The term, “Guerrilla Marketing” became a familiar term during the recent and now passé’ dot.com era! It usually consists of inexpensive and unique ways to reach potential customers. Moreover, its elements are those that are eye catching and out of the ordinary as opposed to the more traditional methods of media advertising etc.
In the writer’s opinion, marketing does now have to be clever or outrageous to get the job done. It is not only a matter of reaching, but keeping the customers you already have! It costs a lot of marketing dollars to reach a new customer and a few dollars to keep one!
The art of careful planning and flawless execution is the key to a good marketing plan. When strategizing on your marketing plan, keep the following “top of mind”:
Know who you want to reach, target your customers carefully making sure they are the right market for your product and the most likely to remain as loyal clients
Develop an overall budget for your plan and have the discipline and tools to live within it, after all if you don’t have a budget, any expense can be justified
Make it fun, but don’t confuse your message. Make sure each of the marketing activities and elements are consistent with your image and in some way convey the same attributes that make you stand out in the crowd!
Now that you attracted the crowd, you need to concentrate on bringing them back repeatedly and that is where you will continue to thrive! It’s a matter of developing customer loyalty and loyal customers become clients and clients become ----- Lifers!
Again, your sales, prices, service and product offerings must remain consistent. Consistency is what customers look for in a reliable partner in business transactions!!!! Make certain you make them feel special with preferred customer lists and subsequent mailings, and personal service. The Personalized service aspect of marketing your business as a “brand” includes getting to know them by name, offering customer discounts or rebates after their purchases hit a certain level etc. Make sure your customer service associates have business cards and hand them out to satisfied customers, utilize customer service surveys at the point of sale and many more too numerous to mention.
In closing, remember, an extremely satisfied customer may tell one to five of their friends and families about a pleasant experience. Conversely a dissatisfied customer will tell 15 to 20 of their friends and families about their unpleasant experience.
Keep in mind, attracting customers may be easier than keeping them as satisfied customers, evolving into clients and ideally lifers!
By: Randy L. Snyder
Randy Snyder is a regular contributor to Saleshead! Randy has over 35 years experience in specialty retailing encompassing top positions in 4 national chains. More recently he has been in charge of Franchise Development for two international chains and is now a Retail consultant. Randy can be reached via email at rsnyder921@aol.com or phone at 2389 481 0844.
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!