Marketing is the cornerstone of success for every business, whether you’re in retail, manufacturing, or the service provider industry. But what is the secret to effective and successful marketing? Derby Hub member Alison Beardsley from TEC.I.T. takes a look at the 5 steps you need to initiate.
Marketing is not about sales. It’s not about pushing your products and services onto your customer base, that’s called advertisement. Marketing is about creating value and getting people act in such a way that your business is benefitted, whether that’s a sale, a recommendation, or a potential lead querying who you are and what you do.
In other words, successful marketing is buying people’s time. And in order to achieve this effectively, you need to consider these 5 important steps.
1. stop and grab people’s attention
The first step in successful marketing is just that – the first thing. You have to start by getting people to stop and listen so they will be receptive to what it is you have to say to them.
You have about 3-4 seconds to grab someone’s attention, which is not a great deal of time. The key here is to be clear and concise, whilst leaving enough of an open statement to warrant further inquiry from the customer:
“I enable companies to simply be better than their competitors, by the touch of a keyboard or the swipe of screen.”
2. elaborate with a greater focus on value
Now that you’ve captured the attention of the person to whom you are marketing, expand on this by telling them more; focusing on the key valuables so as to establish a strong connection between their needs and what it is that you do. For this, you have another 5-7 seconds:
“We transform businesses by helping them to embrace technology with our bespoke I.T. solutions ….. mobile apps, websites, consolidating existing data, CRM systems, business intelligence. Investment can be minimal but the business agility and efficiency are huge.”
3. watch, listen and read the response to your pitch
Once you’ve had your say, it’s time to assess the response to you initial pitch. Watch how they react and listen to what they have to say, all the whilst thinking about how you present yourself.
4. connect
Remember that people buy from people, not advertorials, so use everything you’ve established in the previous step to generate an authentic, personable two-way conversation.
At this point, it’s all about establishing a relationship that demonstrated to the other person the value of your services and how they meet their needs, like before, but now a much deeper level. Some marketers refer to this as making a “deep personal connection”.
5. take action
Finally, you want them to make that next important step. This could be mean securing a future meeting, a call, whatever it is that you need to progress the relation.
effective methods of marketing
So that’s how successful marketing is done, but how do you generate the opportunity to market to people in the first place? Here’s just a few of the most effective methods that businesses use on a daily basis.
Email marketing
Email is still one of the preferential and most highly rated marketing channel in terms of its effectiveness by both consumers and marketers. Here’s some points to consider when putting together your email marketing campaign:
- Cleanse your data
- Don’t over send, once per month is a good average
- Invest time at the beginning. Although it can be daunting and time consuming, it is worth the effort. Once you have your database set up and the campaigns are planned out it’s plain sailing!
- Keep it brief
- Keep the headline snappy and compelling
- Have a call to action, click through to your website (also good for Search Engine Optimisation on your website)
- Make sure the e-shot branding is current and uniform with your company’s image
- Use online email marketing solutions, such as MailChimp, Campaign Monitor. This will allow you to easily create, send and measure the impact of your email marketing campaigns. You can target customers based on previous sales and successes and create various lists depending on their click rate, open rate etc.
- Follow up on click-throughs
Networking
Networking is a strong form of marketing, but remember, never to ‘sell to the room’, nobody wants to talk to a pushy sales person. Networking is about building business relationships with like minded people and sharing business excellence. To offer advice, share referrals and to help grow a solid support network within a professional and ethical environment.
One of our up and coming training sessions at the Derby Hub is ‘Networking – Skills & Tips’ on Wednesday 4 May.
Social media
Again, a strong form of marketing, but it is difficult to calculate what the return on time investment is. To not be on any form of social media definitely puts you behind your competitors in the market place.
Due to the success of our last Social Media training, we have an expert coming in on Wednesday 2nd March to talk about ‘Online Marketing’ (Jim Leafe from E-ON).
Click here to book your place
Advertising
Do companies still pay for advertising? Does it work?
The general opinion is that it does work quite well for B2C but not so much for B2B. Don’t spend big. Test the marketplace first. It isn’t the preferred route of most companies, however, if the advert is read by the right person at the right time then it can open many doors and business opportunities.
Word of mouth advertising is a strong form of marketing. If your customers are happy with the product and service you have provided then always ask them if they will write a testimonial for you and pass on your details to others. Recommendation is invaluable.
Alison Beardsley is Manager of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at TEC.I.T. and leads a team of highly skilled and experienced consultants specialising in Bespoke I.T. Software Solutions, Business Intelligence, Software Development, Mobile Apps (on the iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows), Multiplatform Technical Consultancy and Website Design & Build.
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