Metaphorical Marketing
Uncover amazing strategies, tactics and ideas to enhance your business profits.
Its time to start empathizing with your customers. Start understanding what makes them tick. Start living and breathing customers like they're the oxygen in your lungs. Why? Because they may as well be. Without air, without customers, you'll be out of business and out of breath in five seconds flat. Those people that open their wallets for you are your GOD. Did you ever get obsessed with someone in school, and you just couldn't stop thinking about them? Well, I want you to get OBSESSED with your customers!! When you're OBSESSED with someone, don't you want to find out everything about them, so that you can make them OBSESSED with you? Why not try and create this same effect with your own customers? Become a student of them and who they are and you'll enter into a long term relationship thats beneficial for both of you. And if you're lucky you'll get those obsessed customers running around town telling everyone who'll listen how great you are, they'll refer their friends, they'll communicate honestly with you, give you feedback, and even better, they'll keep buying from you! If I haven't convinced you yet that your customers hold the key to your businesses future, slap yourself across the face three times and yell "Get to know your customers!" every time you catch each stinging face slap. Ask yourself questions like: What do they like to do from day to day? What kind of wage do they make? Where do they work? What are their hobbies? What do they love, hate, and put up with? Where do they hang out? Are they married? Are they divorced? Where'd they find you to begin with? What about you did --THEY-- thats right -- THEY -- like, and what caused them to buy from you? Where did they grow up? Where do they live now? Whats the weather like? What do they expect? What can I provide that they'd appreciate but DON'T expect? Keep asking yourself, "what questions are the most important for me to know", and then keep brainstorming until you start coming up with, "what's your favorite offal?" when you're selling vegan rice patties... by then you're likely out of good ideas. Here's a list of ways to get to know your customers better: - Come up with a survey offering prizes for participation. Ask all the questions you feel you can get away with, without being called a stalker. If you're a doctor you might be able to get away with asking more than if you're a real estate agent.
- Hold celebratory events and invite your customers. When they get there start talking to them and get a feel for who they are. Make sure your employees do the same -- but don't make it an interrogation!
- Speak to experts that deal with the same customers that you do, and speak to marketers and sales people that deal with them every day - pick their brains!
- If you're in a position to do so, pick a small handful of your best customers and put yourself on the line. Tell them exactly what you're trying to achieve by understanding your customers better and ask whether they'd be willing to talk to you. Just be sure to send them and their better half to a nice dinner on you afterwards.
- Read books that speak to your customers, if you're a personal trainer for example, read some weight loss books, if you sell baby clothes to parents read some parenting books... you get the idea.
- Get online and check out bloggers who communicate with your niche or market. What are they talking about? Whats making news right now?
- Another online opportunity is internet forums... people really hang out their feelings and thoughts for all to see and you can have the box office seat. And hey, you can even join the conversation and offer a solution that'll paint you in a rose colored light.
- Shop your own business. Even if you're the only person there, enlist a friend to shop your business. Or get a friend to arrange someone that you don't know to shop your business and take notes. What didn't work for them? What confused them? What turned them off?
- Join the groups they're part of. Are your fitness clients mainly joggers? Join a fun running group. Are your business clients concerned about the environment? Join a environmental group. Are your law clients generally divorced? Get divorced! I kid.
- Read trade journals that your clients read. Supply medical supplies to doctors? Read their trade journals... I think you're getting the picture.
- Check what keywords bring people to your website, and what keywords bring them to particular articles. Whats the bounce rate on those keywords? Is the keyword "Adelaide Tax" giving you browsers spending 20 seconds and leaving, while "Tax Accountant" is making browsers into 5 minute long multiple article viewing future customers? Can you make any connections between keywords people are using and their thought processes at that time?
- Become a customer of your competition if you can. What marketing messages are they sending out that can give you an insight into your niche? Just quickly: don't confuse this advice with "do what they're doing"!
- Become friends with your customers! Do you ever strike up particularly good conversations or relationships with long term clients? Become friends with them and really get the inside angle. And there's even an unstated bonus -- you get one friend, FREE!
- Ask questions of past clients. Why did they leave? Was it something you said? Did you offend them? Did you let them down? Or did they just learn to live without you (perhaps you're a life coach and you do a really good job)? Be nice about it -- just send out an email or letter asking for their feedback if they're willing to give it, and a small reward for doing so to get a better response (movie tickets always works).
All the best. Jon.
