image source: www.getentrepreneurial.com

A customer success story can be a great marketing tool. It immediately creates credibility with your target market. It gives the prospect a taste of what you are about and what to expect, and it can be the tipping point turning a prospect into a customer in their decision-making process.

If you are wondering why you customers DO  buy from you marketing guru Laura Lake has some good ideas which I add my own thoughts to.

1. They are aware of your product. GET THEIR ATTENTIONConsumers  purchase products they are aware of. Your target customers know about your product . You targeting the right market with your message. Your message  is reaching those that  have an interest in your product. This does not mean you are doing more marketing, but you are suing the right marketing vehicles for your target customers is key.
2. They understand the benefits of your product. THE VALUE PROPOSITION IS CLEAR
   Consumers don’t buy products solely based on price. Now, this does not mean that they don’t factor in price, they do. Consumers buy based on the benefits your product brings them. You have asked your customers what the benefits of your product are, and you know. This is important. Your marketing is centered on these benefits so your consumers  take an interest in purchasing your product. You know the top  three benefits of your product and  you use those in your marketing message.
3. They  feel your product has perceived value. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME
   Consumers will buy products that they perceive as having a value. You  use the benefits of your product to create a perceived value and it is that perceived value that helps in the sales of your product.  You  create that perceived value in your marketing message.
4. They see how your product meets their needs. HOW DOES THIS  PRODUCT HELP ME
   Consumers know how your product meets their needs. They know if  it make their life easier, save them time, make them feel better? You know what need our product satisfies. You don’t make them guess or come up with the answer on their own tell them, you help educate them on why they need your product.
5. Your product is  accessible to them.HOW DO I FIND IT?
   Consumers buy what is  available to them. If they hear about your product and it is accessible, they will consider it. Consumers want ease in obtaining and using your product. You make your product accessible to them. It is in different locations.  It’s offered online.

6. Why should I buy from you including any other option I have, including the option of doing nothing? Today people have defaulting to doing nothing. Not a compelling message that drew them in and do something.

7. Better sales people – consistently throughout the sales process in the customer voice communicated why this product or service was important to their business and the value it had to them in resolving their business issues. (Huthwaite)

8. You understand your customers. Why do your best customers buy from you? What stories did you use in the sales process that reasonated with them? Why did they choose to buy from you? The information is in your customer’s head.

Great webinar on value propositions from Steve Rankel

Steve talks about sales friction.  How to create a killer value proposition – it is a crystral clear statement about your product or service that:

1. Solves a problem

2. Delivers some benefit

3. Improves their situation

Delivered in a compelling way that gets you to the next step…

Predictable Results in Unpredictable times. – Stephen Covey and others.

Talks about high trust teams. 3 trust building activities in a crisis

1. Create transparency and candour – especially if trust is low. Too many hidden agendas.

2. Keep your commitments – failing to complete commitments depletes trust. Be careful about the commitments you make and keep the ones you do make!

3. Extend trust to your team – build trust by extending it. Distrust breeds distrust. Case study on a formula one racing pitt -team Ferrari teaching a cardiac heart surgeon team how to work better –really interesting.

Individuals don’t get anything accomplished. Teams get things done.

I downloaded this from audible.com

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz.

Sernovitz shares his “Word of Mouth Manifesto,” which every business owner should read :

1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.
2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.
3. Ethics and good service come first.
4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).
5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.
6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.
7. Be interesting or be invisible.
8. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.
9. Make the story of your company a good one.
10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.
11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.
12. Honest marketing makes more money.

Generation By Iggy Pintado

Pintado, a former IBM and Telstra heavyweight, looks at how the new communication technologies are changing Australians’ connection with each other and assesses the impact on our personal and professional lives.

Perhaps Pintado is right in suggesting that online success eventually comes down to:

• Being clear about your online purpose. Is it is socialise, build a brand or share information with like-minded people? For Pintado himself, life lived on the net is about maximising the amount of information, ideas and opportunities available to him.
• Selecting the most appropriate platforms that fit your need and niche and then actively participating to build profile, increase connections and become trusted.
• Being persistent because like all else in marketing, if you want online success you must continually work at it.

I was with a client the other day I it made me ask the question, do small businesses understand the mechanics or the business operating system of their business and how to control and leverage it? I would have thought so, but it does require some strategic thought.

Here are some of the questions I would be asking:

1. How do we make money? What is our unique selling proposition.
2. Who are our key customers? What do we know about them?
3. What do our customers love about us, what do they want us to change?
4. How much is the cost of sale for our service or product?
5. How much does it cost us to create a lead?
6. Who do we market to?
7. How do we communicate and market our offering?
8. What is our operating profit?
9. What are our goals for growth?
10. What are our goals for our company?

The mechanics of your small business system once you understand can be tweaked for optimum effectiveness. The right marketing strategy can be the difference between attracting the right customers and throwing money down the drain.

Having a well considered business strategy and reviewing it year on year means you have a plan and a measure to benchmark success and failure against.

So do you understand your business mechanics?

