Business
Talk Column
First
of an Eyes-Only Series
[The
Quad State Business Journal in cooperation with several regional
marketing pros, is putting a series of tested and proven strategies
in which small businesses—of many stripes—are acquiring customers
in 2014. If you have a story to tell, favorite person you are working
with, or a marketing problem we could put before our panel of
experts, please send it in! Send it to the author of the article or
QSBJ's publisher, Steve Lanning at Steve@QSBJ.org.
We will get your question answered.]
By
Jill Sommers
It
never fails. Some marketing consultant puts a bug in your ear about
using this or that strategy to build your specific business's
customer acquisition (CA) pipeline and it all sounds so good.
If
they are a marketing consultant with an Internet marketing flare,
they will recommend all sorts of great SEO and keyword strategies,
maybe an adwords campaign, re-targeting campaign and more. It sounds,
in fact, very logical. You've got to build your customer list.
Then
you are attending an industry conference. In the marketing breakout
session you hear how the 'only' way you can truly build your list is
via Facebook Fan Pages. It all sounds very logical. After all, isn't
Facebook 'the' big 800-pound gorilla in the marketing room?
Then
one day at lunch with a few of your business owner peers, one of them
tells you of the 'fantastic' way they are building their business via
telephone marketing. You are told that SEO and Facebook, while indeed
good, are passe' in this new 2014 world of marketing and we need to
get back to old school marketing ways.
An
other owner disagrees. She has tried telemarketing—in fact several
times—in her business and it never worked that well at all. What
she has found in her business is that postcard direct mail is helping
her close more business than she knows what to do with. More
specifically, she tells about the terrific EDDM (Every Door Direct
Marketing) program that the post office has and it has been extremely
successful—beyond all her expectations. It all sounds so logical.
She urges you to 'give EDDM a try' in your business.
Still
an other owner at the table disagrees with the 'kind' of direct
marketing approach—he says he tried EDDM and postcard marketing and
it was a miserable failure. What he tried and won with was 'true'
direct marketing—where he had a personal letter, an offer and a
reply envelop or card or number to call. He said that 'true' direct
marketing—with a direct mail sales letter to the prospect—while
more expensive, creates the kind of ROI that you need in your
business. It does seem so logical.
Yet
still another owner at your lunch table comes up with the fact that
he uses a couple of the methods—but only to garner leads—people
raising their hands. The real breakthrough for him was when he hired
a sales pro who taught his reps to close business inside people's
homes. No other way works, he said. He doesn't know how to build his
customer base without being able to go directly into people's home to
close the business. He does make good points...yes, it does sound
logical.
What
Kind of Marketing Would Work Best for Your Business?
After
lunch you head back to your computer...your head is spinning. Indeed
what 'kind' of marketing would work best with your product and
service offerings? These people you know personally, have their own
businesses and have each met with success with different forms of
marketing.
What's
the first step in making the best decision? You cannot take chances
with your bank account. And you are not going to.
Start
with your customers. If you are just starting out, check with your
potential customers.
A
few phone calls could do you wonders. Or personal visits...gasp! Yep,
good old intelligence gathering the old-fashioned way still works
like a charm.
What
and how are they currently buying from your competitors? If you can
add the answer as to 'why' they buy, give yourself a huge bonus.
If
you feel like, for the sake of your time, you want to hire a
consultant to do competitor research, don't give the assignment form
them to do competitor intelligence. Do product intelligence instead.
At
this point you are not concerned with competitors—for the most
part. You just want to get your products, goods and services out the
door—and keep them sold.
Quick
Note About The Coming 'What's Working Now' Series
We
are going to be going over Quad State markets for Quad State
businesses in this series. Granted, it may work for businesses in
other parts of America, but our Quad State Area is who we are going
to serve.
The
thing about marketing consultants...and heaven knows I am one...is
that we all tend to dance with the type of technology and skill sets
that brought our client's success. Therefore we disagree.
If
a marketing pro is an expert at direct marketing, they are going to
focus on getting your goods and services sold via direct marketing.
If they are webmasters or Internet Marketing pros, they will steer
you towards SEO and keywords.
The
exercise above—whether you do it yourself or you hire it done—if
done correctly, will tell you HOW your SPECIFIC product is being
sold—now.
Marketing
should be a multifaceted part of your business. The 'ideal' customer
that may not respond to direct mail, to SEO and Internet marketing or
Facebook marketing, may respond to press releases. The kind that will
not respond to press releases, may indeed be the best customer for
postcard marketing.
What
we want to focus on is what works for you...period...as a Quad State
marketer. I would love to get your feedback.
###
First Published: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com
Article
taken from Independent sources at www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com
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