302.382.0410
302.382.0410
If you learn from these four mistakes, and develop a smart marketing plan void of any of the following, you will soon develop an unstoppable marketing mindset that will make you successful, happy and potentially wealthy beyond all of your dreams!
Sounds too good to be true?
It’s not! And the only thing stopping you from attaining everything I promised above, will be your ability to place marketing at the top of your business building priority list. The only truth in the world of business is that if you fail to market yourself each and everyday, you will struggle to reach new customers and increase monthly profits.
These four common mistakes are not due to a lack of caring, motivation or pig-headed discipline. No my friend, they simply occur as a result of the business owner, that’s you, losing focus of their goals. Their marketing goals!
And I guess that’s a subjective statement, because they may have not had any to begin with.
Your business’s day to day operations often distract you from more important tasks, tasks that deserve your undivided attention. When we lose focus of why we attempted to build a business in the first place, our dream will eventually become one of the most despised four letter word in the English language.
WORK.
And when running your business gets tossed into the mental filing cabinet with a fat label that reads WORK, you know you’re on a path to entrepreneurial destruction.
Today, I’m here to toss you a lifeline, and break down the four most common marketing blunders. And when I refer to marketing, I am not simply referencing your Yellow Page ad, that direct mail piece you sent out last month, or your business Facebook page. No, I am talking about marketing from the ten thousand foot perspective. The all-encompassing vision of your business, as it is viewed through the public eye.
Track freakin’ everything! Never lift one finger to promote your business, unless you have the ability to answer the question, “did that action help increase sales and draw customers to my business?” If you can’t say, and without a doubt, yes or no, then it’s back to the drawing board. Now, I know that not every single effort you make to gain public awareness is easily trackable, but you’re smart, and you’ll be able to tell within a short time if your motions were worth the timely investment. If not, reevaluate, make modifications, and try again. If the second round is a bust, you may be wasting your time.
*On a side note, not every marketing effort will yield an instant response. Print ads for example, need to be seen by the same person an average of three to five time before it registers in their brain. Not a steadfast rule, but something to keep in mind.
For more information on tracking your advertising, check out this post!
WOW! Really? The truth is, that without them, you have nothing. They are the life-sustaining force of your business, and you should treat them as such.
How long does it take you to greet someone after they walk into your door? Do you take the time to learn and memorize their first name? Do you ask them how their family is doing?
The lifetime value of your customer is a number that leaves most business owners speechless. Let’s break it down, and use the food industry as an example:
Say Joe and Kim come into your place to dine once a week. They order on average, $30 worth of food. Taking into account some off weeks due to holiday’s and such, we’ll report they are actively dining their 44 weeks out of the year. That’s approximately $1,320 a year.
Again, this example does not factor in employee wages, taxes and utilities, but we’re being pretty general for the sake of brevity.
Let’s estimate that Joe and Kim, based on their history, will keep this up for five more years. That works out to be $6,600 invested in your restaurant over a five-year period.
And that’s just one couple. How many “regulars” do you have? When you begin to treat your customers based on their lifelong value to your business, you’ll start to notice that number aggressively rising. People want nothing more than to be acknowledged for their commitment to your establishment.
Engage every customer as if they were spending $6,600 on a single visit, and you’ll be on the fast track to success…I promise!
That’s an easy one to fix! Just stop being boring. Allow me to build on that command. A customer is presented with a choice every single time they want to buy something. Think you are the best act in town? With online options now becoming a real problem for brick and mortar businesses, it has never been more necessary to make your business FUN!
What’s in if for me?
The number one question asked by a potential customer. Why should I get in my car, drive across town and spend my hard-earned money in your store? It’s your job as a business owner, and a marketer because they are one in the same, to provide them with an attractive answer to their question.
And being a boring business doesn’t make answering that question any easier!
Do you remember what it was like to have fun? Don’t force the act making money to become boring. You’ll make more of it once you decide to loosen up, and enjoy life.
Related post: How to be less boring! “Your ad reminds me of the color beige”
So you HATE Facebook! I get it, it’s not your thing, but the fact remains that it very well might be your potential customer’s most aggressive addiction. They share, Tweet, comment, post and LIKE stuff on social media every single day.
And often several times a day!
Why would you ever avoid being a part of that conversation?
Remember, your business is not about you. Sure, you maintain the majority share of the decision-making, but ultimately, without leveraging technology to increase business awareness, and share your story, who will care what you have to say when your business is closed?
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Along with blogs, websites and email are all changing the way in which customers communicate.
Choosing to ignore this change would be similar to you sitting by your telegraph waiting for someone to place an order! It’s not to that extreme…YET, but chances are pretty dang good that within the next decade or so, your landline telephone will be resting right next to the telegraph in the communication graveyard.
I just hope your business isn’t lying next to it.
You must adapt my friend. Having the ability to adapt is what separates the success stories from the failures.
And I for one want to have my story listed under the headline:
P.S. To get your FREE copy of our Ebook The Very Best of Bent Business Babble: Volume 1, and continue mastering the art of small business marketing…CLICK HERE!
photo credit: Caro Wallis via photopin cc