Archive for Marketing Ideas
Marketing Mistake #6 Not Identifying Your Ideal Or “Target” Market
Posted by: | CommentsWhom do you market to? Who should you be marketing to? Are they the same? If so, was that planned? If they’re not the same, why aren’t they?
These questions are critical to the success of any marketing program.
You can have the very best product or service on the planet. You can have the most attractive offer, the lowest prices, lots of bonuses, personal attention, and the best service available.
But if you offer this wonderful package to the wrong market, you’re sure to fail. On the other hand, what if your package… your total offer, isn’t that good?
Let’s say it’s just average. Let’s also assume that your prices are not the lowest, but they’re at least in the ballpark. You’ve really got nothing special that the rest of your competition can’t offer.
But you have a great list to market to. Well-qualified, highly motivated prospects with the authority and the ability (money) to buy.
With that kind of market you just about can’t lose. Targeting your marketing efforts to the right people can make or break your entire advertising or marketing campaign. And if you’re a small business, you can’t afford to have that happen too many times. It’ll drive you right out of business!
One of the best ways to make sure you’re marketing to the right group is to go back over your records and create a list of your current and past customers and clients. You know the people in this group are the right people to market to, because they’ve purchased from you before.
Everyone who inquires about your products or services, or who makes a purchase from you should go on a list.
You should capture, at the very least, their name, address, phone number, date of purchase, what they bought, and how much they spent. If you’re using the internet, you should also try to capture their email address.
Radio Shack is one of the best at doing this. Even if you just buy a 79-cent battery, the clerk gets or updates your mailing information. The next thing you know, you’re getting all kinds of mailers, promotions and ads in the mail. It’s been a very important and successful part of their marketing program for years.
If you’ll do the same thing… get contact information from all your customers, the next time you want to make a special offer or run a certain promotion, you’ll have a very targeted list of people who have used your products or services in the past, or who have at least inquired about them.
And remember, all things being equal, people would rather do business with people (or businesses) they know, they like, and they trust.
Another thing you can do is send a Customer Questionnaire, link below, to all your existing customers asking for information that can help you determine who buys, what they buy, and why they bought from you.
By analyzing the characteristics of the people on this list, you can then develop a demographic model of other people who would be likely candidates for the kinds of things you offer.
Since you’re not marketing to the general public, very specific offers can be made to these target markets.
Not only will your hard marketing costs be considerably less, your response rates will be significantly higher. You can spend a lot of needless time and money marketing to the wrong market.
If, for instance, you advertise that you have the lowest prices, you’ll undoubtedly attract people who are price shoppers. That’s not altogether bad, but if you’re looking for long-time relationships with your customers, low price shoppers may not be the best market for you to attract. You can send out a questionnaire or better yet call your customers and ask them to visit your website where you have placed a questionnaire for them to fill out. The questionnaire is a great way to stay in touch with your customers.
As soon as a competitor advertises a lower price, or gives a little more away for the same price you’re charging, your customer is likely to bid you adios.
Long-term relationships presuppose loyalty. Loyalty from both the customer, and loyalty from the business.
If, as a business, you provide exceptional and continuing value to your customers, they, in turn, will continue to buy from you as long as the need exists.
By identifying the kinds of customers you wish to acquire, and then targeting those kinds of prospects, your customer acquisition costs will be reduced, and your customer retention percentages will soar.
Now, here’s a bonus: If you run an ad or promotion in the paper, on your website, on the radio or TV, not only will your customers and prospects hear or see it, but so will your competition.
By advertising or promoting to your own customer list by direct mail or via email marketing, no one knows what you’re doing but the recipients. It’s “stealth” marketing at its best!
Marketing Mistake #5 Using Institutional Or Image Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsAdvertising is simply the process of letting others know about your product or service. Institutional or Image advertising is the type of advertising most companies, large and small use most often.
While this type of advertising can alert the market to the fact that a product exists, it does very little to create a desire in the minds of the buying public to own the product, or at least inquire for more information concerning the product.
A better, more effective and more cost-efficient form of advertising, is called “Direct-response” advertising.
The idea behind this type of promotion is to get the reader or viewer to take some specific action. Either make a call, pay a visit to where the product or service can be seen or purchased, or perhaps, to send in a reply mechanism.
