Transcript Product (service)

Cost effective marketing
Ann Goodwin, FCIM, DipM,
Chartered Marketer
What is marketing?
• Not simply another word for selling!
• “The aim of marketing is to make selling superflous”
Peter Drucker
• B2B communications
– Need to let clients know:
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• CIM
You exist
What you are offering to do for them
Who else you have done it for
What makes you different from or better than other solutions
Keep reminding them
What is marketing?
“The management process responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying customer requirements
profitably.”
Chartered Institute of Marketing definition
http://www.cim.co.uk/resources/understandingmarket/definitionmkting.aspx
Develop your strategy
• Develop answers to 4 key strategic questions:
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Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How might you get there?
How will you ensure arrival?
• Why develop a marketing strategy?
Know your market place
• Check the health of your business from marketing
perspective
– Look for opportunities to maximise
– Threats to minimise
• Conduct a marketing audit
– Understand your target audience and what is important to
them
• Don’t just assume
– Consider the DMU
• Decision making unit
• Understand the purchasing criteria
• Ask questions
– Who, what where, when, how:
Understand your business
• Customers
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What would be good questions to ask customers?
• Competitors
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What questions would you like to know about your competition?
• Where did your business come from?
• Conduct a SWOT, PEST
• What business are you in?
– Revlon
– Xerox
– Parker
• 7 Ps
– Products, Price, People, Physical Evidence, Place, Processes,
Promotion
Product or market focused?
• Are you really customer focused?
– Do you give the customer what they want and value
• Not what you think they want
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But I offer a service so I must be market focused?
– Do you sell existing services to potential clients
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Rather than think about developing those services to meet clients’ continually
changing needs
Where do you want to be?
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Set SMART objectives
– Specific
– Measurable
– Achievable
– Relevant
– Timely
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Identify your planning gap
The Planning Gap
Planning gap
• Say £100k
• How could this be achieved
– 10 orders of £10k
– 100 orders of £1k each
• What do I need to achieve 10 orders?
– Say proposals have 1 in 4 success ratio
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On average for every 4 quotes I write 1 get one order
– If I speak to 10 people I get 4 enquiries and opportunities to quote
– To speak to 10 people I need to make 80-100 spin dials = 8 hours
activity
– To get 10 orders I need to make 1000 spin dials = 80 hours
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Is this feasible?
– Do we know who to contact?
• What can I do to improve my performance?
STP
• Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning
• What are the segments in your market?
• Establish your positioning
– What are you?
– Who are your competitors?
– Why will prospects want you?
• Develop a sales proposition
– The best proposition does do not shout
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Heard and believed, but rarely noticed
– Good sales propositions
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Quietly and skilfully slipped into a conversation or a written document
• USP – what you can offer that no-one else can
– If not unique then make it meaningful!
Who wants you? Finding your target audience
• Vertical markets
– Who would want a niche product, a complementary range of
services?
• Horizontal markets
– Which wide groups of users would want your product & service?
• Clients, middlemen and decision-making
– What will they be looking for?
• Geographical limits
– What is reasonable for you and your clients?
• Demographic targeting
– Consider business sectors, geography
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Identify Company names, Job title and roles, Individual names
• Psychographic targeting
– Finding clients who you know need your services
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To solve a problem they have
Features and benefits
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Features tell, benefits sell:
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F.A.B
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About your clients and your service
Sales letters, brochures & credentials presentations often
start with:
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Features, Advantages, Benefits
SO WHAT!!!!!
Be passionate
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Different target groups : different messages
Relevant and meaningful
We have been established for ten years
We deliver HR policies on Maternity, Sickness, Welfare
We have an office in Nottingham
We employ 5 people
Stop the urine disease!
