We all know that somehow some way companies need to market products and services to consumers and other businesses. How often do you hear someone say, “what can I do this month to sell a ton of products & services?”, this question is asked every day and usually with a quick solution with minimal long-term results. The bad part about this is tons of marketing companies take advantage of this question and will recommend a company use a quick solution so the marketing company can make a quick dollar instead of looking at the existing marketing tools that are in place at the company.
Looking at what a company already has in place can tell you where exactly to start, and how far they have to go. If the company is already marketing in some sort of way but just needs to give their consumers a push to the “buy” stage, then a short term campaign may work perfectly fine. However if the company has no regular marketing going on to even touch their existing customers, a short term campaign might be the first step in the wrong direction.
Every Marketing plan has it’s basics that need to be done in order to continually “keep top of mind” presence with the existing customer base and in the general market. We also know that your existing customer base in most cases with products and services is your easiest target for continuing sales numbers, plus retention of a loyal customer base is essential for growing your business. Happy customers not only keep coming back to you for products and services, but they can grow your business in two additional ways. First, they already buy something from you so when you expand your product/service offerings they are more apt to buying or at least considering to buy more products from you. Second, happy customers tend to talk which means more business or at least potentially more business for you. Friends love telling their friends about great experiences, it is a fact. Rewarding happy customers with a referral is even better.
The best start to moving your marketing plan forward is a basic marketing plan that retains and engages your existing customers constantly (but without being too aggressive and intrusive). Great ways to do this are through coupons, referral discounts/gift cards/bonuses, email marketing (cost efficient) and more traditionally direct mail (more expensive). If you are in the services industry then all of these ideas can be tailored to your company depending on industry and buying processes, sometimes a great way to keep a loyal service customer is just by using good ‘ole fashioned “relationship marketing.”
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