If you could only have one marketing tactic or tool, which would it be?

Here’s an incomplete question, with absolutely no right answer. I purposely haven’t provided enough information to do anything other than give an opinion as an answer. Good luck!

If you were a small business owner, focusing on local markets, and only had the resources – people, time, money – to have one marketing tool or activity, which would it be? This would be the one tool or activity your company can use to build your business. You have to produce meaningful results within 9 months.

I’ve thought about this a bit and I’ve decided if I could only have one marketing tool or activity, it would be business cards. A business card, with a compelling message about your offering, is the most effective marketing tool you can have…if you can only have one.

Beyond simple contact information, you should have a statement about your key benefit. Make your card a mini postcard about your most compelling offer. Use both sides of the card and get creative.

Business cards are the most underused marketing tool available. You can carry them with you anywhere. And they’re inexpensive enough to give away to everyone you meet.

Everyone you come in contact with should walk away with a card or two to remember and refer you when a need arises.

Here’s how I weighed other marketing tools and activities:

• Web-site. Having a website with no other marketing campaign is nearly worthless. You have to do something to get your target audience to your site. You can only do one thing, therefore, it’s out.
• Blog. You could blog and get people to your site eventually, but it’s hard to find your target audience using blog posts, especially as a small business. You need something to go with it. Next.
• White papers. Close. But you have to mail them, make them available on the web, etc. It takes two marketing tactics. We only get one.
• Brochure. Close too. But you’re not going to carry around brochures and hand them out at the kid’s ball games.
• Telemarketing. Maybe. We all hate cold calling, but if you could only do one thing…no, we all hate cold calling.
• Direct mail. I almost chose this. In fact, if I didn’t include business cards as marketing tactic and had in mind a market beyond my immediate region…this would have been the one. It can stand on its own and it still works.
• Email marketing. No. Too much of a wild card. And you have to collect email addresses first. I like the idea of having an ezine and believe most businesses should have one and send it regularly, but I wouldn’t use email as the only means to support my business.
• Radio. Possible, but too expensive in many markets and hard to target a specific audience.
• TV. Next.
• Local newspaper advertising. Dependant upon the business, this might work. For example, if my business were a local bakery, this is the one I might take.
• Press releases. I thought about this one a bit. Press releases can be used to announce any event in a business – launching a new product, opening a new market, changing locations, hiring key staff, hitting a milestone, etc. There are a lot of uses for press releases. But you have to get interested people to read them. That is tough and often requires a second activity.
• Tradeshow. Too expensive. Too long between events. But it works well with my business cards :-)
• Yellow Pages. Depending on your business, this would be the one to do. But it’s printed once a year, so it’s eliminated from my thoughts.

So, those are the tools and activities I thought of. Which did you choose? Or did you choose one I failed to mention? Remember, you can only have one. Let us know which one you chose and why.