Are you making any of these mistakes when trying to attract customers?
By Edison Guzman
1) You don't properly identify your product or service’s universe. Most business owners make the mistake of not identifying their universe when starting a business. What's worse is that many business owners never take the time to learn about their universe and learn the hard way, that it may not be large enough to support their business. There is a simple way to properly identify your universe and learn if it's profitable prior to implementing your marketing strategies.
2) You don't target your market within your universe. Not targeting your market is probably a business' greatest mistake. How could you attract the maximum number of customers if you don't know who wants or needs your product or service? If I ask 10 business owners who their specific market is, I would get answers like: "anyone who breathes."
You should only address your target market and NO ONE ELSE. Why should you advertise or market to the masses, when you can focus your energy and marketing budget on only those who wants or needs your product or service. Before implementing any marketing strategy, ensure that you know who your intended market is, and how you can approach them. There is a simple method for accomplishing this, but before I tell you, let's proceed to the next customer attraction mistake.
3) You don't take the time to create your Unique Selling Proposition. Your Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Advantage as some may call it is a statement or slogan you can create that tells your prospective customer what’s different and unique about your company, that they should do business with you instead of the competition.
I always hear things like: "We have great customer satisfaction" or, "We're the best." What exactly does that mean to the prospect? These statements are not only vague, but totally overused in the business world. Your USP can make the difference between your company making $100,000 or $1,000,000 every year.
I'll give you one great example of a company that went from nothing to something in no time flat. Have you heard this one? "When it definitely, positively needs to be there overnight--Guaranteed." Yes, FedEx has come a long way, but that USP in a time that no one guaranteed overnight delivery, paved the way for the company, and is now a multi-billion dollar company. How about, "Your pizza delivered hot and fresh in 30 minutes or less--or it's free. "Dominos went from number 7 in the United States to number 2 within 7 months. Was it the USP alone? Maybe not, but it had a lot to do with it. There is a simple way to create your own USP. I'll show you that and more.
4) Your company does not portray a professional company image. Let me ask you a question...who designed your company's brochure? How about your web site? Whether it's something as simple as your business card, letterhead, yourself, your team, your office, your product or service, you need to portray the most positive, professional image imaginable.
I recently went to a networking meeting and met a Financial Planner who handed me a very slick and professional pocket folder. Within the folder were print outs of services he offered. The printouts seemed to come from his inkjet printer, and the sell sheets illustrated clipart images of animated individuals. The paper was ordinary 80 lb. white, non-glossy. Here's the problem--this is a person who's image should say, "Let me handle your finances, and I'll make your rich!" Instead, the message I perceived was, "I can only afford the slick pocket folder, but I was too broke to finish the job."
Why would I want to give him any business? He's probably a Genius when it comes to investing and making me money, but I'll never know this because he misrepresented his abilities. I don't know if you're aware, but your prospects base 55% of their decision on physiology. If you don't portray the right image, your prospect may judge you negatively.
This does not mean that you must only look professional, you should also look honest, clean, intelligent, humble, energetic, down to earth, or any way that will make your prospect feel comfortable and trustworthy.
Consider this in all aspects of your business. If you try to cut corners, you may lose more than you can possibly imagine.
5) You don't calculate and learn the Life Time Value of your customer.
I can't begin to tell you how often I run into business owners who don't even know what LTV is and how it drastically impacts their marketing plan and their ability to attract customers. The Life Time Value of a customer is the amount of money your customer will spend on your product or service over the lifetime of dealing with you.
For example: A customer buys a cup of coffee and donut at their favorite coffee shop every morning on the way to work. He spends $2.00 every time. Let's say he does this for three, four maybe five years before he either moves, loses his job, or finds another coffee shop. How much money is that customer worth? $2 x 5 business days x 50 working weeks x 5 years = $2,500.
$2,500 on coffee and a donut alone. It's a sure bet that he will spend additional funds on other wants and needs in his customer lifetime. Each industry has a cycle. Each has it's own LTV. You can make the same calculation for your business. If you don't know this information, there is a very easy way to find out. Once you know, you'll be able to optimize your marketing efforts with strategies that will double or triple customer attraction, without increasing expenses. I'll show you exactly how, in many different ways.
6) You don't take advantage of free publicity. Did you know that you can advertise for free in major newspapers across America? I'm sure you've heard of press releases. It's a way to get your company's products or services publicized to your target market. The problem is, that most businesses do it all wrong, if at all. There is a way to get your stories published completely free in as many relevant periodicals you wish.
There are thousands of publications locally and nationwide that will publish your information--if you do something that not many business owners know how to do. You must educate your prospect. You must also make it timely, and something of interest to the readers of the publication. What you must NOT do, is make it look like a sales letter. Once you have a good story, you can submit it to press release services through out the nation, or submit it directly to the publication.
Press releases is just one of dozens of great free ways to get your name out there. I've listed another dozen effective ways to take advantage of free publicity on the Internet and off, within this site.
7) You don't create irresistible offers. Most business owners think that offering a five or ten percent discount to try their product or service is enough to attract customers. What you don't know is that you don't have to lose money to make money. You can create irresistible offers by simply removing the risk to doing business with you, offering a guarantee of any type, and making it easier for them to do business with you. If you are going to give a discount as an enticement, then you should make it a heck of an offer. Offer 15%, 30% or even 50% off. If you know your LTV, you'll feel confident offering any type of discount if you choose to do so. There's a specific formula you should follow when making irresistible offers. Once you learn this very simple formula, you'll know exactly what to offer, when and why.
8) You haven't created and implemented a systematic referral system. Everyone knows that referrals, or word-of-mouth advertising is the least expensive, yet most powerful way to attract more customers. However, most business owner use the wait-and-see approach to getting referrals. The number one mistake? You don't ask for referrals! You should have a referral system in place so that every time you attract a new customer, you'll automatically attract 2-3 more. A good referral system will do just that--it will multiply the number of customers you attract by simply asking. We'll go over many variations of referral systems, and how to best implement them.
9) You don't have an effective tracking system for all your marketing and advertising efforts. Do you know how may of your existing customers came to you because of your yellow page ad? How about how many came from your newspaper ad, or direct mail piece? It's easy to track responses on the Internet, but not as easy in the real world. If you're not tracking, you're throwing away a lot of money. Whether it's Internet Marketing, or traditional marketing, tracking your responses will help you understand which ads are working, and which are not. Which media is working and which has got to go.
Tracking is the first step. You must also have the right tools to do so, and then have to decipher your results and figure out what's working and what's not. Whatever is working you keep. What ever is not working, you get rid of...it's as simple as that. How do you what's working or not? I'll explain it all to you very soon.
10) You don't constantly educate yourself, and your prospective customer. How can you educate your prospect without first educating yourself? I don't mean that you should go back to school. What I mean is that you should learn as much about your product or service as possible. Most importantly, you must know how to attract the maximum amount of customers as possible because without customers, your knowledge will fall on deaf ears. How can you constantly educate yourself on harnessing the power of maximum customer attraction? You simply enroll as a member of the HowToAttractCustomers.com community.
About the author:
Looking for more customers? Go to HowToAttractCustomers.com to discover the powerful marketing strategies you can use to attract maximum customers with minimum effort.
