Today we are going to talk about perfecting your aim to get a bigger response. This is a very interesting topic, one which I am sure you will definitely want to stick around and hear about.
Part of this business you are in is making sure that whatever you do, you need to always find new customers. So, let’s just get this out of the way — you need customers –there is no argument.
I didn’t invent that, that’s genuine. You need customers, you cannot sit back and just hope they turn up. You may have started off with loads but those were the ones who you started off with.
Once you’ve gone through those, once they have finished, once they have moved on, where are the next ones coming?
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A Queue of Customers
You need to have a queue of customers. For all of those who think, “I am so busy with work, I cannot manage it as it is. I don’t need any more customers.”
Well, let me tell you my friend, you will definitely need more and they don’t grow on trees. But, customers need to be in the pipeline, customers need to be begging for your services: begging to the point so that you say to them “Sorry, I am so busy I can’t take on any more customers. Come back to me in a couple of months.”
Isn’t it fantastic if you say that to them, they want you, they’re coming back to you. And the only way you’re going to do that is by marketing and the marketing will involve some form of advertising at some point, no matter what it is, even if it’s just an ad within one of your own e-mails.
But what I want to show you is a way to boost your response rates and it’s very simple. It’s by, pure and simple, only marketing, only advertising to people who potentially can become customers.
So in other words, if you sell roofing services, it is of no point marketing to people who live in flats or apartments, unless it’s the management company and that’s what you do.
But when you put an ad in say a newspaper or magazine where you don’t know where their audience is, then how many of those are your potential customers?
Wouldn’t it be better to be more precise, to simply, you don’t have to walk out and put flyers through everyone’s door, but to only advertise to people who live in houses with roofs, people who own the house, not rentals, etc.
Can you see? If you are advertising to people who rent their houses, you are just wasting money. It’s no good thinking “Oh, they will pass it on to the landlord.” No, they want. I’m not going to tell you I do roofing, by the way.
It’s Like Playing Darts
But I would describe this as, it’s like playing, everyone knows how to play darts. If you play darts, imagine turning the lights off, you’re playing darts in the dark, what is the chance of hitting the bull’s-eye?
Very very slim, just absolute potluck and in fact probably worse than potluck.
Now, turn the lights on and easier to hit the bull’s-eye. How about if you then stepped closer to the board? Getting easier? Okay.
How about if you put a load of huge arrows, stuck them on the dartboard pointing to the bull’s-eye? Even easier?
Find Out Your Perfect Customer
How about if you then cover up the rest of the dartboard and only expose the bull’s-eye? Easier? That’s what happens when you work out who your ideal customer is and you find them.
And once you have worked out who that customer is, and there is lots of information on the website, we call it your potential, only marketing to your potential customer.
You need to know everything about them, you need to know their age, their gender, what they do for work, you know, like a job title.
So for instance, people ask me what do you do? Now I sell fire safety equipment, but my job title is Managing Director, those are two different types of things. So you need to know all of these kinds of things.
You need to know who their commute to work and get inside their head. And there’s a lot of information because so if you are thinking well how do I know that?
Well look at your customer base, look at your typical customer, ask them, ask them questions like this, ask them, they are your customers and try and find out patterns, ask them some typical sort of things to find out why a similar type of person is a customer of yours. And then aim for more of those.
Then figure out what would be their problems, why did they come to you. Again, you can ask customers, but get inside their head, figure out what their problems are, figure out what solutions you offer to those problems.
Because that’s what you are doing, you are not selling things, you are giving solutions to people’s problems and issues. You are fixing things for them by providing what they need right now or in the future.
So, get inside their head. Now that means that you can then write to one person. So for instance in Marketing For Owners, our customer avatar, customer profile persona, potential, his name is Mike, he’s a printer, he’s 43.
We even have a picture of him, we have a picture of him with his wife Sally and his kids.
So we know who he is, what he looks like, so when I write a message, I am writing to Mike. I’m not writing to his wife, unless I am writing to his wife, I am writing to Mike.
So I have a person in mind, so Mike is like a friend of mine and I talk to him like a friend, I write to one person.
And not all my customers are going to be like Mike, but they’re going to be similar and the best ones are going to be like that so it’s going to be near enough.
That’s like hitting near the bull’s-eye, close to the bull’s-eye. Okay? And that’s good enough. These are not off the board, these are on the board, near the bull’s-eye and the bull’s-eye.
So, write to one person and then write in their voice. Because once you understand what type of person they are, then you can write in their voice.
If your typical customer is an official, is someone who is maybe they are a lawyer, solicitor, doctor, government official, who knows?
I don’t know what you sell to government officials, that kind of thing. They are probably used to talking in different tone to a more casual, if you’re selling services to people for their homes, then you might talk in a more casual way, so get inside and understand that.
And then, all of this, this is simple, there is no cost to do anything I have just said. And that will dramatically reduce your marketing costs and boost the response rates of any marketing that you do. And that’s the secret to great advertising by the way.
Monday Book Recommendation
Okay, time for book for the week. Now this is, it’s a short read, the author is not so famous, the guys name is Paul Arden, he’s a top marketing guy that used to work for David Ogilvy, one of the most famous advertising people ever.
He worked for a British marketing company. His name is Paul Arden and his book is called It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be.
Now it’s a very fast read, it’s going to be cheap, I actually bought mine in the local book store. It’s described as a pocket bible for the talented and timid alike to help make the unthinkable thinkable.
But it’s inspirational, I highly recommend it, I love it and actually when I read it I then read it again. It’s all like one page chapters with great little images, it’s a lovely book.
Once you read it, I guarantee you will recommend it to your mate, it’s great.
Anyway, go read that, I’ll be back tomorrow.