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How to Give Your Biz a Boost with a Summer Marketing Makeover
Are you on track for hitting all your business goals for the year? A quick check-up of your promotional efforts can reveal "week spots" and help identify what needs tweaking to give your business a healthy boost in the next few months. Here are five key areas to focus on with your mid-year marketing makeover. 1. Clarify Your Objectives (some prefer to call it goals) Are you clear on where want to end up? If you are thinking this has nothing to do with marketing - think again! You cannot design and implement effective strategies unless you know exactly what you want to accomplish. If you are looking for a magic formula to give your business a boost here is a tip: there is nothing more powerful than writing down your objectives. Your ability to language and clearly articulate what you want to achieve exponentially increases your chances of getting it! 2. Makeover Your Business Model. Many of my clients "paint themselves into a limited-income corner" by structuring their business in a wrong way. No matter how hard they work and try, they can't seem to be able to make more money and just end up being more frustrated. Take Debra for example (not her real name). She is a successful small business consultant. Her well developed lead generating process attracts enough clients to actually make them wait a few weeks before she can start working with them. But she still makes only half the money she wants to make. Let me explain... You see, Debra's business model is to deliver her services using one on one engagements and she can only handle about 15 clients at a time. With her average monthly client value approaching $1,500 she's right on target to make just over $250,000.00 this year. But she wants to m@ke $500,000.00 - can you see the problem? Chances are in some way, you might have a similar challenge - your current business model is incapable of producing the results you want. What's the solution? Here are a few ideas: * Diversify your product/service offering. Analyze the needs of your clients and look for new ways to serve them. (Hint: you do not have to deliver all the solutions yourself - instead form strategic alliances). 3. Makeover Your Lead Generating Systems. How many ways are you generating new leads? Do you have at least three to five lead generating vehicles that are consistent and automated? Too many businesses don't understand the lead generating process and depend on vague methods of getting new clients - like "word of mouth" and "networking". No having structured and easy to duplicate system to attract attention and turn it into sales is a sure pathway to a total disaster. * If you need clients fast - consider direct mail, fax broadcasting, narrowly focused direct-response advertising, strategic alliances, ask your current clients for referrals and - don't forget the big one - reactivate your past clients! 4. Makeover Your Follow-Up. Are you keeping in touch with your clients and prospects? Do you have a way to automatically connect with them at least monthly? If not - you are only getting about 20% of the m0ney you could be making! Most people give up following up after just three attempts. Most prospects don't make a buying decision until they've been exposed to your marketing message at least five times? See a problem here? * If you are not doing it yet, start an online or offline newsletter. Create a monthly postcard program. Regularly send out information you come across that your audience would benefit from. 5. Makeover Your Marketing Assets. We all have a limited amount of time, and if you are spending it all working with clients you are not creating long-term leverage. Schedule time every week to create marketing assets that work for you. * Invest in your own knowledge: read more books, attend high-end training programs, purchase home-study courses, hire mentors to help you gain greater proficiency. Become a perpetual learner and always look for ways to transfer or implement your knowledge quickly. Finally, keep this in mind: these are all simple things but combined they can make or break your business. So while others are preoccupied planning their summer vacation, I suggest you get busy giving your business a marketing makeover. (c) 2005 Adam M. Urbanski ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com
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