Analyze and Research Your Marketing Efforts

In any marketing strategy, research is a vital part of the process. You wouldn’t build a house without a plan, and you shouldn’t attempt to build a marketing plan without some market research. It may seem like a simple concept, but can often be undervalued and overlooked. First, you need to understand your audience. After all, your products and services should either create or satisfy a demand; and your marketing efforts should reflect that. Use these steps to get started with your market research today.

What You Need To Know
If marketers were mind readers, there would be no need for research. You can try to guess at what customers are searching for to satisfy their needs. Chances are you have a good idea at what they want, or you wouldn’t exist. But to take your business to the next level, you should identify what you want to find out about your customers. You can achieve this through conversations with a group of your employees from across the organization. You can analyze what marketing efforts have worked in the past. And then it’s time to ask your customers directly.

How To Make It Happen
There are a variety of ways to go about conducting your research. For instance, one way to find out how past marketing has worked is to ask customers how they heard about you. You can also take a look at sales trends after you put out a marketing message. Other ways to get information from your customers is to ask them in a survey. Keep those short, focused and unbiased. You can conduct them through your website, by phone or place a reply card with every order. This could result in a surprise at the responses you receive that you possibly guessed would turn out differently.

If you want to get more personal with your market research, conduct a focus group with customers. With this option, you’ll gain a quick snapshot at what trips triggers and what misses the mark. And you’ll probably get some good testimonials for future marketing pieces. No matter how you reach your customers, the results will be worth paying attention to for future marketing endeavors.

Putting It To Use
Now that you have a better understanding of what marketing methods have been effective, you have to actually put them to use. Too often, the research will be conducted only to not change the company’s ways. It can be difficult to let go of a strategy you’ve been using for years. But in the end, your goal as a marketer is to engage the most customers for your business. Although it seems like a no-brainer, make sure that you are actually listening to what your customers have to say. It’ll improve your marketing efforts in the long run, because having market research will help you better understand and communicate with your audience.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

Upselling to Your Current Customers

Which is more appealing, studies have shown that it costs six times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one, and that it’s 16 times easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one. That makes upselling to your current customers critical to keeping your business in the black. Your existing customers have had a good buying experience with you, so they are familiar with you. If you’ve done your job well, the likelihood of them doing business with you again is a sure thing. Trust and credibility have already been established with you. Now all you need to do is make them an enticing offer. Upselling keeps you relevant to customers even after you solve the problems they initially came to you with, and it makes your business relationship more profitable.

So rein in your marketing efforts toward the client you already have. Keep reading for four tips on increasing sales with upselling.

Be Inclusive
If you assume that your customers are aware of all of your products and services, you’re only hurting yourself. It’s not their job to assess what they need from your business’s suite of services. It’s yours. So don’t just market new services to leads. Include current customers in your mailing list when promoting a special. Offer your customers the opportunity to purchase additional services your company offers,  if they don’t want it they will say no, but at least they have been included in the same offers you give the new guy.  Alert clients to the new product you just rolled out. Never underestimate the potential for new business in an old client.

Happy and In It for the Long-Haul
Not losing current clients is too humble a goal. Not only do you need to keep them, you need to keep them happy. And the more you satisfy them, the more likely they are to spread positive word-of-mouth – which in turn will constitute the single biggest way for you to win new customers. Show them how your products actually can accelerate their business. The trust you’ll build by taking the time to educate them will prove invaluable.

Just Checking In
Make it a priority to stay on current customers’ radar, because so much of the upsell depends on your being attuned clients’ every wish or need. Keep in touch to stay in the know about the challenges they face, their changing target audience and their biggest worries as a business. Talk to customers regularly. The conversation should be a low-pressure, sales pitch-free discussion about their problems. Listen to them carefully then identify upselling opportunities consistent with their needs.

An Elephant Never Forgets(But Clients Do)
Remind customers of all your company offers to help their business grow. Write a personal letter to clients in whom you see potential for spending more on your services. Include a list of everything your business offers, with the products they’ve already purchased checked off. It’s a subtle way to show clients that you can fulfill more of their business needs, even ones they might have missed.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

5 Steps to Makeover Your Marketing Strategy

Thanksgiving has barely passed, and yet planning for 2012 is already overdue. But it’s not too late to treat your marketing strategy to a much-needed makeover. All of the fresh starts and New Year’s resolutions that accompany a brand new year make it a great time to implement a new and improved marketing strategy. Decide that 2012 is the year you’ll trim the fat on your marketing strategy. Read on for five steps to your 2012 marketing strategy assessment.

Articulate Your Goals
How will you craft a more effective marketing strategy if you don’t know what you’re working toward? Go over your business plan to identify areas to which marketing can contribute. Check your current marketing strategy for any tactics that aren’t related to those goals. Revise your strategy to ensure that it’s doing exactly what you need it to.

Pinpoint Weak Spots
Improving your marketing strategy according to your business’ goals naturally leads to addressing weaknesses. Recognize the areas that need a little help and market the company with those in mind. If your company needs to increase visibility, adjust your marketing plan to do just that—focus on word-of-mouth initiatives, customer rewards and SEO. If client retention is far from your strong suit, plan customer loyalty programs and invest in advertising that promotes your excellent customer service.

