Effective marketing strategy has its impact beyond sales. (Entrepreneur's Notebook).

WHEN it comes to marketing a professional service, people often say the best way to measure success is by the umber of sales generated. Well, yes and no. It's true that the ultimate objective of marketing is sales. So the purpose of a marketing campaign is to create opportunities to get in front of prospective clients to whom you can sell.

However, you can't measure a campaign's success only by sales. Often a marketing initiative may just get you into the marketing pipeline. The opportunity to sell may not come until much later.

What is a marketing pipeline? It's the process that can ultimately lead to the opportunity to sell. What is that pipeline made of, and how can you get into it? The process starts before you even enter the pipe. It's essential that you know what you want to market, what your points of differentiation are, and what that means to your client. You need to have honed your key communication points. You also need to know who is at the other end of he pipeline. Is it focused on your defined target market? Or are you just hoping someone is there while it's spilling out into the ocean?

Creating awareness

The first stage of the pipeline is creating awareness of you and your business. Awareness does not immediately lead to sales. The idea is to get people to feel comfortable selecting you as a business partner because they've heard of you. You're a known quantity. Awareness increases the chances that when someone mentions your business or service to a colleague, they will feel more comfortable because they've already heard of you.

There are several ways to create this awareness. Depending on your marketing plan and budget, you can combine methods or try one alone. Advertising, for example, is a way of creating awareness. Professionals often question the need to advertise. They say no one chooses a lawyer or accountant based on an ad. Whether or not this is the case, advertising makes target markets aware of a firm's positioning and the services it offers. If done often enough, it creates and reinforces awareness in the minds of its prospective clients. Another way to create awareness is by sponsoring events, conferences, trade shows, etc. While it may not have your phone ringing off the hook immediately, it creates and reinforces awareness. It keeps your name in front of your market.

You can also create awareness through visibility. Examples are publishing articles, answering questions on line and speaking to audiences comprised of your target markets. Here you're tapping into the power of third-party credibility and creating the power combination of visibility and credibility. In the eyes of the public, if you're in print, on TV or speaking in front of a group, you must know what you're talking about. It legitimizes you as well as creating awareness.

Creating relationships

Also in the pipeline entryway, you are creating relationships. It can happen through networking or when a relationship develops based on the awareness you created. Maybe you gave a talk and someone came up to you afterwards. You exchanged business cards and it led to lunch.

As you move through the pipeline, the goal is to stay in front of those who know you. It takes multiple contacts with a decision-maker over time to lead to the opportunity to sell. Not every contact has to be in person; only about every third. You can keep your name in front of contacts by leveraging your marketing activities. If you're giving a talk, for example, you can draft a letter citing the salient points and send it to prospective clients.

When you publish an article, you can send reprints. Adding a personal touch to everything you send out will give it more impact and make it more memorable. Hand write a note of congratulations if you hear that a prospect has won an award. Send birthday cards. Call to say a brief hello.

Maintaining frequent contact is not just something you do for prospective clients. You'll also want to remind your current clients that you are still here. No matter how strong a relationship you may think you have with them, there is someone right now looking for a chink in the armor so they can slip in.

Getting the business

At the other side of the pipeline, you can see the light. By now, you've established relationships with your market even if you've never met any of your targets. You've hammered away with the articles you've sent and the seminars you've given, and they've gotten to know you. You might not know them, but they feel they know you. Or, you've had lunch or played golf with a prospect, and you've kept in touch. Suddenly they have need of your services. They might be interviewing several firms, but they feel most comfortable with you because they've gotten to know you. You may be asked to submit a proposal or perhaps they'll call you right away because they know what you do is just what they need.

Sometimes it takes a little longer to emerge from the tunnel. Maybe your firm didn't get selected the first time around. The key is to keep up the contact until another opportunity arises. Eventually you'll land one. The point is that you're in the pipeline now thanks to your many marketing activities in the past. You may not know how much awareness you've actually created or how much impact your initiatives have had. Even if your efforts don't lead directly to sales, overtime, they will.

Sharon Berman is principal of Berbay Corp., a Los Angeles-based marketing firm. Size can be reached at [e-mail].

Entrepreneur's Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2, The Annenberg Incubator Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California. Contact James Klein at [phone] with feedback and topic suggestions.