Rogerson Kenny Business Accountants Melbourne
Marketing Your Business
These booklets are provide free of charge to our clients. Please click on one of the below links to see the index page - this should provide a good snapshot of the content provided. Please contact us if you would like to receive any one of these booklets. They are available for purchase for non clients.
Booklet 8.05 - Marketing Yourself - Key Points
Booklet 8.10 - Direct Marketing
Booklet 8.40 - Marketing for Small Business
Booklet 8.50 - Development of a Marketing Plan
Booklet 21.08 - Products and Services
Booklet 151.12 - Setting Retail Prices
Booklet 165.10 - Setting Charge Out Rates for Trades
Booklet 210.10 - Fee Setting for Professionals
Marketing
Marketing is one of the most underutilised resources for generating new business.
Marketing can take so many different forms and mean so many different things to different people.
Marketing is everything you do. Every bit of contact you have with your clients either enhances or harms your image.
By image, think of how a client views your business. Is it a cheap and nasty experience or an expensive, satisfying happy experience? Do they call up and get attitude or do they get a can do attitude and have their expectations exceeded at the same time?
Before you market to clients and potential clients, think about how you want your business and products to be positioned. How are you going to be viewed in the market place?
Below are some examples of how your products may be positioned in the market:-
- Quality products
- Quick service / delivery
- Premium pricing (usually indicates premium product)
- Cheap pricing (usually indicates poor value product)
- Uniqueness
- Long warranties
- Value for money (usually means quality products for a discount price)
- Poor quality products (usually very cheap price)
- Great customer service – all requests handled with a smile
There are many combinations of the above and it is likely that each of your products / services you supply to your customers, that the mix will be different. Depending on what products / services a customer buys from you, will impact on how they view your business.
A common issue that small and medium businesses encounter with positioning their products and business is: you have a product that is top of the line quality, yet it doesn’t have a brand name. The result of this unknown brand is that you need to discount it to sell it, you don’t make as much money as you should and your customers position the product and business as an average quality, value for money business.
Often, your current customers buy from you because the product seems ok (even though they haven’t heard the brand before) and they are more interested in the cheap price and next day delivery and personalised service – this is great!
However, you are frustrated, as your product is being seen as a cheaper, ok quality product – your not making the money you should. What can you do about it? What actions can you take to lift the price and perception of quality on your product?
This is the second part of positioning, and it is the “how” of what you need to do to position your product where you want it to fit into the market. See below for examples of ‘how’ you can position your product to be top of line quality, and your business be renowned for quick personalised service, with quality products that are worth the money.
- Testimonials – possibly the biggest influencing factor. If you have the right client giving you / your business / your product a great testimonial, about what you want to change about you, your business, your product, this is a great driver. In relation to the example above, work as hard as you can to get your product into a large, well respected client within your industry. Sell them purely on the quality. Have them write a testimonial about the quality and quality only of your product – share this with as many clients and potential clients as you can – put it on your website!
- Educate your clients / potential clients about the quality of the product. Tell them, prove it to them, take any challenge you have to so they can see the product is the same of better than what they are using
- > Have strong values. Don’t or stop discounting the product. Price is one of the most important factors for your clients / potential clients believing it is a quality product. Once again, educate them why the price is different ie. the price is higher, however you get x amount more units produced during a day, which actually makes you so much more money than what this product costs.
- Pricing – following on from the point above. A high price infers a quality, superior product. A cheap price infers an inferior product. Even a quality product that is cheap – people will ask the question “why is it so cheap? Is there something wrong with it?” Even if it’s a quality product at a cheap price, people’s perception will be that it is a cheap product
- Branding – quite a costly exercise for the small business operator. However, develop a brand that conveys what you are about and grow it, promote it and live it. Empower your staff about the brands values, image and goals.
- Get yourself Published – people read and further to this, people believe what they read. Become somewhat of an industry expert, get yourself published. This will grow your brand. Next time you see a potential client (and client for that matter) if they have seen you published, what you say will carry that little bit more weight.
- Have a quality website – you need to update your website to reflect how you want to be seen in the market. Customers and potential customers will visit this site. Don’t have it looking outdated, cheap and nasty. Let it reek of quality, professionalism and know how! Give people who visit your site value, don’t just make it a billboard – that’s what the yellow pages are for. Your website must be interactive and should be of interest to people in your industry.
So we have now worked out how you want the business / products you sell to be positioned and how you are going to do it, now the next step of marketing is the lead generation. Make no mistake, this is not sales, as we haven’t converted the lead yet, it is just all about how to generate leads. Lets get the phone ringing!:-
- Direct mail – one of the oldest lead generation mediums on offer. You can now segment your target audience quite well, there are a number of companies you can buy a mailing list from and make it specific to an industry, a location, and have the owner’s/managers/buyers name. Another way to send mail out is with Australia post. You can target a certain area and only hit businesses. This is ok, but a bit of a scatter gun approach.
- Fax broadcast – very hard to get the buyer or the person who you want to contact. To often, a generic fax would be handled at administration level and never see your intended person.
- Email broadcast – a very effective way of communicating with your clients and potential clients. There are a number of on line email managers, where you can up load your client data base and segment them and send them offers, new information, special offers, new products etc – very cheap and effective way of communicating. TIP… Make sure you offer something of value to the client.
- Referrals – ask your customers for a referral. They must have someone who you can contact, just ask! Do you ask your customers for someone else they may know who could benefit from your services? When was the last time you asked a customer for a referral?
