The first question people normally ask me is what can I do next to market my business?

Before we start with something new, you need to unearth the goldmine’s that are in your business right now that will generate you money and build loyalty with your customer base.

The last 18 months have been hard on the economy and businesses.  Companies are holding on to their purse strings tightly.  I have seen a lot of businesses who have reduced their prices in order to stay in business.  But this is a very dangerous strategy, which will ultimately harm the business and is often unnecessary.

FACT: Very few people actually buy on price, even in a Recession.  If you have sold something on price that customer didn’t fully understand the benefit or value of what they have bought.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few products and services which are very much price led.  But for the majority of businesses, right now there is a goldmine of opportunity by offering the customer real value.  Convince them of the value and they will paradoxically be prepared to pay you MORE in the Recession than before.

RULE:  Don’t cut your prices look first at how you can increase value.

TIP: One of the quickest and easiest ways to increase value is to offer a Guarantee that is really powerful.

Simply really, when you stop and think.  Guarantees reduce risk and fear.

When a customer makes a purchase, they are initially taking all the risk. By eliminating the risk you remove the barriers that stop them from making a decision to buy from you.

The truth is the customer can’t lose. 

When I tell my clients that I offer “Money Back” Guarantee, the first thing that they say to me is that they couldn’t afford to do that.  They would be out of business within a week.  Their customers would take advantage.   Really!

Over the last couple of years I have worked with a number of companies.  I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee – No Questions.  When I tell clients this, they think I am mad.  But the truth is, this simply guarantee has brought me more word of mouth work then I could actually do.  Yes, on a number of occasions I have given the money back.  On reflection, at the time, there were two problems at play:

i)             The client didn’t under the value of my work, no matter how hard I tried to communicate it to them.

ii)            Long term, these customers would have ended up costing me more money than I was invoicing them for.

Can you relate to this kind of business?

So what do I mean by “give a great Guarantee?”

Where possible, offer a full unconditional 100% money-back Guarantee. If a customer is anything but completely and utterly delighted with your products or service, you give them their money back.  No questions, no arguments, no delays!

And yes, I really do mean a 100% unconditional Guarantee.

It is a quirk of human nature that the longer you offer the Guarantee, the less you’ll have to honour it. i.e. if you offer a 30-day guarantee, by the time day 21 arrives, if they’re not sure… they’ll come back for their money.  If the same Guarantee is for 12 months, the customer relaxes and the risk to your business is reduced. .

I can still hear you staying I am mad and questioning why you should even consider giving a Guarantee like this?

When companies I work with really push on this point, I get them to look at their business and potential problems which could cause a client to ask for their money back.  But that is a totally different post to this, which I will follow up with shortly.

I won’t lie to you…. I know sound like Nessa from Gavin & Stacey…. Yes, you will have to honour your Guarantee.  At the end of the day, business is a numbers game.  You work out the maths – if someone asks for their money back on X sale, but you make an extra XYZ sales, who is the winner?

Goldmine No.1, Guarantees are one of the best ways to strengthen your business in the Recession and set you apart from your competition.

Please test a strong Guarantee and let us know how it goes.

Plus watch out for next week’s Goldmine.

Did you know that internet marketing covers:

• Your website(s)
• Blogs
• Electronical sent newsletters
• Email
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Social Media i.e. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

So how do you get started….

1. Find out what your clients are using to stay in touch with what is going on.  You could simply just ask them or put together a quick and simple questionnaire and offer a prize – bottle of champagne.
2. Work out what your objectives are.  Do you want to go your mailing list?  Do you want more visitors to your website?  Do you want to be seen as the expert in your field/areas on a blog?  Keep focused on them.
3. Test, Test, Test.  Set yourself a goals.  For example if you are going to use email marketing than make sure it comes with software for you to see who opened it, who it bounced to, who forwarded it and who asked to be removed from your list.  Without these simply facts, you don’t know if your email campaign is working and you could be spending valuable time doing tasks and it isn’t giving your any results.
4. Keep it simple.  Is is obvious I know, but it still surprises me, how many people use technology just for the sake of it.  Check that what you are doing is adding value.
5. Add Value.  Today’s customer is very savvy, and they know when the are being sold to.  Your customers are using the internet, right at this very moment to find out information.  You could provided this information from one of the many articles you have read recently.  Tell people, help them out.
6. Don’t expect instant results.  With everything in life, consistency and persistence is what counts.
7. Perfect as you go.  You don’t have to be a expert on using internet marketing techniques.  Learn as you go, watch your results, listen to what your customers are asking for and help them. out.

Let me know how you get on.  If you have any questions, drop me a note and we will get back to you a.s.a.p.

