Growing your business takes knowing the best way to reach your market and to deliver a message that motivates prospects to buy. It takes finding the right combination of elements, then repeating them faithfully as you watch your profits multiply.
Attracting all the business you need isn’t rocket science, but you’re not likely to do it with hit-or-miss marketing. Our methodical strategy works wonders when we help our clients apply these steps consistently:
1 Know where you want to go. Do you want to expand into new markets? Increase your average sale? Introduce a new product? Success starts with specific, measurable goals.
2 Learn from past experience. Analyze what has and hasn’t worked before. Consider individual elements, such as markets, media, timing, copy, design, and offer. Look for patterns. Learn from both your successes and failures.
3 Study your competition. Examine the media they use, their catalogs and web sites, the offers they make, the timing of their marketing. Get on their mailing lists, buy their products, call their customer service reps. You’ll learn both from where they shine and where they fall short.
4 Pinpoint your strongest markets. Determining the most cost-effective way to reach your best prospects is perhaps the single most important step towards success. Evaluate every possible media category for responsiveness, cost effectiveness, demographics, and other key variables.
5 Craft a powerful message. Offer compelling benefits and back them up with convincing proof. Demonstrate your product advantages visually. Use a graphic treatment that enhances your image and conveys your main message at a glance.
6 Motivate prospects to respond. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Test bonuses, discounts, and deadlines. A strong offer is the most frequently overlooked means of boosting response.
7 Develop a cost-effective plan. All the sales in the world don’t help if they’re not profitable. Before you start, determine how much each sale is worth to you and what your breakeven point is. Use industry benchmarks to assess the viability of your plan.
8 Track and analyze responses. Develop systems for tracking where your results are coming from. Implement them religiously and study what they tell you. Rigorous tracking spells the difference between improved performance and a crap shoot.
9 Maximize your income from your house list. Many companies focus on prospecting, while devoting little attention to their existing customers and prospects. Don’t leave cash on the table. Determine the most profitable contact strategy for each segment of your list, and follow it faithfully.
10 Build on your results systematically. Start small and determine the most promising combination of elements. Then gradually expand on what works best, while always testing new elements. Replace hit-or-miss marketing with a methodical approach, and watch your profits grow.
