My background is in sales, marketing, and marketing research but one of the first things that I learned when becoming an ActionCOACH is that most businesses don’t need more customers, what they really need is more Profits.
To learn about increasing profits check out “What Actions Lead to Profits?”
Now back to marketing... Even though more customers are what most businesses want, most don’t have a marketing plan that will help them achieve that goal. Marketing is not difficult, but most of us don’t take the time to think through the process carefully enough.
Here are our 10 Marketing Rules (or premises) that you need to think about before creating your plan.
- We are in the Profit Business!
- Marketing is Math
- Marketing is an investment where you measure and test your results
- Spend more time producing income instead of reducing costs
- Put 50% of your time, effort & investment into distribution and, more importantly, the other 50% into sales & marketing
- Buying customers is an investment, so set your marketing budget by your acquisition costs
- Never chase market share. Go after wallet share instead.
- Establish the long term view of our customers' value and their lifetime value
- Always aim to reduce your acquisition cost and raise their lifetime value
- Measure & Test Everything
- Use a marketing plan and don’t wing it
I know I said 10 but I always strive to provide added value.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below...
Having a plan and a way to measure the results of that plan is vital.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Dave. Measuring results is important. One of the most important metrics is your acquisition cost. Once you know that number it's easy to determine your marketing budget.
ReplyDeleteA great book I recommend that discusses this in detail is "Buying Customer" by Bradley J. Sugars.
Coach Steve
Looks like everyone should be using these rules. I know Its hard sometimes to do every one of them but these are the golden 10, not following them usually leads to problems.
ReplyDeleteDarren Hardy publisher of Success Magazine (success.com) asked a room full of ActionCOACH clients and coaches at ActionCOACH's North American Business Excellence forum in Las Vegas this past January, "What do success and unsuccessful people have in common?
ReplyDeleteHis answer was simple and to the point. Darren said, "They both hate doing what it takes to be successful. The difference is successful people do it anyways."
These aren't 10 suggestions (or 11). This list might not be easy but if you do and believe in them, you will find yourself among the top marketers in the world.
Coach Steve
When the going gets tough the tough get marketing. It never ceases to amaze me how companies cut back on marketing in tough times, when they really need to spend more. I guess that's one reason that 2/3 of businesses fail in the two years.
ReplyDeleteHaving been to several of Steve's workshops I can tell you that when it comes to building your business the Action Coach is a big help. Owning a business is a lot like being on a team. They both perform best with a coach.
ReplyDelete