| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Marketing Plans... A Simple Approach To Get Off The Marketing Roller Coaster
Are You Riding The Marketing Roller Coaster? If you're like many of the small business owners or independent professionals I meet, then running and marketing your business can be like riding on a roller coaster. I'm picturing a roller coaster that mostly goes up and down as opposed to one that flips you upside-down or sends you around backwards. I guess you might call it more of an old-fashion roller coaster. Does this sound like your business at all? When business is good, we really don't have a lot of time for marketing. After all, we have to service the clients we have in hand. If we can just get the ball rolling then things should pick up because our satisfied clients will give us referrals. This might even work for a while. But then when business slows down, what do you do? Well it's time to start marketing. We need to get some more business in the door, so what should we do? Should we send out some direct mail, advertise in the newspaper, get out and network more? Someone once described it to me as more of a 'desperate searching' than 'marketing' when things get like this. And for many, that's so true because the marketing efforts they crank up are totally unplanned and reactive to the current business slow down. The marketing doesn't work very well because you're needy and the harder you try to get, the more you actually push away potential new clients. Then what I hear so often is, "We're not marketing people. We're [fill in the blank]." You see a lot of small business owners have a bit of an aversion to marketing. * They don't like being rejected. I'm sure some of these statements sound familiar to you. Over the years I've come across lots and lots of business owners and independent professionals, and I hear these sentiments again and again. Now some business owners are not this way. They're not afraid to get out there and spread the word on their business and tell others about themselves. Unfortunately, they tend to use more of a scatter gun approach and the results are often the same - up and down. So up and down you go - riding the marketing roller coaster. Never really sure how high the next peak is or how low and wide the next valley is. And you're certainly not prepared for the turns or loop-to-loops along the way. Oh that's right; I said this was an old fashion roller coaster. No loop-to-loops on this ride. Anyway, you get the picture. Are You Ready To Get Off The Marketing Roller Coaster? You can start by creating a marketing plan. I ask small business owners all the time what kinds of things they're doing from a marketing perspective to grow their business. I get some of the answers you might expect such as networking, creating a brochure, sending out a direct mail postcard, etc. But then when I ask those same business owners if they have a marketing plan, they usually fall silent. Let me try to be clear about this... Without some kind of a marketing plan you have very little chance of actually achieving real business growth. A well thought out marketing plan will help you and your business stay on track. You'll know where you're going with your marketing and promotional efforts. Without it, you're simply leaving things up to chance. Lack of adequate planning is a huge factor in why so many small businesses fail. Planning by itself will not guarantee your success. But, not planning has proven again and again that you will almost certainly fail. An effective marketing plan will keep you from riding the marketing roller coaster. It's a dilemma which is so common among small businesses. We "market" when things slow down and we "stop marketing" when things are busy. Create a Plan to Get Off The Marketing Roller Coaster! It should go without saying that marketing plans are crucial to your small business success. Yet everyday people don't take the time to stop and actually think about how much better off they'd be with even a simple plan. Working on a new brochure or a new flyer does not constitute planning. Take a few days to a few weeks to outline your own simple small business marketing plan. Don't get hung up on making this a complex exercise. I break the process down into a simple four-phase, seven-step process that I call ABCD Growth Marketing. A = Analysis and Preparation. 1. Clarify your Purpose for being in business and Focus on your Vision and Goals. If you don't know where you're headed, how can you expect anyone else to know? 2. Position your business for marketing success. The most valuable time you spend working on your business could be the time you spend on key positioning elements such as: * Defining your niche, B = Building Lead Generation. 3. Create better marketing materials that are focused on your clients and prospects and what they'll get from you, not who you are and what you do. 4. Develop a plan for getting known. You can't do business with someone if you don't know about them and they don't know about you. C = Create Sales Conversion And Reselling Processes. 5. Convert leads into paying clients. Being able to consistently generate leads without well thought out processes for converting them into clients will not equate to growth of your small business. 6. Resell to existing clients and leverage relationships to get more new clients. It requires a certain amount of focus to ensure you're providing all the value you have to offer and to begin generating referrals. Many small businesses ignore this completely. D = Deploy And Improve. 7. Deploy your plan and systems and begin continuous improvement activities. If you're not continuously monitoring what's working and what's not, how can you find opportunities to improve the results from your ABCD Growth System? Don't Get Overwhelmed By Planning. Most small business owners seem to get overwhelmed when they start thinking about marketing. But if you just start with a simple outline like this and commit to spending some time filling in the spaces each week, you'll realize it's very possible. If you want to get off the marketing roller coaster, schedule regular time to work on your marketing every week. That's right, grab your calendar and book time each week. With regular and consistent effort, you'll begin to smooth out all the ups and downs in your business. Save the roller coaster rides for the amusement park. For even more detailed reading on the A-B-C-D's, visit the Marketing Plans page on my www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com web site. (c) - Kevin P. Dervin, KPD Marketing About the Author: Kevin Dervin is focused on helping small businesses that are ready to grow, but struggle with how to consistently attract more clients. He has created http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com to be an online resource for small business owners to share what he has learned and continues to learn. Visit his site for more great marketing information you can put to use in growing your business today. You can also find Kevin's Kansas City based KPD Marketing practice at http://www.ABCDgrowth.com and subscribe to his free ezine called ABCD Grow. Everyone who subscribes will get a copy of his free report "Five Fundamentals To Help You Boost Your Service Business And Increase Your Satisfaction!"
