How To Use Marketing To Get More Customers

As a small business, you must understand that one of the most important hats you wear is the “marketer” of your business.  Marketing is anything that you do in your business in order to make sales.  So getting more customers is your goal.  How do you accomplish this? 

Build Relationships

You need to learn how to build strong relationships, based on trust with your customers and potential customers. Once these people trust you, they will be more willing to part with their cash in order to take advantage of your products and services. Building relationships on a MASS scale is what marketing is all about.

Market Systematically and Track Results

Because marketing is done on a MASS scale, this means you’ll be dealing with many people at a time. This means that you will need to keep track of what's going on in order to market effectively.

If you want to get more customers, you need to understand marketing, and use it properly to build a truly successful business.  If you don’t want to spend the time doing the marketing, it makes sense to hire a marketing consulting firm like Blue Dog Marketing to help you.  Marketing consulting firms are in existence to create and implement your marketing plan, so you can concentrate on your business.

 

Use Marketing to Grow Your Business

Many small businesses are so busy doing business; they rarely have time to do the marketing.  How do you use marketing to grow a business? Let's look at some things a small business can do:

First, understand your current customers very well. Who are your customers and what do they like about your product or service?  Why do they choose your particular product or service over another? Is there something unique about what you do or what you offer that keeps them coming back? In reality, your customers have a need that you are meeting. Understand what that is and you will be able to find other people with the same need.

Next, you need to identify your target market segments. Based on who is already doing business with you, you can target specific markets that would be good candidates.  You must have a detailed picture of your target audience in order to create optimal content for them.  The best way to understand your audience is to build buyer personas.  Personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on real data about customer demographics and online behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.  Keep in mind that you should come up with multiple segments that could be possibilities.

Third, prioritize your target market segments according to the easiest ones to reach. They may not be the largest segment, but if it's easy and inexpensive to build awareness with them, you will have a higher return on your investment. Then you can move on to the next one. It may be that you can reach them directly, which is even better. Whenever you have the opportunity for direct contact with potential customers, you can design more effective marketing to talk directly with them.

Fourth, create a strategy for reaching the identified target segments. If there is not the opportunity to contact the segment directly, you will need to review ways the targets in the segment take in information. You want to again find the least expensive ways to get your company's products and services recognized by the market segment. This could include traditional media, social media, electronic media, publicity or others. It could even include partnerships with other companies that have direct access to the market segments you are trying to reach. Then take that information and create a strategy that can be executed over a defined period of time. This would include the creative and messaging as part of the strategy that will resonate with the intended audience.

Lastly, execute your strategy effectively. Once you have a strategy in place, it's important to execute over a defined period of time. Remember that marketing takes time to be effective and allow expectations to match. Otherwise, you may be disappointed.

Effective marketing is an ongoing effort. It's an investment and it will take time to see a return on the investment. You may need to pivot your efforts as you see the results of the different segments you are targeting. But, if you continue to work through these steps, you will be successful at marketing and successful in business.  Remember, if you’re too busy to create and execute this marketing strategy, Blue Dog Marketing is here to help you. 

 

Promote Your Business to Local Media

Getting the word out about your small business is important to increase awareness about your business and attract new customers.  And it doesn’t have to be expensive.  When you have new or announcements, write up press releases and submit them to your local TV stations, radio stations and newspapers.  These channels can be the absolute best promotion you can get. And the fact it's free makes it even better.

In the Rochester, NY area, we have a quite a few radio and TV stations, a daily newspaper, and several smaller papers and magazines.  All these media outlets are looking for content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year   and they’re interested in your news because you’re local.

People read the morning paper and talk about it to others throughout their day.  Radio stations have thousands of listeners.  And both TV and radio stations have web sites that increases the visibility your stories.

Make your press release interesting.  Put the most important information first so it captures the editors attention.  Be sure to include your contact information so reporters can reach you if they have any questions.  Include your website, your email address and phone number. 

Once you have a story covered by a local media outlet, plan to submit a new story in one year. Editors will be happy to hear from you in one year because enough time has passed so they can do another story on your business.

Local PR is your easiest and most powerful source of free promotion. Keep your eyes open for anything happening with your business that might be of interest to your local media.

How to Put Your Tactical Marketing Plan in Place

All successful marketing campaigns have one thing in common: they start with a plan.  The best marketing plans are ones that are tactical and consist of a series of actions aimed at growing sales in an organized and well thought out manner. 

Here are tips on how to put your tactical marketing plan in place.

·         Determine Your Marketing Objectives

Depending on the type and size of your business your marketing goals will want to be traced back to sales or more customers. Increasing the value of sales per customer can be an alternative way to focus on increasing sales and, often times, is more effective.

·         Define Your Target Market

 

    Segment your target market based on customer demographics by creating a target persona.   The best way to understand your audience is to build buyer personas.  Personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on real data about customer demographics and online behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.

      You can develop personas following these 3 steps:

     -         Segment by demographics

     -         Identify their needs

     -         Develop behavior-based profiles

·         What Is Your Current Market Position?

    

     Before you decide where you are going, look at where you've been. Consider why and how your customers do business with you. Look at how you are perceived in the marketplace.

·         Which Marketing Strategies to Use?

