June 1st, 2010
Guest Post From Adam Urbanski, The Millionaire Marketing Mentor
In just 30 days the first half of 2010 will be over. Are you on track for hitting all your business goals for the year? If YES – congratulations. If not, now is a great time to review and modify your marketing action plan.
A quick check-up of your marketing strategies and promotional efforts can reveal “weak spots” and help identify what needs tweaking to give your business a healthy boost and put you back on a success track. In fact, this one activity is so important, I recommend you do it at least quarterly!
Here are five key areas to focus on with your quarterly marketing makeover.
1. Clarify Your Objectives (some prefer to call it goals)
Are you clear on where want to end up? If you think 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 clearly articulate – in writing – 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-revenue corner” by structuring their businesses 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. 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 what she wants is $500,000.
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 your clients’ needs and look for new ways to serve them. (Hint: you do not have to deliver all the solutions yourself; form strategic alliances instead).
- Find new ways to work with clients. If you only work with people using one-on-one format, start offering group programs. Develop tele-seminars or live workshops. You’ll actually be able to attract more clients and exponentially increase your earnings.
- Multiply yourself. If you already have a successful service business and a lot of happy customers, chances are you are following a proven process. Bring in other professionals (junior partners) who can be trained to deliver your process to clients who are not willing to pay your fee but will settle for working with your associate at a discounted rate.
- Develop info products. There is no better way to leverage your knowledge than turning it into passive streams of revenue. If you are not regularly putting out new products, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your bottom line.
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. Not 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, and strategic alliances. Also, ask your current clients for referrals and, don’t forget the big one, reactivate your past clients!
- To ensure long term positioning and visibility in your market place focus on publicity, getting speaking engagements, and writing and publishing articles.
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 money 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.
Use technology to automate your follow-up. Online use sequential autoresponders that can be put on total auto-pilot. Offline use fax and voice broadcasting technology, or even simple postcards to leverage your time and connect with people quickly, meaningfully and affordably.
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. Every week schedule time to create marketing assets that work for you.
- Give your marketing materials a quick look-over. Are your business cards, websites, and brochures consistently communicating the right marketing message? Are they written in a lively, persuasive and client-relevant language or are you still insisting on telling your prospects your company’s history, vision and mission statement thinking they actually care?
- Continually build your credibility and positioning. Ask all clients for testimonials, develop new talks on your subject of expertise, and create information products.
- Develop tools and systems. Create checklists to make routine tasks easier to delegate. Develop and implement a few extra follow-up steps that can be automated or outsourced. Record your talks and teleseminars and turn them into Attraction Tools™.
- 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. That’s why I suggest you get busy giving your business a marketing makeover starting right now.
The author, Adam Urbanski, helps service professionals and business owners how to attract all the new clients they want, and how to develop marketing strategies to increase sales and profits. His website offers more how-to articles and free tips to create a winning marketing action plan at www.themarketingmentors.com.
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