Marketing and PR advice

Smart thinking

Smart thinking

 

Consider this's Paul Taylor on how to deal with marketing your business

 

I hear from many businesses that marketing is a real struggle. Clients are not paying the bills and they are spending more money to get each client than the sale is worth. Everything they try seems to fail. There must be an easier way, they ask me, and there is.

Getting there can be a difficult process in itself because it requires the hardest kind of change, a change in your thinking. You may be working too many hours, or spending too much procuring clients, or trying a dozen different marketing strategies all at once.

If you're used to throwing more effort at problems it's very difficult to make yourself stop, analyse what's not working, and ask if there is a better solution. If you find that clients don't want to pay what you're asking, of course you should try to convince those clients of your worth. However you should also look for different clients who have more to spend, and look at recruiting more cost effective suppliers. If the places you are networking don't seem to connect you with enough prospects, look for new places to network. You also have to be realistic. For example, no matter how wonderful your event is, you won't get 20 people there just by mailing 200 flyers. You can be the world's greatest consultant, but you can't expect to land a big contract just by placing one phone call to three companies.

Marketing, like much of business, is often a numbers game. You have to do the maths. The average rate of return for a good direct mail piece for instance is 1-2 per cent. So to fill a 20-person event through direct mail alone, you would need to mail to at least 1000-2000 people.

Trust that if you choose two or three solid marketing strategies and employ them diligently, clients will result. If you panic and keep changing your plan, or piling new activities on the plate, the result is more struggles. Trust that if you spend some time and money on a timely, well constructed, relevant mailer and a targeted list with enough names on it, you will fulfill your requirements. And trust enough to spend that time and money up front instead of struggling by with an amateurish flyer and just asking your friends to spread it around. Trust that building relationships really is the key to getting in the door with corporate clients, and be willing to go to meetings, make calls, and do lunch.

Yes, there is work to be done if you want your marketing to be successful, but you need to work smarter, not harder. There is money to be spent, but you must spend it wisely. The path out of struggle really boils down to this. How many new clients do you need each month to earn a comfortable living? How many prospects should be in your marketing pipeline to result in that number of clients? How much time and money can you afford to spend to bring in each client? So which marketing strategies will bring in the number of prospects you need within your available budget of time and money? That's another article!

However, if you would like to talk to Paul about your marketing, his company, Consider This UK Ltd, specialise in marketing for Franchise organisations and their marketing tool FORM (Franchise Online Resource for Marketing) is the perfect tool for ensuring your franchisees market their business on brand to the right people, at the right time, for the right cost. Find out more now.