In most areas the children go back to school this week, the start of a fresh new term and year for them. And for many people life is ‘back to normal’ and work.
So the children are starting a fresh year, taking a new look at their future. Is it time to do the same in your business – specifically take a fresh look at your marketing strategy? Because of the economic doom & gloom that seems to be forever in the news, perhaps it is time to do that.
How Solid is Your Marketing Strategy?
Marketing is like a well designed and made chair – but with more legs. Each leg is a particular marketing activity.
Your marketing activity supports the business [the more legs you have the better the support] and each activity should connect and complement the others.
But in many businesses marketing plans and campaigns seem to be carried out independently. For example the company may have a website – which runs as a separate marketing activity. There may be an advertising campaign that has no connection with the website – except perhaps the URL dropped in as a last minute thought.
They may run a PR campaign or direct mailing campaign with no thought of connecting with the advertising or website.
If all these different business-generating activities have no connection it’s like having a DIY chair made with unmatched legs – it doesn’t give a good pleasing result and could even topple over because there is no balance.
Connecting Marketing Legs
Let’s have a look at an example of how different marketing activities could be linked together to give a strong, balanced business support (this is just a simple suggestion, yours could be far more extensive).
- An advertising campaign is devised to specifically draw visitors to a website page to request a free/low cost advisory guide.
- A PR campaign announces the guide is available from the website and people who’ve read the article visit.
- Online marketing through PPC (pay-per-click) advertising draws visitors to the website as well.
- A targeted mailing is sent to prospective customers offering them the guide, with the choice to send a request by post or visit the website.
- The website page is a focused landing page – not just a more general home page – telling the visitor about the benefits of the free/low cost guide. It does not have any distracting links to other pages or products. It could have audio and/or video links describing the information on offer.
- The visitor requests the guide, giving their contact information.
- The guide is delivered – either electronically in PDF format or as a printed report or CD/DVD – along with a direct response ‘sales letter’ giving more details of the main offer.
- If your offer is a high-value item you might have a tele-sales or field sales team who follow up on these warm leads; warm because they have expressed an interest by asking for the guide.
By the way, don’t think that this ‘giving a free guide’ cycle is purely for ‘information products’. Yes, it is used extensively in this way – I do it myself; giving free previews or samples of the products or service I’m offering. But even if you are selling a physical product you can give people useful tips such as…
- Questions to ask before deciding to buy – gives the reader guidance on avoiding any pitfalls when choosing or recognising less ethical companies in your industry or profession
- Tips on how to use the product you supply
- Tips on how to get the most out of the product you supply; perhaps care tips that make it last longer
- If you’re selling to businesses, case studies of how other businesses have effectively used your product would be interesting
- FAQs – the classic Q&A information that prospective buyers look for. Just check what questions your current and previous customers have asked and you have your guide ready to go.
This whole strategy is geared towards attracting new prospects and, through careful nurturing, they become customers.
The Sales Are In The Back-End
But it doesn’t stop there. Further direct response campaigns – whether through e-marketing or ‘snail-mail’ is used to keep contact with the new customer keeping them informed, including telling them about different offers as they come up. As a result they often become a long term buyer. This is known as a ‘back-end’ system.
And now a further strong marketing leg can be added with a formalised referral system; make a point of asking your satisfied customers for a referral (and testimonial you can use in your marketing). The best time to ask is when they’ve just taken delivery.
An example of this is the ‘tell a friend’ mechanism you see on many websites – by telling a friend about your experiences; what you’ve found on the website (a free guide) or your delight with the product or service supplied you are giving the company you’ve done business with a referral.
And, of course, it can continue with joint ventures – where another business recommends your guide and website to their customers giving you another marketing leg for your business.
Having many strong marketing activities that connect and complement each other gives stronger support for your business. If one marketing activity doesn’t perform as well as normal, you have other activities which still deliver results for you.
So – is it time to think afresh on your marketing? Ask yourself these questions.
1. Does all my marketing bring in measurable results?
2. Are all my marketing activities connected and focused on the same end result?
3. What marketing activities are missing from my connect strategy?
4. Would adding additional activities weaken or strengthen my marketing strategy and deliver better results?
Before you make any changes, think of the adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’. It is a good maxim to follow… but by the same context we know if we don’t improve we stagnate and eventually fall behind. Continuous improvement, through testing, is vital to any business survival. And continuous improvement in our marketing means we have stronger, matched, legs supporting our business.
