Marketing Your Small Business Through Generating Referral and Repeat Business
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Jan 29, 2009
Making Your Small Business Marketing Dollars Go Further by Generating Word-of-Mouth, Referral and Repeat Business
Relationship building is possibly the most effective way to market a small business these days. This is part one in a two part series that will give you a ton of ideas about how to market your small business through generating word-of-mouth, referral and repeat business:
Combat the clutter that your clients and customers filter out every day. We are so bombarded by marketing messages. Not one of us doesn’t experience information overload – nearly every day. There isn’t a lack of information out there about anything. In fact, the opposite is true today. If your business isn’t growing like you want it to, it’s not because there exists a lack of information about your product or service. It’s because of a lack of meaning.
Information by itself has become meaningless without context. The context you must create as the person responsible for marketing your small business: a relationship between you and your prospects and customers that communicates trust and delivers value. Without that context you are just noise. And your prospects have their guard up and are tuning you out.
Your job is to gain their trust so that you can help them cut through all the noise and make a decision. It’s not enough to get their attention with empty gimmicks and buzz creating marketing and advertizing. There has to be a meaningful, relevant and emotion-provoking context that carries the message you put out if you want it to resonate with people.
Your prospects have been conditioned to tune you out and mistrust you. Example: I know a roofer who, upon completion of a project, found he had many shingles left over. He looked around the neighborhood and noticed that many of the other houses were missing shingles of the same kind and color. Not having another job to get to that day, and wanting to get rid of the extra shingles, he decided to offer to replace the missing shingles on the other neighbor’s roofs for a ridiculously low fee. Door after door was slammed in his face. In the entire neighborhood, he finally found only one homeowner to take him up on his offer.
Now, let me remind you that all the other neighbors had a need that he could fill. He was standing in the midst of his target market, for sure. What’s more, he could deliver instant gratification at an incredible price. He was completely baffled as to why most of the homeowners treated him, as he put it, “like a snake oil salesman”. Have you ever experienced something similar? Haven’t we all been given the small business marketing advice to locate your target market and present them with what they need at a price they can afford? So - what happened here?
Think about this: What if the homeowners in this particualr neighborhood already knew him? Or, what if the homeowner whose roof he had just repaired called the other neighbors and told them about this great roofer that just finished re-roofing their house and had some shingles left over and agreed to patch a few other roofs in the neighborhood for an amazing price? If he had been recommended in this way, do you think he would have received a warmer welcome? Certainly.
We have been conditioned to mistrust those we don’t already know or who haven’t been recommended. It’s often not enough today to locate your target market and present them with what they need at a price they can afford. In most cases, they also have to know you.
Technology has made it so that businesses all over the world can capture your customers simply by offering them a better price or a better deal. Unless you live in a very small, rural town, there is no such thing as the neighborhood insurance salesman, or shopkeeper, or salon, or bank. Your “neighbors” are willing to drive 20 miles, or order it online. The best small business marketing solution you can employ is to build a sense of trust, loyalty and familiarity with your customers. Figure out how to position yourself as the ONLY choice in your customer’s mind for what you offer.
A great example of this is a handyman in Arizona who uses the tag line, “We’ll leave your house cleaner than when we came.” And they do – they not only clean up their own mess, but the leave the house noticeably cleaner than when they arrived. This has created intense customer loyalty while also giving their customers something to talk about. Which brings us to a very important point: your customer’s have relationships with those who will trust their recommendations. These referrals are extremely valuable. If you can generate enough of them, and give new customers or clients reasons to refer you to their network, your business can grow virtually on it’s own.
Clear, Compelling Marketing
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Jan 22, 2009
At Your Marketing Lab, we offer a free email course that’s all about how to create a consistent core message that resonates with your ideal customer or client. Why is this important? We are so over-marketed to these days (you might have noticed), that only the clearest, most compelling messages make it through - and even more importantly - move us to action. Below are a few of the main points covered in that course, summarized
1. Marketing is really about a continuous conversation you are having with your customers, prospects, vendors, and partners. In fact, every point of contact your business has with the outside world is marketing some message. Further, these conversations are either helping your business succeed or fail. Great marketing involves incorporating a core message into every one of these conversions.