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We, we, we, we, we
Talk about you, you, you
Benefits
• We have been established for ten years
– so that you can be confident that we are an experienced,
commercially viable company which knows what it is doing and
will not fold in the middle of a project
• We deliver HR policies on Maternity, Sickness, Welfare
– so that you can benefit from our expertise in that area and save
yourself time
• We have an office in Nottingham
– so that you can rely on us to be with you quickly should a
problem occur
• We employ 5 people –
– so that you can relax, we are small enough to care, but large
enough to ensure you have the necessary resources for your
project
• Customers only buy services to solve problems – the benefits
you offer must directly address their needs.
Benefit or positive words
New
Success
Simple
Free
Guarantee
Real
Discover
Unique
Natural
Extra
Now
Enjoy
Researched
Light
You
Save
Gain
Costeffective
Customised Carefully
15
What are the F.A.B factors of your
business?
Plan your 7 Ps
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Use marketing mix to gain competitive advantage
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Product (service)
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Price
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Online, at client’s premises
Physical Evidence
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Streamline, be more customer focused, cross selling
Place
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Who will sell, customer service support
Processes
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Introduce a low cost product or service that can be sold next to the premium
People
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What niche product or service can you deliver specific to that sector
Consistency, recognition
Promotion
Promotion
• Tactics to get you noticed
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Advertising
PR
Direct marketing
Web marketing
Selling
• Apply some professional PR and marketing
skills
• No approach will obtain business
– It’s up to you to convert
Advertising
• 50% works
– If you are lucky
• Great for brand awareness
• Generally not specific enough for small businesses
• Pay per click
– Cost effective tool
Media relations
• Cost effective promotional tool
– Free publicity
– Radio, Newspapers, trade magazines
• Identify and research publications
– Educate yourself about the media
– Identify individuals and feature opportunities
• Start an ideas book
– Engage with friends and family
– Look for ‘hooks” to create publicity
• What best publicity stunts do you remember?
– How could you adopt that for your business?
Attracting media coverage
• Gauge the types of stories that are hot
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Tie your business in with news, issue a statement on a situation
• Send letters to editors about industry or local issues
• Think of a way to present the story with a fresh angle
• Natural PR opportunities
– New product launch, Opening new premises, be different,
introduce new or improved
– Celebrate anniversaries, 10 years old, 1000th customer
– Announce a new member of your team
– Sponsor local sports team or art exhibition
– Announce publicity you have had
– Hold a competition
– Present an award
– Stage a special event, debate, or a demonstration
PR ideas to attract
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Offer a series of articles - Be the expert
Radio phone in
Product placement on TV programmes
Solve a problem, Create a problem
• Do something in a different way
– Be anti-corporate
• Attempt to set or beat a record
• Commission a survey – serious or frivolous
• Work with charities and develop community
involvement programme
– Donate products to charity events
• Team up with suppliers/customers joint publicity
• Become a figurehead in an organisation
– so that its publicity brings you publicity
Preparing a press release
• Develop the story
– Compelling headline
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Avoid clever titles– they can look amateurish
• Use AIDA approach
– Attention
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Have a strong introduction, powerful first paragraph to grab attention
– Create interest
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Move quickly to subject matter to develop interest
– Arouse desire
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Let the reader get to know a bit more about the subject
– Action
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Confirm how the reader can find out more or react to the news
Develop press release content
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Self contained paragraphs
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Use a quote – highly effective
Don't be patronising, long winded abusive, too woolly
Keep it short and simple
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Decreasing order of importance
A paragraph can be used as a filler if it still makes sense
No more than 2-3 pages double spaced typing
Only use acronyms after the letters have been explained in
full
Think about what kind of story the publication is looking for
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Does this release deliver?