Institutional or image advertising is fine if all you want to do is promote the image of your company, your products, or the services you offer.
But when you consider the fact that your client or prospect couldn’t care less about your company or the fact that you want to sell them something, it adds up to a big waste of your money… money that could be better utilized elsewhere.
It’s true that institutional or image advertising can help build “brand-awareness.” And that’s okay for large corporations that have multi-million dollar advertising budgets. But most small or medium size businesses simply cannot afford to spend their advertising dollars that way.
Most institutional advertising is not customer-focused. Instead, it promotes how great the company paying for the ad is. And since there is no call to action, at best, the results this kind of advertising produces are deferred results.
For the most part, people don’t care about how great your company is. They really care more about what a particular product or service can do for them.
They have their own wants and needs that they want to satisfy, and they will only buy what you are offering if you can show them how your product or service will satisfy those wants and needs.
That’s where direct-response advertising comes in.
This type of advertising shows the viewer or reader the advantages your product or service can provide her and let her know exactly what steps she must take to either get the product or service, or to get more information about it.
It’s designed to present enough information to give a compelling and immediate reason for the viewer to take some specific action. To send in a coupon, pick up the phone and call for an order or more information, or to stop by your place of business.
Direct-response marketing will bring in more response, more inquiries and more dollars than any other type of advertising or marketing.
And the results will be accountable, trackable and measurable. That is, you will be able to quantify exactly how many dollars you pay out for your marketing efforts, where your results come from and how many dollars you bring in as a result.
Direct-response advertising is simply the most effective type of marketing for most businesses, and effectively used, can bring immediate profits to your bottom line.
Marketing Mistake #4 Not Taking Massive Action
Posted by: | CommentsAn old Chinese proverb goes something like this: “Confucius say, ‘Hungry man sitting with mouth open waiting for roast duck to fly in have long wait.’”
So it is with marketing. So many businesses have great ideas and plans, but they fail to take action. They’re waiting for “things to be right,” before they do anything. To some extent, that’s understandable.
Considering that most businesses… especially small businesses are tight for money, they want to make sure their advertising pieces are laid out just right, that the message is clear, that they’re getting the very best deal on advertising rates, and that the market conditions are favorable.
Make no mistake, all those things are important… very important. But it’s critical that we don’t get paralyzed into not taking action because of them.
Back when Apple Computer was first getting off the ground, articles were written about how they used the “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach.
That is, they got a product “Ready” (it wasn’t perfect), they “Fired” (got it out in the marketplace), then “Aimed” (listened to customer feed-back, then made modifications) and got it back out there again.
That is so different from the way many small or even mid-size businesses run their marketing campaigns today. They get an ad, a promotional letter, or campaign ready, then sit back and analyze it for months. Then they may or may not actually run it.
What holds them up? Why don’t they take a chance? Why not get the ad “out there” and see what happens?
That’s what Apple Computer did. Who knows? Maybe the ad or promotion will be successful, and maybe it won’t. But they’ll never know unless they test it to see.
Now, I’m not advocating wildly spending money and blindly running ads and promotions just to see it they’ll work or not. You certainly must put some thought into the market you want to target, the message you will send them, and the offer you make to them. This takes careful and calculated consideration. Google Adwords is a great place to spend money to do some targeted promotions. You can create landing pages and test various ads to see how each one p
But any business, even your business, can learn what exactly what Apple Computer found out: That the market will tell you if your product is right or wrong for them and whether or not your prices are too high.
And, they’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to make it saleable to them. Not only that, as a bonus, they’ll tell you exactly how much to charge for it.
How do they do that, you ask?
It’s simple:
When you run an ad or promotion, if a lot of people respond or take you up on your offer, it obviously worked. If the response was too great, it may mean that your offer was too good, or your prices too low.
On the other hand, if you get no or very few responses, then something is wrong.
1. Either you’re marketing to the wrong target.
2. The message you’re sending them is not clear.
3. The offer you have made them isn’t attractive enough for them to justify parting with their money. (Your prices are too high.)
