Setting up a marketing system
Setting up a marketing system
So, how do you take the headache out of marketing? Is there a way of getting away with doing as little marketing as possible and still getting all the business that you want?
Well, yes there is – if (and only if) you’re prepared to put in a bit of hard work at the beginning. Are you ready for that? Then sit back and read on because I’m about to tell you the secret of marketing.
Put a system in place.
Yes, that’s right. That’s the secret. Put in place a system so that when you turn the handle, it works for you everytime and pops out the results you want.
The hard work is getting the system in place so that it does work for you consistently.
Here’s how you do it. Firstly, go and look at where all your customers are currently coming from. Are they coming from networking events; because they’ve seen an advert; or is someone referring them to you? Get specific here. Which networking event are they coming from? Who is referring them to you? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, your first task is to ask people – from now on, every person who comes into contact with your business, ask them how they heard about you (even if they don’t buy from you). Pretty soon, you’ll have built up a picture of what marketing is working for you and what’s not.
Now’s the time to concentrate on the marketing that is working for you and put in place a system to make it work more. In your system, you want to have a method of getting people to know about your business, capturing contact details and following up with those people so that they buy more.
So, if you were running a pub for instance, you might find out from asking customers that some local adverts you’d done were working for you (getting people to know about you). You might then run competitions and comment cards to capture people’s contact details. You might then send out a newsletter to keep building up a relationship with those people and offer them special discounts or treats if they refer other people. Pretty soon, you’ve got a system in place that doesn’t take a lot of time to do, but that keeps new customers and repeat customers coming in through the door.
What if you run an alternative therapy business and you found out leaflets were working well for you? You could change your leaflets so that people could enter a competition to win a free session if they filled their details out and returned the leaflet to you (capturing contact details). Once you’d built a database, you could send them a loyalty card or regular tips sheet to build a relationship with them.
A business consultant could give talks on their subject and offer a free tips sheet in return for contact details. Everyone could then be followed up with a phone call to see if they’d like a free consultation after the event.
A website designer could use pay per click to drive people to their website and then offer subscription to a newsletter to capture contact details. They could then send out that newsletter on a regular basis to build up a relationship with them.
Do you see how in the above examples, we’ve just used a few marketing methods, but they are much more effective because they form an overall strategy rather than working individually? In each example, we’ve set up a marketing system that makes people aware of your business, collects their contact details and then regularly follows up with these people to build a relationship with them. This type of system can be adapted for any business – how could you adapt it to yours?
The final step is to regularly monitor your marketing system so see how well it’s working for you – it does take time to get these things right, but if your system needs some amendments, remember to just tweak it first, rather than changing the whole thing.
Good luck and let me know how you get on.
Setting up a marketing system - To learn more about this author, visit Helen Dowling's Website.
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Did you know that there is a taboo word in business? That word begins with “M” and it’s a word that every small business owner knows they should do, but so many don’t. That’s right, you’ve guessed it, the word is “Marketing”. Small business owners don’t really like that word. It brings up too many bad thoughts like “where do I start?” and “I’m not sure what to do”. And let’s face it, there’s plenty more stuff that a business owner could do rather than the “M” word…
So, how do you take the headache out of marketing? Is there a way of getting away with doing as little marketing as possible and still getting all the business that you want?
Well, yes there is – if (and only if) you’re prepared to put in a bit of hard work at the beginning. Are you ready for that? Then sit back and read on because I’m about to tell you the secret of marketing.
Put a system in place.
Yes, that’s right. That’s the secret. Put in place a system so that when you turn the handle, it works for you everytime and pops out the results you want.
The hard work is getting the system in place so that it does work for you consistently.
Here’s how you do it. Firstly, go and look at where all your customers are currently coming from. Are they coming from networking events; because they’ve seen an advert; or is someone referring them to you? Get specific here. Which networking event are they coming from? Who is referring them to you? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, your first task is to ask people – from now on, every person who comes into contact with your business, ask them how they heard about you (even if they don’t buy from you). Pretty soon, you’ll have built up a picture of what marketing is working for you and what’s not.
Now’s the time to concentrate on the marketing that is working for you and put in place a system to make it work more. In your system, you want to have a method of getting people to know about your business, capturing contact details and following up with those people so that they buy more.
So, if you were running a pub for instance, you might find out from asking customers that some local adverts you’d done were working for you (getting people to know about you). You might then run competitions and comment cards to capture people’s contact details. You might then send out a newsletter to keep building up a relationship with those people and offer them special discounts or treats if they refer other people. Pretty soon, you’ve got a system in place that doesn’t take a lot of time to do, but that keeps new customers and repeat customers coming in through the door.
What if you run an alternative therapy business and you found out leaflets were working well for you? You could change your leaflets so that people could enter a competition to win a free session if they filled their details out and returned the leaflet to you (capturing contact details). Once you’d built a database, you could send them a loyalty card or regular tips sheet to build a relationship with them.
A business consultant could give talks on their subject and offer a free tips sheet in return for contact details. Everyone could then be followed up with a phone call to see if they’d like a free consultation after the event.
A website designer could use pay per click to drive people to their website and then offer subscription to a newsletter to capture contact details. They could then send out that newsletter on a regular basis to build up a relationship with them.
Do you see how in the above examples, we’ve just used a few marketing methods, but they are much more effective because they form an overall strategy rather than working individually? In each example, we’ve set up a marketing system that makes people aware of your business, collects their contact details and then regularly follows up with these people to build a relationship with them. This type of system can be adapted for any business – how could you adapt it to yours?
The final step is to regularly monitor your marketing system so see how well it’s working for you – it does take time to get these things right, but if your system needs some amendments, remember to just tweak it first, rather than changing the whole thing.
Good luck and let me know how you get on.
Setting up a marketing system - To learn more about this author, visit Helen Dowling's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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