Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Marketing Resolutions

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It’s that time again, when we make our New Year’s resolutions. Maybe this is the year you plan to get organized, stop smoking, or finally lose those extra pounds you’ve been carrying around. Of course, many people make ambitious resolutions every year, and then fail to follow through. Here is how you can make resolutions to create positive marketing habits, and make those habits stick.

Choose just a few things to do–or even one. The more things you try to do at once, the greater that chance that you won’t keep to your resolutions. Choose one, two or three things you will do this year.

Make your resolutions “do-able.” They should be ambitious, but not overwhelming. Do-able resolutions might include sending one press release a month, joining a professional association and attending at least 80% of the meetings, writing one new article each month and submitting the articles to newsletters and article banks, setting at least three sales appointments each week, following up with ten customers each month, etc.

Your resolutions must be specific. Note the examples above. Not “Make more sales appointments,” but a specific number.

Write them down. When you put them in writing, the resolutions become real. Post your resolutions above your desk or anywhere you will see them often.

Make a plan. How will you work these actions into your schedule? Put them on your calendar and treat them as important appointments. Put the meeting dates for your association on your calendar now, before it starts to fill with other obligations. Choose a day each week or month when you will do what you have resolved to do.

Reward yourself. Promise yourself something you enjoy when you keep your resolutions. Don’t wait until the end of the year. It’s March and you’ve sent press releases every month so far? Get a massage, go see that movie you want to see, or buy yourself a little treat–and pat yourself on the back.

Enjoy your success. If you are in the habit of marketing on a regular basis, you will start seeing results. Remember that marketing has a cumulative effect, so expect that even if you don’t see huge jumps in business right away, you will start to see results and those results will snowball over time.

Feel free to revise your resolutions. If something isn’t working, stop doing it and start doing something else. But when you see successes, you may be inspired to increase your efforts and do even more of what is working.

Have a happy and prosperous new year!

Do You Want Fries With That?

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Suggestive selling is a powerful tool that can increase your revenues–and your bottom line–significantly. We are all used to the order taker at a fast food place asking if we want fries with our burgers, or if we would like to “Jumbo-Size” our orders, but suggestive selling can work in any business.

Shoe stores suggest socks or polish to go with your new sneakers, hair salons recommend styling products, and stores selling electronics offer an extended warranty on the gadget you just bought. In each case, the business encourages the customer to add on to the purchase they are making.

Upselling can be done in person, on the phone or over the Internet. Many online shopping carts allow you to set up a product-specific upselling page. That means that when someone orders Product A, they get the suggestion that goes with that product. Someone who orders another product receives a recommendation appropriate to that product.

Here are some tips to make suggestive selling work for you:

Make the suggestion after the customer has made a commitment to buy. Don’t try to add on to the sale before the customer has made a firm decision and is in the process of buying.

Upsells should be related to the original purchase. An upgrade, a warranty, accessories, or something else that adds on to what the customer is buying can be effective. The customer is more likely to see such a suggestion as helpful than as simply a sales ploy.

Consider making the upsell a “two-fer” offer. Because the customer bought one item at regular price, they are able to get a second at half price.

The add-on product should have a lesser cost than the base purchase. Suggesting batteries to go with a radio works. Recommending a radio to go with a battery purchase doesn’t.

Don’t hit customers with a lot of upsells. One (or possibly two) is enough. Badgering them to buy more can backfire and maybe even kill the sale completely.

Make sure employees and order takers are making upsell offers to customers. Remind them of the importance of doing so, and consider rewarding them for great results, or even when you “catch” them upselling. Give telephone order takers a script that includes a suggestive sales offer.

Done properly, an upsell is helpful to the customer and builds your profits as well.

Holiday Cards

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Did you mail cards to your customers this holiday season? Lots of businesses do, so your card may be one of many sent to your customers and potential customers. To stand out, try something different next year–send cards at times other than the traditional holiday season.

Is there a holiday that has a natural tie-in with your business? Consider sending cards for Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, Halloween, or a seasonal event such as back to school or spring.

Send cards at Thanksgiving to remind customers that your relationship with them is one of the things for which you are thankful.

Create a reason to send cards, such as a holiday of your own. For example, a business coach might celebrate Goal Setting Week and send inspirational cards to her clients.

Recognize special events all through the year. Send birthday cards or mark other client milestones such as opening a new location, celebrating a business anniversary, receiving an award or achieving a publicity success. These special and unexpected greetings will be remembered long after a traditional greeting card is forgotten.

See It, Hear It, Do It

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Although we assimilate information differently, most of us learn best when we get information multiple times in different ways. This means to best communicate your marketing message you should make it available in several forms.

We absorb information in three basic ways: visually (see it), aurally (hear it) and kinesthetically (do it). While we use all three ways to learn, most of us are strongest in one way. For example, most of the time I learn best visually and least effectively aurally. Kinesthetic learning falls somewhere in the middle.

Written materials and photos aid visual learning. Use brochures, fliers, your web site, video (on DVD, tape or the web), articles and reprints, and similar media to get your message out visually. Don’t forget about publicity in print media and television.

The spoken word creates aural learning opportunities. Advertise or do interviews on radio, present speeches and seminars, or distribute audio tapes.

Kinesthetic learning takes place by doing. Include interactive exercises or instructions at your web site or on CD, put on live product demonstrations where customers can try your products themselves, offer samples, and otherwise get customers involved with you and your products.

The best marketing reaches people many times and in many ways. Don’t settle for less.

Show Your Stuff

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Your customers may need assurance that you not only have the skills to help them, but that you understand their needs. Show them, and you can make the sale.

Offer a free consultation. Meet with the client to learn about them and see how you might be able to help them. Start by listening as they talk. Ask questions, take notes. Then, use what you have learned to propose the products and services that will be best for them.

Put on a free workshop. Invite clients and potential clients to hear information that will show them that you are the expert in your field. For example, one consulting firm did a survey of trends in health care costs and presented the results as a half-day seminar.

Publish a white paper. White papers typically cover a specific topic in some depth. They may be sold, or you may give them away as proof of your expertise. Many white papers are now offered as downloads, rather than printed on paper. If you choose this route, make sure requestors have to register so you have their names and other contact information to follow up with them later.

Publish articles and case studies in trade magazines and journals. Not only will the articles present you effectively to potential customers, you can use reprints of the articles in your proposals and press kits.

Offer yourself as an expert to the media. Editors and producers are always seeking sources they can turn to on stories. Send a letter outlining your credentials to media, along with a list of topics on which you can assist. You may find yourself turning up on the news in no time!