Marketing is the most important thing you can do in business after developing a great and indispensable product or service. Marketing will be one of your major expenses in many cases if you're a service oriented business. If you produce a product, it will be a close second.
Many people don't understand the value of marketing and consider it an afterthought that's why they end up with sleepless nights worrying about slow periods, lack of sales and rising competition later on. They were not educated in the basic principles of marketing. What I'm about to show you is the basic formula for selling your product or service.
If you don't have enough customers to cover your expenses, you're not effectively marketing your business. If you're business is over five years old and you don't have a customer list that you communicate with each month, you're not marketing effectively.
So here is a simple five step formula for effective marketing:
1. Identify
Figure out the intended market for your product. Identify the ideal customer in as detailed a description as possible. What do they read? What products or services do they buy that are related to your own?
2. Qualify
Your advertising will not promote your product or service. Your ad will focus on the most pressing problem that your service or product solves. The objective of your qualification advertising is to bring in qualified leads. The point of marketing is to find the prospects who need what you have or are willing to be persuaded to listen to what you have to offer.
3. Verify
You now verify your leads by making an offer. You make your pitch to the problems and or benefits that your prospects will think are important. If a prospect sees, the rewards are greater than the risks associated with commitment they will buy. If they don't, you need to move them into the next step.
4. Edify
If the prospect has not purchased your products after the closing process, it's time to educate them on a consistent basis. Teach them about the issues surrounding their issues and problems (those associated with your product or service, of course.). You can offer free information and surveys to these prospects to keep them acquainted with your brand. Send them your newsletter.
5. Multiply
As you build a list of customers, you'll continue to build a growing list of prospects. As you continue to add more customers, you'll need to add more related products and services. The beauty of the process is that it will be much easier to sell new products to your customer list than to your prospect list. Just keep the processes going.
Dennis Morales Francis is a consultant and coach for business professionals and wellness practitioners. His website, www.doublemyrevenues.com/money02.html offers its members online coaching on building Internet income and automating their marketing on and off the web.
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