Marketing by Building

The focus of this Tip is about looking seriously at your marketing strategy and whether or not your marketing is:

Attracting your ideal client and building your business; or

Chasing your ideal client and getting frustrated?

I’m a firm believer in building a marketing system that attracts your clients to you 24/7/365.  This of course is a combination of strategies, however it is about building.  Imagine a Cathedral being built without any prospect of knowing who was building, maintaining, running it or indeed who where to be your clients.

• Every great marketing platform requires design, systems and implementation, followed by maintenance and continual improvement.
• Create the goal of a self feeding marketing platform; Develop the strategies to be implemented with clear action steps.
• Focus only on one of the strategies at a time so that you create the foundation correctly and then move onto strategy 2 and so on.
• As with all great marketing platforms create at least 7 marketing strategies and multiple marketing channels.

Our Business Development Coaches can assist you in creating these Marketing Strategies.

Contact Us Today to implement Marketing by Building

Can’t Determine who your Ideal Customer?

Not sure how to communicate with them?

Some of the more common challenges come with:

• Not identifying your own business and products or service
• Not identifying your ideal client demographics well enough.
• Not identifying what your ideal client thinks and their purchase motivation (Psychographics)

Demographics give you their characteristics that identify their abilities, needs and interests of your customers; Psychographics identify their motivation or reason for making the purchase.

Demographics: who is buying your service/product

Psychographics: why they buy your service/product

Where are you missing the mark?

All too often we see people jump straight into the sales process without building a relationship with that potential customer or even communicating with them in a way to suit their pace and relationship style.

If we are to look at this further have you really defined your ideal client Demographics and Psychographics enough?

To define these further we need to also look at when and how they communicate.  The type of language they use, at what speed and format it is delivered in, where they source this information from and how much creditability they place upon it.

By examining it further you may well discover that the information you have for your ideal client is too long and wordy or not even in a language they understand.  Worse yet you may be selling the benefits or features of your product rather than how your product or service actually provides a solution for their unique challenge.

If you convert this misinformation to lost leads, this may be the reason your marketing information is not performing as well as you wished.  Is it in the wrong language at the wrong speed for the wrong audience selling features not solving their challenges?

Take the time to revisit your ideal client profile.  Once this is streamlined and perfected, you can then duplicate it across to another service or product.  Just like most franchises do, they start with one systemised product and then drop an almost identical product into their client base.   The language they use to capture the young children is much different to the language and approach used to capture the family meal market.

Sit back, Take a moment to reflect and get some outside perspective on your Marketing.

John Burkhardt – Business Development Coach – Sunshine Coast

Making Your Business Card Effective

Business cards have been an integral part of business communication.  It serves as a short introduction to creating a personal relationship with prospective clients, associates and friends.

But is your Business Card effective in portraying what you and your business represent?

Like all marketing you need to ensure that it matches up with your business branding, plan and lets them know how to connect to you when they are ready.

If you are getting reciprocal cards when you give out yours, always ask at that point if they would mind being on your newsletter email list.  Mark the card accordingly with a N and a tick or cross depending on their response.  Always add them to your contacts, however some will be on your list and some are great future prospects or points of contact when you need something in a particular industry of field.

Points to consider when creating your Business Card.

Be Different

How many cards do you get that all come out in the same generic format?  If your business profile allows it be creative. Use round edges, gilding, rich colours etc.

Be Impressive

By this I mean use a good quality printer on great quality printer.   I’m sick of receiving cheap online printed cards.  I can find a great quality printer online who delivers top quality cards within a few days. (Overnight if I need it)

Have a clear Logo

Take the time to use your logo and compliment it somewhere with your business name (usually in your website address).  If you don’t have a Logo, think about the flow on effect from constant presentation of your business on everything you do (uniforms, stationery, website etc).  If your logo is outdated or lacks colour, then give it to a graphic designer to overhaul your image.

Use Strong Colours

Ensure that the colours you use represent you and your business.  Make sure that the colours are as bold as you can. Strong colours are perceived as strong solid businesses.  There are good marketing and psychological reasons why banks etc use strong bold colours.

Be Individual

Make sure where possible you list an individuals name and the best way to get hold of them.  Business is all about building relationships, so having generic cards not only deminishes the view of your business, but consider the flow-on effect on your staff members.  Sales and key business people need to have their own business cards.

Announce Your Business Role

There is some debate about this. My personal opinion is that I want to know what role that person has in the business.  If they are an onsite technician than say so. If they are the business manager than say so.  These roles should fit in with your business organisational chart.

Be very clear on how you want your prospective client to contact you

Make sure that you have the best ways for your client to contact you on your card.  If that is via mobile phone or email then use that.  If you want all calls captured via a central switchboard or answering service than list that number.  If their position means a lot of travel, then allocate the mobile phone number and ensure they have a backup answering service or message bank to handle the calls.

Add Your Picture

This causes much debate.  With limited space, do you put your picture on the business card?  Personally the jury is still out on this one.  I don’t like seeing glamour shots on business cards just as much as seeing a photo of the 35 year old version of the 45 year old card holder on business cards.  Remember that this is a personal business and relationships are built on trust and communication.  If you are going to use a picture (i.e. in Real Estate, Sales etc) then ensure that it is tasteful and up to date.

Include Relevant Information

If you intend using your card to build relationships (as you should) then ensure that you include relevant extra information.  If you are a social media guru, include Facebook and other social media icons or links or a short message to follow me on FB (Twitter etc).  Do you use the back of your card to direct people to a free online report or discount voucher?

Use Your Card As An Advertising Medium

Does your business card have a Headline? A tag line or motto? This can be the first step to showing them what business you are in and how you can solve their challenges. e.g. Do You Suffer from Back Pain?; followed by normal business card stuff, Your role as Fantastic Massage Therapist.  You turn the card over and it has a loyalty system on it giving you a small gift for everyone you refer?  Be creative, make the time and effort you put into creating the card work for you long after you have printed and handed out the card.

I hope this helps you in understanding the use of business cards and move you away from the traditional “boring” approach.

Have a great week

Ideal Client Selection

Common questions about how to select your ideal client usually lead back to your business plan and focus.  If you are having trouble selecting your ideal client, it is usually a combination of:

1. The lack of clear business direction (plan) so you lack the “picture” of your ideal client as a result of not knowing what you are in business for
2. Going too broad with your ideal client demographics and psychological criteria
3. Not following a set formula to work out your ideal client

With regards to this, get back to basics, use a simple formula, do one ideal client (group) at a time, and work it out with regards:

• Their Emotional drivers (Fears or Frustrations, Wants & Aspirations)
• Where do these people hang out?
• Where do these people get their information from?
• How do you touch base with them – via direct approach or through referral systems

You can then move onto how to market to them:

1. Identify which marketing channels work for these ideal clients
2. Work out what offers work for them
3. How to convert them into being your clients or starting the relationship with you
4. What product/s are you then offering to them

Once you have identified everything about them you can use this information in marketing to them:

1. To let them know you know what their Challenges are
2. Give them a simple technique or solution to contribute to solving their challenge (not the full answer)
3. Get the client to connect for free and become part of a relationship with you.
4. Start building the relationship with them with regular, relevant communication

A relationship is a combination of Trust and Communication

Need a Coach to help you through this process?  Contact Us for more details.