How to turn sales prospects into raving fans of your business

How many times have you looked at the marketing communications of a small business and seen traditional brand advertising that is instantly forgettable? My guess is a lot!

 

I have spoken to many business owners who complain that their marketing doesn’t work, how fed up they are with throwing good money after bad and getting to the end of their tether on how to grow their businesses.

 

The simple fact is, spending money on brand advertising is more often than not a complete waste of money...probably!

 

I'm sure many of you will think that statement is a bit of a kop out. But the reason it is true is because most people don't actually know whether their advertising and marketing is working as they don’t measure it.

 

The only way to work out if you are achieving any return on investment on any of your marketing is by firstly deciding on what outcome you expect from any expenditure or campaign. If you expect the phone to ring off the hook every time you send put a direct mail piece or place an advert, then I wish you luck! This is rarely the case.

 

With the opportunities to use different technology, both on and offline marketing is primarily about building relationships with your potential clients and adding huge value so you build a reputation where your prospects know, like and trust you.

 

This is not about just sending out offers, promotions and discounts galore and in effect just giving away your margin with the aim of winning a customer who is purely looking for deals and you never hear sight nor sound of them again. If you continually add value, set you and your business apart from your competition by being different, then you have a far higher chance to being sustainable relationships. The key to this is focussing your marketing on building a database of prospects that you can prove your business has the knowledge and expertise to offer the best solutions to the issues they have.

 

Look at one of the world's most famous entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs. When Jobs first came back to Apple, he reallocated 80% of the budget for research and development and gave it to the marketing department. You see Apple doesn't necessarily invent new products, they make products that are already available better, more beautiful with better functionality and usability and then market them better than anyone else.

 

Apple then connects with customers and they become raving fans and advocates of their products and even though they have nowhere near the market share, their profitability is incredible as they charge premium prices.

 

Of course I am not suggesting every business owner can be another Steve Jobs but there are techniques and skills we can apply to how we market our products and services that create relationships with prospects that develop into loyal customer relationships. But to do that, it is paramount to think about your customer's biggest problems, needs or desires. Then prove how you can solve those issues by continually offering advice, tips, guidance and ideas.

 

You shouldn't be worried about giving away the best knowledge you have. If you are half hearted and just give away content that is basis and obvious, you will hardly "wow" your audience. Obviously you want people to opt in to your marketing, so to tempt them, you have to really flip their switch so they feel compelled to find out more!

 

There are so many ways to connect with your audience and different media are relevant for different people at different times so make the effort to connect with people in a varied way. From email marketing, blogging, direct mail, social media marketing; the list is endless, but ensure consistency in your messages and don't fall into the trap of worrying about how often your contacting people.

 

You can take the approach that works for many successful marketers that once your prospect has shown interest, you relentlessly contact them in a variety of ways so that they either buy or unsubscribe! This method is crude in that it is putting your prospects into two camps. They are either serious about buying or they are timewasters!

 

I believe that most of my prospective customers are more sophisticated than that so I don't stop marketing and trying to add value but after the initial interest when the marketing is more intensive, I tone down and just keep in regular contact but not as often.

 

Don't take offence when people complain about how much information and marketing communications they get from your business. The more people you reach out to, you'll find that the saying that you can't please everyone is true but as long as you stick to the rules of opting in and out and data protection,you'll be fine.

 

So focus on your customer, try to add value to them in every way you can and in the words of Winston Churchill, never, ever, ever give up!