As a member of several business marketing groups, I constantly invade discussions of how to grow your business during these challenging times. Everyone is looking for the next greatest technique to drive new customers to your business.Whether it is network marketing, multi-level marketing, or viral marketing one key fact remains; "take care of your existing customer base". In a song written by Stephen Stills it says, "if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one your with". No better advice can be given as businesses seek to increase revenue and profits. We may not be able to lure the thousands of members of the various social networks, but we can build a better relationship with the customers we already have.

The best feature of proper client relationship management is the ease with which it can be implemented. If business is slow, take the time to write a letter to your existing customers to thank them for their loyalty. Explain how you would like to partner with them to create a better company and provide products and services that are important to them. Ask them to join you and other customers in a round table discussion, webcast, or any number of low cost conferencing.

During this time find out information concerning their current demographics. The affect of the economy on their purchasing, which items are considered crucial in their daily operations, and the overall affect of the economy on their friends and family. The next step would be to unveil a program of value added services that you have designed to not only maintain their current status as your customer, but create an atmosphere where they describe what they would buy if there has been a extended period since their last purchase. Also, in subsequent sessions, try to become more familiar with your clients; ask them for birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates by using surveys that get into the profile of your customer. Add those facts to your database system and send e-cards to mark those occassions shared.

Once you have established a stronger relationship with your client, ask if they would recommend one other person whom you may contact to broaden the scope of opinions and offer a thank you gift to your client. The new person represents an opportunity to peer into your clients circle of influence and to test the strength of the value added product/service you collectively developed. As you begin dialogue with the new prospect, allow the original client to sit in on discussions to see how the product he/she helped designed is received by a person in their peer group. Just imagine the empowerment your client would feel if it was well recieved and the opportunity for greater partnership should it not. This is truly a win-win for the business and creates a stronger bond with its client base.

I’m sure you are beginning to see through my attempt to cloak the fact that I too am suggesting using viral and social marketing to grow business, but the difference is you are doing it on a personal basis with someone who knows you and now will have a relationship that causes them to want to see you succeed.

Marketing, Business Development | No Comments »

No one can deny the popularity of websites such as Twitter, My Space, and the perennial powerhouse Face Book, but have we really greasped what social/viral networking is all about? My fascination with viral marketing was born from You Tube. I was always amazed at the videos whose views exceeded 10 million. Was there a formula for success? Could a smart marketer tap into that secret and make millions for his clients? To this point the answer is "NO!"

I once tracked You Tube videos for six months and found no discernable pattern in what viewers liked and what drove some videos to the astronomical heights we have seen. However, I do believe there is a tipping point in the life of high viewed videos. For example, when a video hits 1 million views, there are a certain percentage of people who will watch it wondering what everyone is so interested in. Given the large number of people on the Web at any given, time it is easy to see how that number would then begin to accerlerate as the people who get interested in 1.2 million, 1.5 million, etc. Beyond that, I have seen videos ranging from a "hot chick farting" to a cross look from a gopher, score upwards of 5 million views (and don’t get me started on "Chocolate Rain").

Moving to the social websites, we have seen explosive growth in the amount of registered users of Face Book and Twitter. People are joining these sites at an alarming rate, but as Bugs Bunny once put it, "What’s all the hubub…bub?". Have we discovered the next breakthrough technology such as the telephone? No, but we have been able to find friends from decades ago and keep it touch with friends who have relocated, gotten married, or otherwise left our immediate circle of influence. I myself have reconnected with one of my closest friends from high school after 20+ years of wondering how he’s been. 

As a professional marketer, I couldn’t help but drool at the number of my friends who had friends numbering in the thousands, just as many other businesses and industries have over the past five years. Would we be able to find the influencers within those groups and get them to sway the opinions of the remaining group to our benefit? Not really! In fact what is really happening is people are using their networks of friends to push everything from cokes for their kids fundraisers to the latest multi-level marketing scheme. If I get one more invitation to one more worthless seminar, webinar, party or podcast, I think I will cancel every membership I have.

