Archive for April, 2007
After you have read everything that you can about marketing (including these secrets).
After you have traveled thousands of miles in your “personal automobile university” (listening to educational CDs and tapes in your car).
After you have studied all of the information that you can find everywhere else, then it is time for you to write your marketing plan.
Gather all of your experience, education, and advice and decide what you will do to grow your business.
Begin by trying and testing your marketing ideas.
Use small and safe tests.
Estimate how long that it might take for you to see the results of your efforts by creating a marketing calendar to help to guide you along the way.
This road map will help you to see how overlapping plans and campaigns affect each other. More importantly, use your marketing calendar to track your results. This will allow you to see clearly which efforts were profitable and which should be discontinued.
Learn to keep each marketing effort that you undertake flexible. You will discover which efforts prove to be effective. You will want to use them again, expanding them into new geographic areas and markets.
“Important principles may and must be flexible.”
Abraham Lincoln
Unfortunately, you also will find out which efforts proved to be bad ideas, ideas that did not create measurable profit. These marketing efforts should be eliminated. Don’t waste valuable time and effort trying to fix them. Stick with what works or try something new.
On your calendar, use highlighter pens in different colors to indicate how long the results of each campaign should take.
If you’re a more “digital” type of person, there are many good computer programs and on-line project management to help you to track your marketing efforts.
These tools will make it easy for you to compare visually how the actual results measure up to your preimplementation expectations. This information will help you to “finetune” your ongoing efforts.
How flexible are your marketing efforts?
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How Much Money And Time Do You Spend To Bring In A New Client?
An even more important question to ask is, “Do you know the ‘Life Time Value (LV)’ of that client?”
Very few business owners take the time to learn this important secret. They don’t understand what a “life time value” is!
In addition, they don’t realize how viewing customers with this approach can change the way that you do everything in your business.
What does “lifetime value” really mean? It’s pretty simple. Lifetime value is the average amount of money that a customer spends (and the profits that you make) from the first time that the person buys something until his/her last purchase.
“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is no barking dog to be tethered on a tenfoot chain.”
Adlai E. Stevenson
For example, if your average sale is $50.00 and the profit on that sale is $15.00, and your average clients buys from you 10 times per year for five years, then your sales to them are $2,500.00 with a LTV of $750.00 in profit. You should be able to determine how many “average” customers you need to have to make the profit that you desire.
If the actual figures on this are not available or are hard to calculate, use your “best guess.” Attempt to figure out what amount your average client will spend during the time that s/he is doing business with your company.
It is even more important to try to determine how much of that total amount is profit. Study the results in detail. You should be able to determine the average number of “repeat” or “backend” purchases that each customer makes after the initial sale.
When you know the average amount of LTV profit that your business will make on each customer, then you will be able to calculate how much you are willing to invest to get a new client.
From our example above, we know that we will make $750.00 of profit on the average client. Knowing this, we also know that even if we spend $250.00 to get that client to buy our products/services, there still will be $500.00 of total profit from that client.
If the majority of the profits that you make on your average customer come from sales made after the initial sale, then it might make sense for you to sell at cost, or even a little below cost, on your first sale. You can do this knowing that you have landed a customer who then will give you the opportunity for additional “repeat” sales.
Knowing your client LTV allows you to focus your marketing efforts. You can target new customers with special “sales” or with other offers designed to bring them in the door.
In addition, you can market to your current and prior customers with campaigns that are designed specifically to generate the repeat business that produces most of your profit. When you can answer the crucial question of “Lifetime Value,” you will be ready to determine how much you are willing to invest to bring in a new client.
Do you know what the lifetime value of your customers is?
If not, what can you do to find out?
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How Much Information Do You Have?
The first time that I really became aware of the vast array of information available to me for use in marketing my clients’ businesses, it blew me away.
One of the best sources of information is your local library.
Call the reference desk and ask where you need to look for specific information. The librarians will lead you to many sources that you never knew existed.
Most of the recommended resources may be within the library walls or available through the library Web site. In fact, some librarians will do research for you if you just ask them for their help.
My local list broker, Ted Kelter, Vice President of Burnett Direct of Farmington Hills, Michigan, is a great information source. I call him on a regular basis and pick his brain. Ted has been an invaluable resource when I am digging for information to use to market my clients’ products/services.
His “list” advice and direct marketing expertise have been a very profitable resource for my clients.
I suggest that you call Ted 248-932-7100 or look for list brokers in your area. Get to know them and use their services.
Here are some other information source possibilities: I often consult my local Chamber of Commerce because they know who is new in town, who is leaving town, and why.
