4 Steps to Finding Focus for Your Business
November 9, 2010
“What do you do for a living?” You get asked that all the time. How do you answer it? “I’m an electrician”, “an attorney”, “a dog groomer”? Are you and your business defined by your title or role – or are you known as the company that solves a specific problem for people?
Working with a client recently and taking her through the “finding focus” stage of developing a marketing system reminded me of that important question.
So many of us think we are the actions we perform – and not the problems we solve.
Your clients don’t hi
re you just because you’re an attorney, a dog groomer or an electrician – no matter how good you are. They hire you because they’re sick of dog hair all over the house, or because they’re afraid of getting raked over the coals in a divorce, or their power went out, the turkey is in the oven and they have 20 guests at their house.
When you understand why people really hire or buy from you you can begin to develop your marketing messaging and develop product and service packages that people want to buy! This process will also: 1) Help you stand apart from your competitors and 2) Help you communicate to potential customers in a way that can prompt them to buy.
So, what problem(s) do you solve for your clients? And does your company offer a product/services mix to solve their specific problems? If not, here is what I want you to do:
- Make a list of the different types of customers you work with; are they female, male, single, or married? Where do they live? How much do they earn? Etc….If you sell to businesses, is it a services based business? Retail? What type of business? How big? How long in business? This step will help you understand, first, who you serve best. Next we’ll look at the specific problems each segment has….
- List the specific problems they have before they hire you – Hint: they own a dog, need legal representation, or own a home with electricity aren’t enough… It needs to be a specific problem. Lots of people own dogs and never visit a groomer… so the mere fact of owning a dog is not a trigger to make someone a purchaser of grooming services. You need to dissect your client list and study them. When they call you, what problem do they say they need solved NOW?
- For each specific problem listed, think about the solution you provide – or can provide. For example: customer problem – “sick of having to vacuum my house every single day because my dog sheds so much… I don’t have time!” Solution: Create a service that reduces amount of dog hair around the house. So now, you are the service that reduces dog hair around the house, eliminates days of vacuuming and gives me more free time to do other things… see how that’s diffferent/better than, “I groom dogs”?
- Create product and/or service packages or bundles to solve the unique problems of each segment of your target market. Example: “We have mobile grooming packages that include: weekly cut, shampoo, and groom and at-home brushing services 3 times per week – guaranteed to reduce the number of days you vacuum from 7 to 1! Allowing you to spend less time cleaning and more time with your family! ”
Once you complete this exercise I guarantee you’ll have a better understanding of what you really sell, how to package, communicate, and sell it to your target market!
Marketing is NOT Letters, Emails and Postcards!
September 19, 2010
If I were to ask 100 people to define “Marketing” I’d probably get 100 different answers. The problem is “Marketing” has become a nice little euphemism for dirty words like “advertising”, “sales”, and “di
rect mail”.
I’ve also noticed that all a sudden everyone is a Marketer: I met a guy the other day who makes signs – he introduced himself as a “Marketer”. Then I met a woman who sells online ads, she also identified as a “Marketer”. Everywhere I go I run into people who at first- glance do what I do, but when I dig a little deeper I learn they’re really selling some marketing tool; not actually engaging in the bigger picture – or the process and planning of Marketing.
I’ve been able to forgive sellers of marketing tools for calling themselves Marketers – I mean, everyone is doing it. But then I read an article by the CEO of a very well-known company that is a provider of Marketing tools (they call themselves “Marketers” too). In his article he addressed the question, “Isn’t Marketing and Advertising the same thing?” His response was, “Well, not really. Let me explain the differences. Advertising includes: commercials, billboards, radio, and newspapers. Marketing includes: emails, letters, postcards, and fax.” WHAT??? (Ok, in all fairness, he wrote Marketing “includes” not marketing “is”, but still, he used this example to answer the question, “how are Marketing and Advertising different?”, which leads me to believe that’s the basis on which he differentiates them.)
