As business owners, we all want to sell more of our products and services to new and existing customers. But before we can achieve this goal, it is imperative to understand a few basic marketing strategies for creating interest, trust and desire.
Below are three simple marketing strategies that will help you to attract and retain new customers.
Strategy #1: The Buyer Persona
The best way to truly understand the wants and needs of your customers is to create your Buyer Personas. A Buyer Persona is a segment of customers or prospects that share similar demographics and interests.
Maybe you have heard of the Soccer Mom or the NASCAR Dad. While these well-known buyer personas may seem almost cartoonish, keep in mind that they were specifically marketed to by both the Republicans and the Democrats in past elections.
The first step in defining a particular persona is to look at your current customer database and find similar buying patterns. This might seem a difficult proposition at first, but you'll be surprised by how very simple patterns can emerge once you're looking for them.
Your Buyer Persona attributes can contain all types of data including age, income levels, geographic location, or business type. Basically, anything that pertains to your business and is measurable can be used to define your various personas.
Strategy #2: Define Your Unique Value Proposition
Your UVP, or Unique Value Proposition, will help differentiate your company from the competition. It also helps communicate why a potential customer should do business with you.
If you can't think of anything unique you can offer your prospects and customers, then it's time to design a UVP from scratch. See what your competition offers and come up with something that makes you stand apart!
What does the competition do well? Can you find a way to do it better or to alter it so that it becomes a unique part of your service?
Below are a few suggestions for figuring out what your competitors are good at doing.
1. Purchase an item. I know this might be painful, but it is a great way to better understand how a competitor successfully fulfills an order.
2. Register for their online newsletter. Is the newsletter helpful? Does it provide helpful information or does it simply try to sell?
3. Register for competitor brochures, fliers and catalogs. This will give you a good idea of how often they mail as well as the offers and unique selling points they are communicating to potential customers.
Take the time to fully develop a compelling UVP. It will help sell prospects, set you apart from your competitors, and increase your customer retention.
Strategy #3: The MarCom Folder
When someone contacts you for information, what do you give them?
You should be giving them a 2-pocket communications folder that further educates them and gives compelling reasons why they should further engage your products and services.
I recommend you include the following in your folder.
1.
The Compelling Story: Every small business owner should be able to tell a compelling story about their passions and why they started their business. A great story about why you started your business can create instant trust. Try and craft your story so that it appeals to the emotions, is fun to read, and provides a sense of passion.
2.
The Business Advantage: On this page, you will want to summarize all the advantages of doing business with your company. Communicate your unique approach, the value customers get when they do business with you, and why your products and services are the best in your field.
3.
Solving Problems: Type up a page that demonstrates how you have solved other customer problems. Describe 2-3 customer problems and how your business solved them.
4.
The Product/Services Summary Page: Nothing difficult here - simply summarize the various products, services, and package options you offer and list the benefits of each. Use bullet points to quickly summarize benefits.
5.
Testimonials: This page should list out your 4-5 best testimonials. Studies have shown that 3rd-party testimonials are one of the best ways to build the trust and confidence of potential customers.
Go ahead and add additional items to your folder - just make sure they are relevant to your Audience.
These strategies will go a long way to helping you convert prospects into customers. Make sure sure you spend quality time with them.
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