Category Archives: Marketing

THE MOST EFFECTIVE REFERRAL STRATEGY EVER

Posted on July 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Using effective referral strategies is absolutely key to business success yet the great majority of business owners don’t use any.

The most effective referral strategy ever is very simple yet costs very little. This is how it works:

  1. Get out there and meet people
  2. Find out what they do and then what problems they have and what challenges they face
  3. Work out how you can help them and what you can do for them, NOT focus on what they can do for you. DON’T charge them for your help.
  4. Prove your credibility by putting into practice what you said you were going to do and showing them how good you are at what you do
  5. Introduce them to others that can help them too but only those who share the same values as you and are really good at what they do.

What you’re doing in a nutshell is creating your reputation as someone who cares and who wants to help people, not someone who wants to take it all and give nothing in return. We all know people like this who are always looking for work – I can think of a few right now! Ever wondered why they’re in this position?

When you’ve done all that, sit back and wait for the referrals to roll in. Now remember, it work won’t work for everyone, it never does, but that doesn’t matter as that’s just life. What are you waiting for, get started?

If you need more business and help with your referral strategies contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz

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GROWING YOUR BUSINESS – MARKETING

Posted on May 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

To get your business from where it is now to where you want it, you need to bridge the gap by planning in four key areas – marketing, operations (or your day-to-day business activities), human resources, and management control.
Your marketing plan should cover five key areas:

  1. Your marketing objectives. It’s necessary to set very clear and measurable goals when drafting your marketing plan which dovetail into your overall business plan and ensure you get to where you want to be. For example, your marketing goals might be to double your turnover, increase the number of customers by 25% or to increase your average $ sale by 50% to maximise the spend by each of your customers.
  2. Your background marketing material. It’s a good idea to write down exactly what background marketing material you’re going to maintain so you can build this into your plan. By background, I mean things like your web-site, your brochure, your testimonials, case studies and success stories, your presentation folder, your presentation script, handouts and FAQ’s about your business.
  3. Your marketing strategies. These arethe actual marketing campaigns you undertake to reach your marketing objectives. They may include things like networking, your newsletter, direct mail, piggy-backing on other businesses in related fields with the similar customer bases to tap into their customer base, and referral strategies (a must). Each strategy should be “costed” and planned to a strict timetable so that it fits into your overall marketing budget and you know exactly what you’re doing and when, leaving nothing to chance. After you’ve tested each strategy (and tweaked these a bit if required) you’ll know the level of activity required e.g. if you find your prospect conversion rate is 33% you’ll need to get in front of three times as many customers.
  4. The way you will monitor your marketing performance. How will you know whether your marketing is working? You need to build-in some simple reporting systems to ensure your marketing is on track and you’re not falling behind in meeting your objectives.
  5. Who will co-ordinate the plan. One person should take overall responsibility for the marketing plan. Given the importance of marketing, you as business owner should fulfill this role.

If you need help to draft an effective marketing plan contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email nick@abac.co.nz

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12 EFFECTIVE WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS FOR FREE

Posted on May 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

Being able to market your business is probably the most important business skill to master, yet a lot of small business owners carry out no marketing whatsoever. Are they  just expecting customers, clients or patients to beat their door down? The funny thing is, the majority of the most effective marketing strategies are absolutely free!

Here are a round dozen of my favourite free and effective marketing strategies:

