Digital or traditional, the basics of marketing haven’t changed since Oog and Ogg crawled out of their cave and began dickering over a stone ax-head. Here are some of the rules for marketing success in any age.
WII-FM
That’s everybody’s favorite radio station – What’s In It for Me. Benefits (that’s what’s in it for me) are the basis of all marketing. Benefits are why people buy. They’re the difference in their life that buying from you will make.
Benefits are not features. Those are characteristics of your product, service or company.
Benefits are not applications. That’s how people use whatever you sell them.
Benefits are the difference in their life that happens because they purchase something from you. Tell people how they will benefit and they will from you. It’s nearly that simple.
The Law of Horn Tooting
No matter how much you wish it were so, people do not just automatically wake up one morning and decide to purchase from you. They have to hear about you first. They have to know what you do and how buying from you will benefit them.
No matter how much you wish it were so, the only person you can count on to tell your story is you. Sure, your customers might say good things about you, but you count on that.
No if your horn is going to get tooted, it’s ideal to figure that you will be doing the tooting. That’s the Law of Horn Tooting: Toot thine own horn for thou canst not count on another to toot thy horn for thee.
The Magic Stone of Marketing
There may be magic in a young girl’s heart, but there’s very tiny magic in marketing. Despite how consultants and motivational speakers may make it seem, just going to have to work at it. There’s no one, or even two, things that will suddenly, completely, and permanently make your marketing effective.
No, if there is a magic stone of marketing it is this: do the basics with unremitting diligence. And what are those basics, I hear you cry.
You must get your message out so that people recognize your name and associate it with what you do and with what makes you different.
You must identify prospects and convert a goodly number of them into buyers.
You must tell folks about the benefits of buying from you. This is all folks, customers and prospects alike. Remember the Law of Horn Tooting. Don’t figure that just because you have given folks good service, they will remember the next time they’re ready to buy.
You must deliver on your promises. If you don’t do this, nothing else really matters much.
You must stay in touch. If not speaking to your customers and prospects you know what their troubles really are. You will not know when they have a trouble with your products or company. And you won’t be able to tell them about the neat new product or service perfect for them.
There are other things you should do, like having special programs to get that critical second order, making things increasingly easy for customers and prospects, and paying attention to your most valuable customers. None of these things, alas, is magic.
Riley’s Rule
When he was a National Basketball Association coach, Pat Riley used to have a saying: “No rebounds, no rings.” In other words, if you do the important work, you won’t be a winner. We can translate that into business terms.
No marketing, no money. Marketing is not a campaign, initiative or program that you get done with. It’s the way you do business. Every day. Every week. Every month. Forever.
KISS Principle I
You know this one. It’s been a staple of motivational speakers and sales trainers for years. Keep It Simple, Silly. You may alternative the S word of your choice for the final word in that sentence.
Keep it because complexity makes you work harder for the same results. When I was starting out in business, the company I was with made us chant 8-4-2 until it bubbled up from our subconscious unbidden.
The chant meant this. Make eight sales calls every business day. A call was where you actually talked to the customer, not just left your card. Demonstrate the product four times a day. Close two sales a day.
Simple, eh? It is. But it kept us focused on the basics. And people who followed the rule tended to be successful.
KISS Principle II
This one is Keep It Smart, Silly. Play the odds.
Pay attention to the best customers and the ideal prospects. Pareto is still right; you’re going to eighty percent or so of your results from around twenty percent of your customers and prospects.
If you haven’t done it already, make up an A-B-C of customers and prospects. Then work that list, paying attention to the customers and prospects with the most potential.
And do it right. Make sure you call on your ideal prospects and customers enough to get the business you need from them.
In the early Twentieth Century, writer Ring Lardner put it this way: “The race may not always be to the swift, nor victory to the strong. But that is the way to bet.”
Kiss Principle III
This principle is a different. This principle is not an acronym. This principle is about real kisses.
Answer this question. Where are you most likely to get your next kiss? Will it be from a random sample of people you meet on the street? Or will it be where you got your last kiss?
Odds are that your next kiss will come from the place you got your last kiss. Now replace the word “kiss” with the word “sale.”
People who’ve bought from you before are the most likely to purchase from you again. Even more, selling to them is more efficient. It costs five times less in terms of money, time and effort to get a sale from an existing customer than it does to create a new customer.
And it gets better. Existing customers are likely to buy more and more profitable items the longer they remain customers.
So romance those current customers. Show them how much you love them.
The Iron Law of Responsibility
It’s up to you. You’re responsible. If your customer makes a bad decision and buys from the competition, it’s your fault.
It’s not your customer’s fault. They made the best decision they could in their situation with they knowledge they had available. If they did not have the right information, you should have told them. If they needed to decide right away, you should have been available to help.
It’s not the world’s fault, or the market’s fault, or your competitor’s fault. You are the only one responsible for the results of your marketing.
It’s up to you to share the benefits, toot your horn, and keep after the basics of marketing day after day. It’s up to you to keep it and smart. It’s up to you to romance your customers. It’s simple, really, but it’s not easy, and it hasn’t changed for centuries.
3 Tips For Keeping Proper Tax Records For Your Home Business And Keeping The IRS Happy! The last thing most people think about when starting a business is doing taxes. But proper planning will make doing your taxes much easier – and keep the IRS happy!
Here are 3 simple tips for keeping proper records:
1. Whenever you buy anything for your business, keep the receipt!
Not only will this make record keeping a lot simpler, but if you are ever audited (having your tax return reviewed in detail by the IRS), you can prove your expenses, and save yourself money.
2. Write down all your expenses and income as they happen.
As your business grows, you’ll have more and more activities to keep you busy. The last thing you’ll want to do each April 15 is to organize your records for the year. So, it’s a good idea to write down all your financial activities as they happen. You’ll find preparing your taxes will take much less time if you are organized.
3. Learn how to save money on your taxes.
As you learn about taxes, you’ll find that there are many deductions (expenses that reduce your income, and therefore your taxes) you can take that are not obvious. When using your home office, you may be able to deduct (at least partially) repairs you make around the house, utilities, your home’s value at the time you start your business, and more.
The more you know about taxes, and the more organized you are in keeping records, the more time and money you’ll save at the end of every year!
What happens if you don’t keep proper records?
Individuals with small businesses are the most likely to have their tax returns audited by the IRS. If you don’t have a receipt, you will likely lose the deduction and owe the IRS money.
And while an audit does not have to be feared, you should be prepared – the more organized your records, the easier it will be to prove your case.
If you don’t have one, get a file box and some folders at your local office supply store (these supplies are deductible, so keep your receipts!) and create a filing system for your business. Put all your receipts in the proper folders, and put them in a safe place.
Another way to save yourself time is to record all of your business transactions – expenses and income – on a spreadsheet on your computer. Keep a column for income, advertising, supplies, etc. You don’t need to be a computer expert. But keeping accurate, organized records will help you save time when you fill out your taxes at the end of the year.
And it can help you plan, by giving you a snapshot or your financial progress whenever you need it.
Which may come in handy when you need to place ads, borrow money – or take a much needed and well-deserved vacation!
Kris Bickell is the owner of www.Debt-Tips.com, a helpful site for consumers needing financial help. To learn how you can bank on yourself, save for retirement, and build wealth, sign up for the free Bank On Yourself report at:
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