With the help of a marketing mentor, you can put together clear objectives with an action plan to achieve them. This will reduce that feeling of ‘overwhelm’ and panic and you will feel in control of your marketing.

It is also a very cost-effective way to make sure that marketing gets done. You can pick and choose which activities you will carry out yourselves – costs will be provided for any additional projects as they come up.

KICK-OFF MEETING

The aim of the Kick-Off Meeting is to establish your marketing objectives so that we can put together a plan for achieving them.
This will be a 2 hour session where we discuss what you are hoping to achieve, what you’ve done to date, and any ideas that you have already had.
We will define your target market and talk about ideas for communicating with them. We will look at all the different media (print, websites, email marketing, social media, advertising etc) and how to get the most from your marketing budget.

ACTION PLAN

Following that meeting, I will put together an action plan for you. This will talk about up to 3 objectives with detailed actions to achieve each one.
If you want to carry out those actions yourself, that’s absolutely fine. If you need help, I can cost these out for you.

MONTHLY REVIEW

For any marketing plan to be successful, it needs to be ongoing. A monthly review (either by telephone or face-to-face meeting) will keep everything on track.
We will look at the success of the activity to date, and adjust anything that’s not working as well as it could.

COST £250 for kick-off meeting, action plan and one follow-up meeting.

Additional activity or meetings to be quoted on an ‘as required’ basis at £50 per hour
TERMS

The Marketing Mentor package is a one off payment of £250, followed by monthly payments according to the activity carried out. Invoice will be raised once the Action Plan is complete. Payment within 14 days

Travel expenses are charged at 45p a mile (or at cost for public transport)
Travelling time will be charged at £5 per 15 minutes for any journeys over 15 minutes.

This daily rate is valid until 31st December 2012. Rates may be reviewed at this point.

Jane Brocklebank’s total liability in contract, tort, misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of this Agreement shall be limited to the price paid for the Services.

Even if your product is suitable for anybody and everybody, there will be a ‘best’ customer out there. And that’s what you need to focus on.

Let’s take a dog walking service as an example. The owner of the dog walking service initially decides their target market is anyone with a dog. But how about people in Scotland? OK, so now they’re clear that it needs to be within 5 miles of their location, so they have a geographical element.

Anyone with a dog within 5 miles … well, not everybody with a dog needs a dog walking service. Many people walk their own dogs, and would never think about it. So now, we’ve got people within a 5 mile radius who cannot walk their own dog for some reason.  Perhaps they’re at work, are ill, are going away. But there is a condition attached.

Now that’s all a bit clearer, it’s easier to ‘talk’ to these people in language they can relate to. It’s not to say that the service isn’t available to anybody else – it’s just that the most likely customers will be those identified by the criteria identified above.

Choosing who you want

We all have customers that are not ideal. Perhaps they are unnecessarily demanding or fussy, maybe they take up a lot of your time, but don’t spend a lot of money. They could be really bad payers. Use the ‘bad’ traits to help you understand and work out what you DO want.

Once you know who you want to talk to, and what the message is, you can start to plan ways in which to do it. For example, the dog walking service could create a series of messages related to ‘what would you do if  you couldn’t walk your dog for a week?’ or ‘who walks your dog while you’re at work?’. They could then:

• Send a press release to the local paper with a nice story about some of the people who use the service, or how they’ve helped somebody in temporary difficulty
• Advertise in the local community or parish magazine
• Post leaflets through doors that have dogs barking behind them
• Set up a facebook page, and encourage their customers to share it with their dog-owner friends
• Distribute leaflets through the local puppy classes

If you’re clear about who you’re best customers are, you will start to attract more of them.

But if  you do it right, you can position yourself as a trusted expert who knows their onions … and when people are ready to buy, they’ll be knocking on your door.