  1. Referral Strategies. The single most effective marketing strategy of all time, whatever your line of business, you should be getting the bulk of your new business from referrals. The trick here is the EAR formula. Earn first by showing how good you are, then ask (this is not pushy if you do it right!) and then recognition. I have 93, yes 93, referral strategies I can share with you!
  2. Google Places. Not only can set-up a free mini-website with photos, information on your business and even a video but in addition, being on Google Places sends your own website soaring up the search rankings on Google without paying for Google Adwords or spending hour after hour typing in the optimum search words on each of your web pages.
  3. Word of Mouth. Use an easy non-threatening opening line which is an open question e.g. I use “do you have a good accountant?” Be passionate and enthusiastic, and just ask everyone you meet wherever you go. If they’re not interested what have you got to lose, just change the subject and move on.
  4. Blogging. Quick to do and a great way of getting case studies & success stories out there as well as tips and useful information. It’s far easier to get your message over by providing practical examples of how you’ve gone beyond the norm to help your customers get out of sticky situations and demonstrate how your expertise has made a difference to your customer’s lives. They do not have to be long, just keep them short and succinct – what did Mark Twain say – “if I had more time I’d write less”.
  5. Networking. Business owners often say it doesn’t work but it will if you go about it the right way. The best events to attend are those which are not supposed to be networking events e.g. free business training seminars. Coffee meetings are very effective too – quick & cheap and a great way of getting to know people – I’ve probably met over 250 people for coffee now in three years. But be ready to give your time and enthusiasm first for free and demonstrate your expertise before expecting it to work – only then will you build trust and position yourself as helpful, friendly and an expert in your field.
  6. Free Stuff. Give away your time or items of low cost to you but of high perceived value to customers. A great opportunity to get your foot in the door so you can tap into the lifetime value of a customer! If you sell products give valuable information or tips instead. There will be times it will disappoint but overall, this is very successful. Link your free offer to a service or product which you charge for or where it will become recurring revenue.
  7. Free website publicity. Your local Chamber of Commerce (Hawkes Bay does) probably reserves a page on their web-site for members to publicise special offers for fellow Chamber members who can be a useful source of new prospects. In addition, some local councils offer a free business directory, many of the commercial business directories are free, and you can always set-up deals with other businesses to put links on each other’s websites. I guarantee you will get at least 10 listings for free!
  8. Baker’s Dozen. Always give more than people expect and do it cheerfully! This concept exists all over the world, from the 13th Century Baker’s Dozen to the Louisiana concept of “lagniappe”, where the customer gets a little gift with their purchase. If doesn’t have to be a gift, it could be reducing the price from the original quote or delivering Wednesday when you promised Friday.
  9. Newsletters. If you use Business Contact Manager on Outlook or Mail Chimp these are free to send out and are a great way of keeping in contact with your customers and prospects. Few businesses are so downright boring that even an occasional newsletter can’t be made interesting and give tips and useful information. Avoid adverts and talking too much about you or your staff – no one really cares about Deidre’s OE or your new reception desk! I’ve heard every excuse under the sun over the years why they can’t be done but they’re all pathetic!
  10. Case Studies/Success Stories are a very effective way of demonstrating your skills & positioning you as an expert in your field. They’re easy to write too – just think about situations where you’ve gone beyond the norm to help your customers or where your competition has messed up and you’ve saved the day! Keep these updated and topical.
  11. Your Website. Is not being able to afford a website your excuse? No longer – you can now host them & set them up completely for free! One US provider now lets you set up 50, yes 50 sites for free and charges you nothing for hosting. It doesn’t have to be flash, just a basic one will do, but one thing’s for sure, over the next 10 years you’ll be history without a web-site!
  12. Facebook. Love it or hate it, a non-business Facebook page can be used as a great tool to publicise your business. If you post interesting snippets or comments or a link to elsewhere, get your Facebook friends to click on the Like button which means your comments etc will appear on all their friends’ Facebook pages too – how good is that?

If you need help to market your business for free contact Nick on 0800 ASK NICK or email.

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WHAT IS GOOD MARKETING?

Posted on November 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

In my last two posts I mentioned that if you want to be successful in your business, it’s not enough just being good at your core trade or profession: it is vital to have a good understanding of marketing, know how to deal with employees and have a grasp of the financial aspects of your business.

On the marketing front, most new business owners (and even many long established ones) find it very difficult to understand the true nature of marketing. They get their business cards and leaflet done, put an entry in Yellow Pages and then start advertising in the local press. After a while, they start complaining that the adverts aren’t working but continue with them because the advertisers and friends tell them they’re getting their names around and building their brands and eventually it will pay off. Meanwhile, their bills keep coming in and their losses keep mounting to the point where eventually their cash reserves have dwindled away to nothing.

