10
Powerful Tips for Successful Marketing:
by
Leslie Speidel
Traditional
marketing is obsolete! There is a new model:
customer-driven
marketing; marketing from the outside in; from mass
marketing
to niche marketing. Value, integrity, information...that is what
is
selling when you sell your products and services.
Here are tips, tools and techniques to enhance your product or service
business.
1.
State your Unique Selling Proposition. Tell your listener what it is
that
you do that is unique to you and your business. Market yourself just as
you
would market a product. Don't assume that your customers or prospects know
everything they need to know about your company, it's products or services.
2.
Establish a frequent buyer's club. Your customer will carry your club
card
with them in their wallet and be reminded of your business on a regular
basis. The club card is perfect for any service business that depends on
frequent repeat business.
3.
Develop "side services" that you can advertise in your direct mail. An
auto
repair shop may want to have a free car wash with an oil change. Side
services
are only those which cost you your time. You can make direct mail
work
for your bottomline.
4.
Create strategic alliances with like-minded
professionals
who sell products or services that complement yours. You will then be in
a position to quote, sell, and deliver an entire package without the added
overhead and inventory expense when your client wants everything delivered
from one source.
5.
Spend your advertising dollars based on a universe bigger than just who
you
currently view as your competition. Your competition is anyone seeking
the expendable dollars of your customers or prospects. It's not just the
businesses that sell the same products or services that you do.
6.
Acknowledge in your introduction who your target market is. Define the
relationship
between your business and the market that you serve. For
example,
"I assist physicians in their medical billing." This tells the
listener
exactly who benefits from your service.
7.
Stress the "core benefit" that your target market
receives
from doing business with your company. Tell them what the positive outcome
will be when they choose to use your products or services. "I assist physicians
in their medical billing so that they may have more free time to practice
medicine."
8.
Find an interesting magazine that will offer you
a
volume purchasing discount and give your clients a subscription as a
holiday
gift. Many magazines are set up to accommodate discount pricing for quantities.
Call
their subscription headquarters to inquire. You will be
thought
of every month when the magazine arrives in their mailbox.
9.
Send your success stories to websites that welcome participation from
its
readers. If it's unique and interesting, the website may post it
indefinitely.
This will be a good source of marketing if you remember to
put
your business name and e-mail address on your story so that people can
contact
you.
10.
Know what your business has that your prospect does not have.
Once
you are aware of what your prospect needs, you will have their complete
attention and most likely an invitation to follow-up with an appointment.
Implement even ONE of these tips today to create greater success in your
business. Which tip will you put into action today?
Leslie
Speidel has a national marketing coaching practice, is a contributing
writer
for several national business magazines and trade publications and
holds
monthly marketing workshops via telecommunications technology.
