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IS YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
KILLING YOUR PROFITS? By Charlie Cook
With the wrong marketing
strategy you could be killing your profits and limiting your business. Your
marketing strategy is like the driver in a car, with marketing tactics being
the engine. If you know where you want to go and how to get there, your
marketing tactics will help you attract many more clients, if not you could
crash.
Every business uses one or
more of the following tactics to attract clients; mailings, advertisements,
phone calls, networking, promotional events, a web site and sending
email. If you use any of these and aren't attracting as many new clients
as you want or making as much money as you'd like, the problem may not be
the tactics. It's your marketing strategy that needs attention.
Without an effective
marketing strategy you won't achieve the results you want, no matter how
much time and money you spend. A high profile radio ad campaign won't help
you grow your business unless it includes a message that attracts your
prospects. An article about your firm in a newspaper can bring in business
or just be a conversation piece. Email messages you send can end up in your
prospects' delete bin or prompt them to contact you.
Mailings, radio
advertisements or web sites are only delivery vehicles for your marketing
message. They are the tactics you use to implement your strategy. Are you
using the right strategy to market your business?
What are the fundamental
principles of your marketing strategy? If you can answer this question,
you're among one percent of business owners who can. Most people think
only about their marketing tactics or vehicles and wonder why their
profits aren't growing as quickly as they would like.
Business-Building Marketing
Strategy To grow your business you need to:
- Define Your
Goals Identify where you want to take your business and what you want to
achieve. Other than making more money than you are now, have you written
down a vision of what you want your business to be two years from now? Five
years from now?
- Target Your
Marketing Most small business owners waste their time and money pitching
too broadly. Do you have an effective method for identifying the people who
want your products and services?
- Use a Problem Solving
Approach Over 95 percent of small business owners focus their marketing
on the reasons people should buy their products and services, not on their
clients. Is your marketing focused on client's concerns and problems or on
yours?
- Demonstrate
Value Getting your name in front of people is a first step in marketing,
but if your prospects don't know what you do or how you can help them, you
haven't achieved your goal. Past clients and prospects may have only a
limited idea of how you can help them. Do your prospects understand the
range of problems you solve and the solutions you provide?
- Build
Relationships Every past client and prospect who has shown an interest
can help you grow your business. Most service professionals know this
but waste this resource through lapsed or infrequent communication. Do you
have a method for staying in touch on a monthly basis with every person who
could help you grow you business? Do you have a strategy for growing the
number of qualified prospects on this list each week?
Many people find that
defining their marketing strategy is the hardest part of their job. So hard
that many small business owners use a tactical approach instead. Don't
make this mistake!
Once you have clear
marketing goals and a well-defined strategy, your marketing will be more
focused and you can make more effective use of appropriate marketing
tactics to grow your business. Shift to strategic marketing and you'll
turbo charge your marketing and your business. - 2004 © In Mind
Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. - The author, Charlie Cook,
helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients
and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Guide, '7
Steps to Grow Your Business' and the 'More Business' newsletter, full of
practical tips you can use at http://www.charliecook.net
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