From research, it costs more to find new customers, figures vary from industry to industry but it is estimated that finding a new customers costs nine times as much as keeping old ones. Take a good look at your business and answer the following questions with self-honesty:
• Do you offer good services and value for money?
• Do your customers keep coming back or do you see them once and never again?
• Do you stay in touch with your customers after they have made purchase?
• Do you reward customers for being loyal to your business?
Whether you see it or not the market is becoming more competitive and more than ever you need to ‘smart up’. One of the smartest business strategies is to look after your existing customers- nurture them, encourage them to spend more with your business, continually ask for ways to improve your services and range of product. Keep in touch with your customers, reward them for being loyal and they will stay with you for many years.
You don’t have to be big to reward your customer, I often meet with small business owners who think they can’t do the kind of marketing that big companies do because they don’t have the kind of money. Agreed big businesses spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing to maintain their market share. Competition is always strong and at the end of the day the company with the best marketing strategies, good products and good service delivery tend to be the most successful.
A popular example is the customer loyalty program by virtually every airline around the world. The basic principle of this strategy is that the more you fly with one particular airline the more free flights and other bonuses you will get.
Why cant this principle be used by any small business from a road side tailors to a car wash. Reward your customers in your own little way by this you are acknowledging that your customers have a choice and they have chosen you.
To be on top
Keep in touch
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
happy new year
Welcome to 2010,
Welcome to a wonderful year of abundant possibilities
Welcome to your year of self actualization and boundless success.
Welcome to a wonderful year of abundant possibilities
Welcome to your year of self actualization and boundless success.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED TO SPEND ON MARKETING
Getting the money to Market and Advertise a business is often not easy. When times are tough as we have it now, people tend to cut back in the area of advertising – this is actually the time that advertising and Marketing should be increased but it rarely happens that way.
Most businesses that come to me for advice have very limited budgets, my advice is always the same- the size of the budget doesn’t matter but how you use it. A company with a N20,000 per month marketing budget probably needs to generate a few thousand naira per year. A company with a million naira per month budget needs to turn over tens of million per year.
Determining how much you should spend promoting your business is a difficult decision. The accepted way to arrive at a marketing budget is a percentage of your total turnover, anywhere from 5% to 20%. It is always wise to talk to your accountant or financial advisor when it comes to setting a budget, but remember, marketing should be a fixed cost like electricity or rent.
Don’t think you need to have a marketing budget of hundred of thousands to produce results. There are thousands of small businesses that have advertised very smartly for very little financial outlay. Look realistically at what you can afford on a monthly basis, set this money aside and assess your marketing options. Try not to be stressed about the amount that you have and don’t be afraid to tell people what your budget is especially if they are trying to sell you some form of advertising. Tell them what you can afford and what they can do to promote your business with the amount, every deal is negotiable. if they want your business badly enough they will offer you an incentive to do business with them.
Most importantly, you need to note that spending money on marketing is a waste of time if you can’t give your customers what they want.
Before you start marketing look long and hard before you stat marketing to make sure you can meet the expectations. What is the point of spending money to get new customers only to have them come to your business once and never come back?
I will give you many free and low-cost Advertising and Marketing ideas that will bring you business in 2010, but first make sure your business can do what you say
See you in 2010
Most businesses that come to me for advice have very limited budgets, my advice is always the same- the size of the budget doesn’t matter but how you use it. A company with a N20,000 per month marketing budget probably needs to generate a few thousand naira per year. A company with a million naira per month budget needs to turn over tens of million per year.
Determining how much you should spend promoting your business is a difficult decision. The accepted way to arrive at a marketing budget is a percentage of your total turnover, anywhere from 5% to 20%. It is always wise to talk to your accountant or financial advisor when it comes to setting a budget, but remember, marketing should be a fixed cost like electricity or rent.
Don’t think you need to have a marketing budget of hundred of thousands to produce results. There are thousands of small businesses that have advertised very smartly for very little financial outlay. Look realistically at what you can afford on a monthly basis, set this money aside and assess your marketing options. Try not to be stressed about the amount that you have and don’t be afraid to tell people what your budget is especially if they are trying to sell you some form of advertising. Tell them what you can afford and what they can do to promote your business with the amount, every deal is negotiable. if they want your business badly enough they will offer you an incentive to do business with them.
