Random marketing feels good because at least you are doing something, but it is often something you did before. When marketing has no plan or structure anything you feel like doing fits but it is hard to measure results. Why do we do it? Because we get busy with daily tasks and don’t have time for the decisions involved in even making a blog post.
This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but using a marketing plan is actually less work than the random stuff and infinitely more productive. Think about what your successful prospects (the ones who converted) expressed interest in. Offer something like that to attract leads. Consider what you might offer second to increase prospect interest. See, already you have one thing to do first, one thing to do second. A sequence is born.
A good marketing plan doesn’t stop there because a small business can’t be successful if it doesn’t convert leads to clients. I am always surprised when business owners don’t seem to have given much thought to what happens after the sale. Or they know what they would like to do for new clients but don’t put aside time to do it. A good marketing plan will include this sort of thing too. It’s just so surprising how much actually happens when you plan for it to happen.
We all know there is much less overhead in upselling an existing client than there is in finding a new client. Think about when new clients are ready to buy something else from you. What do you mean you don’t have anything else to sell them? Get busy and create something. Then add suggesting the purchase of this related product to your marketing plan.
You can also request testimonials from your clients and even referrals if you plan when and how to ask for them. All of these steps, from attracting leads to asking for referrals happen more often and more consistently when there is a marketing plan. That leads to small business success and growth.
Would you like to hear more about how to do this?