Once you bag your perfect business client you'll want to try and keep that client for as long as possible, because... - Obtaining new customers is the most expensive part of your marketing expenditure
- Selling to existing customers is the easiest and cheapest way to make more sales
- If you slack off and lose a customer, then that customer might not be too happy with you, and will probably tell a bunch of people
- Conversely, the longer a client stays with you, the longer the referral window stays open
So how do we keep our business relationships blissfully happy and productive? Its all about maintaining a positive mindset towards your customers, but before I talk about how you're going to treat your clients, let me touch on clients that just aren't a good match with you... so to speak. When I say customer and client relationships that aren't a good match, I'm talking about problem clients. Clients who haggle over price, constantly drain your time with niggling unfounded complaints, and who generally drive you up the wall. If you haven't ever thought of dismissing a client before, then tell me what business you're in and I'll join you! Most of us have clients that take our time and energy away from more deserving clients, and you owe it to yourself to politely let your problem customer know they're no longer welcome. Back to the customers you have rosy and warm relationships with -- we need to make sure we don't fall into the same traps that marriages seem to breed in our relationships. We don't want to: - Take our customers for granted
- Neglect them
- Stop talking to them
- Stop serving them the way you said you would at the beginning
- Avoid them
- Talk rudely to them, and
- We simply don't want to give them a good reason to leave us
So to keep your clients, just take my list above and flip it. Make sure your customers feel loved and appreciated, lavish them with attention (that you can afford), talk to them often about their fears, hopes, dreams, frustrations and concerns, serve them better than you said you would, keep in regular touch with them so they don't forget you, always talk politely and respectfully towards them, and find out every way you can to keep them enraptured and in love with you and your company. There's a lot of common sense ways we can achieve that, and I'll clue you in on a few of those soon... but I'm sure you can come up with a few in the mean time, right?
In the great wide world of prospects, its likely that your future relationship with them relies strongly on a few vital points. But before we move onto those points, I thought I'd share with you an analogy. It builds upon the interesting dating angle I've been speaking about the last few days, and it goes a little like this. Approaching your best prospect is like approaching the hottest guy or girl in a night club. Their world is clouded by the smoke, the alcohol and the roar of hundreds of voices around them- and from that smoke and deafening music, your perfect date is accosted by potential suitors almost as frequently as the bass drums out a beat. This is a lot like our average client in the real world of business. Their perceptions are clouded by their own beliefs, fears and worries, not to mention pressing needs, like a screaming child or a bill that needs to be paid by 5 o'clock. The constant stream of hopefuls approaching your perfect date is like the advertising we're bombarded with every day. And your prospects, like the hot date, just tend to get sick and tired of being propositioned every moment of every day, and will begin to tune everything out... even if doing so means they might miss something great now and then. And like dating, if you can get the hot date's friend to introduce you, you're way, WAY ahead of the pack. Or maybe you can approach her friends, her influence group or network, and start to make friends there. If someone else thinks you're normal, then down go your hot date's defenses, and you're ahead. And much like a smoke filled pub, if you can get in early, before every other drunk guy and girl turns up, you're also head of the pack. I'm talking here about creating your own category (read Positioning by Trout/Ries), or being the first to create a new product, or being the first to service an existing group in a new and better way. When you're there first, and you take action to secure your prospect's loyalty, you're way ahead (just act fast!). Or perhaps you're a thinker, and you ask the bartender what your hot date is into. When you understand your prospects better you can establish strong relationships with them, and you can keep your finger on their pulse. You may find something interesting as you go about understanding them better. For example, I've recently become interested in straight bladed razors so I can define my beard better- but what I've found is that men don't use straight razors to get the best, closest shave, they use them because its a ritual, a tradition, and an experience that grounds them, relaxes them and makes them feel special, unique. Is there something that you're missing about your customers that could really fire up your marketing activities to them? Are you selling water that quenches thirst when its water that maintains optimal health that they're after? Are you selling shoes that are the popular fashion when your customers view them as an statement of uniqueness? Are you trying to buy the hottest prospect in the room a drink, like everyone else does? Doug D'Anna sent an email to his list today boldly titled "Why Free Doesn't Work Anymore", and I think this applies so well to trying to get that hot date. When that hot guy or girl has had a hundred drinks bought for them, they begin to realize something very important- the person buying the drinks wants something in return! And further up go the walls of resistance. The same goes for your business (especially selling online where information is so easily given away), are you offering the 100th free drink to your prospect? They're wise to you already! Hey- they might take the drink, but are they going to go home with you? Next time- how to maintain a healthy (marketing) relationship.
