Marketing is all about going to your targeted market, finding out what that market needs then provide a product or service that fulfills that need.  It is not the other way around, provide a service or product to the target market and convince them they need it!!

Recently we have been working with a number of businesses in earthquake affected Christchurch to create and implement robust marketing plans to help those businesses attract new clients.  Part of that process asks the business owners to find out more about their target market; what issues were they having that led them to the business in the first place, why did they ultimately choose that business, why do they keep coming back?  These are just a few of the questions we ask.

We then gather all this information and create really strong marketing messages in the words of the customers.  The purpose of this is to then attract other like minded potential customers with similar problems by making it easy for them to relate to the message they are reading.

This process works most effectively if you use the words of the customers.

One business recently had done all the research and developed their new marketing messages for a number of their services which was timely as they were about to upgrade and relaunch their web site.  On reviewing that new website prior to launch we noticed, although it looked more up to date, the content had not been changed to reflect the research they had just completed.

The problem was the owner of the business had filled their web content full of industry terminology, much of which you would find nowhere in the research.  To help the business owner understand how important it was to talk in the customers language rather than their industry language we analysed the search engine results for the customers words and the industry words for the same service and found some astonishing results.

With the service that generated the most income for the business the customers wording generated 6 times the search traffic of the industry wording and in another analysis report 8 out of the top 10 search phrases were in the customers language as opposed to the industry language.

So what is the message here, you have to resonate with your target market(s), connect with them to continue to attract more customers and command a bigger share of that market segment.  The only way you can do that is to talk in their language not yours and the only way you can do that is to talk to your target market.

Warning

It’s all very well having your website optimised for search engines but if you have done this using your industry jargon (which you will have if you have not talked to your customers!!)  rather than your customers words, you WILL be missing out on lots of traffic to your site and the potential to convert that traffic to paying business.

It has come to light this month how ever that one of my biggest clients or biggest source of referrals is not happy with something I am doing, the issue is easily changed but what really concerned me was that I never actually asked this company for any feedback … ever.  The reason for this was that this company regularly referred business to me, as a result of that I would get feedback from the people they referred which ultimately were the end user of my products.

Should I have been getting the feedback of this company?  Yes, because I was sending priced solutions through to this company for them to apply for funding on behalf of their clients.  Never did I think to ask whether or not my service to them was adequate, did my quoted solution help or hinder them in getting funding for their clients.  Because I did not ask, I very nearly lost a job for no other reason than I needed to add a little more detail in my process descriptions!!

How many of you could put yourself in these shoes?  How many of you don’t even ask the users of your product or service for feedback?  If you don’t know what your clients are thinking how can you possibly expect to continue to do business with them in the medium to long term?

Learn from my mistake, if you are not already getting feedback from your clients, start now!!

How many of you have not just been tempted but actually took action, to find out it wasn’t the cure you were looking for?

Due to the far reaching affects of the earthquakes in the South Island of New Zealand, there have been a lot of companies that have gone down this road, just to find that they got it wrong and in some cases have made the position of their business much worse – why does this happen and what should we be doing when times are harder for our business?

Stay Focussed

Never forget what has made your business successful, stay focussed on that product or service(s), especially if that is what your business has a reputation for providing to it’s market.  Start thinking about how you can continue to educate your market, maybe even look at alternative ways of accessing your market, is there a way you can get in before your competition can?   It is too easy to think “…maybe I should add another type of product” or “… maybe I should extend that service to include ……”   If you find yourself thinking this may I take this opportunity to ask you, how long was it before your current products or services was recognised and valued by your target market?  I’ll take a punt and say that it took months or years rather than days or weeks and if this is the case, what makes you think your latest idea will take off any quicker?