So what should you do before setting up in business? For one, do loads of research, gain experience working for others in the same line of business and most of all learn about marketing. There are loads of good books, CD’s or DVD’s on marketing as well as websites, courses, and newsletters all brimming with good ideas which are not expensive. Read up on what made successful businesses. Was it their quality hamburgers or the way they sold it?

Number two, build your whole business ethos, and maybe even your business name, around your point of difference. The latter, if it’s what customers want and is powerful enough, will propel you to marketing success. Alternatively, you might choose a business name that’s going to get you to the top of the Google search rankings e.g. Plumbers Hawkes Bay.

Then, and only then, work on your marketing material and make sure they all reflect your point of difference as well as containing a powerful, meaningful guarantee, case studies, success stories, story-style testimonials and are packed with the benefits of using you, not just features e.g. listing out your service lines.

In addition, the most important section of your business plan is that on marketing. I always recommend a particular format, starting off with your marketing objectives, then setting out your strategies, and critically and nearly always overlooked, think about the things you must get right to accomplish your plan (these are called your Critical Success Factors) and how you are going to monitor your performance. It’s essential to measure which strategies are working and those which are not, as well as knowing whether you’re going to reach your objectives within the allocated period of time.

Going back to your actual marketing strategies, the key to success here is to understand that there is rarely just one marketing strategy which will provide you with the answer. In practice, you will have to try a large variety of techniques and ideas and see which work, which need tweaking to work better, and which flopped. If you approach these with enthusiasm and energy, you will then get a client or customer here, two from there and one from somewhere else.

Also critical is testing and measuring. There’s no point in spending time and good money on marketing which is not working. Test everything on a small scale before launching your full strategy and then measure the strategies to see which work best. Where are your leads coming from? What is your prospect conversion rate? What is the cost of lead per marketing strategy?

There’s much more to say on the subject, so if you need help with your marketing call our free no-obligations and no-questions-asked Business Advice Line on 0800 ASK NICK or send us an email.

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GROW YOUR BUSINESS USING CRM TOOLS

Posted on October 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

As I have mentioned before, Customer Relationship Management, a way of selling products and services by recognising the value in building a relationship with prospects and customers, is of paramount importance in building your business.

There are a large number of CRM tools on the market which will help you build a relationship with your customers. These will enable you to:

  • maintain contact details throughout your company
  • create e-mail, telemarketing or mail-merged marketing campaigns
  • automate your sales process (by setting up pre-designed e-mails, tasks or appointments with automatic follow-ups)
  • synchronise jobs and quotes on your accounting software to boost your business pipe-lines and automate your sales reporting to ensure you never run out of work
  • maximise each sales opportunity

The better systems allow you to “harvest” the data on your accounting software to instantly create communication-ready contact lists of customers. For example:

  1. Identify all customers who’ve bought a particular item, have spent over a $1,000 with you over the past year and offer them an exclusive price on a complimentary item.
  2. Identify all customers who’ve spent more than $5,000 with you and invite them to a function to say thanks.
  3. Identify all customers who haven’t bought from in the last two years and then lure them back by offering a special package of added-value benefits with a time-limit.

Given the benefits they bring, CRM packages are not expensive and enable you to work more efficiently on increasing your revenue.

In the current climate, there are not many business owners who don’t need to do that so if you’d like to build your business find out more here.

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8 EASY WAYS TO COLLECT PROSPECTS CONTACT DETAILS

Posted on October 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

In a recent blog I discussed 6 easy ways to collect customer names and addresses but I missed one, a really obvious one, which is to offer guarantees or after care – e.g. this works well for jewellers.

