Many business owners and sales professionals try to achieve sales success by engaging in random acts of marketing – one-shot attempts that usually fail.
They get erratic results. They waste a lot of time and money. And the real tragedy is they keep doing it – over and over again.
It’s a lot like the rat you see on that spinning wheel participating in the race to nowhere.
Hoping the latest “bright shiny thing” will lead to the road to riches usually ends up in frustration.
The solution? Implement a marketing system that produces reliable, predictable and consistent results that affordably and efficiently provides a steady stream of quality prospects, customers and clients.
The operative word: SYSTEM.
With an organized system, you take the mystery out of the process.
There are a number of elements that make up a profitable marketing system:
Here they are:
1. A specific group of prospects.
This is often referred to as a “target market”. The better you define this group, the better your results. Example: Say you want to do a direct mail piece to doctors. You send out your first mailing to about 20,000 doctors. You get a 1% response. Upon looking further at your response, you notice it was 80% male and only 20% female. 70% came from suburban areas and only 30% from major cities. On the next mailing, you would likely omit women and choose only suburban postal or zip codes. That helps you zero in on those most likely to buy.
2. Using appropriate media.
The question you need to ask is: how can you best cut through the clutter and gain the attention of your target market. For some, it could be direct mail. For others, a postcard. Maybe social media is where your target market spends a big chunk of their time. Often, your best results will come from using a sequence and more than one media.
3. A compelling message.
Two pieces of advice: Don’t “talk” so much about your product or service. And, avoid the beige, cookie cutter messaging that ANY of your competitors could push out there. Speak to your ideal target’s pain points, frustrations and fears. Then, present your offering as a solution.
4. Create an “irresistible offer”.
Most first-time visitors to your site will not buy that day. Only a small percentage – 1%-3% are ready to make a buying decision. To get your new prospects to put up their hands and indicate interest and give you permission to continue marketing to them, you must offer them some information regarding what you’re selling that moves them further along in their buying process – or your selling process. For example, a kick boxing school owner might offer a FREE REPORT titled, “10 Secrets For Parents Who Want Confident, Well-Behaved, Successful Kids.” The people responding to this offer don’t initially need to be interested in kick boxing. They will be drawn in because they are concerned, involved parents.
5. A means of response and “capture”.
It’s important to provide your prospect with easy, non-threatening ways to respond. You can use a recorded message, a reply card, coupons etc. If you are driving people to your website to obtain the information you’re offering, make sure you have a way to “capture” the person’s contact information. There are a number of affordable, email follow up programs that are suitable. Aweber and Constant Contact are two of the more popular ones.
6. Multi-step, short-term follow up.
When you send out your offer, the information should include a second “irresistible offer” – tied to whatever next step you want your prospect to take. Could be to schedule a phone consultation or visit your store. Then, you use a series of multiple follow up “touches” via email, phone or snail mail tied to the expiring deadline of that offer.
7. Longer term lead follow up.
For people who do not respond immediately – after you have followed up intensely for the first few weeks – make sure they continue to hear from you frequently throughout the following months. There could many reasons why these people are slow to mature into buyers. The point is, if you don’t follow up. you’ll miss out when they do eventually buy.
Creating a marketing system that positions you for success may SEEM like a lot of work but consider the alternative: Continuing to produce random marketing acts will result in repetitive manual labour, erratic outcomes, and wasted advertising.
