How to Become a Really Smart Marketer

Have you ever heard anyone say, “We’re so lucky, we never have to do any marketing and the business keeps coming in”?

We did, and 3 months ago, they told us they had had their worst year ever. The number of businesses who rely on customers picking up the phone themselves or just relying on word of mouth is astounding. If you think like that, not only are you leaving fortunes on the table but you are putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

The trouble is that when someone says “You need to do some marketing,” some people imagine that suddenly an enormous amount of their profit is going to disappear overnight. They start thinking:

“Who exactly am I going to market to?”

“What am I going to say?”

“Who will do it for me?”

We imagine all the horrors associated with hiring a marketing agency that is then going to eat up our budget with fancy artwork and branding ideas. If you insist on hiring an agency, then so be it, but please make sure that they talk to you in terms of ROI (return on investment). If they can’t guarantee their work, then you should be asking them why not. Too many times we see advertisements which essentially have the message “Look at me! I have a business; phone me if you like.” That may seem harsh, but you just look through any business to business magazine for examples of the worst offenders.

So what is Smart Marketing?

It’s marketing where you OFFER something to your customers rather than simply announcing your existence.

It’s also marketing where you start with your existing customers.

It’s also marketing that does not involve a huge amount of expense.

You will have already heard me say that we leave a great deal of hidden money with our customers by not following up with them enough.

Try this with your existing customers:

Send them a sales letter with an offer to buy something from you that is extra to what they would normally buy. It might be a new product or service or an exceptional offer on your usual product or service for a limited time frame.

The letter should have the following:

1 – An attention-grabbing headline which gets them to read on

2 – The offer and the reason why the offer exists in the form of a story

3 – A deadline by which they need to respond

4 – Instructions on what they need to do next

This is direct response marketing that is inexpensive, measurable, and sent to people who already like buying from you.