They want to know how to stand out from the crowd and quite rightly, they perceive that marketing is the key to securing new clients. Whatever one is selling, the principles are always the same.
So, we started every discussion by asking them what marketing they had done so far. All had tried some of the following, and one had tried them all, (spending 3 years of profits doing so).
Here’s what they told us, and what had happened for them:
Emailing
Easy and free of charge but where do I get the contact base from? The list brokers sold me databases made so small by GDPR as to be worthless and the overseas ones sold me junk.
If we try Companies House, we can get all the businesses in our area but only 25% have phone numbers or emails and these are usually ‘info@’. It’s too time-consuming to clean them manually. (B2B)
If we try collecting email addresses from customers and lookers, they resist. (B2C)
Networking meetings
‘Spot the real business’. Everyone attending is an accountant, lawyer, web designer, social media marketer, IFA. They are all trying to sell to me so, waste of time.
A specialist built me a contact base. Lots of new connections but no business enquiries so far. I make the odd post that gets a handful of likes.
A specialist created and placed some ads. Several enquiries, all of whom just wanted to know the price, then hung up.
A specialist created and placed some ads and news. Several enquiries, all of whom just wanted prices.
Articles and blogs
A business writer had some success in getting these placed. Good for the profile but didn’t produce any enquiries.
SEO
A web developer built a smart site and lined up search terms she thought businesses would use. We are now on Google Page 1 for businesses like ours in this area. It brings enquiries, but the first question is “how much do I charge, I’m just shopping around initially?” Then nothing.
Sponsorship
I’ve supplied shirts with my logo to a junior football team and bought a sign on a busy roundabout. Expensive, but it did get a few good customers initially – school parents mostly.
Testimonials
The business writer did some customer write ups which does impress the prospects, but I can’t say it closed any sales in itself.
Trade shows
Very costly and lots of chat. It has brought the odd new client, but not worth it.
Customer surveys
Not enough of them respond to make it worthwhile.
Referral programme
I offer an Amazon voucher for introductions – but have handed out very few
Newsletter
Loads of work and abandoned after a few months
Videos
I don’t think I’d come over well enough. I’m no good at presenting.
Door drops
Tried that but they finished up in the bin along with all the pizza, cabs, restaurants, window cleaners’ flyers.
Seminars and Webinars
Tried one – only 2 people showed up
Brand management
Talking to marketing consultants who want to change the business name, design a new logo, and start again with a new website. Scary, lots of money, no guarantees of new revenue.
The bottom line
So, I have spent lots of money, mostly wasted, and I now want to know what guarantees your practice can give me about bringing me new customers!
Well…in many years of small business consultancy work
…the overwhelming demand we get is “get me more customers and it’s urgent”. Before accepting the job, we’ve learned the importance of taking a free look at what’s already been done. It ranges from absolutely nothing (“because we used to get referrals”) to all of the above list (“and now we’re broke because nothing worked”).
We then look at the rest of the business, reviewing its performances with customer retention (ie product/service quality); operating efficiency; people productivity; profitability and cash flow. Which some business owners think odd.
Why look at everything?
Because lack of sales is often the tip of an iceberg. There is little point in getting more orders if the product is troublesome, systems inefficient, people unproductive, customers not paying, bank calling in loans.
So, having done so, we will often have to say “we can help you, but only if you give us time. If you don’t have time, we’ll have to start with an overall survival strategy to buy the time to implement the right marketing and be able to properly service the customers”.
Why time?
Because it takes a new business that does all the right things time to get a flow of new customers. And in that regard, any business without new customers might as well be a new business, although it does have some advantages to help things to happen quicker.
The average buyer of a new service or product looks at it 10 times over the course of 6 months before deciding, unless desperate (and do you really want desperate customers?).
The finding of good new customers does not happen quickly.
So, you need a business that is operating effectively to take advantage of the orders when they do arrive and then pleases customers enough to order more and tell their friends.
And that’s why Business Dashboard® technology was born
…to rapidly assess any business ‘across the board’ performance before embarking on a project of any sort to make sure of doing the right things.
To see this working Book it here and we’ll assess your business online for free in a 20-minute demo.
Meanwhile, why did all those businesses fail with all their marketing costs?
The recurring themes were:
- No research into where / who is their ideal client /customer
- Assumed knowledge of what they wanted
- No predeveloped solutions that clients/customers would pay for
- Lack of a clear plan of how to reach and help them
- Too many random marketing tactics (no strategies)
- Short-lived initiatives that never embedded (the average trial period was 4 months)
- Not focusing on and sustaining the few key things that really work
- Not understanding how long marketing takes and giving up too soon
- No selling process – it’s very different to marketing
Our solution is 200 ready-made practical action plans that fix all these and more. They cost very little time or money to implement because they are automated versions of what raised the international competitiveness of one million small UK businesses from 21st to 7th place.