The local newspapers are great for monitoring the advertisements that your competitions are running. Also, classified ads in newspapers will tell you who is hiring. Bankruptcy lists will tell you where to buy inexpensive equipment that you can use to grow your business.
Local college business offices are another great source to find out who is hiring. They also can connect you with “interns,” college students who are inexpensive to hire and can bring fresh ideas to your business.
“You’ll never have all the information you need to make a decision. If you did, it would be a foregone conclusion, not a decision.”
David J. Mahoney, Jr.
Your local “Yellow Pages” and “Online Yellow Pages” have been a consistent source for new business.
For example: I Look for industries that spend a lot of money in the various “Yellow Pages,” and I offer my marketing services to them. The advertising in the “Yellow Pages” will inform you about how much competition you have and how your competitors advertise their services.
Another great source of information is in the Federal Government reports that are available on the Web. A starting point for finding them is www.LOC.gov (Library of Congress). There are thousands of reports available on many subjects. Some of these reports are free, while there may be a very small fee for others. Also, the Web is an endless source of information that can be found almost instantly. If you can think of it, it usually can be found.
What information do you need today that could help you to market your business tomorrow?
Where are you going to go to find it?
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Are You Researching Your Prospects To Improve Your Business?
Focus, focus, focus.
First and foremost, focus on the potential clients to whom you want to sell your products/services and not on what you are trying to sell.
If you know who your intended clients are and you can address them directly in the headlines and body copy of your print or broadcast promotions, then this will improve the rate of response to your marketing effort.
For example, the following headlines address a target market by talking to them very specifically: “Attention Homeowners, Do You Need Extra Cash? It May Be In Your Home!” and “The Complete Sales Program for Dentists.”
In order to target your prospects well, you need to do some initial research.
Ask your prospects exactly what they want by using direct questions, client surveys, and informal studies. You could mail a questionnaire or survey to your existing clients that asks them why they do business with you.
Use their answers to direct your marketing messages to the specific wants and needs of your prospects. Target only those prospective buyers that are most qualified to purchase your products or services.
It is important to research the type of clients that make up your market and what it is that they really want. Prospects want to know what added value your company can offer them, so you must be ready to provide the reasons why they should buy from you. Your research should enable you to do this well.
The more that you know about your clients and prospects, the easier that it is to give them more than they expect. You need to gather all of the information that you can about your prospects. In order to be able to sell something to someone, you have to know how they feel, how they think, what they fear, where they live, etc. Most importantly, you need to know WHY they want to buy what you have to offer!
“A businessman’s judgement
is no better than his information.”
R. P. Lamont
Try to visualize a day in the life of your potential client.
What happens in it?
What does the person worry about?
What does s/he want?
What scares him/her?
What does s/he enjoy doing?
I could go on and on here, but you get the idea. Do your research. Ask a lot of questions. Think about and try to analyze why your clients do what they do. If you do this consistently, eventually you will begin to know why they buy from you, or why they don’t.
Start your research by asking your existing clients why they do business with you.
If you can find a way to do it, ask your former customers why they stopped doing business with you or what you could be doing to get their business back. The answers that you get can teach you an awful lot about how people perceive your business.
“Learn to ask for what you want.
The worst people can do is not give you what you asked for—which is precisely where you were before you asked.”
Peter Williams
Hopefully, you will learn from what you hear.
Another thing that you can do is go to the local library and read the magazines and other publications to which your clients subscribe. Learn about your clients by reading what they read. If you don’t know which publications you should be studying, then ask your customers what they read. Look up articles in back issues that are posted on the Internet. Use all of the information that you can gather to sell your prospects what they already want to buy.
Why is it that your clients buy your products/services?
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What Makes Your Business, Products, And Services Unique?
It is very important to think in terms of what your business can do for the prospective customer.
A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the first marketing effort that you should think about for your business. Your USP is written to separate your business from your competition. It does this by telling the world what is unique about the product/service that your business offers.
Your USP should create tension, desire, and urgency in the reader’s mind. Written in one clear, concise sentence, your USP should be the essence of what you are offering.
Your USP should come immediately to your client’s mind when s/he thinks of your products/services.
Can you provide three compelling reasons for doing business with your company? For example, “Fast, cheap, and good” or “Simple, easy, and lucrative.” Your USP then should answer these questions: “How fast?” “Why is it easy?” “What’s so cost effective about it?”
Your USP should be good enough to be used as a headline in any of your marketing efforts. The best USPs are written so tightly that not a single word can be changed.
