Marketing Clarity
Attracting More Customers
This article will be of interest to you if you want to strengthen your marketing presence, increase awareness of your products and service, make them more accessible, and increase your revenues and profits.
Phil’s Profit Points™ in Brief:
Marketing isn’t just about advertising.
Marketing has a much broader definition and includes the product’s unique characteristics, value to your customer (this can vary for each customer), pricing (when combined with unbundling, this is the fastest way to increase your profits), promotion (includes advertising and many other things), distribution (how do they buy, how do you deliver), online presence and branding.
Attracting More Customers
Characteristics – what does your product look like or feel like. What does it do? For service companies, it’s very important to make the intangible parts more tangible. Does your customer need responsiveness, quality or low price? They can’t have all three. Which characteristics are most important to your customer?
Value to your customer – your customer makes an intentional decision to acquire your products and services. Do you know why? Why do they purchase yours instead of someone else’s? The best way to answer these questions is to ask your customer. What are the logical and emotional needs and wants that you meet?
Pricing – the best pricing strategy is to have multiple price points reflecting different levels of value. Give your customer choices. Too often, entrepreneurs include everything they can think of to make the sale. Unbundle and price separately; just like manufacturers who sell warranties or service firms who sell responsiveness options.
Promotion – advertising is the most expensive form of promotion. Giving away some of your knowledge and expertise for free can be a more cost-effective way to attract and retain customers than advertising. Your best promoters are your happy customers. Do you have a formal referral system? The yellow pages are dead: “Long live the yellow pages.”
Distribution – where, when and how do you deliver your products and services? Technology is making it easier, faster and cheaper to provide services across borders and around the world. Amazon ships globally. I provide mentoring services to clients in Canada, the United States and Australia; all with the free Skype service.
Online Presence – your website and blog are critical pieces of your marketing strategy. They enable you to demonstrate your expertise and differentiate yourself from your competitors. How often do you update your website and blog? Are you talking about yourself or providing value that is building your credibility?
Customer Experience – how does your customer feel when they deal with you? Even in industrial or construction environments, emotion plays a part in decision-making. A contractor wants to feel confident that their materials will arrive on time, as ordered, and in great condition. How do you reduce your customer’s stress?
Branding – what is your brand? Branding can be defined as your customer’s perception of your business. How do your customers and prospects perceive your business?
Tough Question
How much time do you spend on improving your marketing compared to running the day-to-day operations?
From the Piggy Bank
Most companies under-invest in marketing and over-invest in production – but nobody knows they have a better widget.
Have a profitable week!
