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The secret to lowering you marketing cost

Written by: Bob Janet

Article Overview: Marketing cost are going up.. • The U.S. Postal Service has increased postage rates again. The latest increase (as of July 2008) has pushed the cost of mailing a letter to 42 cents and upped the cost of shipping magazines and catalogs 20%. This would be the largest increase in decades. • Newspaper advertising costs as well are estimated to increase along with radio and television. • Printers ink and paper cost are estimated to increase.

The secret to lowering you marketing cost

What is a seller who must market in order to survive and prosper to do?

What can you do?

You cannot stop marketing to your customers and prospects. What you can do, in fact I think what you are going to have to do, is use one of your most valuable assets to market for you.

An asset that costs you nothing to use, not a single cent. An asset that has been in your marketing arsenal from the day you opened your business. Your asset of customers.
The top sales producers have been using their customers from the beginning of commerce to bring in their friends, relatives and colleagues to make purchases. People love to buy where others have been satisfied making purchases.

It’s time to use, no it is past time for you to use Referral Marketing. And I am going to give you the secret of how to get your satisfied customers to send their friends, relatives and colleagues to your business to buy your goods and services at the highest possible fair prices. That’s right, when a customer comes to your business because they were referred by someone they trust you are able to get a higher price, as long as it is a fair price, for your products and services.

THE SECRET
The secret to getting your satisfied customers to send their friends, family and colleagues to you is: “ASK.” All you have to do is ask them to send them to you.
The rules of referral marketing are:
1. People like to buy where others, they trust, have been successful.
2. People like to tell, brag if you like, to their friends, family and colleagues
when they have made a good buy.
3. Customers who are satisfied with your products and services like to help you if you ask them to.

But they will not help you unless you ask them. Word of month advertising has got to be helped along. There is just to much going on in your customer’s lives for them to automatically remember to refer you.

THE PROCESS
Create yourself a short request statement to say after you ask the qualifying questions: Examples of qualifying questions:
• Jim are you totally satisfied with your new…..?
You should always ask the “Are you satisfied question” even if you are not going to ask for a referral. After all, it is much better to find out if there is dissatisfaction so you can fix it.
• Jim are you totally satisfied with the (name product / service) you purchased
from me?

Examples of short request statements:
“Jim, you know a lot of people in the community that I would like to help with their needs for (insert your product/service), the way I have helped you.
Would this be a good time for you to give me 4 or 5 names or would you rather I telephone you tomorrow?”

“Jim I am glad you are satisfied with our (product/service). I need your help.
You know a lot …………………………………………………

It is okay to ask for help. People like to help others. Especially after you have helped solve their problem, need or want with the sale of your products / services.

Always ask for 4 or 5 or more. You may only get 1 or 2, but if you only ask for 1 or 2 you may not get any. Sure, it does not always work, but if it works only 25% of the time, well you do the math. 25% of the customers you sell to in one month = A lot of potential customers that did not cost you a cent to find.

Okay, now you have to contact them. Your satisfied customer is not going to run out and call them to tell them to purchase from you. And yes, it does cost money to contact them. But now you have a real targeted market so your marketing costs will come down and your sales and profits will go up.

Don’t let the post office and media increase your marketing costs. Use your satisfied customers to gain new prospects that will turn into lifelong customers.

Related Articles
  Secret Reserves
  Your Secret to Internet Marketing Success
  Building Your Business with an Opt-in List
  The Secret
  How to Raise Prices

Article Tags: arsenal, assets, colleagues, friends family, friends relatives, producers, prospects, referral marketing, satisfied customers



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Marketing vs Web Optimizers vs Usability - Hi BigJim22, I must be honest - I haven't really read a lot of Seth's articles on web site strategies. What I have found though is that there always seems to be a three way conflict between marketing ideas, SEO strategies and usability issues when doing web development. The secret is to balance between the ideal situation for each of these. Since a website needs to be found, visited and acted upon we need a strong combination of marketing, SEO and usability to be successful. It's something we struggle with constantly at Last Minute Training and I'm sad to say - we still haven't found the right combination.
Online vs. Offline Marketing - I think it really depends on your business model. For example, for my company I do mostly online marketing. It's the most cost effective way to create awareness and I have a way to monetize the traffic. It's hard to run a website based business without online marketing. I have done some offline marketing in the form of media interviews, seminars, conferences, etc. but the results pale in comparison to what I can generate online. There are also many successful offline businesses that don't use any online marketing efforts. Depending on your business model sometimes referrals are the best way to grow as supposed to web marketing. I think it's hard to find a business that could not benefit from both online and marketing efforts but depending on your business model (and the personality of the owner) most entrepreneurs typically skew towards one over the other.


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