Putting the pieces of your marketing puzzle together

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Putting the pieces of your marketing puzzle together

 

One of the many challenges you face as a business owner is deciding where your marketing budget should be spent.  How much should you allocate to advertising, networking and online?  What about Youtube, facebook and twitter?  Choosing between options is getting harder and harder.

1.  Invest in branding, acquisition, retention and harvesting strategies to create sustainable growth

At Sustainable Marketing, we believe it is important to invest in a combination of branding, acquisition, retention and harvesting strategies, if you want to create sustainable profits and growth through marketing.

·  Investing in BRANDING STRATEGIES is a long term strategy that can builds confidence in your brand, brings more clients to you rather than you chasing them, shortens your sales process, and grows your business faster.

·  ACQUISITION STRATEGIES such as consumer and trade promotions are important strategies which are great at attracting short term sales but less effective in generating long term growth.

·  If you aren’t investing in RETENTION STRATEGIES, then you are most likely to be losing valuable clients that you have already paid for through acquisition strategies.  

·  HARVESTING additional revenue from existing clients is the best source of low cost sales which are usually faster to convert than potential clients.

Sustainable Marketing Strategies

2.  Focus on marketing activities that have the biggest influence on your existing or potential clients

Not all marketing activities are equal.  In fact, some significantly outperform others.  In addition, some activities have greater appeal with existing clients than potential clients.  So it is important to know what are the best performing activities for your business, so that you can maximise the return on your marketing investment.

Best performing activities for business to business

Generally, the best performing activities for business to business marketing are listed below.  

Branding strategies

Acquisition strategies

1.  Networking and speaking

2.  Brand advertising and editorial

3.  Online search and display

4.  Trade shows

5.  Direct mail

1.  Referrals

2.  Networking &  speaking with an offer

3.  Alliances

4.  Samples (e.g. Events)

5.  One e.g. search and enewsletters

Retention strategies

Harvesting strategies

1.  Good experience at every touch point

2.  Client care program

3.  Marketing communications

1.  Outbound calls

2.  Direct mail / email

3.  Newsletter

3.  Embed marketing into your everyday client touch points to maximise the return on your marketing investment

Would you like for your clients to pay you to market to them?  Embedding a great client experience and marketing communications into your everyday client touch points can really boost the performance of your marketing dollars.

·  Ensure your staff and suppliers consistently deliver on your brand promise to your clients

·  Map every client touch point and embed value adds and subtle marketing offers at each point

·  Meet with your top clients regularly to add value and identify new opportunities

·  Phone, email or mail promotional offers each quarter to the rest of your clients

·  Identify new products/services for existing clients to increase average revenue per client

·  Ask clients for a testimonial and referral on completion of a product or service

·  Add promotional messages to invoices, statements and phone messages

·  Recognise your clients’ achievements e.g. give them a birthday card on their business birthday

·  Recommend your clients’ businesses to help them grow their business

·  Give clients a card or a small cost gift to thank you for their business.

Other decisions you need to make is what percentage of your marketing budget do you allocate to branding, acquisition, retention and harvesting strategies.  Do you invest in marketing activities that use your time e.g. networking and alliances. Or do you use activities that don’t place a huge demand on your time e.g. advertising and direct mails but require a larger financial investment.  Finally, at each stage of your business growth, you will need to adopt a different marketing strategy to reflect your goals, products, target markets and number of sales required.

Call Maria Anderson at Sustainable Marketing on 07 3821 3939 or 0402 095 699 to book a free coffee to brainstorm solutions to your biggest marketing challenge.

 

Sustainable Marketing


(Best Emerging Business, Business Achievements Awards 2009)

www.sustainablemarketing.com.au

 

 

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