Plan Your Way Back To Success

If your business is slowing down, rather than panic, take a more structured approach to the problem, create a plan that will help the business get through this rough patch, think about the following:

• Why are the sales dropping, go back to the market and find out from your clients, both old and new, and find out what pressures they are facing that is causing them to spend less with you.
• Having identified the problems your clients are having, can you tailor your products or services to help them overcome some of these pressures?
• Look for alternative ways of getting your business’s message and its product or service to your target market, let me give you an example.  A cafe that specialised in “food to go” products (a bit like packed lunches) decided to capture more of the market by giving their clients the option to order their packed lunches at the same time they would order their breakfast whilst staying at a motel (typically the previous evening) effectively cutting out any competition for lunch the next day.
• Get some third party, objective advice about how best to go forward, often there is an obvious solution to help your business, you may not be able to see it because you are too close to the business.  An experienced business coach or mentor can be invaluable in a process like this.

Do Your Research

I’m not advocating not to diversify, if you are, you need to research the market thoroughly.  If the feedback from your customer research (above) suggests you could provide an alternative product or solution, will they purchase it, if they will, how much will they be prepared to pay for it and if other businesses already cater to this market, why would they use you over others?

If the feedback is all positive, then you have just identified something your business could successfully diversify to.  If the feedback is not positive then go back to the plan and stick to what you know.

What is a KPI?

Wikipedia states that “KPIs are commonly used by an organization to evaluate its success or the success of a particular activity in which it is engaged. Sometimes success is defined in terms of making progress toward strategic goals, but often, success is simply the repeated achievement of some level of operational goal.”

The key word in the above statement is evaluate, if you do not evaluate your staff’s performance then how on earth do you know if they are doing a great job or a terrible one …… that’s right, your don’t!  One of the biggest threats to any business is it’s staff performance, the only way you can keep them focused on what they should be doing is to keep them accountable.

With this attitude being firmly entrenched in our minds over the most recent years, we have been suckered into bigger and flasher websites, anything to out do the competition, then all of a sudden search engine optimisation (SEO) experts have invaded our business lives, telling us how they can get us to page one of all the main search engines, but what good is all that, if your potential clients don’t understand how your business can benefit them?

Every single one of my customer’s websites over the last couple of years, with the exception of one, did not have what I call a “resonating factor” that explained why I might need their services.  Yes their was plenty of information (on most sites) about what type of products or services they provide, but there was nothing about how they may relate to me ……. they had no “call to action”.

What Is A Call To Action?

A call to action is a statement or a series of statements that are the typical issues customers face that their product or service can provide a solution for.  There are a couple of rules about call to actions tat you should think about:

1. The call to action must be written from the customer’s perspective –  an effective call to action will replicate exactly what the potential customer is thinking about regarding their specific problem e.g. “this is the third time I have replaced this light bulb in a month, whats going on?”
2. The call to actions are brief statements, not stories - Keep them short, if your product covers a number of issues, list them separately or cycle through them to ensure you are connecting with enough potential clients.
3. They must be relevant - whether you are using call to actions on a website, brochure, advertising or business cards, they must be followed by a relevant product or service that could provide a solution.
4. They must stand out - call to actions are there to resonate with all potential customers, you have limited time (maybe as little as 5 seconds) to catch their interest so make sure it is in bold and any of the following statements talking about potential solutions are in normal font.

What a Call To Action is not!!

• It is not a statement about you telling your customer about their problems e.g. “Do you find your tenants don’t pay their rent?”  Believe it or not, it is far less effective than repeating back to them what they are thinking, even if the two statements talk about the same problem.
• It is not a promotion “buy one, get one free” these statements may promote a saving but that will not be the underlying reason why someone needs to buy that product.
• It is not something you guess, true call to actions, come from targeted customer feedback, and is ALWAYS in your customers words!!

I challenge you know to look at all your marketing media, do you have effective call to actions across them all, if you haven’t, how much business do you think you are missing because potential customers just can’t make that connection between their issues and your products or services.

If you want to find out how we can help you in this area, check out our Marketing Coaching Package for more information.

Norman, the inspiration for this site!

