Here’s the thing, if you have responsibility for marketing within your business but you’re not a marketing specialist and it’s not your full time role, you may well be wondering right now how you can balance the need to increase your activity but without spending!
Don’t panic. There are some very simple changes that a business, even one with limited marketing experience and a small budget, can make immediately and these changes will help you to kick start your marketing.
So I have a challenge for all of you out there who need to get their marketing off the ground quickly but cost effectively. If you take me up on it, in just 24 hours you’ll start realising the rewards.
First things first, block a day out in your diary over the next couple of weeks and make sure you keep it 100% free. If you can’t find the time in the week, put a Saturday or Sunday aside, I promise you it will be worth it.
Right then you’ve blocked the day out, here’s what you’re going to do with it:
1. Review your customer base. It’s a proven fact that it’s far easier to encourage your existing customers to buy more from you than it is to find new ones. Split them into 3 main categories:
a. Your top customers (by spend, relationships and those who pay on time).
b. The customers who don’t buy from you very often or spend very little.
c. The rest should fall into the middle ground. They are neither your top nor bottom customers.
2. Ask yourself what new products or services can you communicate to them? How frequently you should be sharing information with them about what you do and what methods will be best suited to them, email, newsletter, seminars and so on. What special offers can you pass to them to encourage them to repeat buy. Is there anything you can offer your top customers over and above the rest and what can you do to encourage the smaller ones to spend more with you.
3. Now turn to your prospective customers. First of all you need to establish who you want to target. So look at your products or services and who buys them. Don’t keep it broad though, segment your audience as much as possible. Build a picture in your mind of your ideal customer. Consider what type of business they are, geographical location, number of employees, turnover and who within the business will be responsible to make a decision to buy your product.
4. Next decide how to find that data. Do you already have it, if so you need to make sure it’s clean and up to date. If not, look at online data providers such as www.marketingfile.com.
5. Now you need to plan your activity. So ask yourself what can you afford to spend on marketing and how much time can you dedicate to it? Do you have any existing material that you can update? What is going to be the most convenient and cost effective method for you to reach your target audience? Don’t just opt for emails because they’re quick and cheap if your potential recipient rarely sits in front of a computer. I’m a big fan of traditional letters, newsletters and hard copy material. They land on a desk and have a good chance of being picked up again rather than an email that is deleted straight away.
6. Make sure you set up a basic spreadsheet to start monitoring where your business comes from. You need to know how your new customers are finding out about you. Is it from your website, mailshots, emails or networking? Get in to habit of asking the question every time and recording it. It’s easy then to evaluate which marketing methods work best for you.
7. Now you’ve looked at your existing customers, identified your target markets, worked out the best methods to use and set up a measurement tool. All that’s left is to commit your ideas it to paper. Prepare a simple spreadsheet that covers the activity you will carry out over the next 6 – 12 months for your customers and your prospects and outline the costs. Print if of, put it in front of your PC and make sure you stick to it!
If you do all of that in one day and you stick to the schedule that you prepare making sure that you are pushing campaigns out regularly to the right audience, you are on your way to successful marketing!
I’d love to hear from you if you try it, let me know how you get on. To find out more about my 24 hour marketing challenge, call me on 0121 232 4656 or email me at clare@initiatemarketing.co.uk .