Getting the Most out of Marketing Your Business

1. Cut the waste, but be careful not to over-prune

You can be pretty certain that the Pareto principle applies to marketing efforts that are left to sprawl. In other words, 80% of your successes come from only 20% of your marketing efforts. You therefore have lots of opportunity to cut activities that yield no results if you have not been pruning your marketing activities before.

But be careful, because unlike functions such as production or administration, the results of your interventions in the marketing side of your business are not always immediately apparent. Making contact with a customer for the first time may not persuade him immediately, but may be the crucial first step in a whole series of contacts that will result in a sale in six months’ time.

Subject your marketing efforts to the same rigid cost-cutting and efficiency that every part of your business has to undergo in these tough times, but when you do so, remember that the results of marketing efforts are often pending. It can take years of constant attention and experimentation before a business owner can be sure which marketing plans actually work.

2. Mine your existing customers

It is a well-established fact that winning over a new client generally costs six or seven times more than winning repeat business from an existing customer. Although some component of your marketing plan should always be aimed at gaining new customers, a strategy to sell more to your existing customers will almost always yield more results.

Simple systems such as sending a note to a customer thanking him for a purchase, together with a special offer for an additional buy (plus a deadline to create a sense of urgency) can work wonders.

You should also incentivise your existing customer base to send business your way. Offering them a discount or a bonus for every new client they introduce is only one way of doing it. Some businesses take a much more subtle, indirect approach. They make the customer experience so amazing that they will tell their friends and family about it.

3. Team up with a complementary business

Make a deal with a complementary business – an auto-electrician if you have a mechanical workshop, for example, or a card shop if you run a florist, to do joint marketing. You undertake to market the other business every time you deal with one of your clients, while they do the same for you. In this way, you get access to a whole new database of clients.

4. Don’t compete on price

Most owner-managed businesses are too small to compete based on offering the lowest price. That is the preserve of multi-national corporations that can leverage economies of scale to produce products at a price lower than you can get the raw material. Rather concentrate on quality, the warmth of personal service and flexibility to meet individual clients’ specific needs than on low price.

Keep this principle in mind whenever you offer discounts; use discounts as a gesture of goodwill, rather than creating the cheapest bargain in town.

5. Repeat your message

It is very difficult to measure, but some studies show that it takes about seven contacts to convince a customer to buy. This obviously differs from industry to industry, but whatever the average, the principle is that it will nearly always take more than one pitch to convince customers. Therefore, don’t do one pamphlet drop, and then drop the idea because the results were poor. Rather plan a series of them and evaluate it after the entire campaign. The same goes for mail shots, advertisements, door-to-door efforts, stalls, trade shows, in-store promotions and nearly any other marketing effort. You can also combine various forms of outreach into one campaign.

Remember that there is a fine line between reminding a potential customer often enough that you are there, and making a nuisance of yourself. You cannot repeat your message often enough through traditional channels such as billboards and advertising, but the closer you get to your customer’s personal space, the more careful you should be. For example, follow-up phone calls are important, but keep them short and infrequent.

6. Get a web presence

If your business already has a substantial internet presence, skip to the next point. If you are not online yet, you are making a mistake. Even if you are happy with your customer numbers at present, sooner or later your lack of internet presence will catch up with you as the world becomes increasingly wired. Google offerings such as Woza Online and sites such as Yola allow you to create amazing websites completely free of charge. Twitter and Facebook are completely free. If your problem is that you are not internet literate, do invest in some training courses. It will enrich your life as well as your business.

7. Beware the black hole of web marketing

It is extremely easy to waste your time online. Be very disciplined about the amount of time you spend updating your Twitter account, your Facebook page or your website. It is probably not a good idea to start a blog, unless you are an extraordinarily talented writer. Keep your web presence fresh and relevant, but do not overdo it.

8. Develop seasonal and special promotions

Most customers, whether consumers or trade clients, tend to purchase in cyclical or seasonal patterns. So, at the beginning of every year, it is advisable to work out a seasonal promotional calendar that is appropriate to your business. Always try to come up with unique and interesting ideas to cut through the general promotional clutter in both the trade and retail environments.

9. Unclutter your messages

Whether you are working on an advertisement, a pamphlet, a direct-sales call or a website, cut the message down to the bare essentials. Use as few words as possible, and push one special offer instead of a multitude. If you do this, you will immediately stand out from among the clutter.

10. Emphasise consistent quality

Whatever your investment in marketing, the basis of your whole effort lies in the quality of your product or service. It is not simply a case making the quality the highest in the market. An important part of your marketing strategy is to choose the right level of quality for the type of customer that you want to target, and stick to it. Do not try to sell hot dog rolls and gourmet meals from the same shop. An affordable, entry-level quality is just as valid a marketing strategy as a high-value, high-quality offering. Consistently staying on your chosen level of quality and communicating with the relevant target market is what is important.

This article was first published by Business Partners. Business Partners is a specialist risk finance company for formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa, and selected African countries. The company actively supports entrepreneurial growth by providing financing, specialist sectoral knowledge and added-value services for viable small and medium businesses