Ask Andi: We need to market business better. Get the word out. People tell me, “I didn’t know you did that”. We guess what clients need. How do we boost brand awareness based on feedback?
Thoughts of the Day: Use feedback to boost and market business better. Communication is a two-way street. It can be conscious or unconscious. Clients are the easiest to talk to since they already have a relationship with your company. Make sure the world knows what you do. People will find you when they need your product or service. Build a budget. Assign activities to get the word out and make inquiries.
Market business better and get the word out
Think of your company as having a voice, just the way people do. Your company is talking all the time about what it does. Every time you deliver on a sale, every time an invoice goes out, every phone call, and every visit with vendors, prospects, or clients, creates an opportunity to tell the story about what you do. Likewise, every contact you make creates an opportunity to gather information about how your company is perceived in the larger world.
What makes your customers happy enough to get them to spend money and then rave about how satisfied they were with their purchase? You need to know the answer to that question. Know that, and you’ll know what to emphasize and de-emphasize when promoting your company’s goods or services. Switch from making assumptions to inquiring about what the world wants, and why.
Looking to gather intelligence? Start with the information that’s already available. The government has a wealth of useful research. Go to Archives.gov, and click on the search function. Check-in with your local library’s research desk. You’ll be amazed at what resources are available.
The importance of strategies
Want to confirm what you think you already know about your target market’s desires? Ask people who already do business with you. Put together a few questions. Call both best and worst customers. Ask the same questions over and over. As you work to develop your company’s message, skew it to match what customers in the “best” category have to say.
Think you have a good message, but not enough people are hearing or responding? That’s a common problem. Quantity is important.
Marketing is about getting the message out to a broad audience and keeping it out there until your next potential customer is ready to listen. Do everything you can to reach potential buyers long before they’re ready to buy. Getting the word out to a broad audience can be relatively inexpensive thanks to internet marketing tools.
Feedback tells us how we should do things better
You still need a budget for marketing. Set a budget and create goals to regularly engage with the marketplace: clients, prospects, vendors. Resolve to put away 5 cents out of every dollar that comes in to support marketing efforts, or whatever amount works for you, but you have to be consistent. As the account balance builds up, research vendors and services that could be helpful. Ask business associates selling to similar types of customers for advice on who they’ve worked with. Look at your competitors; see if they have especially good marketing resources backing them up.
Test ways to get your message received by a broad target audience. Each year look to build a few campaign tools that work and eliminate any trials that fall flat. Refine 1-2 ideas that have potential but haven’t yet become productive.
Work on both: refining your understanding of what buyers value about your company, and getting the message out to future buyers that you have what they need. Make marketing a priority and carve out time to work on it steadily. Think of marketing as the ever-expanding tool that leads to your company’s future.
Looking for a good book?
The Market Research Toolbox: A Concise Guide for Beginners, by Edward F. McQuarrie.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., a business consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at 877-238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Email her at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or give us a call: 914-238-3500. Thank you for visiting Ask Andi. Business owners regularly turn to Ask Andi and Strategy Leaders for advice on how to grow profitable, successful companies. They find what they need time after time. Ask Andi is also published weekly in the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals and Hudson Valley Business. Written by Strategy Leaders President, Andi Gray, the Ask Andi column is a rich source of advice for owners of established, privately-held businesses.