~ Carol Bentley
P.S. Before deciding your marketing strategy you might find it useful to review aspects of your business. Brian James’ blog post “Become the business of choice for your customers” describes how to do that.
“I can’t believe I missed it, story of my life!!!” were the words in the email reply. My blog reader intended to take up the Jay Abraham’s special I described in my July 17th post, but the deal was time-sensitive and had expired.
Have you ever said that to yourself when you’ve had a disappointment in your business? Or are you lucky in business?
Actually, scratch that, because I don’t think developing a successful business is just down to luck. You’ve probably heard the quote from Thomas Jefferson…
“I find the harder I work – the luckier I am”
But I don’t think it is all just down to hard work either. After all there are hundreds, if not thousands, of business owners who work extremely hard and still don’t achieve the results others do.
So what else is needed?
The ability to see opportunities when they occur helps. But most important, I think, is being prepared to take decisive action immediately those chances come up, so you don’t have reason to say “story of my life!”
Here’s A Chance For You
Now my reader was obviously unhappy about missing these valuable marketing insights but I was able to compensate for the disappointment a little by pointing him towards equally valuable reports – which don’t cost a single penny (or cent for my non-UK readers).
And I thought I’d share these with you – in case you haven’t already got them. Some I’ve talked about before, but it is worth repeating 
)
The Business Manifesto
The Attention Age Doctrine
The Maven Matrix (written in partnership with Jay Abraham)
All explore offline as well as online business building, which is what Jay Abraham’s material did. They contain powerful insights that can be adopted and adapted to any business.
And here’s an instant download bonus report, written by a good friend of mine, which you can pass on… 7 Deadly Business Sins
Recession Proof Tip 4: Be Alive To Your Business Growth Opportunities And Act
~ Carol Bentley
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If you have ever searched the web for useful information – whether to do with marketing, copywriting, web copy or just looking for useful tools – then you know you can spend hours trying to find that gem you are looking for.
But what if you found an array of useful, quality gifts in one place? And all you had to do was choose which is the most pertinent and useful to you and download them?
Well now you can.
Great – but there’s bound to be a catch – isn’t there?
Yes; actually in this instance there are three catches:
1: You are spoilt for choice
For example in this Hot Summer Vacation Giveaway there are over 186 gifts. Three of these gifts are from me – which I describe in more detail below.
2: You have to download your gift
And some of them are large – so it is easier if you have a fast connection to the web.
3: You have to supply your email address to get the download link
This is to prevent hackers and spamming problems – an unfortunate downside to researching and gathering information and useful tools on the net.
And on top of that – you need to look at and use the content these gifts deliver – otherwise there’s no point wasting your time looking and choosing – is there?
My Three Powerful Gifts
1. Accelerate Your Sales
Discover How to Create Massive Sales and Generate Exponential Business Growth…
A 36-page PDF file giving a great start to anyone who needs to write a sales letter or advert for their business.
If you already have a copy of my book you don’t need this – although it is a handy quick-check reference. But think of those people you know who do need this help – and perhaps have even tried to borrow my book from you. Do them a favour and point them to the giveaway at Hot Summer Giveaways
2. The PR Formula that NEVER Fails…
Discover the Secret of How To Attract a Rush of High Quality Prospects Faster than Steel Pins Flying to an Industrial Strength Magnet! This ebook is from a professional UK PR expert I know, who describes how to get quality prospects using press releases to publicise your business. A recession-buster tool that’s worth getting. It is also part of the Hot Summer Giveaways
3. 38+ Significant Insights
Reveals my insider secrets on how to create even more powerful, persuasive, compelling sales-generating letters…
This is my third gift in this giveaway event and complements the material in my book and the Accelerate Your Sales report. It is a 77-minute MP3 of a live recording of a private telephone consultation during which the MD of a successful UK company quizzed me on copywriting secrets he wanted to know. And it is jam-packed with these easy to use tips on how to enhance your sales letters and boost response to your marketing campaigns.
Mine are not the only gifts you can grab – to make this giveaway event even more exciting there are over 186 gifts – you really are spoilt for choice!