Since August 2009 when a Norman McKenzie, director of web design company Meta Solutions suggested to me that I create a “blogging” website for my business I have published a continual stream of blogs, most designed to give business owners the heads up on things to think about within their business, others were funnier blogs about my observations coming from the eyes of a customer and more recently my blogs were the only thing that kept me focused on my business through the most devastating natural disaster to hit our city in over a century.

When this site was first created, I doubted the wisdom of Norman, I didn’t “really” think I had it in me to continue writing, but he identified something within me that I hadn’t identified myself …. the level of passion I have for what I do!  The excitement I still get from putting out information, I believe will help others in business help make their life just that little bit easier, is always there and increases when my readers interact by leaving comments or sending me emails.

The blogging journey started off by launching a couple of blogs per week for the first couple of months, talking about marketing and how businesses can really refine their message to their target market by understanding the 5 principles of marketing, the feed back in the early days was limited and when I look back at the content, it was not as good as some of the later articles but it did put our website at the top of the main search engines for most marketing inquiries – they did their job.

One of the single most popular blogs I wrote was titled When The Journey Is Better Than The Destination, it was a more humorous blog about a weekend trip across the alps in New Zealand and what we faced at the end of it, during the trip we learned that New Zealand has it’s very own Rambo …….

From a business point of view the most well received blogs that had my inbox running on over time were Where Is Your Time Going? which talks about the modern day time vampires of business, the internet! Sales Rep or Account Manager? which highlighted to many that there was indeed a difference between the two and depending on the sales objectives of the business would very much influence the decision as to which would be right for the job.  Coping With Adversity was written after the biggest earthquake, a magnitude 7.1 hit Canterbury on September 4th 2010 and was intended to help local business owners keep focused on their business to ensure it was ready to trade as soon as the local economy started to pick itself up again.  This article had comments and emails from all over the world, from business owners who had experienced disasters like floods and tornado’s.

The most important blogs I have written since the creation of this site was the Christchurch Earthquake series – A Business Mentor’s Story, this series began after the earthquake of the 22nd February 2010 a 6.3 magnitude quake that brought our central city to it’s knees and left nearly 200 people dead.  From that day, we had no work for 6 weeks as business owners fought for their own survival and then the survival of their businesses.  To drag me out of my own dark place, I decided to write about what we (my family and I) were going through with a commitment to my readers that I would talk about what I, as a business mentor and coach, will be doing to rebuild my business, in a hope that I can inspire other business owners along the way to do the same.  This series went worldwide, with emails and comments coming from all over the world, all with words of support or sharing of their own similar experiences, this series kept me accountable and very definitely saved our business.

In my mind, the advice I received from Norman that day, in July 2009 was the best advice I think I received for my business, blogging is indeed a very powerful tool, ideal way of keeping your clients and followers up to speed with principals and experiences that can enhance their own business, of course it is also a great tool for ensuring the search engines know your site exists and ultimately blogging lets potential clients get an understanding of how you think and gives them a good indication of the level of experience you have within the industry, giving you the best chance of converting any inquiries for your services into paying work.

Where will the next two years take us, who knows, but two things are for sure, the earthquakes and their aftershocks will decrease and the economy will grow and we will definitely be around to experience both!!

When I have asked the question “Why are you concentrating on finding new clients now, don’t you have that focus anyway?”, the answers vary and some of them never fail to surprise me, the most common responses I get are:

• “This business has been going for years, we’ve always had customers, I can’t remember the last time I had to go and look for one!”
• “My customer’s are very loyal, my business has been built through word of mouth mainly, the problem now is, a lot of my customers are gone!”
• “I built up my business from nothing, I used to see all my customers, in the last couple of years I have been too busy answering to the demands of the business, I haven’t had time to go out and look for more customers”

Many business owners can’t remember how to effectively attract new clients to their business because they have been so used to the cycle of “success breads success”, for the record I don’t think there is anything wrong with that …… unless disaster strikes, that may be a natural disaster, it could be an economic or even an industrial disaster, but whatever the events are that have lead to a sudden loss of customers and revenue, as a business owner, you should be ready to put a plan of action in place to ensure you minimise the impact to your business.

