The good news and bad news about
marketing is that price and results are not necessarily connected. You can pay
the same price for poor results as you would for great results.
The difference is based on what you put into your marketing before you
implement.
By planning your marketing well, you can put more quality into it and
therefore, get better results out of it.
Here is an easy and effective method to plan your marketing so you can see
better results from your marketing without spending more money.
A. Understand your strengths
Ask yourself these questions:
- Why do people buy from you?
- What do you really do for your customers?
- How are you better than your competition?
- What special skills or advantages do you have?
The answers to these questions are your competitive advantages. They are what
make you stand out from your competition. They may be related to price,
location, professional skills, attitude, responsiveness or your own personality.
People buy from you because you do something for them no one else does.
Understand this and you've taken the first step to better marketing.
B. Identify your customers (your target market)
To promote your business you should focus on people who value what you do.
Your strengths (or competitive advantages) will help you focus on who will most
value your service or product.
For example, if your location is a strength then your customers will reflect
your location. If high quality is a strength then your customers should
appreciate quality.
To get an idea of who your
target
market is, look at your current customers. Or, look at your profit margins
to decide which type of customers to focus on. You might have several target
markets because you have several products or services and a variety of
strengths.
Bottom line: focus on people who will place a high value on what you can do
for them. These people will be your most loyal and profitable customers.
C. Create a meaningful message
The key in successful marketing is to deliver the right message to the right
people as often as your budget will allow. So, you need a message that tells
your target market why they should do business with you.
Your message should reflect your strengths because those are what you do
best. And, your message should be in terms that your target market is interested
in.
In other words speak in their language and say what they want to hear.
Example:
You're a Realtor and your strength is that you sell houses fast and your
target market is people who want their houses sold fast, then your message might
be:
"I sell houses fast!"
And you can give them some details to demonstrate how you sell houses faster
than anyone else in town (such as statistics and testimonials).
Another example:
If you are a chiropractor and your strength is that you help get rid of back
pain and you help your patients prevent it from coming back, then your target
market might be people with chronic back pain who want it to stop, forever.
Your message might be:
"We get rid of back pain now and we prevent it from coming back later."
Your message comes directly from your strengths and your target market. The
three work together naturally and simply.
You can have more than one message. Each marketing focus (based on a product
or service, a target market and a strength) should have its own message.
To start, just work on one message. Then as you develop a system that works,
add others to your marketing system. Don't overwhelm yourself right away by
trying to do too much.
D. Deliver your message as often as your budget allows.
Now you have to find and purchase the appropriate delivery vehicles (or
media) for your marketing messages.
There are three things to remember as you plan how to deliver your message:
- Set a budget for the project.
- Get the most exposure possible for that budget.
- Focus your exposure on your target group.
Unless your budget is unlimited, you need to choose delivery vehicles that
focus your message.
For example, if you have a retail store and you know 90% of your customers
live within two miles of your store, then you might focus your message delivery
on people who live within two miles of your store. This gives you the ability to
repeat your message to them multiple times, putting the power of repetition to
work for you.
There are many ways to deliver your message: advertising, direct mail,
networking, phone calls or personal visits. Some less direct ways might be to
teach classes or offer seminars on topics that relate to your product or
service. Other ways might be to sponsor events or offer informational sessions
about what you do. Or, you might partner with a nonprofit.
Whatever you do, try to achieve a
balanced mix of media when delivering your message. This increases awareness of
your business and multiplies the impact of your message.
by Kevin Stirtz
The portraits in the early days used large amounts of chemicals ans salt water, plus hours for developing a photo. It's very detailed and clear image preserved on a copper plate and you could only have one copy of your photo. And it is also a negative image on paper, colors would vary. These portraits limited to black and white and depending on the method of developmemt, might have slight tint of other colors.