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing to a Critical Mass In "Developing a Marketing Plan", we covered the first steps to developing a marketing plan and tracking where your customers are coming from.The thing that I noticed when I did this for my own business was that the majority of new clients could be attributed to more than one source. B2B Marketing - Why it Should be Subtle Subtle adj. Showing or making, or capable of showing or making, fine distinctions of meaning. Its Not All about the Cleavage! Or is It? Times are a changin'! More women today work outside the home, earn (and control) significant amounts of money, and make large, important purchases like houses, automobiles and computers. In the past, advertising portrayed such independence as being primarily characteristic of men. Using Alternative Media to Generate More Customers Last week I received a very nice thank you gift from a friend of mine, Eric Ruth, who is arguably the number one marketing coach to the personal fitness trainer industry.Eric, asked if he could interview me about a specific topic and I agreed. How To Get Your Prospect To Take Action There's really only one thing that separates Image advertising from Direct Response. Image advertising just wants you to think about a product in a certain way. Fax Marketing : Reaching a New Niche of Customers Traditional marketing and advertising assumes that all of your customers are traditional people. Even newer technologies like email assume that the best way to reach people is when they are at their computers. Sales and Marketing: Can One Exist Without the Other? Simply put the marketing people and the sales people depend on each other 100%. One cannot say that a marketing department is any more or less important then the guys who are closing the deals in the sales department. It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances "Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition, with many benefits and cost savings." -Heidi Richards-More and more competition in the marketplace is making it necessary for companies to find creative ways to connect with customers and prospects, to enhance brand identity and attract top-notch employees. Distinguish Your Business From The Competition You followed time-honored online marketing techniques to the letter: you have a great web site, the site has a high search engine rank, and you created a compelling marketing message that showcases your unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, your competitors are reading the same playbook and are implementing the same marketing strategies. 10 Powerful Marketing Tips 1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. The Bare-Bones Basics Of Multi-Level Marketing Multi-level marketing is the biggest growth industry in the 1980's. It is the industry that has made corporate giants of Amway, Shaklee, Mary Kay and Herbalife. Network Marketing Is Definitely A Relationship Business Heavily branded websites like amazon.com are household names and carry an implied trust with visitors. Send Postcards To Save Money and Cut Through E-mail Clutter Use your computer to send personalized color postcards in quantities of 1 to 1,000.Print on demand postcards are here. The Fundraising Letter PS: 25 Powerful Things To Say There (Includes Examples & Samples) Donors read postscripts. This is a sad but important reality in fundraising. Love My Dentist I love my dentist! When is the last time you could say that about yours?True, dentists do tend to get a bad rap (remember Steve Martin's sadistic character in the movie, Little Shop of Horrors?). But even real-life visits to the dentist aren't high on the list of relaxing things to do. Business Promotional Items - How to Stimulate Word of Mouth Advertising If the promotional items you give out end up in the attic or shoved in the back of a desk drawer, they are probably not doing what they are supposed to be doing. However, if items you passed out to clients and customers are being seen again and again, chances are, word-of-mouth advertising is stimulating your business. Has the Internet Killed Off the Direct Mail Baron? Over the past 30 years, direct mail has been responsible for generating vast amounts of money for businesses and individuals alike, but is it still an effective means of marketing?The short answer, in the short term, is yes. But the Internet has without doubt diluted the power of pen on paper and will continue to do so, until only a few die-hard individuals and the glossy brochure brigade, are left to pick the bones of an industry once plump and ripe for plucking and plundering. Get Results: Start with Your Marketing Message and Objective Recently I was talking with a very bright traditional marketer on the value of integrating Internet marketing into an enterprise's marketing mix. Personally, I have witnessed significant and measurable increases in the online results of an enterprise when they include traditional marketing strategies like direct mail, radio, television or publicity with their internet marketing strategies. Effective Use of Promotional Products and Ad Specialties 1. Determine the goals of your promotional products program. 6 MUST Have Strategies To Make Big Bucks with Big Ticket Items Strategy #1: Change Your Mindset That's right, change your mindset! It's probably the number one most important strategy when selling Big Ticket Items. Plenty of people are uncomfortable selling items that are priced above the $500 - $1000 mark.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