     

    There are many marketing tactics available, and successful, for small businesses to use.  Here are some to consider including in your marketing plan:

o Advertising – television ads and print ads in local and industry       publications

o Direct marketing – email or traditional mailings to a customer/potential customer list

o Sales promotion – will you discount any of your products during the year?  Decide which product(s), when and how much the discount will be.

o Appearance of your staff – get your brand out by having your staff wear shirts with your logo and website on them

o Sales literature – what literature do you need to promote your products or services?  Think about where you would use this printed material – tradeshows, mailings, or even sitting by your cash register.

o Sponsorship – sponsors local events, such as Chamber of Commerce events and charity events in your area

o Communication methods – determine how you will communicate with your customers and potential customers.  Will you email them?  Post stories/information on your Facebook business page or your blog?

·        Develop and Monitor Your Action Plan

     Include a timeline of when things each marketing action should be started     and concluded.  A great marketing plan isn’t useful if you don’t track and evaluate your marketing strategies.  A tactical marketing plan is a living document that will change and grow with your business.

How to Market a Small Business?

 

Small businesses differ from multinational corporations in many ways but most differently in terms of finances. Marketing strategies for a small business vary too.  Small businesses work on a stringent budget and their marketing strategy therefore must not absorb too many finances.  So, how do you market a small business?

Today’s technology has allowed small businesses to gain visibility and accessibility without too much of a financial cost. The Internet is the most economical and effective means of reaching prospects and advertising your business. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, help create awareness and bring leads to a small business.  These sites only require time and effort to be successful.

Every small business should have a dedicated website.  A website is a place to drive your leads from social media sites and to give detailed information about your products or services.  Having the right strategy for search engine optimization, combined with a well-designed site can increase your business.

Small businesses can either struggle to create and implement a marketing plan or they can hire experts who have the “know-how” to apply technology with time-tested marketing strategies to help them. 

If you’re a small business, don’t struggle with your marketing.  Reach out to experts.  We take pride in making you successful!

Are You Using Social Media for Your Marketing Yet?

Most businesses use marketing to promote their products or services. If you want to reach more potential customers than ever before, consider including social media as part of your marketing plan. The low cost of participation and the huge number of potential customers available should make getting in to social media a priority for every business owner.

If you want to know why social media marketing is important, you just need to look at the numbers. Facebook currently boasts over eight hundred thousand users, while Twitter has about three hundred and fifty thousand users. While not every one of these users will be in the market for your product, it does give you an easy way to get in contact with more people than would otherwise be possible. The other number that is important is the number zero - that is, the cost for joining one of these networks. While there are always costs associated with social marketing, the low initial buy-in makes it easier than ever for a small business to use the services for marketing purposes.

If you want to take advantage of social media marketing, you have to go in with a plan. While any business can set up a profile page, it takes a seasoned professional to really take advantage of what most platforms have to offer. If you want to do this, the best way to move forward is to hire a marketing firm to help you.

If you want to make sure that your business stays competitive, you have to get on the social media bandwagon. It will take time and effort to fully exploit, but doing so may drive more traffic to your business than ever before. There is no perfect way to market and no sure-fire way to gain customers, but making use of social media is a great way to minimize your marketing costs while still allowing you to focus on the important aspects of your business.

 

How to Keep Your Marketing Plan Current

Having a complete and current marketing plan in place is essential for a small business to become successful.  When it comes to staying ahead of the competition, small business owners should always review and bring improvements to their marketing plan on a yearly basis.  The lack of a plan can lead a business to a disastrous failure in three to five years.

Here are some steps to help you update your current marketing plan or to create a marketing plan, if you don’t have one.

Step 1: Understand Your Market and Your Competition

The first step is to understand your competition and market. Many small businesses launch a business based on what they think is a great product without understanding what the market wants. Avoid making the mistake of failing to study the market and the competition.

Some factors to consider when you are looking at what your target market wants:

·         The size of the market segment

·         Market share required to break even

·         Who is your competition?  Yes, it’s OK to check out your competition!

·         Consider the demand

 

Step 2: Understand Your Customer

You need to figure out who your target customer is.  Some questions to ask yourself are: Who are your customers? What do they want? What motivates them to buy?  The best way to understand your target customer is to build buyer personas.  Personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on real data about customer demographics and online behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.

Step 3: Develop a Strong Marketing Message

When developing your marketing message, you need to make sure you tell your prospects not only what you do, but you also need to persuade them to buy. You should have two types of marketing messages; the first message should be short and to the point. This is your “elevator speech”, a short 60 second response when asked you what you do.

The second message can and should be more elaborate and detailed.  It will give your prospects all that they need to know about the features and the benefits of your product.

Step 4: Determine Your Marketing Mediums

When determining your target customers, you must also look to see where they are.  Are they on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube or other social media sites?  If your customers are there, then you need to be there too.

Besides social media, small businesses should also plan their marketing/sales campaigns for an entire year.  These can involve email campaigns, direct mail campaigns, and hosting events or sales.

Step 5: Set Your Marketing Goals

It is critical that you set goals for your marketing. Your goals should be measurable, realistic, and achievable.

Step 6: Develop a Marketing Budget

Many of your marketing plans can be free (just your time spent) when looking at using social media.  Other marketing costs that you should budget for are your website (consider updating costs too), any ads in publications, product brochures or pamphlets and tradeshows/events.

Conclusion

Your marketing plan should be a living document.  Review it yearly and keep it current so your business will be successful.