It’s also important to collect the names and contact details of prospective customers, or prospects, so you can work to convert these into customers, since one of the three ways to grow your business is to get more customers or clients, so here are eight easy ways to do so:

1. Seminars/Workshops
Organising seminars or workshops is a fantastic way of capturing prospect’s names and contact details providing you have something interesting to say or focus on the two most motivating factors in life – pain (or fear) or pleasure, especially if you can piggy-back on the customers of another businesses.
Effectiveness rating – 9/10

2. One-to-One Networking
Right now on-line networking is very popular but I find there’s like meeting people for coffee, especially if you can leverage off the person you’re meeting i.e. they have a client base and will refer you to their customers. It’s easy – when you meet people, just ask them out to coffee on you.
Effectiveness rating – 8/10

3. Networking Events
The best networking events are not networking events as such but things like the Home & Garden Show, the Business Expo or other seminars or workshops run by other businesses. Just turn up and talk to other attendees or exhibitors, invite them to coffee or talk about them or their businesses, not you or your business. Excellent because you’re meeting them face-to-face.
Effectiveness rating – 9/10

4. Free Stuff
A great way of capturing people’s contact details is to give them something of low cost to you but of high perceived value to them. If they want what you are offering, you can dictate exactly the information you require. There are loads of examples but it could be a free report, a free sample or free trial. It’s also effective because you can insist on meeting them before they get their free whatever-it-is!
Effectiveness rating – 7/10

5. Local Knowledge
This is harder but can still be useful. If you’re out and about just be aware of local businesses of potential interest to you & get their details – an increasing number of businesses are now displaying their emails addresses. To make this easy, in Hastings drive up the Omahu Road and down the side-roads. In Napier, go to Onekawa. The problem here of course is that you will not have any personal contact so this should be regarded as just the first step in the process of building a relationship. Be careful here of the anti-spam laws here, see http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Anti-Spam.
Effectiveness rating – 4/10

6. Pop-Ups on websites
These are the most effective way of capturing email addresses on-line, either on entry or exit, and much better than an invitation to subscribe. However, they may be time-wasters, not local to your business and you’re still a long way from getting to know them.
Effectiveness rating – 5/10

7. Contests
Everyone loves them so they are a great way to capture people’s contact details as of course they have to give you their contact details to be notified of their winnings, and cheap too, given the cost of the prize relative to the numbers involved. Again though, there’s unlikely to be much personal contact involved.
Effectiveness rating – 7/10

8. Ask Them!
The most obvious but often overlooked, just ask people who enquire by ‘phone, walk-in who don’t buy or when you quote but they go to the competition. If you ask the right way and explain the benefits (perhaps offer a draw or say they will be notified of special deals or new lines first) your success rate will be high, so why be shy? The odd rejection or two shouldn’t be too depressing as persistence pays off!
Effectiveness rating – 6/10

Our Advice:
I haven’t mentioned buying a database here. That’s because they often are out of date and may put you at a liability risk under the anti-spam legislation. The Department of Internal Affairs is currently taking legal action against several firms who purchased commercial databases, wrongly assuming deemed consent by the firms included on the database. For guidelines, see the DIA website.

If you need help collecting prospects names and addresses or advice on the anti-spam laws call 0800 ASK NICK or contact me by email.

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SIX EASY WAYS TO COLLECT CUSTOMERS NAMES & ADDRESSES

Posted on September 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

Possessing and leveraging off a database of customer names and addresses, whatever your line of business, is of key importance in running a successful business and as well as selling it when the time is right – without loyal, identified customers what will your business be worth?

Why then are so many business owners reluctant or unwilling to collect these? Are they frightened the customers will say no, too lazy or just don’t appreciate the value of an up-to-date database? If you ask customers the right way they won’t mind, and even if the odd one does say no, so what?

Here are six easy ways to collect customer names and addresses:

1- “Self-billing”. What many businesses do is toget the customers to complete their own name, address, telephone number and e-mail address on their invoice. This is OK but they don’t necessarily check that you’ve filled in all details. For example, I went to Tony’s Tyre Service last week and when presented with the duplicate invoice book, I filled in my name, address, and telephone number but not my e-mail address and they didn’t notice or care!

-> Effectiveness rating – 6 out of 10.

2- Make it Part of the Paying Procedure. Here, rather than asking for the customers details separately just make it part of the sales process so it just naturally “fits in” so that the customer doesn’t even realise what’s happening. This is what happens in Harvey Norman and Dzine Furniture in Hastings. Harvey Norman though doesn’t actually use the information (apart from making you feel important by finding your details on their till) but Dzine do, sending you a great letter welcoming you as a customer, giving you some useful information on furniture after-care and asking you to complete a survey to provide them with even more information about you!

