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By Edmund S. Tijerina

If you think marketing is all about placing ads, we've got news for you. Marketing begins when you open the doors and begin meeting with customers, experts say.

"Every person in the company is a marketer — or should be," said Jennifer Hansen, director of business development for Schauer & Associates Inc. a Milwaukee-based environmental contracting firm.

The image and face of the company is something in which every employee can play a part.

"Marketing is not just what you do to advertise," said Greg Nickerson, executive vice president of Bader Rutter Associates in Brookfield, which specializes in business-to-business marketing. "It's how you answer the phone, the colors you choose for your cars. Anytime there's a point of contact with an audience, you've got to be aware that it's a part of your marketing."

Marketing, Nickerson said, is comprised of price, place (which entails distribution and how a product is sold), promotion (advertising, public relations) and the product itself.

"The idea is if you have a customer, they can hear about you in a lot of ways," Nickerson said. "That image should be reinforced in whatever you do. Your sales people — How are they dressed? Suit and tie or more casual?"

General Motors Corp.'s Saturn division has paid a great deal of attention to the message it sends to potential customers, Nickerson said. Every aspect of the company reinforces the idea that it is different from other car companies. Phones are answered differently, dealers behave differently and Saturn owners are invited to reunite their cars with the factory where they were built at picnics.

Contractors should the consider image they want to project and come up with a business strategy, even before they consider any possible ad campaigns.

Ask yourself: "How would I characterize my company?" Aggressive, innovative, flashy, straight-laced? Make sure every part of your company reinforces that image.

Plan it out

A business should have some type of marketing plan in place, said Steve Johnstone, executive vice president and director of public relations for Blue Horse, a Milwaukee marketing firm.

"It's just a piece of paper that says how you're going to get from this point to this point. It doesn't have to be something that is a six-month undertaking. It has to be an organizational road map for the company and a report card (of) where you want to go and how you're doing."

Another way to gain recognition can be by working on high-profile projects, Johnstone said.

The more positive publicity a project attracts the better for its key contractors. But be careful not to do it at too much of a loss, lest you get known for working cheaply, Nickerson warned.

Hired help

If you decide to hire marketing expertise, you can bring somebody on staff or contract with an outside firm.

With a marketing expert on staff, you have somebody who wants to take work off your hands.

"When you're an owner or contractor, you want to be looking at plans, working on projects, doing what you do best," Hansen said. "It's good to have somebody who can go out and network, do public relations and keep your name out there, which is what they do best."

If you decide to hire a firm to help in marketing, look for somebody who will give your firm lots of attention. The biggest firm might be interested in working with a small contractor, Nickerson said. Look at a marketing firm's background, especially if it has experience in the construction industry. And look at what types of services they provide to make sure they indeed do what you want them to: direct mail, print ads, promotions, radio and television.

Publicity won't come cheap. Marketing expertise that would help a company formulate or refine a marketing plan generally would cost from $100 - $150 an hour, Nickerson said.

Expect to pay the same for making that plan a reality. And that could run anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars.

And while the cost of hiring a marketing expert on staff may vary, it could ultimately pay for itself.

"It doesn't have to cost alot," Hansen said. "What you put in could generate that much more in business."

The alternative may very be to lose business.

"If somebody isn't aware of you," Nickerson said, "You're not going to even be in the game."