Marketing basics
MARKETING: PERCEPTION VS REALITY
Perception: You've been in business for years so you don’t need to be very aggressive with your marketing. Everybody already knows about your company and its fine products!
Reality: Very few people outside of your immediate family, some of your employees and a few of your most recent customers know about your business. No matter how good you are, you’re only foremost on your mind, not your prospect’s mind.
Perception: You can't treat your customers any better. Every one of them is happy with their purchase and delighted with your service.
Reality: Your satisfied customer base represents a sliver of the potential market. Your unsatisfied customers will rarely tell you about your problems – they will tell a dozen of their friends, though, and cost you future sales. Focus on the annoyed and the non-returning customer. Find out what the problem is and fix it.
Perception: Most of your business is repeat business so you can afford to focus almost 100 percent on your existing clients.
Reality: If you're not growing your customer base, you're going out of business. No business can rely solely on their existing client base. Work your prospects like you’ll be losing 30% of your existing customers in the coming year. Most businesses lose at least that many.
Perception: You get a lot of business by word-of-mouth referrals so don't have to invest in the expense of real marketing. Reality: Your marketing investment gives you the credibility to earn word-of-mouth. It’s your advertising and promotion that builds brand awareness and visibility. Word-of-mouth rarely works if the prospect never heard of you before he hears about you from a friend, no matter how good a friend he is.
Perception: You’ve invested in a large space at a major trade show. Prospects will see your booth when they get there so there’s no need to promote it.Reality: Research consistently shows most people only visit 10-12 booths at a trade show and know exactly who they’ll see before they arrive. If you don’t make their list the day before the show starts, you won’t make the sale the day after it ends. Remind your customers and prospects by personal calls, print ads and direct mail.
Marketing tidbits
You can make your 2005 marketing plan “all it can be” by working with Jolley & Associates to take full advantage of the strengths offered by a fully coordinated program of print ads, public relations, collateral sales aids and trade events. We can review your existing plan or create a plan to fit your company and budget.
Email crjolley@msn.com or call Chuck Jolley at 913-205-3791 now.
Perception: You've been in business for years so you don’t need to be very aggressive with your marketing. Everybody already knows about your company and its fine products!
Reality: Very few people outside of your immediate family, some of your employees and a few of your most recent customers know about your business. No matter how good you are, you’re only foremost on your mind, not your prospect’s mind.
Perception: You can't treat your customers any better. Every one of them is happy with their purchase and delighted with your service.
Reality: Your satisfied customer base represents a sliver of the potential market. Your unsatisfied customers will rarely tell you about your problems – they will tell a dozen of their friends, though, and cost you future sales. Focus on the annoyed and the non-returning customer. Find out what the problem is and fix it.
Perception: Most of your business is repeat business so you can afford to focus almost 100 percent on your existing clients.
Reality: If you're not growing your customer base, you're going out of business. No business can rely solely on their existing client base. Work your prospects like you’ll be losing 30% of your existing customers in the coming year. Most businesses lose at least that many.
Perception: You get a lot of business by word-of-mouth referrals so don't have to invest in the expense of real marketing. Reality: Your marketing investment gives you the credibility to earn word-of-mouth. It’s your advertising and promotion that builds brand awareness and visibility. Word-of-mouth rarely works if the prospect never heard of you before he hears about you from a friend, no matter how good a friend he is.
Perception: You’ve invested in a large space at a major trade show. Prospects will see your booth when they get there so there’s no need to promote it.Reality: Research consistently shows most people only visit 10-12 booths at a trade show and know exactly who they’ll see before they arrive. If you don’t make their list the day before the show starts, you won’t make the sale the day after it ends. Remind your customers and prospects by personal calls, print ads and direct mail.
Marketing tidbits
You can make your 2005 marketing plan “all it can be” by working with Jolley & Associates to take full advantage of the strengths offered by a fully coordinated program of print ads, public relations, collateral sales aids and trade events. We can review your existing plan or create a plan to fit your company and budget.
Email crjolley@msn.com or call Chuck Jolley at 913-205-3791 now.
posted by Chuck Jolley at Sunday, December 26, 2004
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home