But, if you just conceptualize the ad, design it, lay it out, and spend months on end analyzing it, you won’t learn a thing, except that your procrastination cost you a lot of unnecessary time and missed income.
Better to get the ad out in the marketplace and find out if it works or if it needs improvement. No need to second-guess. Let your market evaluate it for you and tell you what corrections you need to make.
But do it carefully… by testing as we discussed earlier. Once you find that it works, take massive action. Roll your ad or mailing campaign out and let it bring you the profits you’ve worked so hard to earn. Utilize google adwords for campaigns. Adwords are cost effective and a great way to measure and test ads/promotions.
Marketing Four hot strategies-conclusion
Posted by: | CommentsMarketing… effective marketing doesn’t have to be difficult to be productive.
But it must be done. If you fail to market, or if you market ineffectively, you can’t expect to remain in business very long, let alone grow your business. With the tremendous increases in technology, and labor and materials availability, more and more businesses are finding it difficult to maintain any type of competitive advantage because of their products or prices. For your business to prosper and grow, you need to aggressively engage in effective marketing practices.
If the products and services you offer to your customers and prospects are really worthy of their hard-earned money… if they really will provide a benefit to them… then you, as a business owner, owe it to yourself, your employees, your suppliers and your customers to learn as much as you can about the marketing strategies that work in today’s competitive business environment. You then have an obligation to see that as many people as possible take advantage of the wonderful benefits your products and services can provide for them. And, you have an obligation to do it as cost-effectively as possible so more people can afford them and so your business can remain in business to serve even more people. Now you’ve learned four strategies that can be implemented immediately and help you get on the road to making your business more successful and profitable. Study them. Tailor them to fit your operation. Then apply them. They won’t do you or anyone else any good unless you put them to work.
Finally, learn all you can about results-producing, lead-generation marketing. Become a student. Apply the concepts and strategies to your business, and watch it grow! If, for some reason you don’t have the time or desire to learn the latest marketing techniques, don’t just drop the ball. Your business and your customers are too important. Make sure you find a qualified consultant that can help you analyze your business, decide which strategies will work best for you, then set in motion a systematic plan that will help you skyrocket your business to the next level. These four strategies will start you on your way. Apply them in your business, and your competition won’t stand a chance!
Four Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business-Marketing Strategy #3
Posted by: | CommentsMarketing Strategy #3
Build a database of current, past and prospective customers and keep in touch on a regular basis.
Who are your current customers? Do you know? How do you know? Do you have a record that shows who they are, what products or services they regularly purchase, what their last purchase was, when it was, and how often they make purchases from you?
How do you know that the person you consider to be a “current” customer isn’t, in fact, a “past” customer? When was the last time he or she bought from you? Have they sent any referrals to you lately? If so, who? If not, why not? Have they taken their business down the street to a competitor? If so, to whom? And why?
What about your prospective customers? Do you know who they are? Have you developed an “Ideal Customer Profile” that accurately describes who your best customers are so you’ll know whom to target with your marketing efforts? Do you have a list of them? Do you know how to reach them? Are you reaching them on a regular basis?
The answers to these questions can give you valuable information that can blast your business to never before dreamed of heights.
By knowing exactly whom you have dealt with in the past, who you currently deal with, and who you would like to deal with in the future can dramatically change your business, your profits and your bottom line.
If you’re not currently using a computer to keep track of these and other categories of customers, you should be. This database can be the starting point of unbelievable profits!
Targeting your marketing efforts to the right people can make or break your entire advertising or marketing campaign. And if you’re a small business, you can’t afford to have that happen too many times. It’ll drive you right out of business!
Keeping in touch with your customers…past, current and prospective, is one of the best marketing tools you can employ. It doesn’t have to be “hard-sell.” It can be as simple as any of the following examples:
• Send birthday cards to your clients.
• Send postcards on the anniversary date of their first purchase with you.
• Send a questionnaire asking for their evaluation of the product or service they purchased, or feedback on how it could be made better.
• Send an informational newsletter on a regular basis.
• Involve your customers in a contest or promotion… perhaps a referral generating promotion.
• Sponsor client luncheons with guest speakers that address subjects of interest to your clients. Have them bring a friend.
• Send announcements of “preferred customer” sales or events by special invitation. Include an invitation for someone who is not one of your current customers.