Adopt the right tone, relevant to the publication
Consider tailoring the story with different angles for different
publications
Photographs
• Use photographs in your promotional material
• Interesting and relevant picture will increase
chances of publication
• Helps to attract attention
• Use a professional photographer if possible
• Use a caption
Wider PR activities
• Cross promotion opportunities with partners
– Joint newsletters
• Join professional associations
– Offer support speaking, writing articles
• Networking
– Develop strong elevator pitch
– Listening skills, develop relationships and trust
– Follow up as relevant
• Strong business card
– USP
– Photo
Word of mouth
• Referrals & recommendations
– Current and past clients
– Other professionals
– Ask for recommendations
• Networking
– Not just passing out business cards
– Get out and about
– Go to client sector events
Direct Marketing
• Communicate directly with your customer
• Develop a CRM system
– Identify personal details
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Refer to later, e.g., a birthday
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Tailor communication to relevant people
– Confirm the market segment
• Circulate relevant marketing communications
material
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Press releases
Emails
Post cards
Case studies
• Follow up with telephone call
Marketing communications
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Be interesting and relevant
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Sales letters
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F.A.B and AIDA, You - not we, we, we!
Personal, Relevant, Outward-facing, Polite
Mailers & profiles
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Short profiles can be mailed
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Encapsulate information without expensive brochures
Inventive invitations and unusual greeting cards
Clear objectives – what exactly are you trying to achieve?
Be attractive, visible and memorable
Consistent
Clear response mechanism
Brochures
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Clear information, readers will be interested in
What you do, results you have help clients achieve, how you do it, for whom you
do it
Efficiency and productivity gains
Client quotes
Be distinctive, memorable and consistent
Use minimum text, illustrations and good quality photographs
Testimonials
• Ask clients to provide them
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Use as case studies on your website
Create a blog around a case study
Have a short sentence to pick out salient points
Use in proposals
• Seek to have 5 quotable quotes from clients
• Third party credibility
• Ask clients for referrals
– Set up a process to encourage them
Web Marketing
• Website
– Build content around F.A.B
– Build content for search engines
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Key words, title tags, image descriptions
– Content is King
– Use photographs and videos
• Launch informative blog on your website
– Offer free information
– Arrange for an interview with interesting or unique
personality
• Online advertising
– Adwords, Facebook, Trade forums
Web Marketing
• Use social media
– Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube etc
– Link to your blog
– Position yourself as an expert and trusted source
• Forums
– Monitor trade and consumer forums
– Post responses
• Permission based emails
– Relevant information
• Use Google analytics
– Understand traffic
– Adjust tactics, strengthen call to action
Getting the business
• Credentials presentation
• Preparation
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Be clear why are you doing this presentation
What do you expect to get out of it
Be recipient focused
Telephone confirmation – get more facts
Use examples to support your claims
Listen & learn
Leave document summarising your presentation
Follow up with letter
If not successful ask why?
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If successful – ask Why?
• Proposals
– Written to stand alone
– Written to reflect your professionalism
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Accurate, comprehensive, well structured, well written
Terms of business
Selling
Success
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Activity
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Skill
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Attitude
Review your performance | Be honest | Seek to improve
Monitor and evaluate
• Is the plan working?
• Measure effectiveness
– Observation, experience and feedback
• People and attitudes change
• Customer complaints, ideas, suggestions
– Analysis of your communication efforts
• Level of enquiries
• Web traffic
• Newspaper cuttings
Resources
• Database
– Online, cloud systems now available
– Mailing, competitors, proposals, presentations
• Sources of information
– Use public data to help in your audit
• People
– Consider external support - how much can you realistically
do yourself?
• Money matters
– Power of marketing lies in the brain and not in the wallet
– Imagination, consistency and persistence – more useful
than cheque book
– Set targets in terms of fee income or gross profit
– Promotion v production –Opportunity cost?
Summary
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Marketing is an investment
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Develop a marketing plan
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Keep in touch
Be positive
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Local publicity stunts
Market promotions
Boring, inappropriate, irrelevant, bad releases and communication will not be
noticed
When you gain a client – KEEP THEM
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Devote enough time and energy to implement plan
Be persistent
Get creative
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Not an expense
Don’t buy into the negative, doom & gloom
Adopt your own proactive infra-red system
Your Proactive Infra Red for Marketing
Be ahead of your competition
Thank you
Any questions?
[email protected]
www.winmarketing.co.uk
Twitter:
@anngoodwin@winmarketing
LinkedIn:
anngoodwin