Special Occasions

OK, let's market and sell your business. Where do you start? With what you have!

In my 20's and 30's, I spent a lot of time as a stand up. Following the path that everyone takes, there comes a time when you have to stop stealing material from other comics and write your own. Frightening at first, but you soon get attuned to what is required for this. Look at what is around you, and twist it to show a different point of view. Add certain standard tricks and gimmicks to allow your audience to draw mental pictures of what you are presenting to them, and deliver it in such a way as to get a reaction - hopefully a funny, and appreciative one.

While this may sound more like a Sales approach than a marketing one, look again at the first part of the statement: Look at what is around you.

You have opened this business to fill a need with a solution in a marketplace.
What is the need - promote it.
Who are you talking to - promote in a way that they will understand.
What is your solution - Promote it.

Now, look one level deeper:
Where are you based? - Promote it.
What kind of demographic are you marketing to - write in a way that they will understand.
How do they get their information - Advertise and promote there.

OK - let's move on:
What time of year are you about to enter? - Create a 'hook' to interest people, and warn them that they need your product or service then.
What is happening to their lives? Are we all going through the same thing? Promote it - let the know that you are exactly the same as they are, and you can help them, or at least inform them.
Who are your business neighbors? What are they doing, and can you do it better.
What is your competition doing, and how can you do it better..faster..cheaper...with more benefit.

How will you say it?
Over the last while since you began thinking of this particular business and it's model, you have been inundating yourself and others with information. Now is the time to pass that on to your customers in a way that they will understand. Look back over your business reports and plans, your e-mails, your brochures - anything that gives information. This is your raw material.

I will address Customer service in a future post, but here is something to use as a platform that I have found useful: A customer is one that buys your product ONLY from you. It is a repeating business transaction that they are happy to do. A real customer is a customer for life. This is what you are trying to achieve, so start from the beginning.

Before long, you will now how to approach those 40+ year old stay at home moms with not much income. You will do it clearly, and in a way that is attractive to them. You will do it in a way that reminds them it is Spring, we are in a global recession, your store is close to where they live, and you are a local specialist - much better than the chain guys that they are shopping at at the moment. You will show them the proof of what you are selling, and how your industry sits at present. You will also offer them a discount for the first 1, 5, or 10 they buy in order to get them coming back to you repeatedly.

See how easy that was? It's a series of special occasions, that only you and they know of. It is the start not only to a lifelong relationship, it is the start of your business empire.