Taking advantage of the fact you know someone I know, to send me unsolicited spam is not only "tacky" but shows you totally don’t understand the power of the medium you have subscribed to. Properly used, the network can provide an arena for opinions, discussions on ideas you have, and in some cases provide a control group for test marketing, but the key is in the establishment of relationships. If you expect me to respond to you, then you should take the time to engage me on a level I am interested in and once our comfort level has increased ask me if you can seek my opinion on a given subject. And for Pete’s sake, if I have accepted the invitation, have something to say!!  Don’t just join a group because you want everyone to think you are relevant, choose groups where you can contribute inciteful thinking and thought provoking conversation; not just what your latest activities are.

If you go to social networks to hang out and post fun items for you friends, this blog is not intended for you. It is for all of the "Busters" who try to pass themselves off as businessmen and women because no one will listen in the real world or care, so you choose to annoy the friends of your friends. Shame on you!!

Marketing, Market Trends | No Comments »

No, I didn’t forget! Business has really been booming and I haven’t had the time to write as much as I would like. That being said, I wanted to pick up in Marketing once again and talk about Positioning Statements and setting up your advertising strategies. If you look back at the last  Business Plan post (Week 4), the position statement would go right before Product positioning.

Positioning Statement

A positioning statement is used to better identify the purpose of your product in relation to the needs of your targeted segments. The positioning statement when properly crafted whould answer seven questions:

1. Who your company is
2. What your company does
3. Who your customers are
4. What your customers are in need of
5. What your competition offers
6. What you offer instead
7. How you customers benefit from your product

Here is an example of a positioning statement I would use for my marketing plan:

(1) PFS Consulting is a business strategies and process analysis consulting firm (2) that was started to help business develop a solid plan for success. (3) Our customers are small to medium sized businesses (4) who are tired of consultants who promise benefits, but don’t deliver the understanding of what it takes to start and maintain a successful business. (5) Unlike the typical management consulting firms, who concentrate on building the bottom line through advertising and sales, (6) PFS Consulting focuses on building success through a thorough understanding of who your target markets are, what they need, how you can fill those needs and how to let them know you have their solution. (7) Thereby creating a solid foundation for business profitability and future success.

As you can see the positioning statement sets the stage for all of your marketing efforts going forward because it causes you to identify all of the key factors concerning your target market. It also makes you acutely aware of the relationship between your products and those targeted segments of your markets.

Moving forward, when we begin discussing advertising in greater detail, you will create a positioning statement for every market segmentation and use that statement to best determine how to reach your customers. The positioning statement will serve as a template for which medias would be most effective in reaching your targeted audience.

For example, in the positioning statement I gave previously, my targeted customers are tired of the traditional consultant, therefore, advertising in traditional medias like the Yellow Pages may not be reasonable. However, small business networks, blogs, and webinars may be a much better solution. 

Positioning is one of the 4 P’s of Marketing Mix and although we have covered them previously, we will be revisiting them throughout the remaining weeks.

Marketing, Business Development | No Comments »

There is no denying we are in an economic slowdown. If you are in a sales related industry you are probably under great stress to comp the figures from the previous year.

In times like these, referrals can be the life blood of your existence and allow you to stay in the game and not have to resort to a "real" job. I know you are saying you ask for referrals all the time, so what else can be done? It is my proposal to you to use a tangible thank you for referrals. A good friend of mine is an insurance agent and he decided to give a $20 gift card for every referral that resulted in a policy. He began purchasing ten or so a quarter and now is up to 50 per quarter. That is an additional 16 sales per month!! Is there anyone among you who could use an additional 16 sales each month?

Before you run off to Starbucks, let’s take a closer look at the feasibility of such a program. This type of incentive works best when your cost of obtaining a sale is more than the level of reward. For example, if you quantified the time you spend cold calling, sending fliers, or prospecting and it exceeds $20, then giving a $20 gift card for a referral makes perfect sense.

The best way to implement this program is to send Thank You cards to everyone you do business with now and announce the incentive program as well. Be clear the referral has to end with a sale in order for them to receive the reward (to avoid getting numbers from the phone book). Keep a log of who receives the rewards and how many during the course of the year. If you have a person or office that is referring more than others, consider raising the amount of the award.

I think you will be amazed at how responsive people are to something as simple as a giftcard. Don’t be cheap!! If you sell a product over $10,000 then the reward should be at least $200. Remember it only costs you something if you closed a sale! Let me know how it worked for you.

