Archive for Paul Flood Marketing
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!
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.
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.