- Passing Trade – this depends on how you want to position your business. If it is a retail store and relies on passing trade, location location location and signage – see signage down below
- Sponsorship – local sporting clubs, etc you can often target you potential clients well with a particular sporting club. Clubs are hungry for sponsors money, and will welcome you with open arms. TIP. Don’t settle for a your business name of the jumper and sign on the fence. Ask for speaking opportunities, to be introduced to people who may need / use your services, ask for the clubs mailing list so you can introduce yourself and your business to supporters / members / players and throughout the year, mail / email to the list special offers, new products etc.
- Telemarketing – a touchy one. Often costly and will irritate people if not done incorrectly. Depending on your business, it may be an effective way to pick up extra sales from existing clients. I wouldn’t recommend using this as a cold calling lead generation source. I think you need a relationship with the client before you call them to hard sell.
- Trade shows – a fantastic way to market to potential clients. You have an audience there that has interest in your industry. Talk to people, educate them, give them value and special trade show pricing – people are looking for deals. You may get some of your biggest customers doing this – a very successful way to display your products and business to customers and potential customers
- Advertising – TV, Press & Internet – Often very costly and quite hard to target a specific audience, as the two mediums cover such an array of people. Typically, your business needs to be of a reasonable size to warrant this type of activity. It can bring in lots of leads, but you need to be prepared to deal with the enquiries by having all your systems in place and be ready for the enquiries. The internet is a great way to advertise. It is an effective, low-cost, flexible tool to attract new customers and serve existing customers, no matter the size of your business. We use Google Adwords to help attract potential clients to our site. It’s costly, yet you can have your business show up whenever specific keywords are typed in. You only pay when someone clicks through to your website, so you know that the lead is at least looking for what you can offer. You must provide value for people visiting your website. It’s not an advertising page, it’s a place when clients / prospective clients can gain value out of you and keep coming back for more – until they buy or contact you.
- Sales person – the sales person takes many different forms these days: Business Development Manager; area manager; territory manager; sales rep; etc, whatever you call these people they are the face of your business. You need to employ people that will represent your business as you want it to be represented. Sales people are very expensive but are often a necessity in a market. Sales people need training, training, training and monitoring. Don’t leave them to their own devices. Reward them when they succeed, educate and manage them when they don’t. A great trait of a sales person is someone who will do the calls, day in day out and follow up on promises.
- Seminars, Teleseminars and Webinars – if you don’t know what a teleseminar or a webinar is, its time you found out. Great way to educate customers and potential customers about your services. TIP… you have to offer something of value to have people attend / listen in to a seminar, teleseminar or webinar.
- Signage – If you are a retail outlet that relies upon passing trade, signage is one of your most important communicators. Signage is very very simple. Less is more. Bigger, brighter, clean, clear, eye catching signage with one message is what will driver business through your door. You have a second to catch the eye of passing traffic. There are so many signs out there, that are small, cluttered and you can only read when you are standing 2-3 metres away. Your audience is in a car, driving past at 60 km/h. You have one chance. Make it a cut through sign that tells them exactly what you do. A clear, clean sign will position your business as a quality one. How often are the ratty corner shops covered in little A4 signs, that are old and peeling off? I drive right past those ones!
- Website – this is a must. You must have an effective website, that is more than a yellow pages ad. It must offer value, be a representation of how you want your business positioned and be good at collecting email addresses, so you can further communicate with potential clients via an email broadcast. Don’t be fooled, every customer and potential customer will visit your website. You must spend the time and money needed to get it right!
1. The 4 P's Of Marketing
Put more simply - this means providing the right PRODUCT at the right PRICE in the right PLACE with the right PROMOTION. This is often referred to as the 4 Ps of Marketing or your Marketing mix. Questions to ask yourself here are: What is your product? How do you determine its Price? Where and how do you sell? What do you do to promote your product to your customers?
2. Product
Your Product refers to the total package of goods and services you provide.
Your Product is everything your customer experiences whilst dealing with your business. Not just your core product.
It includes the original product, plus prompt and efficient service and the associated benefits to customers.
A Professional Service Provider’s Product includes the quality of documents prepared, the comfort of the service provider’s office and the way the client is billed for the advice/service given.
For further information, refer to Paper 21.08 - Products/Services.
3. Price
Price is everything that your Customer pays to purchase your Product.
It may reflect a cost plus profit approach; a percentage markup on wholesale prices; what your competitors are charging or what you think customers are willing to pay.
For further information, refer to:
Paper 151.12 - Setting Retail Prices
Paper 165.10 - Setting Charge Out Rates For Trades
Paper 210.10 - Fee Setting For Professionals
4. Place
Place is how you distribute your products to your Customers.
Where are your sales outlets located?
Do you manufacture or retail?
Do you purchase wholesale?
How many different businesses are involved?
For further information, refer to Paper 21.12 - Location.
5. Promotion
Promotion includes everything you do to get attention for your business and what you are selling.
Promotion can include:
- Advertising
- Direct Marketing
- Trade Promotions
- Public Relations
- Publicity
- Personal Selling
- Sponsorship of Sporting Teams or Cultural Events
Your Promotional activities should focus on telling your customers about all the benefits they will receive when they deal with you.
Once you have thought about and implemented some of the above, the leads will start coming in. Please see our sales section for ideas of how you can convert these leads to sales.
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