Marketing, Business Development | No Comments »

On my ride home I used to pass a Chinese restaurant that was a free standing location on the corner of a very busy intersection. Over the past two years, I have never seen any cars in the parking lot nor patrons inside eating. I often wondered why that was and thought about going inside and asking how business was during the hours I am not passing by.

Several months ago, the Chinese restaurant closed, but it did not stay vacant long. It was soon replaced by  another company selling grilled foods. As the months have gone by since the Grand Opening, guess what? I have not seen any cars in the parking lot nor patrons inside eating.

In analyzing this situation from a purely speculative position, I have to ask, "Is it possible for a good location to be a bad choice?" 

If I were contracted by the most recent owner to perform site anaylsis, I would have examined two key factors:

• Who is the target market for this location?
• What are you doing to attract their business?

It is easy to understand why each of the owners may have thought there were plenty of potential customers given the fact there is a college directly across the street, a bus depot to the right of it and plenty of housing within walking distance, but which of those groups represented the most likely patron?

Let start with the college students - while the grilled restaurant’s menu fits well into the students’ price range, is their menu conducive of grabbing a quick bite in between classes or a meal they could eat on the way home? Are the menu selections favorable to the students palate? What type of food choices do the students have on campus?

Next we would take a look at the people who work at the bus depot. How many employes remain in the depot during the day? Do the drivers come back to the hub during lunch hour? What time do the drivers get to the depot in the morning and would it be worth adding a breakfast menu? What time do the various shifts end? Does the company ever have special occasion dinners or lunches?

Finally, we would address the residents in the surrounding area. What are the food choices within three blocks of the restaurant? Are there other places to get the same type of foods within one mile? What is the average tenure of restaurants in the area? Which fast food chains are near? What are the demographic breakdowns of the neighborhoods? Are there more apartments than houses? What percentage of customers walk up versus drive up?

Once this information has been obtained and analyzed, we can look at which targets make sense for the business and how we would maximize exposure without spending huge amounts of money.

For this example, we will conclude the greatest potential patronage would be the college and its students. Low cost, high impact marketing can include:

• Donating folders to the college with the restaurant’s menu and hours
• Purchasing advertising space in the school newspaper
• Sponsoring events for social organizations
• Host tastings of new products
• Sponsoring neighborhood sports teams
• Host home owner association meetings
• Host professors or other faculty functions 

As you can see, a good location without proper planning can be just as costly as a location that is less desirable. While traffic count and abundant potential may seem ideal on the outside, careful consideration and marketing has to be done to determine if the location is right for your business. Take the time to do a thorough market analysis and  target market analysis and you will save your company from being the next empty business I pass on the way home. 

Marketing, Management | No Comments »

As the Holiday Season continues, we are all out purchasing gifts for friends, family and ourselves, but have you considered purchasing gifts for your employees and customers? Showing appreciation for employee and customer loyalty is a sure way to have it continue.

One of the fastest growing gift sectors is gift cards. Gift  cards are available from just about every retailer and give you the flexibility of saying thank you in a tangible way, without being as impersonal as cash or purchasing something the recipient can’t use. Other gift cards such as Visa’s Giftcard, can be used anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, which allows you the chance to give the perfect gift everytime.

Many of the gift card vendors will allow you to upload your own images to be placed on the giftcard and others offer co-branding of your logo onto their card along with a message to the recipient. As an employee gift, placing a special message and/or their name on the gift card, shows a relationship that says you know who they are and appreciate what they do.

For your customers, it is an acknowledgement of all they do for your business and an invitation to continue doing business with you. Additionally, if you use a branded card, every time your customer uses the gift card, they and the retailer see your name and logo, which is very valuable in market penetration and exposure.

There is no debating the competition for your customer’s loyalty and money. Every effort you make to establish a relationship with your customer base, the greater the chance of retention and expanion. The same is true for employees, the days of working for one company until retirement have long passed. Employees are willing to change companies until they find one that gives them the job satisfaction they feel they deserve. In a study done by Northwestern University, 55% of respondents agreed their job performance was directly affected by how they felt they were treated.

If you did not budget for gifts this year, make sure you add it to next year’s budget and come back and let me know how it was received.

Marketing, Market Trends | No Comments »