into people’s minds.” Jack Trout and Al Ries, Positioning Experts
Throughout atomic, we talk a lot about Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA for short). This should be your goal to achieve. Think of it as climbing the rankings of people internal search engines. If somebody is asked to name a company who does ‘x’, and they think of you, then you have TOMA with them. WooHoo! Successful marketing overtime will increase your TOMA, and help your business grow.
Some micro businesses have told us in the past they don’t ‘do marketing’ as they get most of their business through word of mouth. But this is rubbish. You are doing marketing. You must have TOMA with the people who refer you, and you must be doing some sort of marketing to keep the referrals coming in, even if the marketing you are doing isn’t traditional.
There are 2 steps then to TOMA. Getting TOMA, and keeping TOMA.
Getting TOMA, you need to do marketing. You need to use the advice we give you throughout atomic, to grow your brand awareness, be different, and stand out.
Keeping TOMA, you also need to use the advice we give you throughout atomic, but use the advice that is going to keep you in people’s minds. Keep in touch with people (calls, newsletters, meetings, send them a nice thank you card, retweet their tweets and so on), constantly improve and impress. Don’t stand still.
ACTION: Be aware that everything you do in marketing should have an effect on your TOMA. Getting it, or keeping it.
ACTION: Use atomic to develop your TOMA! 😉