How about businesses that do not have products or services that could be used as holiday gifts?  Can these businesses ignore the 4th quarter for sales?  Of course not….if your business does not  sell a product or service that can be sold to the holiday consumer market then your efforts to close business must be increased 100% to be heard over the noise of the holiday season.  If you sell computer services, financial services, personnel services, legal services, medical services or even products that just don’t often sell during the next 3 months, then I suggest you create incentives for businesses or consumers to do business with you now.  You might wish to offer an added bonus or a discount during this time or an extended warranty. The key is to get businesses or consumers to see the merit in hiring your company now.

Finally, be sure to use the next 3 months to connect with your key accounts. The new year is often a time when businesses reflect on what is working and what needs to be changed.  In years where the economy is sluggish or sales are not as strong as in past years, business owners are quick to make changes of vendors and alter the way they do business.  Do not hesitate to connect with your clients face-to-face and do your own review with them about your service.  Often even a client who was thinking of dropping your service could be saved with the face-to-face meeting that allows them the opportunity to be heard and positive changes made to improve your offerings.

Yes, the holidays are coming and the end of 2010 is less than 90 days away. Are you ready? If you need help please consider calling Purple Diamond!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

If you start a business and your first thought when you receive your first payment from a client is to pay yourself out of that check you are hurting the foundation of your business.  Cash is essential to the operations of your business and marketing and advertising costs are something business owners hate to spend money on, but they are the driving force to helping you make sales.  If you cannot go without drawing a paycheck for at least a year or two so that you can build a reserve of cash for your new business and use the money from your sales to generate more sales with a marketing strategy and an advertising campaign, then chances are you will never get your business off the ground.  No matter your great ideas, if you do not have the cash flow and the belief in your company to invest in your business,  your company will probably be one of those statistics that you hear in the news about the percentage of businesses that fail within the first few years.

So, as you are reviewing your business plan, do you have a marketing strategy and a real budget for advertising your business? If I called you today would you know how many items you have to sell or services you need to provide in a week, a month, or a year to hit a break even point in your business so that you could actually know when you are making a profit? Do you have set sales goals in place and a sound marketing plan to help you reach these goals? Do you have money in the budget for advertising? In short, do you truly believe in your own business and are you willing to make positive steps to building a strong foundation to grow on?

If you are still not working with a marketing coach or an advertising agency, perhaps it is time to invest in an area that is key to your success!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

The right time to advertise is not when you are closing the doors to the store you have loved and owned for 25+ years, but this can also be a key time for running an advertising campaign.  No, if you want to stay in business and come out of this slow period as a strong leader in your industry you need to call an advertising agency TODAY!  There isn’t a miracle with any form of marketing or advertising even though many reps would like to tell you that their product will get you instant results, but if you continue to stick your head in the sand and take no action at all you can be sure that it won’t be long before your business becomes part of the growing statistics of fall-out from today’s economy.  You need to be visible and maintain a marketing presence and get in front of your prospects.  Don’t discard traditional forms of advertising like TV, radio, billboards, etc and think that you can substitute these for social media marketing.  The truth is you need to do both traditional and non-traditional and do them aggressively.

If you need help with your advertising and marketing please call!  Though I love writing this marketing blog and giving marketing tips and ideas, your business deserves immediate attention and a plan to take action. If you are on the fence about what really works and if TV or radio in your area is affordable and effective or if buying Google Ad Words or ads on Facebook equals sales for your business, call! Don’t get caught as one of those businesses that the first call they make for advertising help is  to promote a “going out of business sale”.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears The Purple Diamond!”

[note: Hiring a Marketing Consultant or Coach to help you with the following process is highly recommended!]

1.) Look closely at your numbers and WHERE you spent advertising dollars in the past and if the rate on investment was enough to consider that media source again.

2.) Consider what your “realistic” current budget is for advertising and commit to that figure, but look for ways to cut costs in other areas of your business so that you can add to your annual advertising budget during a time you need it the most.

3.) Define your “target market” so that you eliminate wasteful advertising and focus on the best media options for your service or product.