Make your current customers feel special.
Make your past customers feel missed
And make your prospective customers feel wanted.
Use your internal database to keep in touch with these groups of customers. Let them all know how much you care, and how much you appreciate their business, and this will take your business to new levels faster than nearly any other method you can think of.
Four Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business-Marketing Strategy #2
Posted by: | CommentsMarketing Strategy #2
Use the testimonials of other satisfied customers to help pre-sell your prospects.
Testimonials are one of the most powerful tools any business owner can use, but also one of the most under-utilized.
Testimonials are not limited to any one type of advertising or promotional media. Websites, Television ads, radio announcements, newspaper layouts and infomercials all make use of testimonials.
Your own clients are some of the best sources of endorsement you could possibly want. Especially if they are known to those you are marketing to, or if they have something else in common… perhaps they live in the same town, have similar businesses, belong to the same organization or association, etc.
There are really only three reasons people don’t buy from you.
1. They have no use for your product or service.
2. They can’t afford your product or service.
3. You haven’t developed the level of trust, credibility, and believability they need in you to do business with you.
There’s not much you can do if a prospect can’t use or pay for your services. But there is a lot you can do to help wipe away the underlying layers of skepticism they bring to the relationship and establish the trust level they need to say “Okay” to your offer.
People don’t like to be the first to do anything… especially if it involves parting with their hard-earned money. And, they don’t like to be manipulated. The sales world is full of hype and promotion, and oftentimes, false and misleading promotion.
If your customer or prospect can see that others have done what they are being asked to do, or that others are currently doing it, they tend to feel more safe, and will be more likely to participate. But you first have to relieve any nervousness they may have of being “taken.”
Testimonials are not difficult to get. One of the most effective ways is to send users of your products or services a questionnaire or evaluation form that asks for their feedback on how they’ve benefited from using the product or service.
The questions should be in “open-ended” form, and ask for them to write their feelings about their experience with your product or the service they received from you, and not just for “yes” or “no” answers.
Another effective method is to call your clients on the telephone and record the conversation (with their permission, of course).
Then you can transcribe the parts you want to use, and send a copy to them for their approval and authorization.
Often, after a brief warm up conversation, people will forget the tape is running, open up and give you all kinds of good, useable information that can be edited for use as a testimonial.
Using testimonials is one of the most effective ways you can eliminate fear, increase the believability and credibility of your offer, and add to the number of sales or inquiries to your advertisements or promotions. Whatever you do, don’t overlook this important and valuable tool!
Four Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsThe process of getting people to do business with you is called “marketing.” Unfortunately for many businesses, this process, as critical as it is to the success of the business, is one of the tools business owner’s least understands.
Marketing… effective marketing… the kind that produces inquiries about your offer, adds customers and increases your profits, is not just a matter of placing a online banners, pay per click advertisement, couple of ads in the newspaper or sending out some mailings.
And it’s not creating a beautiful brochure that describes the company, the president and the products and services offered by your business.
Results-producing marketing… the kind you want for your business… is a combined and coordinated effort of a number of factors.
But what about the economy? Doesn’t that have something to do with how a business approaches marketing?
It certainly does, there’s no question about it. The economy, and how it’s performing, does have a real impact on businesses and how they should approach their marketing efforts. And here’s where a lot of businesses get in trouble.
When the economy is down, most businesses stop, or drastically slow down their marketing efforts.
Then, without new customers coming on board, existing customers making repeat or additional purchases, and past customers returning, the company’s business drops off even further.
Fewer customers making purchases automatically translates into less profits. Less profits, of course, means less available funds for marketing, and before you know it, a vicious cycle develops with a downward trend.
When times are tough, is not the time to cut back on your marketing efforts. Sure other businesses do it. But people still have the need or the want for your products and services.
So, when other businesses are cutting back, that’s the ideal time for you to forge ahead, and increase your marketing efforts. It’s the one time you will have the least competition for your customer’s attention.
On the other hand, when times are good… when the economy is booming, good marketing… effective marketing can blow the socks off your competition.
Why?
