Do You Find Marketing Scary?

Sometimes marketing can seem to be a daunting task. The important thing to remember it is a necessity in today's economic times. Marketing goes well beyond the simplistic supply and demand models of yester years. A business owner must provide a service or product that a customer wants when they want it. Most business owners make the mistake of thinking that they know what their customer's wants and demands are; but when further analyzed they are way off base. So first it is pertinent to understand who your ideal customer is. Look at previous year's sales and see the demographics (i.e. age, sex, zip code, service / product bought) This will give you indicators on where you should spend your marketing dollars. For example, if you have a low volume of sales in a particular zip code. We recommend getting in your car and driving that particular zip code. More times than not you will discover that the particular individuals that reside in that zip code will not be your target audience.

Another interesting factor to look at is how often did you market to your particular clients. It is a well known fact in marketing that you must touch a customer at least 7 times in order to consummate a sale. So did you send just one marketing piece to your potential customer? Did you follow up with them continually? How did you follow up via mail or by phone? It is important at year's end to dissect your results and see what was successful and what was not.

A perpetual sales funnel is something that most business owners feel the least comfortable with. You should not just settle on being thankful for having a sale. It is great to have customers but are you taking full advantage of these customers? You have worked so hard and paid so much to retain them as a customer. Did you attempt to upsell them on upgrades or more expensive services? For example, we previously owned a brick and mortar painting franchise for 4 years. We learned that some customers expected to be upsold for more expensive paint products and did not mind paying a premium for the upsell. So some clients will demand a higher level of service and products and are willing to pay handsomely for it. So the old adage applies, "you never know unless you ask". Be assumptive in your sales presentation. And more importantly sell yourself. People like buying from people they like. So you want to personalize yourself and your sales presentation.

And the most simplistic marketing tactic is simply do your best and put your customer needs and wants first. Remember that your customers will tell other friends, co-workers, family about their experiences with you and your company. So you want the comments to be positive, right? So remember word of mouth referrals are priceless and cost nothing other than a job well done. So incorporate good quality expectations and standards and this will build over time at no added expense to your bottom line.