Here are some examples of great USPs:
“Good to the Last Drop;”
“Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking;”
“Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes, Guaranteed;”
“Because So Much Is Riding on Your Tires.”
I bet that you can name the companies to which these USPs belong.
Does your business have a concise, unique, and effective USP?
Why should someone buy your products/services?
Dan Kennedy, the author of many marketing and business books, including How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneurs Guide (Plume, 1996), asks an important question: “Why should I choose your business/products/service over any/every other competitive option available to me?”
This question should help you to open up your mind and get you thinking about your USP. It should give your customers a complete answer to this question.
Does yours?
“Research is to see what everybody else has seen
and to think what nobody else has thought.”
Albert Szent Gyorgyi
If you have a problem answering the vital question of why someone should choose to do business with your company, then it will be even harder for your clients and prospects to answer it. This will make it hard for him/her to buy whatever it is that you are selling.
Do you know if your customers realize why they should be buying from your company?
What are the benefits of your products/services?
Sometimes it’s hard to come up with anything unique about your business, so it may be easier for you to express the benefits that you offer to your clients.
H. Brad Antin and Alan Antin, the authors ofSecrets from the Lost Art of Common Sense Marketing (Antin Marketing Group, 1992), have devised an alternative to developing your USP.
They call it a “Statement of Benefit,” or SOB.
Ask yourself, what are the real benefits that people get when they buy from me? Dig deep. Try to identify the biggest benefit of, or the hidden benefits in, doing business with you.
Only after you learn the real reasons why people decide to buy from you can you package and present your information to your buyers from their own perspective. When you do this, you can crush the competition.
When your client or prospect is looking for an answer to a specific problem, your SOB should be able to answer it. Here are two examples of great SOBs: “When it Absolutely, Positively Has to Be There Overnight” and “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand.” Your SOB should lead your client or prospect to you.
What “benefits” solve your client’s problems?
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How Many Things Are Competing For Your Attention Right Now?
In today’s world, we are overwhelmed with far more information than ever before.
TV (both network and cable), radio, the Internet, hundreds of newspapers and magazines, faxes, emails, cell phones, PDAs, multiple 24hour news and sports channels, newsletters, etc., etc., etc.
Even worse, each source of information is screaming louder and louder to get our attention.
All of this information and “noise” makes it very important that you target your marketing precisely to the people who actually want to receive it.
Precise, targeted marketing is indispensable for every business. When you know exactly who will buy your products or services, you can save thousands of marketing dollars by directly contacting only those people who have an ‘affinity’ to buy what you are selling.
Target your marketing where you know that your typical customer will be looking.
“Genius is recognizing the
uniqueness in the unimpressive.”
Anonymous
Example: I wrote a marketing plan recently for a group of financial planners who had developed a system of advice for couples who are going through a divorce.
We did some research and found out that over 14,000 couples divorced every year in the metro Detroit area, where we are located.
Even if we were only to sell the planners’ services to 1.25% of these couples, at an average profit of $750.00 for the services and materials involved, the revenue in the first year would be approximately $273,750.00.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real income is made on the “backend” financial planning commissions from the insurance and investments that are made for the divorcing couples.
Since divorce typically is a very private issue, we decided to market using a referral system.
Divorcing couples can locate my clients’ services through religious organizations, community and government organizations, business organizations and associations, real estate associations, hospital and medical organizations and associations, arts and humanities organizations, CPAs and enrolled accountants, family marriage counselors and psychologists, and estate planning specialists.
Typically, these are the groups that divorcing couples go to for advice.
Do you know who your ideal clients are and where to find them?
What can you do to target your clients and prospects precisely?
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Who Is In Your Sights?
Understanding that you can’t market to everyone is very important to your business survival.
To many business owners want to market to anyone who can steam a mirror.
But you can’t afford to market to anyone who can steam a mirror.
You don’t want to waste your valuable time and marketing dollars.
There are people who won’t want what you are selling and perhaps others who can’t afford it.
It is a lot easier to sell to people who already have bought a similar product and either want more of it or want a different or improved version.
Known users of products/services like yours are easy to locate in your library’s reference database. They also can be located on the Internet, in the many news groups, on-line groups or blogs to which people with specific interests belong.
Find these groups. The people who belong to them are “high purchase probability” prospects.
“As I grow older,
I pay less attention to what men say.
I just watch what they do”
Andrew Carnegie
Get your hands on a contact list of people you know for sure, want and can afford what you are offering, then start your marketing process.
Do whatever it takes to reach these contacts.
Who wants what you are offering?
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