Getting customers may seem like a difficult, mysterious process, but marketing is simply communication. You have to know what your message is, then get it out to others. People are used to getting information in soundbites. When you meet someone, you have only a few seconds to get their attention and make a strong impression. The 10-Second Brag can do that for you. We were all taught that it is not polite to talk about ourselves; however, it is important to express clearly and concisely what you do. The Brag is a short, to-the-point statement of: WHO you are, (Reds Advertising - your advertising agency) WHAT you do, (We increase your market share) WHO you do it for (For a diverse group of satisfied clients) HOW they benefit. (Their profit margins exceed their expectations) It is benefit-oriented, to catch the attention of your customers. Most of us talk in feature language. We talk about our titles and experience, or the equipment we use, or the tasks we perform. Customers don't care about any of that. They care about what's in it for them. When you talk about what you do for your customers -- the problems you solve, how you make their lives better -- you are using benefit language. Where, when and how can you use your Brag? Use it when you meet someone new, to introduce yourself at a networking meeting, while standing in line at the post office, when your mother asks what you do, on your business...

Each of these 8 marketing tips reveals a proven low-cost marketing tactic many other small businesses have used to boost their sales and profits. Integrate them into your marketing program now and you'll quickly start enjoying the same results too. 1. Don't Just Sell Benefits Don't just tell prospects what they gain when they buy your product or service. Tell them what they lose if they do not buy it. Most people fear loss more than they desire gain. Customers want your product or service to enjoy the benefits it provides.  They will want it, even more, when you remind them of what they lose by not buying it. 2. Use Pleasant Surprises to Close Sales An unpleasant surprise can kill a sale. But a pleasant surprise can help close a sale. For example, adding an unexpected bonus immediately before your prospect takes the last action to complete a sale will eliminate any last-minute hesitation. 3. Provide Fast Delivery - Even When You Can't The faster you can deliver your product or service the more sales you will get.  If you cannot deliver all or part of your product immediately, add something to the purchase that you CAN deliver immediately. It could be as simple as a series of  helpful tips related to your product posted on your web site ....available only to new customer 4. Make Buying Easier Every non-essential action in the buying process is an opportunity for customers to reverse their decision to buy. Look for ways you...

Attracting and retaining long-term clients is a powerful strategy for growing your business. Long-term clients are likely to feel more satisfied, are more likely to refer others, and are more likely to purchase additional services from you.  Here are 10 retention marketing strategies any business can use to turn average customers into loyal clients: 1. Focus your marketing on existing clients. Your current customers have already overcome certain hurdles to doing business with you and are more likely to buy from you again. Focus most of your time, efforts, and resources on better serving your current clients. Go deeper rather than wider. 2. Be consistent in your approach and interactions. Treat your clients with honesty, humour, and respect and maintain this over time. Present a consistent, solid, and professional style to your clients - one that they can grow to depend on. 3. Follow through on your commitments to them. If you promise to send information or to follow up, be sure to do this. You'd be surprised at how many professionals promise to send information, but then ever do. You will gain loyalty and trust by doing what you say you will do. 4. Allow yourself to connect with them. Find out about their lives, their hopes, goals, and desired outcomes. Ask questions that encourage a deeper sense of shared understanding. The greater the level of connection, the greater the mutual satisfaction. 5. Have fun.  It's easy to get caught up in goals, outcomes, deliverables and all of these are, of course, vitally important....

Our society is bombarded with advertising and marketing messages. How can you make your marketing stand out and be effective to your target market? The answer is easy, it's by taking the time to listen and relating your message to the pain of your client. Keep in mind that it is easier to sell a solution to a problem than to sell a positive benefit or substantial features. What problems are your potential clients facing? A great way to find out is to spend some time networking and doing market research by contacting potential clients. Find out what their needs are by spending time asking questions and intently listening to their answers, taking mental note of their needs, problems, and pain. Once you see the presence of a problem that your product or service can solve, study that problem and reposition your marketing so that it is offering a benefit and a solution to that problem. You will notice that by doing this marketing and selling will become a lot easier. Not sure if this works? Take a few moments and consider the products and services that are currently hot on the market. These products include products that help you quit smoking, lose weight, grow hair, and diminish wrinkles. Why are these products reaching a high level of success in sales? They offer a benefit and a solution to a negative situation or problem. Once you've identified the problem that your product or service solves, it's time to get to work...

Personal selling is the most expensive form of advertising and to be effective one should use a step by step process to gain the most benefit. Personal selling can adjust the manner in which facts are communicated and can consider factors such as culture and behaviour in the approach. They can ask questions to discover the specific need of the customer and can get feedback and adjust the presentation as it progresses. The Personal Selling ProcessThe personal selling process is a consecutive series of activities conducted by the salesperson, the lead to a prospect taking the desired action of buying a product or service and finish with a follow-up contact to ensure purchase satisfaction. Step OneProspecting - the first step in the personal selling processThe process of looking for and checking leads is called prospecting or determining which firms or individuals could become customers.Up to 20% of a firm's customer base can be lost for reasons such as transfer, death, retirement, takeovers, dissatisfaction with the company and competition. A steadily growing list of qualified prospects is important for reaching the sales targets.Qualifying a prospect: A lead is a name on a list. It only becomes a prospect if it is determined that the person or company can benefit from the service or product offered. A qualified prospect has a need, can benefit from the product and has the authority to make the decision. Step TwoThe Pre-approachThis stage involves the collecting of as much relevant information as possible prior to the sales...