There are certainly some customers who are always looking for something for nothing, or to get away without paying you for good advice. But frankly it’s easy to get a lot of information online for free anyway, and at the end of the day, people buy people. If you can give away some genuinely helpful, useful advice in a way that doesn’t cost you too much time, effort or investment it can help pave the way to a more lucrative relationship further down the line.

A really good example of someone who is not afraid of sharing their secrets is Lizi’s Granola. If you look on her website, you will see that Lizi tells you exactly how to make her granola, complete with a video.

Is she crazy?

Having watched the video, I thought ‘I could do that!’ – but in reality, have I got time? Do I want to spend hours toasting nuts or stirring treacle when I can buy a box that has been made just like that (albeit in larger quantities)? Safe in the knowledge that I could do it … if I wanted to … I’d rather buy it, but the fact that she is willing to share so much information helps me believe that she is genuine.

Just search online for Lizi’s Granola and see if this has damaged her business!

So don’t be afraid to share some of your knowledge. Think about the bigger picture and the business benefits it could bring.

But when those customers dry up, what do you do?

Whatever you do, don’t go into panic mode and start bombarding your mailing list or social media community with offers, reminders, packages and promotions. They haven’t heard from you for a while, and all of a sudden you start SHOUTING at them … how rude!

Mentioning no names, I’ve recently ‘switched off’ from a company that suddenly started telling me about their new services by facebook (several times a day) and email (several weeks in a row) when I’ve heard nothing from them for months.

How do you stop that happening?

The only way to overcome this is to employ a drip, drip effect. Even when you’re busy (or especially when you’re busy), pay attention to communicating with your present and future customers in a friendly, non-salesy manner.

Give them some useful information, help them out with a problem they might be dealing with, show them what you’re up to, ask them how they’re doing. Use whatever means you have at your disposal. Here are some ideas:

• Drop them a personal email
• Comment on a post or update on social media
• Give them a call
• Send out regular newsletters (easy to reach a lot of people with this one)
• Write a regular blog (could be daily, weekly or monthly, but be consistent)
• Send out a letter or card by post
• Make the effort to go to networking events, conferences or exhibitions & meet people face to face

But most importantly, keep in touch regularly with THEIR needs in mind (not yours!). This means that if at some point you do need to fill a gap and have to get a bit more ‘sales orientated’ in your approach, you’ve earned the right to do so.

If you’re not a natural communicator, or you can’t write, find someone who can help you. It’s not an indulgence – it’s really important for your business.

Nobody likes someone who only contacts them when they need something. And I’m pretty sure you’ll find that if you adopt this approach, you’ll have less gaps to fill anyway.

This got me thinking … how do I decide which supermarket to go to? I have a choice of 3 within a 6 mile radius, and another couple a bit further afield.

My choice isn’t just about price – they are all competing so heavily on price that I’m pretty convinced that it all evens out in the end. It’s more about the environment, and what I will find when I get there. These are the thoughts that go through my head:

Supermarket A:  Convenient but the car park is dismal, and you have to have the right change. The store always looks uncared for. They usually have what I want.

Supermarket B:  Easy parking, not a very good choice of fruit and veg, they often don’t have the brands I want, but the checkout staff are friendly.

Supermarket C: Have lovely staff, everything always looks attractive and well presented, but I usually spend more buying things I don’t need because they look enticing.

Supermarket D:  Massive and impersonal. Great for stocking up on cheap toys and homewares, although the food selection is not ideal.

My choice is influenced by my mood, what I need, and my schedule. So if supermarket A wanted more of my business, they would need to smarten up the store and abolish the pay and display car parking. If supermarket B would like to see more of me, they would need to improve their fruit and veg selection and stock up on the brands I like.

All the flyers offering the same deals are just ‘noise’.  They might drive me to a store once, but it’s the experience when I get there that determines whether I’ll go back again.

What do you think? Join the conversation on my facebook page

But how will you know if it’s the right thing to do? You could just be wasting your time and money.