Most importantly, you need to note that spending money on marketing is a waste of time if you can’t give your customers what they want.
Before you start marketing look long and hard before you stat marketing to make sure you can meet the expectations. What is the point of spending money to get new customers only to have them come to your business once and never come back?
I will give you many free and low-cost Advertising and Marketing ideas that will bring you business in 2010, but first make sure your business can do what you say
See you in 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
EFFECTIVELY MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS
Effectively marketing your business starts with how much time you can devout to marketing and promoting your business. Be it 1hr a month or 1hr per day, the most important thing is how ready you are to try out new ideas on a regular basis.
You need to devout quality time to marketing your business. I am strongly of the opinion that you do your marketing away from your business in an environment where you won’t be disturbed than trying to squeeze it in between the countless responsibility that you have to deal with daily. You need to set out a special time to plan your strategy and actually implement the ideas. Not doing your marketing on a regular basis can have a more dramatic unfavorable effect on your business. You need to discipline yourself by setting up a realistic amount of time to market your business on a regular basis.
The amount of time you devout on marketing depends largely on how much business you really think you need- this is a question that is seldom asked by businessmen. Answering this question will give you a daily target to aim for. The most important thing to start with is to take a few minutes and work out exactly how much business you need to cover all your costs. Be honest and realistic with yourself, once you know exactly how much you need to cover all your costs then you know exactly how much business you need to survive.
The next step is to decide how much profit you want to make from your business. Add this to your survival figure and you now have a figure to aim for. You will be surprise how clear everything becomes when you know how much business you need to survive and make profit. Very few businesses take the time to figure these targets out, but successful ones always do.
start now!
Effectively marketing your business starts with how much time you can devout to marketing and promoting your business. Be it 1hr a month or 1hr per day, the most important thing is how ready you are to try out new ideas on a regular basis.
You need to devout quality time to marketing your business. I am strongly of the opinion that you do your marketing away from your business in an environment where you won’t be disturbed than trying to squeeze it in between the countless responsibility that you have to deal with daily. You need to set out a special time to plan your strategy and actually implement the ideas. Not doing your marketing on a regular basis can have a more dramatic unfavorable effect on your business. You need to discipline yourself by setting up a realistic amount of time to market your business on a regular basis.
The amount of time you devout on marketing depends largely on how much business you really think you need- this is a question that is seldom asked by businessmen. Answering this question will give you a daily target to aim for. The most important thing to start with is to take a few minutes and work out exactly how much business you need to cover all your costs. Be honest and realistic with yourself, once you know exactly how much you need to cover all your costs then you know exactly how much business you need to survive.
The next step is to decide how much profit you want to make from your business. Add this to your survival figure and you now have a figure to aim for. You will be surprise how clear everything becomes when you know how much business you need to survive and make profit. Very few businesses take the time to figure these targets out, but successful ones always do.
start now!
welcome
If you are logged on this blog, you are probably looking for some new ideas. You might be a marketer yourself, you might be an entrepreneur or small business person, or you might just want to be able to drop in a few good ideas at the next meeting. This blog will help with any of those aims.
Marketing is a process associated with promoting goods or services, above everything else; marketing is about creating profitable exchanges. The exchanges should be profitable for both parties- fair trade always makes both parties better off, otherwise why would people trade at all? What we are aiming to do is offer products (which include services, of course) that don’t come back, to customers who do come back. One of the basic concepts of marketing is customer centrality – in any question involving marketing, we also start with looking at what the customer needs. This does not; of course mean that we are some kind of altruistic, charity organization: we don’t GIVE customers; we SELL the customer what he or she needs. If a woman needs chocolate, or a man needs beer, we are there to ensure they do not have to wait long. Most of the ideas I will be sharing will offer you ways of improving the exchange process, by encouraging more of it or by making the exchange profitable.
Good marketing is about being creative. Successful companies are the ones that develop their own Unique Selling Proposition (the USP) that marks them out as different from their competitors. Be it a small business or large manufacturing company you and your product must STAND out for something and something must STAND you out among the rest.