2. When creating this very important core message, you must understand very well who you are communicating to. Further, you must understand who your unique ideal client is and cater your message directly to them. Create a system of continuous market research that involves surveys, paying attention to what they read, what they watch, what they love and what they are frustrated by and not interested in. Read their web sites, read what they are reading, subscribe to their newsletters, and join their associations. Talk with them - and even more important - listen.
3. In order for your core message to be meaningful to your ideal clients, there must be a strong point of differentiation within it. One of the best ways to differentiate yourself is to find something your competitors are not doing that your customers would find valuable. Or, find something your competitors are doing that your customers find annoying. Differentiate with that, but never with price. Remember - you can match your competition in every way, as long as you differentiate on one thing that matters to your ideal client.
4. Communicate your core message from a “benefits” rather than “features” perspective. None of us purchase anything because of the features of that product or service. We purchase because of what the features of that product or service does for us. More importantly - we purchase because of what we perceive the features of that product or service will do for us. Perception, as always, is king. Even more important: How we think about a product or service not only drives our purchasing decisions, it also shapes our expectations about that product or service and influences how committed we are to enjoying the product or service and getting value from it.
5. Some questions to help you on your quest of discovering the real benefits your ideal customers are looking for: What are your ideal customers really looking for? What do they really want? What do they really need? What are they already looking for? What do your products or services do that can deliver on those desires? Those are the benefits. Those are the hot buttons of your core message and they will have little to do with the actual features of your product or service. As long as your product or service delivers on what they really want, the actual product or service is incidental. So here’s the big take-away: Don’t craft your marketing message around what’s incidental. Craft it around what is desired.
You can sign up for the entire free email course, which elaborates further on these points and several other key components, by clicking here. It’s great information and free of charge.
But, I also want to ask you another question: Once you’ve developed a truly compelling core message, what are you going to do to ensure that your ideal customers hear it? While taking the time to craft the right message will put you heads and tails above your competition all by itself, if you can’t deliver it to your target audience in a strategic, consistent way, it does you no good.
That’s why, in Denver this Saturday, January 24th, we are bringing you a complete Marketing Strategy Blueprint Workshop. And we are bringing it to you for under $200. (If you’re not in Denver, we apologize. Stay tuned - we may be coming to your city soon and may also attempt an online version of this workshop. If either of these options are appealing to you, it would help us out a great deal if you let us know.)
If you are in Denver, this is a workshop you can’t afford to miss.
In this new economy, having a good marketing strategy is not just important - it’s essential. This Saturday, we’ll help you map out a Strategic plan - a Blueprint - for the rest of the year. Click on the link below to read more and to register. http://www.yourmarketinglab.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254
A few other important things you should know:
1. This workshop is backed by our 10x your money back gaurantee
2. This is the last time this workshop will be offered in Denver until June.
3. This is the last time it will be offered in Denver for $197. (Register with a friend, and pay only $147 each!) Also - seating is extremely limited, so don’t delay. Reserve your space now.
Lessons from the World’s Greatest Salesperson
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Jan 13, 2009
I’ve recently been newly inspired by a man by the name of Joe Girard. You’ve probably heard of him. He’s called the World’s Greatest Sales Person - and for good reason.
For more than a decade Joe sold cars. A lot of cars. In fact, in 1973 he was given the title of World’s Greatest Sales Person in the Guinness Book of World Records. Here’s a blurb from that entry: ” The all-time record for automobile salesmanship in individual units sold is 1,425 in 1973, by Joe Girard of Detroit, author of “How to Sell Anything to Anybody” and winner of the Number One Car Salesman title every year from 1966 to 1977.”
1,425 cars sold in ONE YEAR! In fact, during his fifteen year selling career, he sold 13,001 new cars and trucks, all at retail - no fleet, wholesale or used vehicles. After selling cars for just 3 years, Joe had so much business it was by appointment only. This is an amazing individual.
Read Joe’s bio when you have a chance. His entire life story is remarkable and inspiring and there is much to be learned from his story. However, I want to focus on just one of the things Joe did to build the amount of relationships necessary to sell thousands upon thousands of cars.
Joe truly understood the importance of relationship marketing if you want to consistently sell anything. (Or, in Joe’s case, completely dominate your market.) He did a couple of key things to build those relationships that all could revolutionize every business.
