Archive for Increase sales
Small Business Advertising Strategies Video
Posted by: | CommentsSmall business marketing and advertising should have one goal
and that is to increase sales and profits. Not build a brand or
“get your name 0ut there.” A good ad will get clients and leads
and get the name out there as a side benefit. After all, if you’re spending
money to make money, then make money!
Are you wasting resources building your brand?
Posted by: | CommentsAs a small business marketing strategy consultant, I’m not a big fan of brand-building because it’s a huge waste of scarce resources. On top of that, you can achieve the same goal while making sales at the same time. Why wait for someone to need your product? Give them a reason to contact you now!
Even if you have a product or service that most people don’t immediately need (medical, legal, funeral, etc.), you can begin developing a relationship with them so when the need arises, they contact you because they feel they already know you!
How to Get More Customers
Posted by: | CommentsHow to Get More Customers
This is a must-see video for any business owner who’s asked the question how to get more customers. When you realize the million-dollar question is, “How do I make more money in my business?”
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Small Business Customer Contact Systems
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have customer contact systems in place to ask your clients
to return and do more business or do you spend all of your marketing dollars
on advertising for new clients?
A new client of mine is an auto shop that was spending his marketing
dollars in the local shopping magazines like Reach and Super Shopper.
His ads were pretty similar to all the other auto shop ads in the magazines
and offered discount oil changes and similar services. Most of the ad responses
were from people looking for cheap oil changes for $19.95. Very few became
long-term clients and there were no systems in place to cross-sell, up-sell or
follow-up to promote different services.
I’m in the process of implementing a marketing system that focuses on
existing clients.
It includes
- A client welcome procedure
- A service checklist
- Up-sell and cross-sell training
- Thank you notes
- Referral incentives
- Monthly email and direct mail specials to clients
- And more
We just completed a customer reactivation mailer to past clients
that cost $1,240. At the same time, he was already committed to
two magazine mailers that cost him over $1,400.
The first week results?
The two magazine mailers, each dropped to approximately 30,000
households have brought in two customers for two oil changes.
Total sales: $39.90
The customer reactivation mailer, mailed to 1,500 past clients
has brought in twenty-six customers and over $4,000 in sales.
The deadline on the offer is still two weeks away so we will continue
to get more business from the mailer.
These results are typical and will dramatically improve as we implement
the complete marketing system.
You may have heard the saying the money is in the list – your customer
list. Before you spend a fortune on cold mailers or advertising, be sure
you have a plan to keep in touch with your existing clients.
Small Business Marketing Tips for Local Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsI’m going to guess that you’ve seen the local advertisers like Super Shopper, Reach Magazine and Val Pak. I’ve seen a lot of companies use them to generate a lot of new business.
The general weaknesses I’ve seen have more to to with the ad selection, layout and offer. Most business are unaware that there is a science to advertising. There are formulas to creating headlines, layout, copy and content.If you’ve read books such as Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, How to Write Advertising that Sells by Clyde Bedell or Oglivy on Advertising by David Oglivy, you know what I’m writing about.
Unfortunately, few business owners are aware of this and, from what I’ve seen (at least locally) few of the local ad circular companies know about them either.
Local Advertising shouldn't be a guessing game
Open up a local circular and it can be like looking at a Grateful Dead album cover. They’re very colorful and visually appealing but trying to cut through the crap to see the core selling message can be a major challenge.
The other beef I have with them is that all the ads for similar businesses are virtually identical. Change the logo and address and they are interchangeable. When I ask a business owner why he or she runs the same ad as their competitor, the response is,” That’s what the rep recommended.”
Think about this. Even if your business is similar to others, do you say to clients, Buy from me because I’m identical to the guy or gal down the street?”
Of course not!
If that’s the case, why do people follow the leader like sheep when creating ads? Be different. Be bold! Be unique and stand out from the crowd. When you look at competitive ads, it’s not really that hard to do.
Want to stand out from the crowd and generate more sales from ads you ever thought possible? Then make a decision to put results ahead of creativity and use proven, scientific methods to creating ads. You will be amazed at the dramatic increases in response you can generate with truly good advertising.
Small Business Marketing to Expand your Business
Posted by: | CommentsYour small business marketing needs to focus on expanding your business.
The good news is that you don’t need to dump a lot of scarce resources into
advertising. You need to think “LEVERAGE.” It is the most powerful word in
marketing. In this video, Jay Abraham gives some powerful suggestions
to grow your business.
David Oglivy on Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsDavid Oglivy is an advertising legend. I consider his book “Oglivy on Advertising” to be one of the most important in my library. There are a lot of people in the advertising and marketing business that consider what he says about “Creative Advertising” to be heresy. I happen to agree with him.
Since I serve small businesses, I agree with his philosophy that ads should be direct response and generate a ROI and sales. Look at it this way, if your business was close to failing and you had two months to turn things around, would you try to be creative and build your brand or would you want your ad to generate immediate sales? Why wait for a creative brand-building campaign when you can have a creative brand-building campaign that makes you money today?
Small Business Marketing Tips – Are you contacting your customers?
Posted by: | Comments
As a marketer, one of the things business owners say that continues to astound me is, “My customers don’t want to hear from us.”