It’s a really good idea to clear some space in your diary, and spend a few hours really getting to grips with a few fundamentals. For example:

• What exactly are you offering?
• Who is it aimed at?
• Who are your competitors?
• How are you different?
• Do you have a variety of products that suit different groups of people?
• What are their concerns?
• Where will you find these people?
• What are your key messages?

Once you know all these things, you can start to put together a plan of attack. The most important thing to remember is that your messages and communication channels need to be relevant to your audience. It’s no good having a facebook page just because everyone else seems to. What are you going to say? Are your customers using facebook, and will they find your content interesting while they’re on facebook? Don’t forget, many people use it to ‘escape’ from work, so if your messages are too business-like they may get overlooked.

What about local advertising? Are your customers all local people? Do they read the local paper? Do you have any newsworthy items that could get you some free PR coverage?

Could you do a leaflet drop instead? Are there any other local publications such as community magazines?

Would the trade press be more appropriate? Do you have a national audience in a niche market?

By taking some time to figure this all out, you can save yourself time and money, and generate income a lot more quickly.

So to pick up the story … Firstly, we were told delivery would be ‘about 6 weeks’ – this was in early October. We didn’t have anyone coming to stay for Christmas, we had no particular deadline, so that was fine. We were happy to put it to the backs of our minds and just wait.

Around the 15th December (10 weeks later), we had a call to tell us the table was ready for collection from the warehouse, 20 miles away, Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm. I don’t know about you, but for me, the lead up to any major holiday is frantic, busy and stressful with many clients having urgent deadlines. Last Christmas was no exception and taking half a day to go and collect a table was not an option or a priority. We were also leaving for Cornwall on 21st, so we had no choice but to leave the table in the warehouse.

Lesson 1 – communicate with your customers. If your promised delivery date moves for any reason, let them know. Don’t just leave them wondering.

In the first week of January, they phoned to say ‘your table’s still here – you can collect it Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm’. I told them I was aware of that, but for 2 working people, that’s not very convenient.

Lesson 2 – Think like a customer. Those collection times from a warehouse 20 miles from your home are not very user-friendly. They suit the retailer, not the customer. A weekend or a late night collection would be much more customer-friendly, even if it was just once a month.

Ultimately, Mr B managed to leave work early and collect it today! Almost 4 months after we ordered it. He had a last minute opportunity to go, which meant that he didn’t  have the invoice with him. This apparently was a problem for the warehouse guys, until Mr B got a little bit shirty and asked how many rectangular oak tables they had awaiting collection, and could they not get the details from the office or computer system? Ultimately they tracked it down and it was all loaded into the car. But then they pointed out there was money owing, as we’d only paid a deposit. ‘No problem’ replied Mr B, pulling out his credit card. But no, the warehouse couldn’t take payment. It had to be done at the showroom (a couple of miles away).

Lesson 3 – Don’t make it difficult to pay. If the majority of customers have an outstanding balance to pay on collection, surely the warehouse could be set up to receive outstanding balances?

This whole experience has made me wonder about this company’s cash flow. Because of their poor communication and inflexible collection facilities, they have had to wait an extra month to receive our outstanding balance. Surely that can’t be good for business.

Lesson 4 – Don’t jeopardise your cashflow through shoddy procedures. If the service or product delivery and payment systems are efficient, you will benefit.

We won’t be buying any more furniture from this retailer, or recommending them. What a different story that could have been if they had thought like a customer instead of putting their operational requirements first.

Cynics might say it’s just another public relations gimmick designed to make the business look ‘worthy’.

But my take on it is that it’s another way to help a business clearly define its values and objectives. 
Some of the benefits of defining your operational approach can lead to;

• better employee engagement
• improved customer service
• greater business efficiency

Many large organisations are starting to insist on a CSR policy being submitted as part of a proposal – they want to know that the companies they are sub-contracting have an ethical or sustainable approach … or at least have given these areas due consideration.

If you run a small business, is this important?