How much of our time as small business owners is spent going through the motions rather than setting ourselves a purposeful path and following it. I have been doing some research in this area and I believe the process starts with knowing ourselves and then purposely creating the desired outcomes for our business, family and ourselves by having a personal mission statement. Here is a link you can use to create your mission statement:http://www.franklincovey.com/msb/missions/login This along with Stephen R Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are a good starting point. Covey covers in his book: He talks about:

• Being proactive – be the programmer – how to lead
• Begin with the end in mind – mission
• Putting first things first – priorities
• Paradigm of interdependence – do it with others
• Think win-win – best outcomes and mindset
• Seek to understand first – seek insight
• Synergize – 1+1= more than 3

Resources

Five steps to building your personal mission statement.

Mission statement builder

How to write your mission statement video

Surely a starting point for any small business is to profile their ideal customer. I mean have a clear vision of who they are. More than just a vague idea. The clearer you are able to describe your ideal customer, the greatest chance of you being able to attract them, maintain them and have them as devoted customers for the long term.

http://www.thomasnet.com

Understanding your ideal customer even if this means paying a consultant to run a workshop can be the best marketing expenditure you ever do. Make your marketing effort work by focusing on more of the right customers and less on the wrong ones.

Know where they shop, what they read, how they like to communicate and then tailor your marketing mix accordingly. Yes, it is that easy!

Rain Today have a great podcast on identifying a universal lead to find ideal clients. Have a listen.

A really fast way for a small business to get up to speed with marketing and new marketing technologies is to listen to podcasts. They have an advantage over many other mediums.

• They are current – you have access to some of the thought leaders in marketing today
• Quick to listen to – most are under an hour and provide great insight and entertainment
• You can download them from i-tunes for free – it cost you nothing more than your time and you can listen and do something else at the same time like drive.
• You are directed to other ideas and information so have a pen handy

1. Duct tape marketing -Small business general

2. Professional services marketing – Rain today – Professional services marketing and selling

3. Hubspot TV – Internet and social media

4.SmallBusiness Big Marketing – General small business marketing tips

5. Marketing Geek – General small business

6. Six Degrees of Seperation – Internet and social media

7. Dishymix – Thought leadership and business strategy marketing

8.10 Golden rules of Internet Marketing – Internet ideas and marketing tips

9.MacInnis Marketing – Marketing basics

10. Help my business sucks – Business basics

So many business people and are frustrated marketers. They really want to understand how to market their business. What most of them end up doing is a piece meal effect, rather than putting together a planned strategy to build on year after year. Most of my clients now recognise that marketing is a part of the business mix. It is not something that you turn on and off if you want it to have a lasting effect.

To help those who are keen to understand marketing I have put together a course on line that walks you through the basics. Whether for yourself or your admin I think you will find it useful.

Sign up today! It’s free.

The other day a work colleague asked me for some feedback on their personal value proposition or personal brand. It struck me as a really good idea. Just like a corporate brand it is what others say and how they perceive you that amounts to your personal brand, not what you think necessarily. However, knowing yourself is very important when establishing your personal brand. Your authentic self should shine through and this allows you to be the best you can be.

What is a brand from Wikipedia: Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service or personality.

Why do we need to do this?

•Establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. It establishes your expertise, authority and value.

•Build a solid reputation within your industry.

•Increase your notoriety and improve your perceived value in the marketplace.

•It sets you apart from your competitors.

•It reflects your core values, personality, talent and skill set.

•It increases your credibility, especially if you can harness the power of the media.

• It creates a success spiral that can boost your health, wealth and career.

How do we do this?

We need to know who we are and what our strengths and weaknesses are.

•Your values

•Skills

•Talents

•Leadership style

There are lots of tools and resources out there to help you accomplish this. Myer Briggs tool : •http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

www.aboutpeople.com

Feedback – candid feedback from your friends, staff and peers You can do a 360 profile that provides feedback depending on your role or just ask for it continually.

The http://www.greenlightcommunity.com/ is a group that can help develop your sense of self. Having a mentor or as Keith Ferrazzi states: ” isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about enlisting others to help you become the best you can be”.Keith’s philosophy is all about creating an inner circle of “lifeline relationships” – deep, close relationships with a few key trusted individuals who will offer the encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support that every one of us needs to reach our full potential.

To build a personal brand based on credibility the formula is: Competence + Character + Consistency = Credibility What is your area of competence? What is your character? How are you consistently true to these things? Once you understand what you stand for and what you personal value proposition is the you need to market it.

Marketing your personal brand can be as simple as knowing you are and being transparent about it or can involve a marketing plan for yourself to establish your credibility with the audience you are targetting.

Resources:

Personal branding blog

Marcus Buckingham

Mashable: Personal Branding 101.

Personal Brand vid

Luke Harvey Palmer - personal branding blog

Small Business Big Marketing podcast

I have been working with a client over the past few months and we have been going back and forth with marketing strategy and in the end we have had to come back full circle to what is their vision. It has made me ask many questions. Here are a list of strategic questions you need to answer before you can move forward in implementing any marketing strategy.

Make sure you get all of these sign off and right.  It is worth spending the time on these as it will ensure that your objectives are right and then you focus on the right strategies to execute.