The number one reason that I receive from a potential new clients is because they have spent a lot of money on marketing and received absolutely nothing in return.

When I first start with a business, the first thing we look at is what they actually sell.  Nearly 99% of the time, business owners (or the people doing the marketing) are marketing what you deliver, not what your product or service can actually do for a potential client. These two things aren’t the same.

The second thing I hear from a business owner is that it is obvious what I need to market. 

Or is it?  For example

If you’re a financial advisor, you probably think you’re marketing financial advice. If you’re a HR advisor, you may think you are marketing HR advice. If you own a clothes shop, you may assume you market clothes. If you market a restaurant you may think you are selling a meal.

In each case, you’d be right in terms of your deliverables, but you are wrong about what they are buying.

What you’re marketing and what you actually deliver are two different things.  The key to increasing your sales is to realise that what you are really marketing is hope – your clients’ hope of achieving their goals.

I have worked with a variety of business owners from design agencies to bridal shops.  They have all faced the same problems when increasing sales.  They have confused their marketing with what they deliver.

For example, if you are financial advisor, yes you deliver financial advice, but what the client really wants is hope.  Hope that you can help them with their money and deal with things that they don’t really understand.  Ultimately, they want to make money, which you can’t promise, but you can offer hope.  If you sell carpets, you deliver the carpets and lay them in the house, but what you are selling is hope.  Hope that at the end, the room/house is going to look better then the owner has visualised it in their heads and also practical for their needs – you are helping to create a home.  If you own a restaurant, you are not selling a meal, you are selling hope.  Hope that the evening will be something to remember, that the meal will be better then what they can do at home.  That for once, they don’t have to do the dishes! The meal may be for a special occasion i.e. birthday, reward, celebration.

You’re marketing to your prospects’ hopes that they’ll be happier, more successful, more attractive, smarter, richer, more comfortable, and more secure, etc. Target you’re marketing to the real reasons people buy and you’ll be much more successful in motivating them to make a purchase from you.

Do you see the difference?  Let me know your thoughts.

A  very good colleageue of mine, Gareth Morgan from Liberty Marketing sent out this article today in his newsletter on SEO Tips for Twitter.

If you use Twitter or you are just getting into Twitter, check out Gareth’s 5 SEO Tips to tweet your way up the Search Engines.

If you like the article, sign up for his newsletter – where do you think I get my ideas from….. lol

Viral marketing means to spread out information. Traditionally this was and is, still done via   word of mouth.  Online it can be achieved with emails, newsletters, promotions and your website (to name a but a few).

For example, I received an email the other day from a friend who had forwarded it to me.  The message was about the Take That Circus Tour DVD being launched on 24th November.  There was the option to opt in in the email to receive information.   My friend forwarded it to me, because we went to the concert together and she knew I would be very interested in the email.

My friend was obviously on a companies email list to have received the message. By offering the facility to forward the message to friends and share, the company are building their list.  Because there is a very strong chance that I will sign up to receive more information.  Hence the viral nature.

Viral marketing is free and takes less then 5 mins to set up.  What are you waiting for, add a forwarding facility onto your online marketing and grow your list.

 We have all been there, we are so nervous about speaking or writing a piece of marketing, that we just open our mouths or pick up our pens and out it all comes.  We don’t stop for breath! 

Today’s tip is aimed at making your copy more personal.  You can use this copywriting tip if you are writing a letter, creating a leaflet, put new copy on your website or even just preparing your 30 sec elevator pitch for your next networking event. 

Close your eyes and imaging you are taking to your best friend about the product or service you want to promote.  Think about how the conversation will begin, what would you say?  What will be your friends reply?  How you would reply to them. 

Can you see the difference in the language and the tone that you are using to communicate to them?  This is exactly what you should be using.

Do you find yourself saying “We know this will help you”? Wouldn’t it be better to say “Let me help you, I can guarantee you….”

Think about the way you would talk to a customer.  Think of them as your friend and start using this strategy in your written copy.

I can guarantee you, you will see a difference in the response.  Go on, try it to day and see what happens.

Let me know what help you need with your marketing and copywriting and I will add it to our list of Tips in this section.

Pick up one of your leaflets or our company brochure and have a look at the words you are using to promote your business. My bet is there is a lot “we” words i.e. “we” are good at, “we” have been in business for…

Don’t worry you are not alone, over 80% of marketing and sales literature, start off taking about how “we” are good at!

Unfortunately, customers are only really interested in “what is in it for them”. They want to know how you can help them. The magic key is to use the word “you” or “your” as much as humanly possible in your messages.

Start to connect with your customesr and let them know today, how you can help them.