David Paget, owner of UKSMF Ltd – a free sales and marketing advice site, has put together 5 top tips to consider with your business marketing:
1. Know your customer – The first mistake many businesses make is not knowing their customers. Define your target market carefully through reserach and segmentation, then position yourself as different and as superior to your competitors.
2. Get your message right – A great way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis of your business. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – Write it all out on a piece of paper and you’ll be surprised at how focused this will make you in writing your message to your potential customers.
3. Features and Benefits – A feature is a great thing but it always needs to be backed up by the benefits of the feature. I.E. – “The stereo has a 500 watt output giving you great quality of sound”. The benefits will drive the customer’s impulse to buy against your competitors.
4. Always follow up – You’ve just done all of the hard work and attracted the customer to your product or service, spoken to the potential customer and engaged their interest….. So what do you do next? You need to schedule a follow up and make sure that you do it. Conversion rates can be dramatically improved just by following up properly. Even if you lose that potential it is still wise to follow up 3 months later – maybe they still need the offering that you have.
5. Keep your marketing efforts going – Even if your first efforts bring you 5 customers at once, if you stop marketing your business will become very quiet again. Even 10 minutes a day will benefit your business.
Try different marketing messages as some will work better than others, when you find one that works, stick with it. Running a business is about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration – stick with this motto and you should not go too wrong.
For more free marketing advice, visit their friendly community @ salesandmarketingforums.co.uk
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