Businesses are springing up everywhere a particular brand is selling - Pure Water, Bottled water, noodles, eateries, hotels& recreations, telecommunications, toiletries& cosmetics, departmental stores & super markets etc. for the market to prefer your brand amongst the crowd you need to do something different.
The first thing you need to identify or create is what makes you or your product outstanding, the USP might be almost anything – an improved level of service can make all the difference to a firm selling a product such as cement, which is essentially the same whoever sells it. At the same time, a retailer with an exclusive range of physical product can create a strong competitive advantage over another retailer who is equally attentive to customers and has just as nice a store.
I will offer you a set of ‘’snapshots’’ of ideas for marketing. Some of these ideas are from direct experience of dealing with various companies - Some big, some small, some are service companies; some are physical-product companies. In some cases, you will be able to lift ideas completely and adopt it for your business; in other cases you might be able to adapt the idea. In other cases the idea might illustrate how a creative approach can help you, and perhaps it will spark off a few ideas of your own. Many of the ideas will not apply to your industry or individual circumstances. For small to medium-size firms, a specialization is the way forward – but specialize in customers, not products. Customers give you money, products cost you money: stay focused on customer needs!
Ultimately, without customers there is no business. It is a lot easier getting staff, stock and premises too, than getting customers – everybody else is out there to get the customers’ hard-earned money off them. I hope you will get some ideas for getting more customers, keeping them and selling more to them. Welcome to the practical world of marketing where each visit to my blog will give you great marketing ideas on how to better market your business.
welcome!
Cyrils Nkwocha
Marketing is a process associated with promoting goods or services, above everything else; marketing is about creating profitable exchanges. The exchanges should be profitable for both parties- fair trade always makes both parties better off, otherwise why would people trade at all? What we are aiming to do is offer products (which include services, of course) that don’t come back, to customers who do come back. One of the basic concepts of marketing is customer centrality – in any question involving marketing, we also start with looking at what the customer needs. This does not; of course mean that we are some kind of altruistic, charity organization: we don’t GIVE customers; we SELL the customer what he or she needs. If a woman needs chocolate, or a man needs beer, we are there to ensure they do not have to wait long. Most of the ideas I will be sharing will offer you ways of improving the exchange process, by encouraging more of it or by making the exchange profitable.
Good marketing is about being creative. Successful companies are the ones that develop their own Unique Selling Proposition (the USP) that marks them out as different from their competitors. Be it a small business or large manufacturing company you and your product must STAND out for something and something must STAND you out among the rest.
Businesses are springing up everywhere a particular brand is selling - Pure Water, Bottled water, noodles, eateries, hotels& recreations, telecommunications, toiletries& cosmetics, departmental stores & super markets etc. for the market to prefer your brand amongst the crowd you need to do something different.
The first thing you need to identify or create is what makes you or your product outstanding, the USP might be almost anything – an improved level of service can make all the difference to a firm selling a product such as cement, which is essentially the same whoever sells it. At the same time, a retailer with an exclusive range of physical product can create a strong competitive advantage over another retailer who is equally attentive to customers and has just as nice a store.
I will offer you a set of ‘’snapshots’’ of ideas for marketing. Some of these ideas are from direct experience of dealing with various companies - Some big, some small, some are service companies; some are physical-product companies. In some cases, you will be able to lift ideas completely and adopt it for your business; in other cases you might be able to adapt the idea. In other cases the idea might illustrate how a creative approach can help you, and perhaps it will spark off a few ideas of your own. Many of the ideas will not apply to your industry or individual circumstances. For small to medium-size firms, a specialization is the way forward – but specialize in customers, not products. Customers give you money, products cost you money: stay focused on customer needs!
Ultimately, without customers there is no business. It is a lot easier getting staff, stock and premises too, than getting customers – everybody else is out there to get the customers’ hard-earned money off them. I hope you will get some ideas for getting more customers, keeping them and selling more to them. Welcome to the practical world of marketing where each visit to my blog will give you great marketing ideas on how to better market your business.
welcome!
Cyrils Nkwocha
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