The greatest tool you have for success, financial freedom and all the benefits this can bring to you and your business is to be an outstanding marketer.
When we start our businesses, most of us are understandably focused on our products and services.
Even with wonderful products and services, success depends totally on your ability to communicate with potential customers, convert their interest into a sale and build a long-term relationship with that customer.
It is your ability to market yourself successfully that will determine the level of success you experience.
All highly successful businesses have a driving force that propels their success. At first it seems intangible. It certainly doesn't appear in the annual accounts. But it's there, in every single stunningly successful business in the world.
These businesses are driven by a purpose that goes beyond just making money. Put simply, businesses whose highest purpose is to impact the lives of others are the businesses that excel.
But why? Because these businesses look at marketing and sales in a totally different way. They are driven not just by a (totally acceptable) desire for money and profits, but also by a compelling desire to positively influence.
They understand fully the benefits that their products and services offer to their customers. And so they focus on communicating for the benefit of their customers, rather than focusing on the money it will bring.
And this focus makes them tremendously successful. Yet, like all other business strategies, it can be learnt and replicated.
So Tangerine Trees presents "21 Marketing Tactics You Can Introduce Today And Start Benefiting From Tomorrow".
Let's get started with your first five tactics:
Tactic 1: Establish Your Customers' Needs
What needs do you fill? It might not be what you think. Have you asked your customers why they buy from you?
What are the benefits of the product or service you offer? Where do they see value in your offer? Is it convenience? Or quality, stock range, ambience, friendliness, technology, speed of delivery? Or none of these?
You can't hope to meet the needs of your customers unless you know what they are.
You can gather this information by asking them - by phone, by email, face-to-face, or by post. Make sure that you ask customers and prospects to rate the importance of the each feature as well as your score - if they consider you very technologically-advanced, but it doesn't matter much to them, it's nothing to invest much time or effort in.
Once you've identified and satisfied your customers' needs, tell everyone! Through your PR, your adverts, your letters and mailshots, and your website. Tell new customers, existing customers, lapsed customers, prospects and staff. Then you'll always know exactly why you're in business.
So today's tactic to introduce is - survey a sample of customers, by phone, email or face-to-face.
Tactic 2: Lengthen Your Sales Process
Did you know that 92% of businesses give up after the fourth push-back from a prospect? And did you know that at least 60% of people will say no five or more times when faced with buying something that is new to them? That means 8% of businesses are getting 60% of sales! Are you one of them?
Constantly chasing prospects after they've shown an interest can be soul-destroying and border on pushy salesmanship. But by having a longer sales process, the initial conversation, enquiry or request becomes the start of the relationship. And prospects are constantly informed and educated by your communications, their questions are answered, and they begin to trust you.
This rapport and relationship should develop over at least seven stages in your sales process. This could include emails, mailshots, brochures, quotes, phone calls, PR, web downloads, adverts, demonstrations and anything else that's relevant to your business.
Just because someone doesn't buy from you after an initial enquiry, it doesn't mean they're not interested in what you sell. They may be confused, or have unanswered questions. Or fear the risk of buying.
Today's tactic to introduce is - count the stages in your current sales process, and introduce two new stages for a test period.
Tactic 3: Reactivate Past Leads
Following on from Tactic 2, do you have a drawer, a file, or a section of a database with dormant leads in it? Or a list of lapsed customers who used to buy from you, but no longer do?
Depending on the line of business you're in, leads or lapsed customers between 4 and 18 months old could potentially be a goldmine of untapped opportunity for your business. As with all marketing, it is vital to test and measure all your activity so that you don't waste money, so today's tactic to introduce is to choose a sample (maybe 10%) and contact them.
Remember that doubling sales to your existing customer base is the equivalent of doubling your entire customer base, without the massive expense.
Think through a compelling offer to entice them back, keeping in mind their value to you as lifetime customers and the cost of acquiring new customers. And, if they give you reasons for staying away or not doing business with you initially, listen carefully. Most customers won't say anything when they're unhappy. In fact they may actually say "Fine" if questioned. So adore the customer who speaks up. They might be speaking for half a dozen who won't say anything, they'll just leave without a single complaint.
Tactic 4: Follow Up With A Phone Call
Believe it or not, this one simple action could increase your sales by as much as 1000%.
By building the relationship with customers and prospects over the phone, you can start to develop rapport and overcome any obstacles to the sale. You can also advise customers about related products or services that might be beneficial.
Customers often don't know the right questions to ask, so a follow-up phone call is an ideal opportunity to answer questions, clear confusion and position yourself as a trustworthy expert in your customer's mind.
Not sure it will work for you? Today's tactic to introduce is a week-long trial with all your frontline employees.
Tactic 5: Test All Your Marketing
The marketing activities you run have a fixed cost, whether they generate ten leads or 10,000. Analysing, measuring, identifying and replacing underperforming any elements with alternatives that perform better is the key to ensuring that your marketing spend is working harder for you.
Elements to test could include your choice of media - do all your competitors take Yellow Pages adverts as well?; are you just engaging in the same cold calling as all the other businesses in your sector? Trying something different could be the key to reaching hundreds of new customers and increasing your profits significantly.
You should also look at the elements within your writing including - the headline; the price; the call to action; the guarantee; the timing and the bonus offers. By changing one element at a time, and measuring the response, you can creating marketing that sparkles!
Once you think you've reached the perfect combination of elements with the best possible response rate, test how high is high. Strive for the best in your marketing, it's the only way to really ensure return on your investment.
So you won't be surprised to find out that today's tactic to introduce is - a system for tracking and measuring the changes, the response rates, the conversions, and the costs.
To get the rest of the "21 Marketing Tactics That You Can Introduce Today And Start Benefiting From Tomorrow", simply add you name and email here, and they will be delivered directly to your Inbox.
We hate spam. And we know you do too. We hope that the information in our reports and newsletters will be really useful to you, but you can unsubscribe any time you like. And we'll never ever sell your details on.
