Creativity in your Marketing
When creating your design, remember, people buy your benefits, not your features. Example, if you are a martial arts school, parents are not looking to buy a program, but really what they want is a child who becomes confident, able to defend themselves and one who is courteous and respectful to others.
The art is in transferring your message to the public while being believable.
Be Clear in your message – Choose your benefit you want to promote and create a singularly focused ad toward this benefit. In many cases simple is better.
Other ways of being creative – Sometimes you may have a large competitor in your area. They may have a large marketing budget or may be longer established. Are there any lead boxes in your area? Start a lead box or Take One Marketing Program. You can be different and separate yourself because no one else is doing this.
Establish your business as the authority in your field. If using lead boxes use this to create a marketing database and send out a monthly or quarterly newsletter with advice and tips in your field. When the customer is ready, your business will be their first choice.
Create a service, program or treatment that is above any other competitors. Go far beyond what is the norm for your industry. I like to use the example of a jewelery store owner who added an extravagant gold and diamond necklace to their offerings. This watch sold for over $50,000. No one ever bought it, but the publicity that it generated lead to plenty of sales.
You can in
turn create a service such as this. For example, if you are a Personal
Trainer, create a service that has everything you can think of included:
10 meals a week, laundry service, door to door pick up, supplements,
etc. This service is offered at $700 per week. Suddenly, your business
is now the exclusive leader in high end training in your area.
Timing of Your Marketing-The Time is Now!
I was listening to a CNBC Money Report about a restaurant chain that had a great forecast for increased sales. Unfortunately, winter storms completely wiped out the store sales and the actual sales came in way below previous expectations. These winters was especially tough for this business but also for the entire restaurant industry as these sales are lost forever. On the flip side, your business sales may have been down, but the sales are not lost like in the restaurant industry. Your service is something that customers have just put off. You need to take advantage of this short beneficial marketing moment. As the weather turns for the better, people will be eager to purchase the services they have put off for the last month or two. Sometimes, timing is everything, and now this statement never was so true. Bombard your business community with marketing materials. Make sure customers know about your business. In this case, many people will just need a small push to remind them of making a purchase. In the coming month, it will like a fish feeding frenzy as everyone who has put off their purchases, will now be ready purchase at first sight. You don’t have to do anything different; you just have to have your marketing materials in place.