| |
| |
|
Marketing Resource Center |
|
|
|
Growing Your Business With Your Marketing Priorities
None of us have enough time in the day to get everything done, but small business owners and entrepreneurs like you are particularly pressed. You wear so many hats; there is a seemingly infinite list of tasks to accomplish each day, from providing services to clients, managing product distribution and delivery, to keeping accounting in order. You try to fit in some marketing when you can, but you're not sure which activities are essential to do each week or each month to build a steady stream of clients. You make some calls, send out a mailing or put up a web site, but you still have that nagging feeling that if you knew which marketing activities translated into the most new business, you could be more successful. You want more clients or, if not more clients, higher paying clients. So, what are the most important marketing tasks to do in order to attract more of the right type of prospects? Build and Maintain Relationships with Prospects Your number one marketing priority should be to build relationships with lots of qualified prospects. It sounds obvious, but remember that the reason to advertise, network or to have a web site is to generate leads, leads you can then convert to sales. Take a look at the number of years you've been in business and the size of your prospect list. If your advertising, networking and web site are working, you should be able to generate new leads and a growing list of qualified prospects each month. A successful website, for example, can generate hundreds, if not thousands, of new leads monthly. George recently signed up for my coaching services. He has been in business for over ten years, but his prospect list consists of less than 150 names. George should have contact information for thousands of prospects by now. Even without an active web based lead generation strategy, if George had added every prospect and client to his list over ten years his list should contain over a thousand interested people. How many more sales could you close if twice as many - or ten times as many- people know how you could help them? The first step is to get prospects' attention with your marketing message and materials. Then you want prospects to take the next step; to contact you, buy from you right away, or add their name to your mailing list. Offering free, relevant information such as a report or free workshop will prompt your prospects to give you their contact information and increase the results generated by your advertisements and mailings. How big is your target market? What percentage of this group is on your mailing list? Your goal is to help as many people in your target market learn what you do and to get them to give you their contact information. Once you have their permission to stay in touch, you can go to work building a relationship with them. Demonstrate what you do so they understand its value and you establish your credibility. When they know and trust you, they'll be happy to tell you what they need and to buy your products and services. So how can you incorporate lead generation and building relationships with prospects into your weekly schedule? 1. Each week reach out to get the attention of people who haven't heard from you. Do this through your advertising, web site marketing, articles, mailings or cold calls (if you know how to use them). But don't spend a dime on any of these unless you have a strategy in place for converting this attention into sales and qualified leads. 2. Set aside time each week or at least each month to stay in touch with your list of qualified prospects and past clients. As your list grows, use your time to focus on past clients first and use a mass mailing or email to stay in touch with other prospects. Share an idea your prospects they can use and they'll be reminded again and again how much you know and why they should buy your products and services. 3. Use your communication with prospects and clients to help them identify what they need and understand how your products and services can help them. You may think that doing this once should be enough, but most people are too busy to read every mailing they get or to remember the details until its pressing or important for them to act on. With regular correspondence you'll increase the chances of putting your information in front of your prospects when they are ready to buy. 4. Set aside time each day to contact qualified prospects.If someone has sent you an email, left a phone message or otherwise expressed interest in your products, pick up the phone and call them. Quickly identify whether they have the authority and interest to contract with you and either continue the conversation or move on to your next lead. Get attention; build your list of qualified leads; regularly help prospects with your ideas; and respond to your most qualified prospects promptly when they request services. Do these four things every week and every month and you'll soon have many more prospects eager to learn how you can help them, eager to buy from you and more new clients than you ever thought possible. Charlie Cook 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Plan eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Incentives For Customers? Whats New? Lost & Found for the 21st CenturyHere in the 21st century our lives have become more and more reliant on mobile items. As we go through our days, keeping a mental log of everything we have and where we have it becomes more and more difficult. Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail So you have been writing mortgages like crazy now for the last few years. You have a pretty big database of customers and hopefully you have been getting and keeping full contact information for them. The Art Of Writing Classified Ads The writing of good classified ads truly is an art that needs to be learned and perfected. Depending on the type of business you run, the development of a good classified ad can boost your annual sales by an average of £5,000 to £20,000 or more. The Top 10 Wild and Wacky Ways to Market Yourself for Big Visibility In today's competitive world of business, it takes moxie and pizazz to sell a great product, idea, or service. This list will provide you with ten unusual and creative marketing strategies which will help you to stand apart from the competition and to increase your visibility. Marketing in Business and Commerce in the New Consciousness The point is what you give to another you give to yourself; the reason being that there is only one of us. You are apart part of the Universal life force just the same as your customer is. Time for Marketers to Clean Up Their Act! Some years ago, a prominent Australian hi-tech company launched a product called Maestro that bundles community-building features like chat rooms, file sharing and instant messaging into one application. The company envisaged smaller Internet service providers (ISP's) as their main target market for the software. Hispanic Market Reality and Purchasing Power How many Hispanic people live in the US currently. Well there are 35. CRM: Strategic Engine or Just Another Tool? CRM?strategic engine or just another technology tool? How would you answer this question about your company's CRM initiative? It depends on how honest you are in answering some other questions, including:Do your people have real decision-making power to provide great customer service?Do you have the right people with the right knowledge and skills?Are you including people across the board, not just in your customer service and call centers?The bottom line is that people skill sets need to be similar to the technology they are using -- information sharing needs to be fast, focused, integrated.Let's Start With the LeadersFor CRM to become the strategic engine, not just a tool that people opt to use when they choose, managers and leaders need to demonstrate the new vision through their day-to-day actions. Stretch Your Marketing Reach One of the most cost effective marketing strategies you can utilize is an online newsletter, also referred to as an E-Zine.You can provide valuable content to your customers and potential customers with an E-Zine. These Four Things Will Make Your Direct Marketing Successful Direct marketing is built on four things. The other way to look at it is that when you think direct marketing is not working only one of four things can be wrong. How To Get Business With Your Business Card? So, you have a business card? And you have given it to a few of your friends as well? Great! But did you get those cards to give to your acquaintances or to get business? Are they getting business for you?? That is the key question.Most of us today have a business card, except those few who plans to survive the battle of brands without the most necessary armor. Fax Marketing : Reaching a New Niche of Customers Traditional marketing and advertising assumes that all of your customers are traditional people. Even newer technologies like email assume that the best way to reach people is when they are at their computers. The Value of a Customer The Driver of All Marketing EffortsYou need to determine what the value of a customer is to your company. Answer the following questions:How much will the average customer spend with you per year?A = _____________If you provide quality service and products, how many years can you expect to keep a customer ?B = _____________What is your gross profit, as a percentage of revenues?C = _____________The value (V) of a customer is:V = A X B X CWe learned with our network consulting company that the average life of a customer was about 2 ½ years and the average yearly expenditure was around $10,000. Three Simple Ideas That Increase Profit? FAST! Are you spending more time trying to get new clients than actually working with them?If the answer is yes, then these three simple ideas will help you.First, have you ever asked for something and got something different to what you thought you*d asked for? Or have you ever thought you had asked for something and got a blank expression or worse. Tricks of the Trade: Design your Booth for Maximum Impact The fight for your customer's attention at a tradeshow has never been so intense. Budget cutbacks in the travel sector means that buyers spend less time than ever at shows. Improving Lead Generating and Conversation Rates: Think Like a Farmer John's a freelance photographer in Ohio who called to tell me of his frustration with the advertising and promotional campaigns he has tried in the last couple of years. Each time he does a promotional mailing to his list of 10,000, he is lucky if he gets one or two inquiries. How Gratitude Works Want to know what the highest-impact, lowest-cost tool is in your marketing toolkit? First, here are ten reasons to start using this tool right away:1. It won't get tossed out with the rest of the junk mail. Creating Your Own Lead Capture Pages Having a downline can be golden. A downline is a group of folks who have either signed-up or have already agreed to at least look at what you send them. Motivate Your Market Force IntroWant me to tell you something on how you can motivate your market force in 2005. I will do so today. How to Turn Your Marketing Into a Money-Making Machine - Setting The Stage For Successful Marketing Powerful Marketing has become elusive to many companies seeking strong sales results and overall growth. The sad truth is that Marketing comes across as a rather frustrating process.
|
| home | site map | Advertising Articles |
| © 2006 |