OK – clearly there is a lot of confusion out there. Marketing and Advertising are NOT the same. Advertising is NOT Marketing. Post cards are NOT Marketing. Signs are NOT Marketing. Emails are NOT Marketing. These are tools used in the process of Marketing. They are NOT, in of themselves “Marketing”.
So then, what is Marketing?
Wikipedia - Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development.[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.[1]
American Marketing Association (AMA) – Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Notice that neither of these definitions includes the words “email”, “advertising”, or “post cards”? That’s because those things are merely the tools used to create customer interest, engage them and get them to want to buy from us. Take a look at the AMA definition, they state that Marketing is more than the activity of marketing (i.e.: emailing) – it is the set of institutions and the processes for generating interest.
Education is Your Key to Success
I want you to be aware. We all know we need Marketing, but be smart; learn what that really means and don’t just trust any salesperson who calls themselves a marketer and walks into your shop selling the marketing idea of the week. Marketing is a process – it’s not a one-time deal. Buying an ad or a sign or an email campaign without an overall strategy or plan is simply a waste of time and money. Educate yourself – take the time to learn and invest in your business wisely.
Bottom line: Marketing is strategy. It’s an all-encompassing, planning, scheduling, studying, figuring-stuff-out, researching, testing, and practicing strategy. And I don’t mean a strategy for getting a 20% response rate on an email campaign, 100 coupons from a print ad, or 20 referrals from your referral group. Marketing is bigger than that – much bigger. And when done right it will give you bigger results than you’ve ever imagined!
For more information about Marketing and how to make it most effective visit: http://FortuneMarketingCompany.com
Stop Being Stuck!!!!
August 30, 2010
5 Easy Steps to Plan for Growth With Cost Effective Marketing
I meet small business owners all the time who think a formal marketing plan is an expendable luxury, yet they’re challenged with meeting their business objectives: getting more customers and increasing sales. The fact is most successful businesses have a written marketing plan – and follow it. Without one, money gets wasted on “ad-hoc marketing”: a print ad here, a radio spot there, a direct mail campaign, networking events, never knowing if any of it is really working – or whether it could be working better.
With money tight these days and all of us trying to achieve more with less- planning is more important than ever. Here are 5 EASY steps you can take to make your marketing more productive, efficient, and cost effective! 
1. Identify your target market -Who is your best customer? Take a long hard look at the attributes of your best customers; these are the types of people who are best suited for your business. Once you know who they are and what they look like you can find out where they go for information about your product or service and communicate with them there instead of wasting money putting your message in front of the wrong people and places.
2. How are you different? What makes your business unique from everyone else out there doing what you do? (Hint: it’s neither “great service” nor “fair prices” – who doesn’t offer those?). This is essential to effective marketing. Until you can communicate exactly why prospective customers should work with you, you are playing a guessing game with your marketing dollars. Everyone buys for different reasons- learn why your BEST customers buy from you and you’ll be able to tell future best customers why they should buy from you!
3. Once you narrow down your target market you can begin developing a marketing plan to educate your target audience (reducing the need to SELL!). There are a ton of tools available to communicate with prospects. Find out what works for your business and audience. Use Email, blogs, micro sites (or PURLS), customer segmentation, variable data and social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and create a strategy to engage your target market in a conversation with you – on their terms. It’s easier than you think!
4. Create a marketing calendar that will guide you throughout the year and set you on a path to achieve your business and marketing goals. This also helps you organize and prioritize; systematizing your marketing so you can easily fit it into your already busy schedule.
5. Measure your success. It’s imperative to track and measure your results so you can stop throwing money down the toilet on stuff that isn’t working!
I guarantee that if you do a bit of work to figure these things out you will spend less time and money on your marketing and get better results!
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+Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company
- Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company specializes in helping small to medium sized businesses get the customers they need to sell more, increase profits and achieve all of their business and personal goals. We do this by implementing and managing marketing systems based on data and strategy - there is no guess work. For more information visit us at: FortuneMarketingCompany.com. We'd be glad to help!
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