First of all, he hired people to deal with administrative work so that he could have more time to interact with his customers. Second, he kept in touch with people via mail month after month. At one point, Joe was sending 16,000 cards each month to customers and prospective customers. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to get a card in the mail each and every month from a car salesman. When you needed to purchase a car, wouldn’t it seem unthinkable to go to anyone else?
Dan Kennedy is quoted as saying that 68% of customers leave because they don’t feel loved or valued. You don’t really even know you’ve lost them. They just go away. Think about what would happen in your business if this wasn’t true. If, instead of loosing 68% of your business each year, you kept it. And imagine what would happen if that 68% felt so valued by you that they told their friends, family and coworkers. What would that do to the growth of your business? For Joe, it meant selling 13,000 cars.
This kind of customer retention and referral generation isn’t that hard to do, it just has to end up at the top of your priority list. You could send a hand written “Thank you for your time” every time you meet with a prospect. Send a hand written thank you card for each order. Send gifts of appreciation. Go beyond the flat customer retention programs that many companies mindlessly employ and do something for your customers to show your appreciation that is completely unexpected.
Here’s a great example: I heard about a handyman who built his business on the promise that his company would leave each client’s house cleaner than when they arrived. He trained his employees to not only clean up their own mess, but to noticeably leave the home cleaner in some way. What an amazingly simple way to not only create a wildly successful business, but to completely dominate a market.
What customer retention systems can you add to your marketing strategy this year to not only keep the customers you have, but to ensure that you are their only source for what you offer? How can you apply what Joe did to increase sales? What can you do that provokes those same loyal customers to tell everyone they know about you? Please share your ideas!
Your Mission for 2009 (should you choose to accept it…)
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Jan 5, 2009
Years ago my husband worked for a company that proudly hung a gigantic banner in the main office area with their Mission Statement printed boldly on it. The “higher-up’s” suspected low morale (quite accurately) and the CEO thought an inspiring reminder of “their” mission would fix that problem right up. The banner read, “TO BE ALL THAT WE CAN BE.” (Lest you think they were the Army, you should know that they were a software company.) They’re out of business now. From that clear and uniquely compelling Mission Statement I’m sure you can’t imagine why.
There are 2 useful points that we can take from this sorry tale.
#1: Marketing isn’t just about delivering a message to those outside the company. Internal marketing is also very, very important. Everyone that works for you or with you should be continually reminded of your company’s most important messages: the company’s story, values, purpose, mission, etc. Everything you market to the outside world should be marketed internally. This will ensure that your employees and partners are clear about what your business is about and turn your company into a marketing company that produces XYZ - Which is how every company must come to think of themselves if they are to survive.
#2. There seems to be some confusion about the purpose of the Mission Statement. Most companies seem to think that their mission statement is a short, pithy way of describing the overall purpose of the business. I beg to differ. For Mission Statements to be valuable they should form the basis of a short-term marketing strategy and they should change often – either when the mission has been accomplished, or when the mission needs to change. From this perspective, a more useful way to define a mission statement might be:
A clear end point to work towards.
This description from Growth Connection does an excellent job of conveying this concept:
A true mission is a clear and compelling goal that focuses people’s efforts. It is tangible, specific, crisp, clear and engaging. It reaches out and grabs people in the gut. Like the moon flight, a good mission has a clear finish line — you should be able to tell when you’ve done it — at which point, you need to create a new mission. “We’re going to climb Mount Everest” is a mission; the more general, “We’re going to climb the Himalayas” is not.
And, like the moon flight, a good mission is risky, falling in a gray zone where reason says, “This is unreasonable”; and your intuition and drive say, “But we believe we can do it anyway.”
In summary, a mission is
* “What we are here to do”
* A clear and compelling goal that serves to unify an organization’s efforts
* Crisp, clear, engaging, verging on unreasonable.
Think of the Mission Statements of your business as New Year’s resolutions for your business. What exactly are you going to accomplish this year? What changes are you going to make? What are you going to do better? The answers to these questions encompass your mission for the coming months. How you go about accomplishing the mission is the basis for your marketing strategy.
Just as many of us draft up resolutions every January, your mission statement(s) should change every time you draft up a short-term (6 months to 1 year) marketing strategy. Your mission statement is the definition of your marketing strategy’s achievable goal – a clear “finish line”. This statement should inspire and focus you. You should be able to read it and be able to imagine what it will feel like to reach that goal. Just like good resolutions, they should both stretch and empower you.
