Learning Objectives:
1. Joint ventures and dead lists
2. Trade for advertising
3. Increase sales skills
4. USP
5. Simple website & free programs
6. Testimonials, Referrals
7. Other sellers to your target customer
Introduction.
When you hear the word marketing many people think about advertising and radio, TV, or newspapers. Those and other advertising mediums are only part of marketing. Most companies spend 95% of their marketing resources trying to get new customers through the door or to their website. We forget about the many other ways in marketing new customers can be acquired. This article will talk about those marketing strategies that cost nothing.
1. Using other businesses to increase sales:
Joint ventures – One way to increase sales is to team up with other businesses that have the same target customer.
Example: Let’s say you own a tire store. Your target customer is pretty much men age 20 to 60 years old. You look for other businesses that have the same target customers. There is a local health spa in the area, Gold’s Gym. There is also a sporting goods store several blocks away.
You contact the owner or manager of Gold’s Gym and propose a joint promotion. He has about 900 males who are members that he sends bills to every month. You propose that you will provide 3×6” flyers offering a special discount of $200 off certain brands of tires for Gold’s Gym members.
The manager will put the flyers into the monthly bills mailed to the 900 members. You agree to pay the Gym $50 for every set of tires you sell from the flyer sales. It’s a win-win promotion. You get to sell to a list of customers you did not have access to. You will make a considerable amount of sales.
The manager of Gold’s Gym only has to put the flyers into the bills and mail them. He gets $50 per set of tires sold for doing nothing. You can do this tactic with many different businesses extending your customer reach for almost no cost.
2. Other businesses’ customer dead or inactive lists:
Many businesses have lists of prospects they had contacted to sell their products, but the prospects did not buy. The business usually tries several times to sell to that prospect list without success.
That list of prospects that did not buy is called a dead list. The business just keeps the names in the data base but has no use for them. If you have the same target customer as the other business, you can ask the business owner to let you market to the dead list. You will give them $100 for each person on the dead list who buys.
Example – You are the owner of a holistic college that teaches different kinds of natural healing, spiritual development, and use of herbs to cure different ailments. Your customers are primarily females age 20-45 years old. You contact the local massage therapy college and ask to market to their dead list.
You will give them $100 for each person you sign up. The Massage therapy college gets money from a list that was dead, and you get a list of the same target customer as yours to market to. Again, a win –win for both of you.
3. Trade your services for advertising:
If you have a business that provides products or services that other businesses could use, contact a local advertising company. Radio stations do a lot of promotions and give away a lot of merchandise on air. Contact the manager of a radio station. Offer to trade your services for radio spots.
Your services or products could be carpet cleaning, furniture, electronics, etc. Trade your product/service at full retail price for the retail price of radio spots. You can do this with many radio stations, some newspapers, TV stations and other media.
4. Create a Unique Selling Position, (USP) to make your business different from the competition:
A unique selling proposition is what makes your business or product different, special or unique from the competition. You might promote your business to be different from the competition as providing faster service, or lower prices, or wider selection, better distribution, or the best guarantee and so on. The concept can be the most powerful tactic you can use and it is free. Make your business different.
Ex. Dominos Pizza’s USP was that they were the only pizza business that delivered a hot delicious pizza in 30 minutes. (At the beginning Dominos was the only one.) They were the pizza business to call when you wanted a pizza delivered.
5. Use free resources to create a free website, and get other useful free programs like www.jumla.com www.myshopify.com cnet.com and others. There are places on the Internet where you can create a simple website for your business free. Google “free websites.”
There are some free programs www.openoffice.org for a free version of a similar version of MS Word.
6. Increase your and your employee’s basic selling skills:
Check out some good books, CDs, or DVDs on selling from the library. Spend time every week listening and learning the tactics. Sales skills like riding a bike can be learned by anyone. Just listening to CDs each week will increase your income. Learn the consultant selling technique, and some simple closing skills. This is free and can increase your income by 30% or more.
7. Multiply your ability to contact prospects:
Make arrangements with other service businesses that sell to your same target customer. If you are an electrician, make agreements with businesses like plumbers, lawn care, gutter replacement, etc. to share contacts. Have them leave your brochure with every customer they do work for. Give them a commission for each job you get. Some businesses use this technique exclusively rather than spending money on advertising.
Testimonials and endorsements are very powerful selling tools:
People buy on the approval of others. If you see or hear about a customer who had a bad experience with a business, you are not likely to buy from them. There are too many other competing businesses to shop with.
Get as many letters or email from customers who liked your work and recommend you. When you ask friends, or customers to write a recommendation for you, they will often never get around to it.
Here is the secret –you type the recommendation as if it were written by your customer. Make it true. Then email it to your contact saying the email is an example of the letter you would like. Tell him or her to make any changes in the letter and then send it back. In almost every case they will send it back signed and with no changes. You have written your own endorsement.
Summary:
Businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars for advertising every year making the cost to acquire a new customer very high. Look for ways to get customers in other ways. Some of the methods are using joint ventures with other businesses, using other businesses dead or inactive lists, trade services for advertising, increase sales skills,
create a USP, simple website and free programs like nvu, jumla , myshopify and cnet. Use testimonials and referrals, and use other businesses that have customers similar yours and share your target customer leads.
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