Small Business Marketing Tips
Some Basic Strategies to Get Your Marketing Plan on Track
Oct 28, 2007
Creating your Marketing Plan
Every business needs to have a marketing plan. However, most business owners are too busy spending their time working on their basic craft and getting their jobs done to really put a lot of time and effort into a marketing plan. But creating a marketing plan does not need to be difficult. Here are a few tips you can use when creating that plan and growing your business.
Creating Loyal Customers
Believe it or not – your best marketing statements are through your current customers. Always do your best job and let your work speak for itself. Customers gained by word of mouth usually are the more loyal customers than ones gained by other means.
For really good customers, do something a little more than the job. It doesn’t have to be a major add-on, but that one little thing that makes your customers think that they are getting specialized treatment and are important to you. In fact, they should be, so you are just communicating this fact.
When you do have a customer, keep in contact with them. Send newsletters or bulletins to these customers. Set yourself up as the “knowledge” expert in your field – share the knowledge and make sure your customers assume you are the go-to guy for questions or concerns.
Create that great first impression
In addition, use your current customers to get some free advertisement. When you finish a job with them, leave a brochure or coupon page so they can pass out to their friends. If you are doing manual labor, ask to place a sign in their yard with your business’ name and contact information on the sign.
You never get a good chance to make a first impression. Think of what your work area looks like to prospective customers. Will they see shabbily dressed employees in a dirty, dank work space or will they see professionally-looking staff looking as if they are ready and knowledgeable enough to help? Having a dress code and a code of cleanliness does help immensely. Any contact with people should be considered a marketing opportunity and be treated as such.
These are great ways to utilize current customers and make them long-term loyal customers. But – every business always needs an influx of new customers, so here are some tips for marketing to prospects.
Gaining New Customers
Find cheap ways to get your name recognized among the general public. Perhaps some mass mailings or postcards can be sent to everyone in a specific zip code. Even though the results may be quite small in relation to the overall number of mailings, the cost should be relatively low in comparison to other marketing techniques, so the return can be lower.
Define who your best customers are and then figure out what makes your best customers the best instead of the worst. These are the customers you’d like to target. This, then, becomes your target market. Are they older customers or younger? Do they have children or not? The attributes that make a good customer mean that your services are usually ideal for this type of customer. For marketing to your target market, it is best to spend a little more or personalize the marketing to them.
In any regard, all businesses need to have some type of marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be complex and it doesn’t have to involve tons of money. It just has to work.