Know Your Audience
Before you can woo your audience into buying your product or subscribing to your service, you’ve got to really know them. Can you paint a picture of who would buy your product? Do you know how much they’re willing to pay? What does it take to convince them? Answer these questions and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Measure Up
The tighter the money, the more careful the consumer. Get used to the fact that when consumers spend less, they scrutinize your business and your product more carefully than ever. Does your marketing strategy speak to your expertise and your company’s credibility? If not, what can you do to fix that? Maybe it’s spotlighting testimonials of happy customers, or rewarding customers who refer leads. Maintain a content-rich website and develop a PR strategy to showcase your trustworthiness and persuade the tight-fisted to bite the buying bullet.

Know the difference
Your business plan and your marketing plan are two completely different tools. The former describes the whole of your business—your customers, your budget and your goals. A far more focused document, the marketing strategy, consists of the concrete steps your business takes to achieve the goals in your business plan. Both tools work best when they’re separate but in harmony.

Guide your marketing strategy revisions according to these five considerations, and you and your business will have more to celebrate next year. Get to it!

 

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

“The Constant” Keep Them Coming Back

There are steps you can take to feel secure when it comes to keeping your customers happy and assuring they will keep coming back. Below is a list of things you can do to show your customers despite adversity, the economy you appreciate them and have what they need time after time!

Confidence…Not a Sinking Ship
Many of you I am sure have seen an advertising describing how “Times are tough and  future unsure.” The thought process I am sure that goes with this type of advertising is that the public will show compassion and try to support the company with business. The truth is most customers won’t spend money if the owner or CEO doesn’t feel the company is on solid ground. Why give money to a sinking ship, especially if it seems the business will diminish with or without their help. The best decisions should be made out of confidence, not out of desperation and fear. Give your customers something they can rely find away to turn a negative into a positive, find away to let your customers see that you are thriving and despite the challenges you still have the control to show your strengths.

Value
Consider what a customer gets from a product relative to its cost. When we are talking about customer value, it is important that everyone understands that customer value does not relate to the value of customers, but to the value that customers receive from the business. In advertising we see examples of companies listing the benefits, price savings, and quality of their products that they believe a customer will look for.  The question is are they in made in good faith, do they hold up to what the customer gets or in the end will the customer find they are far from the truth.

The Feel Good Factor
We all know that it’s easier to keep a customer than to find a new one, so you want customers coming back. Your basic  goal is to not only help the customer have a good experience, but to offer them an experience that exceeds their expectations. At one time or another we all have been a customer so you know how important this is to you so let it also be the standard you use for your customers.   Go that extra mile keep in touch with them after the sale. Maybe it’s a birthday club mailing, advertising specialty item or a newsletter. A simple hand-written thank you note from time to time really impresses customers. Regardless, you need to remember your customers are your future.

Customer loyalty is no an accident. It is the result of your hard work and dedication to their needs. You and your employees should have one attainable goal: find out what your customers want and deliver it…. the end result…they will keep coming back!

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

Your Direct Mail Piece Can Become Trash or Treasure?

Every day you go to your mailbox to see it you have mail. As you hover over the trashcan to sort, how do you decide what piece you’ll read and what piece will fall through your hands to its demise?

While direct mail is an effective tool in your marketing campaign, there are some easy ways to foil your efforts. Here are a few tips to keep your mail out of the recycle bin.

Wrong Time/Wrong Audience
First, you must understand your target audience. Second, you must find a way to obtain their mailing address. If you’re planning to purchase a list, look to your current customers as a source for demographic and psychographic information. Current customers are also more likely to respond to direct mail, so consider a campaign for repeat business. Timing is everything. Having the offer in the right hands at the right time is critical. Direct mail campaigns fail, even with qualified lists when they are launched at the wrong time.

Focus on the Offer
The whole purpose of direct mail is to get people to do something. For businesses, that usually means purchasing something from you.  Focus on the big stuff. When people glance at your mailing, they’re looking for what you’re selling and the deal you’re making to sell it. So make it good! Make it fast! And make it clear! Doubt fills trashcans.

Poor Design
The quickest way to get a person to look at your direct mail is by having a clean design. Conversely, the quickest way to get them to toss it is to have a design with no purpose. Here is where you want to call in the professionals who can create the perfect piece for your needs.

Tracking Results
How will you know whether your direct mail campaign was successful unless you include a way to track it? What do you want the customer to do?  Remember, the very objective of sending a DM piece is to generate a response.  You want the customer to call you, visit you, make an appointment or whatever else you may want them to do. Therefore, within your DM piece, clearly and concisely point out what you want the customer to do, when you want them to do it and the benefits of doing so quickly.

To sum it up…in direct mail, when people sort your mail, they’re quick. They’re brutal. And if you don’t instantly capture their attention, your direct mail becomes landfill!  Remember, you’re writing for a reader who is standing over a trash can.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.