Marketing essentials

12. Marketing essentials.

• Get a logo. A well- designed logo makes your business look more established and professional.
• Have a USP. A unique selling proposition should make a promise to your customers, one that your competitors cannot match. To find your USP assume your prospects and customers know nothing about you. Make a list of all the benefits they receive from you.
• Focus. You cannot have all the customers so concentrate on the ones you want. Know where they are, what messages they respond to, where they are, how you can reach them, what messages they respond to.
• Concentrate on benefits not features. Benefits are what the product or service will do for me as a customer. People buy the results of what your product can do for them. Do not assume they know what the features of your product will do for them spell them out.
• Headlines. Every piece of marketing material needs a headline to attract attention. Your business name ids not a headline!
• Reassurance. How can you reassure customers they are making a wise decision? Use testimonials and cases studies.
• Up to date. Keep your marketing material up to date and relevant. Make sure you update your web site regularly. It is your shop window and if it were a shop you would change it frequently.
• Be easy to do business with. Have multiple ways customers can contact you order from you and pay for your products.
• Create a “Snatch file”. Use it to collect ideas that attract you that you can adapt for your business. Look outside your industry and see what others are doing. Look at similar businesses in other parts of the country what are they doing that you could adapt.
• You, “You” is more powerful than “We” or “I” Try to use “ you” twice as often as “we or “I”. Review your material and see how many times you can use “you”
• Test; try everything on a small scale before spending large sums of money. Ask honest friends for feedback on your marketing material or new ideas. Test combinations of marketing tactics.
• Measure, you must measure the results of your activity to identify what is working so that you can do more of it and less of what is not working.

11. Every day contact 11 customers or prospects. Check “ Did we exceed your expectations? Ask, do you know anyone else?

10. Create the ultimate client/customer profile. List the 10 qualities you are looking for and then judge prospects on these. Make sure everyone knows the qualities of your ideal customer.

9. 90% does. Do not sped time trying to create the perfect literature or web site. It probably does not exist. Every marketing piece can be improved. The important part is to get your message out to customers and prospects.

8. Look through your old files find 8 customers that you want to reconnect with over a period. Develop a great idea just for them

7. The power of 7 is the number of contacts you need with a prospect before they become a customer. Remember people buy from people they know, like and trust.

6. Rate your customers. Use a scale of 1 to 6, where 6 is the most important. Base this on profitability, ease of doing business etc. Make sure everyone in the business knows who the customers in category 6 are and goes the extra mile for them.

5. Ways to increase sales. Increase the number of customers. Increase the frequency of purchase. Increase the number of units purchased, Ask for referrals. Improve the efficiency of your business processes, look at every point of contact with the customer and ask, “how could this be improved?”

4. Use a combination of marketing ideas to increase effectiveness and improve results.

For example if you are advertising, send prospects a letter or email, telling them when and where, send a press release to the publication, follow up with a copy of the advert or press release. Ask for customer comments and feedback.

3. Marketing secrets for success. Commitment, you must have this you are planting seeds for future success. Consistence, your customers and prospects will forget you if you do not keep in touch. Confidence, marketing activities can take 60-90 days to start producing results be patient.

2. Allocate time for marketing, and then commit to it, put it in your diary or outlook. 2 hours a day, 2 days a month, 20% of your time. Use it for everything from research with customers and suppliers, looking at competitors, networking, talking to customers, sending sales letters, writing advertisements etc.

1. Know your customers and then write as if you are writing to 1 individual, Have a picture of the person in mind when developing any marketing. Ask yourself, “ How would the person react if they saw or heard this?”

Personal help just for you

For personal help with marketing and sales to grow your business contact me on 01226 290288 or email Gareth@gapmanagement.co.uk

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About GAP Management

GAP Management helps business owners and managers to focus their sales and marketing efforts to be more effective and to find win and keep customers, to grow their businesses and be successful whether they market in person, in print or on the web.