So – is it worth a visit? I’d say ‘Yes’ (I’ve already downloaded some useful tools from my fellow contributors) – check it out for yourself! Visit the Hot Summer Giveaways
By the way – this could be regarded as another Recession Proof Tip because taking part as a contributor is another way of finding prospects who are interested in what you offer – although there is the possibility that the quality of people added to your contact database may not be quite as high as those you get from other sources. I’ll let you know how it pans out.
~ Carol Bentley
In yesterday’s post I mentioned it’s easier to sell to a prospect who considers you favourably – a warm prospect – rather than a cold prospect who knows nothing about your company.
You get warm prospects when your customers recommend you to other people – but this is not always a reliable, constant source of prospective sales.
You can create a more structured and controlled way of getting those new, warm leads by connecting with other companies and arranging a joint venture. Businesses with an online presence often use affiliates to create the same result.
The idea behind this is to find a non-competing company who sells to the same market place you target. So, for example, a landscaping business could connect with a builder or a garden supplies centre or an estate agent. The company you are working with recommends your services or products in a letter sent to their customers. You write the letter and cover the mailing cost – if you ask the other company to do that they may think the reward doesn’t justify the work or costs involved.
You pay a pre-arranged commission for any new business you get from this arrangement.
Organising Joint Ventures
How do you find companies:
a) you are happy to associate with
b) who feel confident about your ability to deliver what you promise
Selecting Companies to Approach
The first, most obvious criteria I’ve already mentioned, is finding companies whose customers are your targeted audience.
Second, check the company supplies a complementary, rather than competing product/service (you can have arrangements with your direct competitors too, but I suggest you start with non-competing companies first).
Third, make sure the company you choose to approach has a professional reputation to match yours. If the company does not have a top-rate reputation then their recommendation does not do you any favours and could actually damage you.
Fourth, make sure your proposal benefits both sides; maybe even offer to recommend their services or products to your customers in return. Obviously make sure you are happy with the quality of what they supply before agreeing to do this.
Be prepared to do the work in progressing this – your prospective Joint Venture Partner may not see the real benefit to them when you first make the suggestion, especially if they’ve never taken part in this sort of arrangement before.
Making The Approach
If you’ve never considered this approach to finding new customers before it can be a little scary – especially if you’re trying to convince companies who are sceptical about an arrangement like this. The way you make your proposal and follow through on your initial contact makes a huge difference.
You’ll probably find the Strategic Profit’s Joint Venture Partnerships course a useful resource. It looks at the whole area of creating joint ventures, including how to find companies to approach. The course is focused on creating online Joint Ventures but the process it describes is just as relevant to offline JVs.
Are Your Partner’s Customers Interested?
Not all of your Joint Partner’s customers are interested in what you offer and you do not want to upset your partner or his customers by constantly sending offer letters. Ideally you want the customers who are interested, either now or in the future, to show they want to know more so you only keep in touch with them.
The easiest way to do that – as I’m sure you already know – is to offer free information. You can send a tips guide/booklet, an audio or video or invite them to your website to download useful information (make sure you capture their name and email address). Once the customer accepts your offer of free information they have effectively demonstrated their interest and you can continue to keep in touch so that eventually – hopefully sooner rather than later – they become your customer. And, at that point any commission arrangement you have agreed can kick in.
Recession Proof Tip 3: Find Profitable Alliances
Use the joint venture principle to find warm prospects and generate more sales.
~ Carol Bentley
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It is far more difficult – and costly – to find new customers than it is to keep your existing customers happy by enhancing their experience with your business; making sure they do not miss out through your negligence.
And making your first sale is easier if you are introduced to your prospect by a trusted colleague. That’s why business networking is so powerful – especially for smaller businesses.
These are two different aspects of the same approach – concentrating on people who are less sceptical about what you offer and may even be very inclined to do business with you.
I’m forever banging on about keeping in touch with your customers. Keeping them informed, giving great advice, perhaps even making recommendations. If you only supply a single type of service or product then making sure everyone you deal with knows what you can provide and the benefits they gain is very easy, isn’t it?
Or is it? Because a wise business owner is always looking for innovations, for new ideas that complements what they offer. And sometimes – as the variety of products or services expands – we forget to tell existing clients about all the new solutions we’ve introduced.
