Many small businesses shy away from promotions thinking they can’t compete with the advertising, public relations and promotions budgets of their larger competitors.
But promotions don’t have to break the bank, nor do they have to be time-consuming. Develop a promotions plan that is a part of your overall business plan. Here are 5 steps to making your customers want what you have to offer:
1) Identify your target Customer
Consider what kind of customer you want to do business with and to whom your product or service is most likely to appeal. Take into account things like age, gender, location, marital status, lifestyle and why they buy, what they do and when.
2) Distinguish your service from all the rest
This has to be meaningful and accurate, otherwise you’ll lose credibility with your clients. First, you’ll need to know what features, benefits and brand attributes your target customers consider when choosing someone in your industry.
For example, if you’re a local nursery, your target buyers might take into account return policies on plants that don’t survive, quality of plants in store and availability of informed people who can help them with their choices and directions for caring for the plants.
3) Create a strategy and make it clear
Write down who your target clients are, what your competitive environment is and what your meaningful differences are. This is your positioning strategy statement. You must develop a consistent message, look and feel in all of your promotional campaigns.
Think about the personality of your business in relationship to your target clients. Is it a reserved, traditional and slightly conservative environment? These characteristics inform the look and tone of your business as well as promotions.
4) Create a clear, concise and memorable message that impacts your target clients
Identify the unique features and benefits that your services offer. From this list, find out what matters most to your target customers, and you’ll be well on your way. Take this information and brainstorm potential slogans and key words and build these into all your marketing messages and visual images.
5 Consider your budget
Promotion doesn’t have to cost big dollars. Creating a mix between word-of-mouth, client referral programs, public relations (think ‘Twitter’) and advertising (think ‘Facebook’) will save you a lot of money. Imagination and relationship building are the keys.
BONUS STEP
6) Put it into action
Simply put, put the plan into action.
By properly planning, something we recommend often and loudly, you’ve identified and minimised the risks, and given yourself the best odds of success, but without putting it into action, all you’ve done is waste time.
To paraphrase Edison, “Vision without execution is hallucination” and it’s the execution that will bring you results, either more customers or more actionable knowledge about your market.