4.) Look at the entire year and when it is key for your business to advertise.  If you are a retailer who sells more around holidays you must work this in your budget; if you have a seasonal business then consider how many weeks you need to advertise to have the most impact, but still be affordable;  and if you are a business who sells B2B, look to see if your clients buying patterns define when you need to advertise more or less.

5.) Take a survey with your existing clients to see what publications they read, networking groups they belong to, radio stations they listen to and TV shows they watch and if they belong to on-line social networking groups like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

6.) Look closely at where your competitors are advertising and make a list.

7.) Think outside the box…..look for new ways to reach your target market in a way that will be memorable, still within your budget and offer you a chance to make enough of a splash so that people notice!

8.) Retire what doesn’t work, but replace it with something new. [Ex. If you have spent $10,000 every year in the newspaper, but your target market is no longer reading the paper.....make sure you put the same $10K in to another form of advertising.]

9.) Match your marketing to your territory so that you are not wasting resources with areas that will not bring in sales.  Look at targeting by zip code or zones depending on what you have defined as your target group.

10.) Create a spreadsheet that helps you to organize and coordinate advertising and marketing efforts for the entire year so that you can execute your plan and have more time to execute the ad campaigns and negotiate better rates.

Finally, remember that when your efforts are scattered and with little focus chances are your results will reflect the same!

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Unfortunately, many business owners wear too many hats and do not take the time to find the marketing help they need.  The calls from all the community groups to buy ad space in program books and school calendars, sponsors for chamber events and the local newspaper reps or phone directory account executive appeal to their “emotions” and they find that they have taken a chunk of their advertising budget without much thought other than it is what they did the year before.  Every day I meet business owners who have good hearts and struggle with saying “no” when they are solicited to buy sales reps.  However, when I share with them what the sum of all their spending would have gotten them with a more directed advertising campaign placed in the correct media they realize that buying advertising with emotion really can give poor results.

Look closely at where you are advertising your business and why you are making those choices.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

What do you need to know to develop an advertising plan? First, you need to have a marketing goal. The goal is simply what you want to accomplish or what percent increase in sales have you set for a goal. If you are unsure of what this amount is then I highly recommend working with an accountant or a business planner who can share some insight on what is a realistic goal for your business. If you have no idea of what your sales goals are it is like playing a game of baseball, but never keeping score. Yes, you will be selling, but it will be without direction and this often leads to wasted energy and money.

So, developing a strategy for your advertising needs to include who you are trying to reach, what you want to say to them, how and when you are going to reach them and why you have chosen the steps you have selected. I applaud anyone for taking steps to advertise their business, but for the businesses that want to grow faster than their competitors it requires designing and sticking to an advertising plan. Know who you are trying to reach, your target market. An advertising specialist can assist you on how to determine your target market and which media choices will reach that target audience. Television, radio, magazines, newspaper, direct mail, coupons, outdoor media which includes billboards and messages on transit transportation and the internet are all media choices for advertising, but depending on whom your target market is and your budget will help to determine which ones make the most sense for your business. Knowing when to reach that targeted audience and how to time your advertising is also very important.

The two types of advertising schedules that most people have heard of are “continuous schedule” where you choose to advertise the product throughout the year where seasonal factors or demand do not directly affect the business. An example of this could be an Insurance Agency who is open all year and is not a seasonal business. The other advertising schedule is called a “flight schedule” where the advertising is distributed unevenly throughout the year because of seasonal demand, promotions, or introducing a new product. A ski resort that is only open seasonally for a few months per year or a political candidate who is running for office would choose a flight schedule over an annual continuous schedule.

After you have completed an advertising plan it is key to have a way to measure how the plan worked. This can be difficult to measure with some forms of media, but you can do a random research sample by asking people how they heard about you or your product or you could employ the use of different phone numbers or codes on your advertisement coupons so you can track which advertising source was effective. If you do not use a coupon with your business the last way of measuring your results might be to look at the activity level before the advertising campaign and how many sales, visitors and calls increased from the previous year without advertising.

So, as you approach the holiday season and look to the New Year, be sure that your business has created an effective advertising plan that will bring you the success you deserve!

All my best to your success!
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”