Put it this way. While it’s not vital, it’s something that helps to build a picture of your business. Even if you do it for internal purposes, it can make you look at how and why you do some of the things you do.

If you want more information about CSR policies or to look at some examples, there are plenty of articles online, but here is one definition I found:

“CSR is commonly described by its promoters as aligning a company’s activities with the social, economic and environmental expectations of its “stakeholders.”

As a small business (even a one or two person business) you can still give some thought to these areas .

• What efforts do you make to be a considerate business, for example to the environment, the community and the workforce?
• What is your approach to doing business ethically and professionally?
• How do you manage personal development and training within the workforce?
• How (and what) do you recycle?
• How do you conserve energy in the office?
• Where do you get your supplies from, and are they from sustainable sources?
• How do you contribute to the local community?

Finally, we decided to tackle the buying decision head on and go and get a table. Hurrah! 
We went to a warehouse that has been sending us promotional material for 7 years (persistence finally paid off with that one!)  About every 6 months, they have sent a leaflet full of special offers, deals, one day only events etc. so off we went to secure a deal.

Having settled on a mutually agreeable table we went in search of a salesperson who told us how to care for it and keep it in good condition.  He tried to find us some chairs to go with it (we didn’t like the recommended ones) but with the best will in the world, he never stood a chance with us and our opposing tastes, so we will make do with our existing ones for now.

Failure to deliver

But the disappointment came when it was time to pay. Understandably for him, it was just a transaction and a bit of form filling. But for us, it was a big deal. For years we’d been building up to this moment, but he was completely joyless. He dealt with the tedious practicalities in a manner that suggested he wished he was somewhere else. He processed the credit card, explained it would be 6 weeks before our table arrived and asked how we wanted delivery. And that was pretty much it. No ‘congratulations’ or ‘you’ve made a great choice’ or ‘we look forward to seeing you again when you come to collect it’.  To say it was underwhelming is an understatement! We might as well have just bought a bread bin, such was his lack of enthusiasm. Considering we had just made a major decision that had been years in the making, we left feeling disenchanted.

I have had more enthusiasm from a shop assistant when buying a £15 top. It really makes a difference if someone says “That’s lovely isn’t it? I’ve had my eye on that!” You feel that you’ve made a good choice and that someone is at least interested in what you are buying.

So what can you do to make the buying process more rewarding?

Why does it matter?

On average, it takes 7 exposures to your marketing message for someone to take action. That means they might see your ad in the paper, notice your van driving around, hear someone mention you, pass by your shop, see you on facebook and get a leaflet through the door from you before they actually do business with you.

If they are seeing a different ‘brand’ each time, they won’t be sure it’s you. Don’t forget, a lot of this is subliminal … of course people don’t actually count the number of times they see your logo. But if your product is relevant to them, they will notice it and you want to make sure they know it’s YOU they keep seeing, and not some other, similar business.

The right way to do it

A company that does a fantastic job of presenting themselves consistently is a steam fair that visits our village each year. They have lovely, old-fashioned circus style lettering in distinctive red and yellow colouring. Most of the rides feature the lettering. Their vans are fully branded in the same livery. They even have one with a fairground horse on the top! Last weekend, they were arriving for their annual visit, and there were posters all over the town, stating the location, the times, how to get a money-off voucher. Every approach to the green where they set up had a succession of posters. The local paper had a full page advert. They sent out an update on their facebook page. The vans were driving around.

All this activity used the same logo, the same typeface, the same colour-scheme so you were in no doubt it was them that was coming to town. The result was that all my children could talk about was the fair for days leading up to it. All their friends were going, we bumped into neighbours, friends and colleagues there – it is a popular, anticipated event.

How can you create the same impact?

• Make sure you have a copy of your logo in all the file formats you might need (jpeg, gif, bitmap, png – depending on what you need it for – find out!)
• Always use the same colour-scheme
• Always use the same fonts
• Choose an appropriate style and stick with it

Don’t take a gamble with your brand – take ownership of it!