Extraordinary Marketing

heres a few quick questions that I raised at an event
I was presenting at recently.
1. Do you currently do any marketing for your business?

2. If you do, do you have a set aside, know what to spend where,
marketing budget?

3. Do you have a step by step strategic marketing plan that is
stand alone and not part of your start up or ongoing business plan?

4. Do you have a web site, flyers, brochures, business cards, a
corporate identity, an advert in the yellow pages, a sign written
vehicle, premises with signage outside, do you go networking and
do you have sales people?
The list in question four is just a few areas of marketing that
people use to promote their businesses, if you answered no to the
first question but yes to anything on that list then you are doing
some marketing but if you answered no to questions two and three then
you are probably marketing to the wrong people with the wrong message
at the wrong time.

If you do not know what works where and do not have a budget and a
plan you will be seduced by the salespeople who call your office daily
all promising the world but only interested in their commission and not
in the least bit interested in you or your business success.

When they phone you may just be at a low ebb knowing you need to do some
form of promotion and this guy makes his thing sound the bees knees so why
not give it a go….!! Not a great way to do business.

I cannot stress this enough, PLAN TO SUCCEED!

In an earlier post I started to share with you what
I see as the number one saviour of businesses and that is direct
response style marketing.

Did you know that on average we see 2700 pieces of marketing
everyday, honest just think about it, from the minute we open
our eyes and put coffee or tea in our cup to the moment we go
to bed – just walking into a supermarket with thousands of items
fighting for your attention. We have become a brand aware society
and every business takes advantage of it trying to carve their
little corner of the sky.

So standing out in any market today is harder than ever so here
is a top tip.

Create your own market, it may not be easy but it’s definitely
worth spending some time thinking of ways you can do this. If
you are reading this and thinking that it is impossible as your
business is so normal and the market saturated just think about
this story.

Imagine going to the bank and asking for investment capital to
start up a simple coffee shop. What street in the western world
does not have at least one place selling coffee, there is not a
world shortage of coffee. Then to add to that put very slow
moving youths behind the counter so it takes an age to get
served and you are going to make the coffee menu so complicated
there are over 8 thousand variations and you need a PHD to order
plus you want to charge 4 times what everyone else is charging.

recognise the above scenario? welcome to Starbucks! it has become
worldwide success by taking an ordinary business, you can’t get
more ordinary than selling a cup of coffee, but at Starbucks it’s
not about the coffee.

so think on how can you make your business extraordinary and if
you want a hand get in touch, it’s what we do.

Don’t fail to determine specifically who your perfect client is and what their wants and needs are

Ninety percent of businesses never seem to precisely determine who their perfect client is, and what the desires, needs, wants, and passions of the prospects in the market are.

This is a crazy mistake to make and can be avoided with a little preparation in your marketing.

The successful marketer can tell you precisely who they are targeting, and what they want in a product or service.  He can tell you his best prospect’s approximate age, location, education, how much they earn and other critical information.  You must know the who first, and then you can focus on the why. Identify your market and then you can work on the message that will entice them to do business with you, and this will make it look like magic.

Why do your customers buy from you?  What do your customers want or need most in the products or services you offer?  Remember, you need to focus on discovering what the “why” is so that you can focus your marketing efforts on showing your prospects that you can meet the “why” in the most satisfactory fashion.

Think about it…. how can you expect to adequately fill someone’s needs if you never take the time to understand them?  It’s simple, yet few companies ever bother to work at meeting their customers’ needs.

Companies that are successful with their marketing understand their customers’ needs and attempt to satisfy those needs better than the competition.

If you want to dominate your market place, find out what your customers really want. Discover their desires, their passions and their wants. People buy what they want so search out these passions and needs.  Once you have this information, you will be ready to be the only choice in your market.

Just a short blog this morning as I was prompted to write something about live marketing and the use of events after watching Larkrise to Candleford on the BBC last night, this is one of the best costume dramas currently on TV and it always carries a moral or message of some kind alongside the great filming, scripts and acting.

Last nights show had some great lessons in Marketing for any business, if you do not know or have not seen the program then there is a couple of sisters who run the local dress shop, Candlefords answer to Selfridges, and they had fallen on hard times due to lack of business (does this have any resonance with you?) well they decided to take matters into their own hands and create an event to bring in customers and thanks their friends and neighbours for all the support they give.

Could you do this? how could you create awareness for your product, service or business using an event of some kind?

You could use an exhibition of your work, a thank you cocktail party where everyone has to bring a guest who is not a current customer, hire a venue and throw a small Thanks for the Business party. You could have product demonstrations, free seminars, fashion shows (this is what the sisters Pratt did in Candleford) there are endless possibilities that you should consider and if you want to discuss any way we could help then let us know. always remember that it is the businesses who are being proactive and standing above the crowd that will get noticed so be Extraordinary in your Marketing efforts, get off your backside and get those customers.

With luck and prosperity for today and the future.

John Danbury, Extraordinary Marketing.