Because your competition doesn’t understand the difference between the marketing they’ve always used, and high-impact marketing that’s accountable and that produces results. And if they keep on doing the kind of marketing they’ve always done, and you move on to more effective types of marketing, they don’t stand a chance.
Marketing can consist of many forms. Some involve money, some involve personnel and some involve a certain commitment of time. Some work well in good economic times, and others work better in a down economy.
Here are four usable marketing efforts that work well in any economic climate. These strategies can be put to work in your business today, and help move your business forward regardless of the economy or your available financial resources.
Four Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business Part 3
Posted by: | CommentsMarketing Strategy #1
“Do what you do so well, that when others see you do it, they want to see you do it again, and will bring others to see you do it.”
That quote comes from Walt Disney. It was the strategy he used for marketing Disneyland, and he said it could apply to any business, regardless of what that business sold or offered.
Broken down to its individual components, it means this:
“Do what you do….” That’s what you do… not what anyone else does. It’s important that you do the things you (or your business) does the best. While it’s okay to emulate other successful businesses and copy some of the traits that made them successful, you should adopt those traits, add your own personality and adapt them to your business.
Do what you do… “so well….” That means excellence…not mediocrity. If you’re going to do something in business, do it with excellence. No longer is it possible to maintain…long-term, a competitive advantage because of your product or the price you charge. We live in a “me-too” world, where your customers can buy the same or very similar products to what you offer from any number of other suppliers for the same or less money. You must do what you do very well.
“…when others see you do it….” “Others” means your customers…the people who buy your products and/or services. When they see you do what you do (or buy what you sell, or deal with your company)… they,
“…want to see you do it again….” We call that, “repeat business.” Your offer was so good, or the way you dealt with your customers was so unique, that they want to come back for more… to see you do it again. Not only that, but they will…
“…bring others to see you do it.” That’s called “referral business.” When your customers like what you do and bring others to experience it, that business costs you nothing in hard marketing costs. It’s a result of word-of-mouth. It’s a personal endorsement of your products or services from a satisfied user. That’s the sincerest form of flattery, and the best form of advertising you can get.
You’re not trying to “meet” your customer’s expectations… you want to “exceed” them… to give them more than what they expected. Similar products and services can all be expected to perform in similar fashion. But when it comes to the attention, care and service we receive, we all have our perceptions of what “good” means.
Keep in your mind a balance scale. On one side of the scale mentally put the dollar amount you charge for your products and services.
On the other side of the scale, your service. Make sure that the “service” of the scale always outweighs the “price” side. Be sure you always give more service than the customer perceives they should be getting from their transaction with you.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself that will help you determine how well you’re doing:
• Do I offer the best quality product or service I possibly can?
• What can I do to improve it?
• What is the best benefit to my customers that each of my products or services have to offer?
• How can I better convey that to my customers?
• What can I offer my customer above and beyond the product or service they purchased?
• Do my customers trust the advice and suggestions they get from my staff, and do they feel comfortable dealing with us?
• Why should they do business with my establishment instead of any and all options they have, including doing nothing?
• Would I purchase this product or service if I were in the market for it?
• Would I purchase it from my company if I didn’t own, or work for the company?
• Would I feel comfortable referring my friends, relatives and associates to this company?
The answers to these questions can help you determine where you need to make changes that will benefit both you and your customers, and add substantially to your bottom line.
Four Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business Part 1
Posted by: | CommentsFour Hot Marketing Strategies, No Matter What Condition The Economy Is In
The bottom line of all businesses is to make a profit. That’s why a business exists in the first place. It sounds nice for someone to say that the reason they’re in business is to help other people, or to provide some needed service, but in the end the real bottom line is that the business owner wants and needs to realize a profit on his or her investment.
Profits are what drive businesses and allow them to provide more goods and services, create more jobs and expand the economy. Profits are what allow the philanthropist to continue giving and providing relief and humanitarian service to others.
There are many factors that affect profits, not the least of which is customers purchasing goods and services provided by the business. Without customers making purchases, there simply would not be a business.
If a business expects to remain in business for any length of time, or to grow, the business owner must master the skill of getting customers to do business with them.
That includes new customers… those with whom they have never done business before; current or existing customers… those who patronize the business regularly; and past customers…those who have done business before, but may have taken their business elsewhere.
