Many clients have asked me for input about their marketing, and are wondering what can be done to keep their names out there while spending the least amount of money possible.
As you know, marketing is more than just advertising. It includes looking for opportunities to satisfy unmet needs, creating goods and services that do so, deciding how to position your products within your market and then and pricing, distributing, and promoting those products. Profit is the goal, not just income.
Keeping this in mind, take a good look at your products and make sure that they are in line with the current realities. You may need to do a little adjusting or perhaps a new opportunity can be created where a once-popular product is no longer a profit-maker.
Once you feel comfortable that your products and services
are positioned and priced well you can make an advertising plan that you can live with. Try to keep your advertising budget intact, and I'm not saying this out of self-interest! If you disappear from the scene it's not going to help your bottom line in any way. If you must, scale back or change advertising venues but do not lose your presence altogether.
Then move on to the next most important marketing move for the new year: a reassessment of your in-house operation. By this I mean it's time to pay close attention to your customer service and overhead.
Reducing overhead will open up some breathing room in your budget, and running your business more efficiently can only help your profit margin in the long run. Time spent figuring out your overhead percentage, doing a cost estimation and making projections will be time well spent.
And customer service is going to be key this year to the survival of your business. Analyze every point of contact you have with your customer base and see what can be done in each instance to improve the quality of your delivery and response.
Even the best customer service won't help if you aren't paying attention to the quality of your products. Take care of your customers by giving them the highest quality products and services you possibly can. Extravagance isn't necessary, attention to detail is.
Think about each of your customer groups and look for new ways to connect with them. What are they reading/thinking/doing with their time, and how can your products help them? Let your audience know what you can do for them.
Reward employees, friends and family for bringing you new business. Your network is larger than you may initially think, and the burden of bringing in business doesn't need to rest on your shoulders alone.
Coordinate your signage, website, business card, voice mail message, etc., so that they are working together for you. Check to see if your key concepts are being communicated clearly and are in conformity at all points of contact. Branding is about consistency, and your audience will have more trust in your business overall if they see that you have your act together message-wise.
Get in touch with your client base. Past and present customers have already had a need or desire for your products, and may be interested in doing business with you again. If you haven't already done so, assemble a customer database and use it to communicate about your products and services in a targeted manner. Many of your customers are not aware of all that you offer, and can be a great source of additional business. Also, use this opportunity to thank them for doing business with you. Courtesy is appreciated and remembered.
Lastly, do what you can to help your fellow business person. If we promote each other, and network for each other, it will only help our local economies. To quote TV character Red Green, "I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together!"
