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Practice Effective Marketing
By bpjames | July 23, 2009
Make sure you have a compelling product and service proposition. Be crystal clear about how to differentiate yourself and position your business at the highest level of quality delivery.
Know your target market. Match closely the demographics of your prospect to those on your contact list. Consider psychographics as well as demographics (i.e. the personality, style and character of your prospective customers). Identify who you like to do business with. Find your kind of people.
Build your database with intelligent information about customers and prospects. In addition to contact details you want to know the source of the contact, details of communications and responses to offers. Track their buying history and provide regular appropriate and relevant information and offers. Continue to give greater value.
Many business owners ask me what is the right price for their product or service. I say the right price is the highest price that the market will accept. You want to continue to push prices up. It’s important that you maximise your profitability. This enables you to be generous with your customers, offer greater value and be able to spend more time with the customers of choice.
This becomes a virtuous circle with you making healthy profits, offering greater value and in turn better meeting customers needs. You want to avoid being purely purchased on price. This is because your proposition becomes a commodity, your margins are squeezed and you are neither able to give value nor choose the best customers to deal with. This becomes a vicious circle and difficult to break out of.
You want to be able to engender loyalty from your best customers so that they come back to buy again and again and recommend their friends and associates. The best referrals come from the best customers. Don’t waste time with poor customers or badly targeted prospects (who are actually suspects not prospects).
For example, one business I’ve been working with sent out a loyalty programme to existing customers and other enquirers. This was a personalised direct mail letter with a faxed back response. 700 went out on the Friday and by Monday evening we had a 19% response.
The key success factors are sending the right messages to the appropriately targeted people at the right time using their preferred medium and offering them the most convenient way to respond.
Brian.
Topics: Customer development |
July 28th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I really liked your second paragraph. I agree you need to find the people you would like to target for your business. What great words you used.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Thank you very much for that marvelous article
August 6th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.