Posts Tagged ‘offline business promotion’
Clients need your help in getting more customers, especially online. Most of them have no idea where to start – and not only will they pay you handsomely, but they will love you for taking this chore off their hands. These are just a few ideas meant to inspire you to come up with plans personalized for your clients.
1. ASK your clients what they need . . . just because your other beauty shop clients needed help with Craigslist ads, that doesn’t mean this one will too.
2. Closely related to #1 is Don’t assume anything. Your client may have a solid marketing background and just needs to know how to start a WordPress blog. To waltz in and assume he needs your services from A-Z is not only condescending and rude, but you’re going to lose business . . . to people who ASK.
3. What kind of list does the client have now? It may be mailing addresses only, in which case you can start a postcard campaign. It takes time to get this together and see results, so the process should be started right away and running in the background along with #4.
4. Gather contact information consistently, especially email addresses. You can use Aweber or Constant Contact to create a monthly newsletter with coupons and specials. Make sure that newsletter delivers quality content.
5. Create a blog or website. If nothing else, a Blogger site will do. The client may want to update the blog or website in-house but want you to train the staff who will be doing it. Or he may want you to take it over.
6. Don’t forget old clients. You may need to send them a “sorry we haven’t touched base” letter or postcard, but reactivating old clients can pay great dividends.
7. JV, JV, JV. Joint ventures are a big piece of the corporate money pie, but most small businesses have never heard of them. In a joint venture, two or more businesses leverage each other’s resources.
For example, a jewelry store that specializes in high-end diamond jewelry might work with a boutique in an upscale part of town. The boutique could send out a letter to its clients recommending the jewelry store, with an introductory special of 20% off for anyone who brings in the letter. The boutique gets 35% of the profit from the campaign.
All it cost the boutique was a little time mailing the letters, and the actual costs to put together the campaign could be taken off the top of the proceeds. The jewelry store has new customers they wouldn’t have had otherwise, and the customers got a great deal on jewelry.
A win-win-win situation for everyone.
Most business owners are so busy running their businesses (especially in this economy) that they don’t have time to learn how to market, much less to do it. Anything you can help them with will be much appreciated . . . remember, they are already used to paying for marketing and advertising.
Nope, that’s not a typo.
Try looking, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting your company (brand) and your product. More precisely, you need to experience what your customer sees, hears, feels, smells and tastes . . . and how he or she reacts. Your brand perception is the end result of literally everything your customers’ and prospects’ senses pick up.
From your logo to product packaging to the paint job on your building to how your employees dress, think about what design and color say about you and your company. Are they broadcasting the right message?
What do your prospects hear from and about you in the media? Voice inflection, tone, and pitch tell your customers more than you might think. You truly can hear a smile or a frown over the phone. How does your customer service team handle incoming complaints? Are former and current customers likely to recommend you? Are your employees pleasant, and how do you answer your own phone?
In just a few seconds, prospects and customers get a sense of who you and your company are, sometimes as a “gut” feeling or a first impression that can be positive or negative. They don’t forget it, and if it’s negative it may never change no matter what you do. Do customers and prospects feel they can trust you? Do they feel your honesty and desire to help?
The sense of smell is one of the strongest memory triggers we have. Does your office smell clean or maybe not-so-fresh? Does your receptionist wear a lot of perfume?
Taste is often overlooked. Make sure your product tastes great (if it’s meant to be tasted) and that you don’t skimp on the quality of water or coffee you serve. If you have a vending machine, check to see that it is serviced regularly.
Take the time to look at yourself with all your senses. Once you see the message you are sending your customers, you can understand their perception of you on a deeper level. Most companies don’t do this, so you will be one step ahead.
Today was graduation at my old high school. I love to check out the graduates’ pictures in the local newspaper. Recognized several of my classmates’ kids…congratulations to all.
Then I noticed something else.
I grew up in a small town of about 3,500 in southern Wyoming. It’s your typical Mayberry kind of town, where everybody knows everybody else. The graduation insert in the paper isn’t just for congratulating the kids and parents. It’s an opportunity for businesses to advertise.
Most of the advertisers blew a great chance to grab more customers.
I counted over 30 ads from retail businesses. Not banks, lawyers, or accountants, but stores, restaurants, and commonly-used services like auto shops. This would have been the perfect opportunity to get people through their doors with a great graduation deal.
Out of the 30+ businesses that advertised, guess how many gave readers some kind of special for graduation?
One. The theater offered a small popcorn if the customer brought in the ad.
Why didn’t these businesses take advantage of this perfect opportunity?
How come one of the fast food joints didn’t offer a buy one, get one meal deal after 8 pm on graduation night? The restaurants couldn’t have offered free desserts after dinner?
Why didn’t the flower shop offer 10% off all orders that mentioned the ad? They could have put a time limit on it, as the paper came out on Wednesday. Some dads could have made some moms very happy indeed.
The grocery store could have snuck in a $5 coupon, or offered a special on photo albums. Their bakery could have thrown in half a dozen cookies for every graduation cake ordered.
The ideas are endless. Why don’t they get creative with their advertising?
Because many have never had to. Rather, they’ve never felt like they had to. In a small town, many businesses don’t have competition and use the same old ad in the paper and yellow pages every year.
What they don’t understand is that it’s not always about competition (or lack thereof); it’s about getting as many people into your shop as possible, giving them good service and products at a fair price, and getting most of them to rinse and repeat.
And if you DO have a competitor, the need to do this is even more urgent. Effective marketing can put you head and shoulders above the other guy, who is likely cutting back on marketing.
Using the flower shop as an example, let’s say there were just 5 orders for flowers averaging $30 a pop, or $27 after the 10% was deducted. My math says that’s an extra $135 for the week.
Big deal, you might say. But what if the flower shop started running a monthly special? What if every third Monday was 10% off day? Using the same 5 orders per month, that’s over $1,600 in a year.
When every penny counts, that’s nothing to sneeze at. For some businesses, simple marketing changes like that could keep the doors open.
These businesses can’t be the only ones who make this mistake. What marketing opportunities do you see businesses missing?
