By Jennifer Thompson
If you have ever taken a Marketing 101 class, then you’ve probably been exposed to the concept of the four ‘Ps’: Product, Price, Promotion and Placement. As marketers, we use the four ‘Ps’ to differentiate ourselves from our competition. They are also part of what is often referred to as the marketing mix. The four ‘Ps’ provide us with the framework for developing our most basic marketing messages.
However, if you’re like most great marketers, it’s not a formal marketing education that got you to where you are—it’s the marketing mindset. Sure, every great marketer needs a plan but every great plan needs a marketer. In a highly competitive industry like yours, you need a plan and you’re plan better set you apart from the competition.
As powerful as the four ‘Ps’ are to developing your marketing mix, if you intend to implement a strategic plan for ultimately putting more money in your pocket, then you’d better get started with one very important ‘C’—the customer! Defining who your customer is and how you are going to get more of them is the key to putting together and executing a successful marketing strategy. Start by defining who your customer is? Take a look at your current customer base and determine which ones are most profitable to your business?
Understanding what your customer looks like and needs from you is the first step to building a customer acquisition strategy. The most important part of the customer acquisition strategy is YOU. That’s right—YOU! Developing the marketing mindset comes from within. Passion is not something that can be taught in a classroom or by reading a book. Harnessing your passion for helping others (or whatever drives your business) is the first step in unleashing your marketing mindset.
Unleashing your marketing mindset should be part of an overall strategy. Too many businesses attempt to market their business using a series of tactics rather than by crafting and implementing an overall strategy designed to deliver results. Don’t waste your money mailing direct mail, special product offerings or spend your hard-earned dollars on untargeted advertising unless it is part of your overall strategy. You will spend countless hours and dollars preparing for advertising campaigns that will ultimately give you a less than one percent return. There is no reason to spin your wheels unless you know where you are going.
Use the four ‘Ps’ to help jump start your marketing mindset. In this business, understand that it is not about quantity, it’s about quality. The first step to developing your marketing mindset and putting yourself on the road to increased sales is to focus on building long lasting customer relationships that act more like partnerships than simply a pond for you to fish out leads.
Planning
Much like a politician determining how many votes are necessary to win an election, the first step to developing your marketing plan is to outline a customer acquisition strategy that works for you. Having a plan and sticking to it is essential to achieving one’s goals.
First, determine your monthly financial goal? What is the daily number of accounts you need in order to achieve this goal? Assuming an average transaction, how many customers do you need each month to reach your goals? Now that you have identified how many customers you need, how do you plan to attract your customers? Will you need to start over each month finding new leads or are you building customer relationships that will continue to send you business time after time?
Even if it is only $100, it is essential for you to have a marketing budget. Knowing how many transaction you might need in order to achieve your sales goals is the first step, but determining how much it will cost to actually win that customer is step two. Establish a marketing budget based on your actual costs associated with attracting a new customer. Once you have established a budget, survey your existing customers to see how you have been doing? Use your existing customers to get feedback on the process and your quality of service. Your existing customers possess a wealth of useful knowledge and can be critical for refining your sales process and developing clear and concise marketing messages.
Your customers should be treated as partners. Partners help build one another’s business. Look at the business you are currently doing. Which business brings you the most revenue? Of your partners, which ones are sending you the best business and taking up the least amount of your time? Profile your perfect customer and your perfect lead. These are the relationships that you should be striving to attract and retain. Put your time and money into what makes sense, starting with building powerful customer relationships.
It is critical to have a plan in place if you want to be successful. Understanding what the perfect customer looks like, how many of them you need and how much money you need to spend to reach them is the most important part of the planning process. You wouldn’t go to battle without a battle plan. Don’t build your business without first investing in a marketing plan.
Positioning In the game of football, field position is everything. In the sales cycle, positioning is your tool for getting noticed. For the sake of example, let us assume you are in the mortgage business. Ever wonder why real estate agents seem to be on the defensive the first time you meet them?
Should they decide to send business your way, it is their personal income that is on the line. They should be defensive. Your service is an extension of their service. Real estate agents are the front line to the customer and it is their reputation and personal income that is at stake in working with somebody with whom they barely know.
Health care business related professionals, like other business professionals, want to work with people they know and trust. Find a niche that makes you stand out from the competition. Use this niche to position yourself as an expert, especially in the mind of your customer. Once you become an expert in your particular niche, customers will flock to do business with you. Developing your marketing mindset will lead you towards becoming your best.
Packaging Perception is reality and the reality is that you will be judged by the power and professionalism of your marketing materials including your advertising, business cards, direct mail pieces, headshot, letterhead, folders, website and even your telephone message. If it is just you and your competition sitting side by side at a table saying nothing, what will set you apart from your competition? It’s the power of your marketing materials. They convey who you are, the service you provide and the seriousness by which you take your business. Your customers need to feel completely comfortable doing business with you.
Your marketing materials are often all you’ve got in making a first impression. Proper packaging helps promote your brand identity. Developing a strong brand identity sets you apart from your competition. Investing in the right packaging will help you get an edge. Imagine having sent your marketing materials to a top producing real estate agent in your area. Good marketing materials get you in the door. Great marketing materials sell your service when you’re not even in the room.
Promotion
Once you’ve outlined your plan, identified your niche position and packaged your marketing materials, you are ready to get started promoting yourself and your services. Much like the most successful advertising campaigns, consistency is everything. Now that you know what you’re going to say, you need to find who it is you are going to say it. During the planning stage of the four ‘Ps’ you defined your perfect customer. Now, you must determine how to get in front of that customer and use every means possible for promoting yourself.
Have you ever lost sleep over not reaching your financial goals? Do you ever wonder why it is that January can be a great month for you while your March sales seem to hit rock bottom? Developing a consistent marketing message and marketing it consistently is the key to consistent sales. If you are inconsistent each month, you will get inconsistent results. Know what you are going to say, and then say it—over and over again.
Remember how we talked about the business professional who sent out teaser postcards and spends money on untargeted advertising and then complains because they aren’t seeing results? Now that you have worked through the four ‘Ps’ and determined your overall marketing strategy, you are ready to implement your marketing campaign through a series of marketing tactics like direct mail postcards, targeted advertising campaigns, networking events, etc.
Developing your marketing mindset is more than simply placing advertisements and getting in front of potential customers, it’s about harnessing your passion for helping others and building relationships that will lead to consistent sales and revenue. Remember, it is important to work through the four ‘Ps’ of planning, positioning, packaging and promotion in creating your overall marketing strategy. However, developing your marketing mindset starts with one very important ‘C’—the customer.
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