There is a simple process that I take me clients through that will help them attract more clients:

Identify Your Best Clients

Before you can start attracting more clients to your business, you first need to understand your target market, the first step in this process is to understand your BEST clients currently.  What do I mean by best clients, they are the ones that buy your product or services regularly, they pay on time, they may have recommended your business to others and most importantly, they keep coming back!  You probably have a client or two in mind as you read this, I would ask you now, how good would your business be if you could replicate that good client by 10, 20, 50 or even 100, I’m thinking you probably have a smile on your face as if you have just won the lottery!!

Understand Your Best Clients

Now that you have identified who your best clients are, you need to understand more about them, the only way you can do that is by asking them relevant questions.  If you have a good relationship with your best clients (I hope you do!), the best way to find out specifics about them is to set up a meeting face to face, maybe over a coffee and ask your questions then.  What should you ask?  There are a number of areas that you need to find specific information, these are:

1. How did they find you in the first place (analyse your current marketing).
2. What problem did they have that led them to your business? (will generate future “call to actions”)
3. Why did they engage you to fix that problem? (was it price, knowledge, location …)
4. What solution did you put in place that took care of the problem?
5. Why do they keep coming back to your business?
6. Would they / do they actively recommend your business to others?

Develop Your Core (Marketing) Message

Now that you have your key information and have a better understanding of how you attracted your best customer, what issue they had and what solution you put in place to make that issue go away, you can use all that information and create a very powerful marketing message that will resonate well with similar potential clients.  The more of your customer’s words you can put into your marketing message, the more likely it will attract and resonate well with other potential customers and the more likely it will be that your client base will start to grow again.

This is old school marketing, this was how successful businesses always thrived, they understood their clients and used that understanding to attract other similar clients.  With social media, online marketing, websites, etc, people seemed to have forgotten or ignored the old rules!!  In my experience with the influence of online marketing, whether that is by using a website, Google Adds or any of the social media platforms, this has confused the business owner into thinking that if they have an online presence everything will be ok, their customers will come to them in droves.  It wont, because the back to basics marketing principles of understanding your target market still apply and unless you fully understand that process and put it into action, nothing will change!

If you are a Canterbury business owner and this article has got you asking more questions than it has answered, why not take a look at our up and coming workshop Target Your Growth, it may be all you need to give your business the help it needs.

If you are not based in Canterbury and you still have a lot of questions unanswered why not check out our book Marketing for Small Business, specifically written to help our clients through this process.

"Cost of training has always been prohibitive"

It now means that any “qualifying” NZ business who wants to develop their business in a number of key areas can now get help with the training they require through the Capability Development Voucher Scheme This scheme will provide funding for 50% of any training course cost(s) up to a value of $5,000 per year.

The NZTE have set up a network of “Regional Partners” around the country to help facilitate the scheme.  Each partner will help business owners assess whether or not they qualify for any funding, if they do they will then point the business in the direction of suitable providers for the training they require to take their business to the next level.

Do I qualify For Funding?

The following criteria will be used by the regional partners to identify whether or not your business qualifies for funding:

• Have fewer than 50 full time employees.
• Be operating in a commercial environment.
• Be registered for GST in New Zealand
• Be privately owned or a Maori Trust or corporation under the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 or similar organisation managing Maori assets under multiple ownership.
• Demonstrate a desire to innovate and grow.
• Have undergone an assessment with a Regional Partner

What Areas Can I Get Funding For?

There are a number of areas within your business that you can get assistance with, for more details, you will need to speak to a Regional Partner near you but here are the general categories:

• Marketing Strategies (Includes Sales Strategies)
• Business Planning
• Business Systems
• Finance (Including Budgeting)
• Business Sustainability
• Managing Resources
• Governance
• Lean Manufacturing / Business Operations
• Export

What Areas can Dave Sewell Ltd Provide Training For?