Have you ever been in a bar or club and the date of your dreams walked in... with someone else hanging off their arm? You wanted that person so much more when you saw the competition, right? People are naturally more attracted to the opposite sex when they already have a partner. Some of us can likely recount being accosted from all sides by potential mates while we were in a relationship, but as soon as it ended, so did the stream of interested candidates. Why does this happen? Its a perfect case of "social proof". If someone else thinks the good looking guy or girl is worth dating, then so do we. If someone's gazing lovingly into another person's eyes, then we immediately get the feeling that they must be a worthy mate. How can you use this phenomenon? Hitch a date to your businesses arm by working testimonials into your marketing communications - get them in your brochures, in your emails, and into your webpages. Testimonials are businesses "social proof", and they work because we aren't tooting our own horn- someone else is doing it for us... they're practically bursting to tell your perfect clients how fantastic your last "date" was and what you did for them. The principle of social proof also says that the more people are interested, the more interested we are. Look at websites like www.digg.com - digg is the perfect example of how social proof works; as soon as a group of people start "digging" a website, the digging process keeps accelerating on an ever increasing curve. Why? Because hundreds or thousands of people are giving the "dugg" website their thumbs up, and the more people that digg it... the more people digg it! The same happens in dating, and the same happens in your business- the more testimonials, and testimonial like marketing you're engaged in, the better. Here's a quick list of what I call social proof marketing: - Testimonials
- Publicity of any kind
- Referrals
- Alignment (with celebrities, gurus, charity groups)
- Visual proofing (full stores/packed seminar rooms)
- Scarcity (if there's not much left, everyone else must have it)
The best thing about marketing involving social proof is that its generally cheap, and very effective. The only obvious exception here is celebrity endorsement. No matter what social proof you use in your business, testimonials and referrals are an absolute, iron-clad, chain yourself to a tree necessity- do it.
Have you ever considered how much marketing your business is like dating? While talking business with a friend of mine who manages a chain of pawn brokers, we came to the conclusion that marketing your business is just like dating. Don't see the connection? Let me help you out by asking you a few questions. Firstly: Lets assume you're "on the market", you're looking for the one for you- the one that'll make you happy, keep you company and satisfy all your needs. Well, your customers are looking for "the one", too... they're after the business that will be honest with them, show them they care, and fill all of their unique needs. Can you honestly say that your business is it? Is your business "the one"? Since our customers are out there looking for their perfect partner, have you dressed your business up & got it looking nice? Does it give a good first impression? Does it let your customers know what it likes to do, what it does best... and perhaps what it won't do and refuses to be involved in? Is your business singling out the exact customers it wants and serves best, and at the same time telling the rest of the hopefuls that they simply won't find what they need here? Its important that you do. So, if you're looking at your business in the same way you look at yourself when you're on the prowl, then you're probably doing o.k. already. But what are the most important parts of getting noticed by a member of the opposite sex (or future clients)? I've already mentioned first impressions- and we're going to speak some more about them because they're so important. With that in mind, who in your business creates those first impressions? Are they giving off good vibes? Are they chirpy when they answer the phone, or do they sound like they're completely uninterested & wish the client would go bother another business? Are they positioning your business as a professional, in demand organization that might be able to squeeze a date in next wednesday morning? Or are they making you look desperate, willing to go to bed with any old thing that walks in the door? The same metaphor can be extended to the appearance of your business. Are you all dressed up, ready to look your best for your first date (read first client contact)? Or does it look like you just crawled out of bed after an all nighter with your friends at a smoke filled bar? More specifically, how do your marketing materials look? Is your website looking like an armani suit? Are your flyers so hot your clients can't wait to tell their friends? And are your sales letters making your clients itch to pick up the phone and call you? If not, it may be time to look at these materials in a new light. The light of a date with your perfect date (customer)! Tune in again soon for some more highly useful, eerily accurate analogies involving marketing and dating.
Posted by: Jonathon Weston in marketing on
May 05, 2008
Before you begin to make changes in your business, before you begin making plans to roll out aggressive marketing initiatives, you need to evaluate where you are right now- before you start. What positioning do you have in the market place?
Are you considered the cheapest in your area? Are you the luxury end of the market? Is there a perception that while you aren't the best, you offer a solid product at a slightly cheaper price? Or perhaps you've created your own catagory where direct competition is minimal? If you can't answer these questions, you need to think about it. And if you can't intelligently "guesstimate" what the answers are to these questions, its time to go to your clients, and ask them. Pick your most trusted- the ones you might call friends if you can. Ask them some questions about what they perceive to be true about your company, and the differences between it and your competition. Get in as many questions as you can which will give you a picture of what comes to your potential client's minds when they think of you. Some other questions you might want to ask include: - Can I expand my business without hiring more employees? (almost everyone can)
- How much can I invest in marketing initiatives?
- How much am I investing right now?
- Am I measuring the response to my marketing, and do I know my ROI?
- What do I do best, right now, in my market place? (again you might want to ask customers than rely on your own perceptions)
- How much time do I spend marketing to existing clients?
- Am I using my existing client's good will to my favour?
These questions can go on and on- but these are top on my list. Once you understand your strong points and where you stand in relation to the rest of your market place, you can place strong, effective and targetted messages that will get the attention of exactly the clients you want.
Posted by: Jonathon Weston in marketing on
May 03, 2008
Welcome to the 999,999th Marketing Blog- a place where I'll discuss the strategies and tactics I use with my clients to increase profits, but not necessarily workloads! My first thought for this new blog is, how many marketing blogs must be in the marketplace today? Probably close to a million- hence the name of this blog!
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