To understand why print advertising is so effective, we have to understand what is happening in a reader's brain as they read. Brain activity is, almost by definition, extremely complex. It is understandable that much advertising research has not traditionally focused on understanding how the brain consumes different forms of advertising messages. However 'how' the brain engages in a particular task and how hard or taxing that particular task is, does have a number of effects on behaviour - affecting, for instance, how easily or well something is remembered. Some activities make the brain work harder - such as reading. It forces the brain into problem-solving activity. When you read you have to think. What we 'see' for the time when we are reading is actually a perceptual construction of the brain. The brain reads in 'gulps' of information, picking up units of meaning from the page at an average rate of 4 times a second. During such a 'fixation', the eye only picks up useful information for an estimated 1/20 of a second. For the rest of the 'fixation' time, we are processing the information through the brain. The very act of reading, then, has positive implications in terms of how receptive a consumer will be to a print message. Memory requires effort; therefore any task that requires effort is likely to enhance memory.The heightened level of arousal/attention which is inherent in a reading activity has to have a profound effect on the efficacy of advertising in print. In terms...

Advertising in magazines is a very powerful tool for the marketer. The style of advertising is uniquely different to any other advertising medium... Magazines deliver a cost-effective return on monies invested. When advertising is created for magazines it becomes a powerful advocate for the brand. Frequency is the most important media planning consideration, ahead of reach and size. Frequency is interpreted as frequent exposures to the brand with many different creative treatments (artistic work) to position the brand. Magazines build brand equity and create awareness. At its first exposure, a magazine ad typically performs 40% better than a television commercial in terms of creating awareness. An advert works or it doesn't and if it works, it does the first time you see it. If it doesn't work, hammering at it over and over again isn't going to make any difference. No amount of repeated exposure will make it work. To avoid wear-out and over-exposure, magazine campaigns should be conceived in the form of several complementary creative treatments. With regard to print pre-testing, most print advertising declines in impact with repeat exposure, a magazine campaign needs to be made up of a family of advertisements. The effectiveness seems to support the fact that, as time is under the control of the reader, more than one creative treatment of the same brand positioning is powerfully more effective in building advertising and brand awareness than multiple exposures of the same ad. Highly successful companies have learned to harness the power of magazines, they have...

There are well over 1300 business to business publications published in South Africa. The choice narrows down significantly to what industry you are in and what your target audience is. Your advertising expenditure should be based on rand per reader and who receives the magazine. CEO's, managers and opinion leaders are normally targeted with the magazine circulated around the firm and staying at the reception for further reading by visitors. Some areas to consider on which magazine to advertise in:* What industry and market?* Is the magazine dedicated to your industry?* Who is it targeted?* What is the reach?* What is the circulation and is it verified?* Is it an official journal to the industry?* Does the publication come out timeously? * Is it a good quality magazine?* Does the magazine have a good format and look that enhances its credibility?* Is the editorial well written?* Are the articles practical and interesting?* Do they feature stories that benefit you and the industry?* Does it have local news or product updates so one keeps informed on the trends in the industry? Normally the advert only has 3 -5 seconds to attract the reader's attention therefore the campaign must work towards this time constraint.Some areas to consider when conceptualising an ad campaign. * The message should be clear and have an impact.* The creative work should not overshadow the message.* It must attract the audience attention within 3 seconds and gain an interest in the reader's mind.* Once interest is gained it should...

Innovation is different from an invention in that inventions fail to build markets and an invention is a completely new product. Customers do not want new products, they want solutions that offer new and superior benefits. For example, Total Quality Management (TQM) and corporate re-engineering have saved time, money and defects to be taken out of a firm's operational processes. The result is a boost in company profits and earnings potential through offering superior customer service and making competitors products obsolete. A successful innovation must meet four criteria: Important - it must offer benefits that will be perceived as important by customers. Unique - it must be perceived as unique since one that is not differentiated will inevitably fail. Sustainable - these attributes of uniqueness and importance can be quickly copied by competitors and must, therefore, be sustainable. Marketable - the company must have the capability to market a reliable and effective version of innovation, at a price the customer can afford and distribute it that it's easily available. Over 90% of all new products are simply improvements on the older version. They are seen as new marketing concepts. New old products - involve finding new uses for existing products New markets - new types of customers for an existing group of products or services. New ways of doing business - innovative approaches to delivering current products and services to customers and are one of the most successful sources of innovation today. The benefits of innovation would be to survive since...

To counteract new product failure, one needs to develop different and special organizational arrangements for innovation. There are six areas to focus on; 1. Vision and Objectives.Top management should provide a vision for innovation that is placed alongside the goals for the company. The vision should have top priority as any new product is the future growth for any company.The firm should compare its own innovation record to its competitors and other leading businesses and identify the obstacles to innovation. A course of action should be recommended with objectives set and quantified before pursuing a number of new product alternatives with urgency and vigour. 2. People SkillsInnovation is based on knowledge. Firms that stand out in their field are those that know;* more about their competitors* what their customers want* available technological solutions* making companies information easily available to all personnel* staff incentives to innovate 3. Customer Focus InnovationThe objective of any innovation is to delight the customer. Customer involvement and feedback should be a top priority throughout the project. Often they create markets that did not exist previously. 4. Autonomous Teams, Parallel ProcessingInnovation should take place outside the firm. The objectives and tasks of the operation are very different from those of running the organization itself. Ongoing operations are simply too slow and unfocused.This occurs because the organization works in series and not in parallel. Traditionally, products start in R&D or marketing departments. They are eventually handed over to the engineering for design. Manufacturing takes over to make the product...