Tag Archives: Indy Business Success

What You Don’t Know, Can Hurt You

What you don’t know, can hurt you.

They say ignorance is bliss, but I know that when I didn’t know how to market my business, bliss was hard to come by. It’s hard to be truly happy when you don’t know how you are going to pay your bills, or how you are going to keep the doors open to your business.

I speak with brand new business owners all the time that have the ‘If I build it, they will come’ mentality. I understand. That’s what I thought too, but that kind of thinking will put you out of business and in debt.

There is so much that you need to know in order to be successful, but here are the three of the most important ones –

  1. Know your numbers – Know how many customers you have. Know how much money it took to acquire them. Know how many you need to pay the bills and how many you need to reach your goals.
  1. Know what your goals are – Have precise, written goals. Make sure they have a date and/or a number attached to them; ie monetary amount. Go over them on a regular basis and course correct where needed.
  1. Know the Marketer’s Trio and use it – Monthly Printed Mailed Newsletter, Weekly Ezines, and Random Touches. I teach about it at every workshop that I do. Those that know it and use it, find great success with it, and yet there are still people who don’t implement it.

It kind of reminds me of the Rob Lowe commercials – Don’t be like naïve me, and struggle for years because what I didn’t know was hurting me. Be like Million Dollar Methods me, learn everything you can and implement it.

What you don’t know, can hurt you.

Everything is Marketing!

Everything is Marketing!

Usually you look at the things you mail out or your adwords or some coupon you ran in a discount book as being your only form of marketing, but the big lesson this month is that everything is marketing.  Every piece of your business that the consumer comes in contact with is marketing. 

 

 

Think about it –

 

 

Website –

 

If you get on a website that is hard to navigate, doesn’t give you what you want and gives you no reason to stay or leave any information – that’s bad marketing.  A good website gives you exactly what you are looking for, is simple to navigate and asks for your contact information right off the bat!  In fact, good marketing would offer something in return for that contact info. 

 

 

Phone –

 

What if people call your business?  Is your phone answered properly?  Heck, is it even answered?  Most people are not going to leave a message, so if you or your staff miss a call, it is likely you are also missing a sale.  Is your staff properly trained to stay in charge of the conversation? 

 

 

On Site –

 

Do people come in to your place of business?  Are you appealing to all five of their senses?  How does the place look?  Is it a mess?  How does it smell?  Do you have something to offer them to drink?  Is it a comfortable temperature?  Are you playing music that is inappropriate?  Seriously, you have to think off all of these things.  Every part of it is marketing. 

 

 

Packaging –

 

If you send out products – what kind of packaging are they in?  Is it something that impresses them, that they want to show their friends?  Did you send something extra?  Did you go above and beyond?

 

 

Marketer’s Trio – Specifically the Newsletter

 

Do you send out a newsletter?  Do you send it even to people who have raised their hand, but never actually bought from you?  Think about it – staying in front of them, keeping them up to date on your company as well as entertaining them…who do you think they will call first when they are ready to buy?

 

 Everything is Marketing!

 

Referrals –

 

Do you reward referrals or do you just hope and pray that people will talk about you, your company, your services, or your products? 

 

 

You –

 

How are you doing to market yourself?  Are you representing yourself and your product well?  Call it vanity or call it marketing, but you are part of your brand and you need to look the part.

 

 

You have to do all of it and you have to look at all of it as marketing!  It’s all marketing because it is either leading a person to the sell, or it is driving them away.

 

 

Think outside the box of what marketing is. 

 

Come up with some other ways that –

Everything is Marketing!