Wedding Favors
|
|
Consistency Counts: How to Get Better Marketing Results in No Time
   
|
Engagement Gift Ideas
Your friends just became engaged. You are happy to see them united and want to get just the right thing to show your happiness. You want to .....
Your friends just became engaged. You are happy to see them united and want to get just the right thing to show your happiness. You want to .....
It's almost a given that when I speak to a new client, she tells
me how much she's always hated marketing herself. "I'm no good
at it" and "No matter what I try, it doesn't work" are common
complaints.
Worse, many small shops hate marketing so much that they
literally avoid it entirely, or do marketing using the "dribs
and drabs" method -- you know, a drib here, a drab there.
In order to gain the trust of your prospects, you have to make
contact with prospects enough (and make contact with enough
prospects) to show them that you're the solution to their
problems.
Getting Ready
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
And when Joseph saw Benjamin with .....
Are you marketing your business enough? It's high time you foundAnd Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
And when Joseph saw Benjamin with .....
out!
1) Outline your current marketing activities. Which techniques
work? Which ones are a waste of time? Measure the quantity of
new business that each method achieves, as well as the quality
of business sent to you by each technique. If something proves
to be a dud, think about either optimizing the process or
dropping it to free up time for other marketing activities.
2) How often do you contact your current clients? Do you stay in
touch with paying customers regularly and reward them for their
continued relationship with your business? If not, why not? Is
there a good reason for people not to return, or are you losing
your most valuable asset -- a bird in the hand, so to speak --
after one-time sales? If your business is a legitimate one-time
deal (such as a wedding vendor), is there a way of getting
current customers to refer others to you?
3) Do you have an ezine or other marketing tool that allows you
to stay in regular contact with your prospects and current
client base? People will tend to forget about you if they're not
reminded of what you have to offer. Once a month is about the
longest amount of time you should wait between contacts, which
makes an ezine one of the best ways to get the word out.
4) Do you regularly seek out new prospects? If not, what could
you do to expand your marketing horizons? Would a quarterly
postcard campaign help? Would participation on online forums
send more customers your way?
5) How many contacts do you ordinarily have to make before you
close a deal? If the odds of finding a new customer are 30 to 1
and you need 6 new clients a month to grow your business at the
rate you desire, are you contacting 180 prospects every month?
If not, it's time to start.
6) Is there something you can implement every month that forces
you to do the marketing work? As I have already mentioned, an
ezine is a good method to ensure that you stay in touch
regularly. When there's no one egging you on to get your
marketing done, it's hard to be disciplined about it. In my
case, my ezine forces me to think about my marketing on a
regular basis.
But an ezine is only one of many, many ways to create a
marketing schedule for yourself. You could also implement
monthly specials, a once-a-month teleseminar series related to
your field or set up a blog. Setting aside time on a regular
basis turns a chore into a habit that will be a major boost to
your business!
7) List the 3 major reasons why you don't take the time to
market as often as you should. What can you change to be able to
accommodate more time for marketing? Is there work that you
could outsource in order to be able to market yourself more
regularly? Anything nonessential that you could outsource would
allow you more time to bring in more business; conversely,
hiring a small business marketing professional can take some of
the burden off of you. Changing just 1 habit will make a big
difference.
8) Assess your marketing results once a month. What works? What
doesn't? What can you do better next time? Learning from your
mistakes is the best addition to your marketing mix of all.
If you make marketing a part of your regular routine, you will
gain confidence in your ability to generate new business -- and
even better, you'll see your business start to grow!
About the author:
Want more marketing tips like these? Published by Jennifer
McCay, the free Avenues to Marketing Success Newsletter helps
small business owners like you find more clients more easily
without selling their souls. Sign up today at
http://AvenueEast.com or read Jennifer's Small Business
Marketing Blog at http://AvenueEast.com/blog/blog.html