Q.  What marketing methods are best for my business?

A.  This is a common question.  But in order to determine that you need to understand what is your target market.    Let’s use a fishing analogy to explain this.  Where would you go and what bait would you use if you were fishing for tuna?   Would it be the same if you were fishing for trout?   Of course not.

Q.  How do I define my target market?

A.  Ask yourself, what does my best customer look like?  Actually think of a real person.  Are they married? Do they have kids?   How old are they?  How much income do they have? How often do they buy from you?  Are they knowledgeable about your product or service?  Or are they looking for advice on the sale?  Do they watch TV?  Read the newspaper?  Online or actual paper?  We could go on and on, but the point is the more detailed a composite you have the easier it will be to determine, create and implement the correct marketing programs for your business.

This works even if you are selling to businesses rather than direct to consumers.   Remember, people buy from people not businesses.   What types of business people do you want to attract and to interact with?

Q I’ve got my target market clearly defined, what marketing strategies should I use?

A. This isn’t easy to answer without knowing more about your business, product or service.   But, we do know that in order for a marketing program to be successful it must be consistent.   What we mean by that is that it is reaching out to your market regularly.  That could be daily, weekly or monthly depending on your target.

Most suspects don’t convert into prospects, and once they do it generally takes  7-12 “touches “ to convert the prospect into a lead and then a customer.

Therefore your strategies should be things that you are comfortable doing, because you must be consistent on your activity if you are going to have success.

Q.  Seven to twelve touches?  Does that mean I have to call them that many times?

A.  Yes and no.   If your only strategy is cold calling or networking, than yes, you will have to call or meet with them 7-12 times.   But there are other options to increase your touches.    A weekly or monthly newsletter increases your touches.   So do Google searches, social media updates, invites to special events, newspaper ads, referrals from happy customers etc.  

So, in order to increase and to accelerate the number of “touches” you need to have multiple marketing strategies that work as a system.   You cannot be effective by saying to yourself,  “Today, I am going to market my business.”  You have to have a system in place so that you are touching your target customers regularly.

Q. You mentioned a few different methods.  How many should I have?

A.  We recommend 6-12 strategies that run concurrently, with a few more in reserve, just in case the ones you are using don’t work or become ineffective.   Now that may sound like a lot, but if you focus on implementing one strategy a month you will have 12 strategies by the end of a year.   The good news is that you probably already have a few strategies in place.  You just need to add a few more to fill your pipeline with prospects!

A word of caution. When you add a strategy, be sure that is working and effective before you start to implement a new strategy.    Build upon your success.