I normally like to ask how they know this. Think about it… they never contact their customers but they somehow know the customers don’t want to hear from them. One of my niches is the independent insurance and large numbers of them seem terrified about contacting clients.
As part of my service, I conduct customer surveys for clients. I always ask those I’m surveying if it would be okay to contact them with updates, sales, new products or services they may be interested in. Over 90% of them say, “Sure!”
Why the big disparity? There are a couple of factors at work here. One is “Salesman syndrome,” which is having a negative image of themselves as a salesperson. Another thing is that it’s an excuse to avoid taking the time to do the work. Finally, it’s ignorance about the benefits of keeping in touch with clients.
The Direct Marketing Association did a study about this issue. They showed that for every month that passed without a company contacting a customer, there’s a 10% reduction in loyalty to the company. If you don’t contact your customers for 6 months, 60% of their loyalty is gone. Wait a year and they most likely could care less about your company!
That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? Let me go back to the business owners who tell me their clients don’t want to hear from them, they also tell me they have incredible client loyalty. Let’s add things up – No contact + no follow-up + no thank you notes + no special offers to clients + no email communications + no newsletter + no phone calls = client loyalty.
For some reason, the math doesn’t work for me and it won’t for you.
Small Business Marketing Tips – What does your store look like?
Posted by: | CommentsI frequently walk into stores to introduce myself and my services to the owner. Some people cringe at cold calls but I look at it as a chance to get out into the real world to talk to business owners. You can’t really get the full effect on a phone call.
I’ve got to say I am frequently blown away at the condition of many of the stores. The number that are absolutely filthy, dark, dreary and poorly organized is amazing. I’ve seen these stores in all types of areas so they aren’t limited to certain types of neighborhoods. There is not a single store I’ve entered that’s in this type of condition where the owner says business is doing well.
What got me thinking about this was a local florist I called on that was not only dirty but was actually quite dark and dreary with garbage laying on the floor, display cases with windows so dirty it was hard to see the flowers and a display of candles that were so dusty and dirty that they had zero chance of being picked up, let alone being sold.
I realize that we are all products of our environments and “clean” can be a relative term but when you are running a retail business, the reality is that you will turn away large numbers of potential clients if you don’t take the time to get your store in order. Large retailers spend a fortune on merchandising and store layout and often hire talented designers to lay things out.
Why do so many local companies totally miss the boat? I don’t know if it’s lack of knowledge, a lack of ambition, if they are lazy or just sloppy. Either way, the lesson is that if your store looks like a garbage dump, you will attract shoppers used to shopping at dumps.
Marketing Blog
Posted by: | CommentsA Marketing Mindset
- Marketing pros have marketing mindset. They realize they are in the advertising, marketing, lead
development and prospecting business. They realize they are not in the business that their peers and competitors are in. Their business is the business of marketing their product or services.
- With a marketing mindset, marketing is your top priority. Set aside a certain amount of time every day to attend to marketing. Make it an essential daily task. If you do just one marketing task every day, by the end of the year, that will add up to a couple hundred tasks by the end of the year! Even something as simple as a phone call to a prospect, a fax or a letter to a customer can do wonders for your business.
- Create a marketing system. Focus on the 3 ways to improve sales: Increase the number of first-time customers, increase the dollar value of each purchase transaction and increase the number of times each customer buys from you.
- Increase first-time customers. Focus your efforts on those most likely to buy your product or service. This may seem obvious but many businesses waste vast amounts of money marketing to masses of unqualified prospects. Profile your customer and find others like them using targeted lists or media. Market to those who are ready, willing and able to purchase from you. Build a base of first time customers with outstanding products and service and then focus on marketing to them.
- Focus on ways to increase the value of each transaction. You can add value by bundling products, like the fast food industry does with value meals. Sell the benefits of upgrading a purchase. Focus on benefits such as greater convenience, time or money savings, longer lasting products, or the extra comfort or security that an upgraded package offers. Sell the added value received by purchasing a “deluxe” package. ALWAYS remember to ask for the sales and make recommendations to your customers.
- Market to your existing customers. Once you get a customer, continue to market to them. This is the most under-utilized and one of the most effective marketing tactics. When was the last time a restaurant owner or retailer asked you for your address? How can they get you to return if they don’t know who you are?Send letters, coupons and special offers. Send them thank you notes and birthday cards (you don’t need their birthday, just the birth month). Ask them for referrals and reward them for giving them to you. Start a preferred customer club or hold a special party for your customers.
Be sure to keep your list of customers up-to-date.Use each customer contact as an opportunity to learn more about them, their likes and dislikes. Ask what you can do to improve your products or services. If your customers are businesses, give them leads and referrals and ask that they do the same for you. The bottom line is to build a long-term relationship with your customers and keep them coming back.
- Test and measure the results of your marketing. It’s an investment that, like any other investment, should deliver a positive return. If not, either improve it or do something else. No sense in throwing away your hard-earned profits.
For more exciting ideas on exploding your business, without spending more money on advertising, learn how to get a marketing mindset in your business, contact Paul Flood Marketing for a Marketing Opportunity Analysis to uncover the lost sales and profits hiding in that are hiding in your business.