In fact, if your company has a sales force and a wide array of products and services, are you confident that everyone knows the full product range and potential benefits – and actively promotes them? It’s probably even more important now with talk of a recession.
Go through this excercise with your sales staff (or just do it for yourself)
Your Customer/Product Awareness Exercise
1) Take a piece of paper. Ask your sales team to list all the products and services your company provides – including any variations. Now compare the lists – do they all match? If they do then you have a great sales force because they are selling from a strong position, knowing what you can provide.
2) Now ask your sales people to think about their accounts and mark which products they have told their customers about. Are there any gaps? If so, they are selling opportunities for your sales team. And it is worth remembering that a selling opportunity isn’t necessarily a direct sale to the customer, they may not need that particular product or service. But, if your customer knows you can supply it they can recommend you when someone mentions they are looking for that service or product.
This is a good exercise to repeat, just to keep it fresh in your mind. If you like visual reminders then an Opportunity Matrix could work for you and your team – perhaps on an office whiteboard or (as I’ve described later) in a spreadsheet.
Here’s how to create a constant visual reminder…
1) Draw a grid shape. You need enough columns going across to list all your products and services in the top row; show one product/service at the top of each column, starting from the second column.
2) In the first column of the rows going down list your current customers.
3) Choose 2 strong colours. One to represent ‘Told’, the other for ‘Sold’ (you could add a third for ‘Referred’; and use it when your customer has recommended your company to someone else). I’ve used Told=Yellow; Sold=Green in my example chart).
4) When you tell your customer about another one of your products; you have supplied information so you know he is fully aware of it and the benefits it offers, mark the colour for ‘Told’ against that company in the column for the specific product/service you’ve explained.
5) When your customer buys that product/service from you add the ‘Sold’ color.
6) If your customer recommends your product / service to someone else; ‘refers you’, you can fill in the ‘Referred’ colour.
If you include step 6 some of your boxes may have the Told and Referred, but not the Sold colour.
Now you can see, at a glance, which products your customers do not know about (in which case you can inform them) and, just as importantly, if they do know about the products whether they have bought from you or referred you to someone else.
A Free Gift For You…
As I said earlier, this works really well on a spreadsheet, such as Excel, using the conditional formatting feature. I have created a spreadsheet with the chart set up ready to use.
In fact the file, which I call the Opportunity Matrices, contains 3 spreadsheets: 1 to use for referrals within your business contacts circle, another to use for checking that your current customers know about everything you offer and the third is a Price Research spreadsheet. Use the latter to compare your prices against your competitors – it is a useful tool when you are launching a new product or service or revising your pricing structure.
I’ve also written a PDF file that explains how I created the spreadsheets – so you can do the same if you wish – and describes how to use them.
If you are subscribed to this blog you will find the download link for the zip file containing these 2 files in your notification email.
If you are not a subscriber you can get your copy using the request box below (free and with no obligation):
You will be asked to confirm your request – I have to do this to avoid spamming problems.
To summarise…
Recession Proof Tip 2; Don’t miss selling opportunities
Make sure everyone connected to your business (including customers) knows all the solutions you deliver.
In tomorrow’s tip I’ll explore the second point I made at the start of this post… how to find more warm prospects…
~ Carol Bentley
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Question: What is one of the worst things that can happen to a right-handed copywriter?
Answer: Something that stops you using your right arm! And yep – that happened to me this week. I woke up Monday morning with an extremely painful right arm. And, on top of that, the schools have just broken for the summer holidays which means my PA is on her ‘summer schedule’ so I couldn’t even get her to do the typing for me!
Am I getting the violins from you yet? 
I’m expecting loads of sympathy here you know
Anyway after a physio session I can at least use my keyboard for short periods, so I’ll continue the RPT’s (Recession Proof Tips) tomorrow.
~ Carol Bentley
I took a few minutes break and had a go at the ‘What sports car are you?’ quiz, just out of curiosity
I don’t know whether to feel flattered by the result… after all I would have expected to be associated with a Bentley!
I’m a Porsche 911!
You have a classic style, but you’re up-to-date with the latest technology. You’re ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige – you’re one of the elite,and you know it.
Fancy seeing your associated power vehicle?
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
Have a good weekend – back to the serious stuff next week.
~ Carol Bentley
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