We provide training and coaching services in the areas of marketing, business planning and managing resources.  All of Dave Sewell Ltd training modules and workshops qualify under the Development Capability Voucher Scheme, for more details on the content of these check out our Products page.

If you have been thinking about making improvements in your business but cost was a prohibitive factor, now just might be the time to start considering getting the help needed to make that improvements happen.

Before we look at goals for 2011 there is something you should always do before setting these in place and that is to review the previous year, the highs and lows, what worked, what didn’t, relationships gained, relationships lost.  It is equally as important to review what has been achieved, what worked and what didn’t before you go about setting your goals for the next year!!

Look back on events, what did you learn from them, write it down, if the event is positive can it be replicated in the coming year, if it was negative how can you avoid something similar happening this year?

With last years highs and lows in mind, turn your attention to this coming year but don’t do this randomly, put some structure to it, I personally use the 5P’s of marketing to ensure I cover the most important aspects of my business:

Product: Look at your suite of products, which products gave you the majority of your revenue in 2010?  Is this likely to be the same in 2011?  If so give the business some specific product goals for this year.  If you are thinking about introducing new products, then create some goals around them, date of launch, sales targets, etc

Price: Look at your bottom line, did you pricing work last year?  Do you need to re-align your product pricing? Put some goals in place regarding what you want your pricing to look like by the end of 2011.

Place: Where did your business come from in 2010?  Is there room for your business to grow in this area (target market)?  Have you identified other potential markets where you business can grow?  Give yourself goals, revenue per target market and time lines around that.

Promotions: What worked for your business last year?  What times of year were they done and could this be replicated or improved upon in 2011?  Will you need to think up of new promotions to help potential goals in Product or Place?

People: What are your plans for developing yourself and your staff?  what is the cost of that development in money and time and how can that be fitted around other initiatives you have within the business?  Will one of your new products require specialised staff training if so you will need to plan training before the launch of the product.

There is quite a lot of over lap between the 5 areas above so it is always worth while taking some time out to set goals in each to paint a very clear picture as to where the business is going throughout 2011.  Remember, after every initiative is complete you must review it so you have a clear understanding how it has impacted the business, whether that is a negative or a positive impact.

Have a wonderful and prosperous 2011

Bring Xmas to your Office

Prioritise your Clients

The reality is that you have until 24th December to finish as many projects as possible and because of this it is vitally important to prioritise these projects, not by the size of the company but by the likely hood of getting the job done.  Not an easy task to do if you are not used to it especially if that big client is going to have to wait until the new year for the project to be completed.  This is your role as a business owner, to ensure your cash flow is as good as it can be and if this means differing that big client so that another company can pay your bills so be it.

Keep Your Staff Informed

During this last week is it important to communicate with your staff what it is exactly that you require finishing by the 24th December because without the full backing of your employees you will not get what you require.  Give them project updates every day this week, set them specific tasks which will get you and your business to it’s goals, listen to their ideas, they may well come up with a viable solution to one or more of the projects and most importantly remember it is Xmas the season to be jolly, have some fun!!

Short Term Incentives

Why not have a little incentive for all your employees, set the target at the start of the week, have the meeting first thing on Monday morning, listen to your employees feedback , agree on the goal and choose a reward, if you can let them choose their own reward (with set parameters that you can afford) even better as they are more likely to achieve it.

Set Realistic Expectations

The hardest job you will have to do is inform your clients that will not make the cut off before Xmas, don’t stick your head in the sand at this point, it is a reality and one that you have to deal with.  Inform all these companies that they will now have to wait until after Xmas to get their work completed, during that conversation set new time frames (ensure you are prepared before you make the call), commit to your client when exactly you can be finished.  No one likes to give or receive these calls in business but remember you client is also running a business and they will be going through the same process (and if they are not get them to read this article!) and will understand where you are coming from.

A little bit of preparation now will help that cash flow come through on the 20th January when your invoices are due, you will be thankful for it especially after having to pay out all that holiday pay!!

Have a wonderful and prosperous Xmas and New Year