Recently I have been asked to speak at a number of online events and I am obsessed with research. I have identified 3 things that most business owners do every day that is having a dramatic effect on your business and your bank balance
1. Assuming! “I know my market needs this” – Really, do you really know they need that? Or have you assumed that? When was the last time you asked them what they need? The best way to find out what your clients/potential clients really need is to ask them. Talk to them, listen to them, they will tell you what they want. You can then go back to them and say – “I have the perfect solution to the problem you raised” For example – I know that my market needs a marketing strategy, will they buy it – NO! What they really need is clients through the door asap. So I help them get clients through the door. They don’t care that I am using tools such as marketing strategies. Sell them what they want and give them what they need.
2. No Clear Calls to Action! The ration is 4:1. For every 4 marketing messages you put out to the market, one needs to be a call to action. Often they are buried at the end of the message, email, social media post! It needs to be in the headline, or on the image. You need to ask your audience if they want to buy from you. It is not their job to call you, it is your job to make it easy for them to buy by explaining why!
3. Brand Marketing There is a massive difference between brand marketing and SME marketing. The main one is the cost involved. Brands have to do a lot of marketing as they have big audiences and need to stay top in the mind of their customers – hence the big logos, flash adverts, etc. Nobody really knows Marketing Without the BS! so when they see it they dismiss it. My marketing has to talk about them. It has to connect with their WIIFM question in less than 6 seconds (What’s in it for me). If it doesn’t I have lost them, probably forever.
What does your marketing do? Does it contact big logos and images and very little context on why I need you?
Hit reply and let me know if you have been doing any of the above in your business recently?