-> Effectiveness rating – 8 out of 10.

3- Offer Something Free. Here it’s just a matter of choosing something of high perceived value but of low cost to you as an inducement, maybe from one of your suppliers at their cost. This could be anything that suits your business but some good examples are things that nearly always lead on to business for you. For an optometrist, a free eye test, or a free safety check for an auto- mechanic, a free coffee in a café and so on. This can be very effective as you can openly check you have all their details (including their e-mail) before they get their free, whatever it is.

-> Effectiveness rating – 9 out of 10.

4- Competition or Draws. A tried and tested method but a bit old hat now and often the prizes are cheap and awful e.g. a firm of accountants who offer a 30 minute consultation with their business expert! By stipulating 30 minutes it’s obviously being given to you grudgingly and everyone knows that you can get your first meeting free anyway. Or equally boring, a $500 voucher for radio advertising when everyone gets a “discount” of $500 anyway!

-> Effectiveness rating – 5 out of 10.

5- Loyalty Club. Again a tried and tested method and effective when what you’re offering is of reasonable value. Coffee cards and 10th one-free cards used by hairdressers are no good as then they don’t capture your details. If you’re receiving something in return why would you mind giving out your contact details? Get an impressive looking card organised and spell out the benefits for them if they fill in your Loyalty Club application form e.g. discounts for buying two not one, prior notification of new product lines or a monthly draw. Make them feel important when they come into your business and give them special treatment if they refer a friend.

-> Effectiveness rating – 8 out of 10.

6- Just Ask! Why be wimps, as Gordon Gekko would say! Have a think and get a script together and practice this with your staff until you are comfortable saying it. For example “Can you please fill in your contact details here please?” If they say no say “Oh what a shame. It’s just that we offer customers on our VIP list first choice on our new fashion lines and every month we hold a VIP club meeting where only VIP members get wine and cheese and first pick etc etc”. Is that difficult – I think not, providing it’s built into your systems.

-> Effectiveness rating – 6 out of 10 (as often the system is by-passed!)

What To Avoid

Don’t just leave a pile of forms on the counter in a prominent position and glance towards these when the customer is paying as these will just be ignored – I do, don’t you?

Our Advice

If you need help collecting your customer’s names and addresses call 0800 ASK NICK or e-mail nick@abac.co.nz.

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6 MARKETING MYTHS WHICH CAN DERAIL YOUR BUSINESS

Posted on August 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Marketing is a vital business activity yet generally misunderstood by many business owners. You may be fantastic at what you do but unless you can market yourself or your business you’re unlikely to succeed as a business owner.

  • Marketing is the same as advertising. Far from it – advertising is just one type of marketing, whereas marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. Marketing generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development, an integrated process through which businesses build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.
  • Marketing is a cost. Not so, effective marketing is an investment, since the more you spend, more customers and business should be generated for your business.
  • You’re better off trying to reduce outgoings than working to produce more income. At the very most, you could probably cut your costs by say 25% before your business suffers to the point where it cannot function effectively and the quality of your service or products plunge. On the other hand, the potential to increase your profits by producing more sales or by higher gross profit margins is virtually unlimited.
  • You can delegate marketing (to an employee or marketing agency). Marketing is so important to your business it is vital to organise this yourself, closely supervise marketing activities and spend a significant proportion of your time marketing.
  • You don’t have to spend much time on marketing. If you want your business to grow and be successful, you should spend a third to one-half of your time on marketing. Many business owners spend no time at all on marketing, mistakenly thinking that business and customers just roll in the door by themselves, retreating to their comfort zone of working in their business. What happens when the next recession arrives?
  • Marketing costs should be strictly budgeted. If you understand the lifetime value of your customers i.e. how much they are worth to you over the time they continue to buy from you (to calculate this multiply the average number of times they buy from you over the year by your average $ sale and by the number of years they stay a customer) and know how much it costs you to acquire a customer then the amount you can spend on marketing is endless providing the money you make from your customers is more than your customer acquisition cost.

    • If your marketing needs a boost, email us, call 0800 ASK NICK or for more on marketing, see our website.

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