marketing tips

If there?s one New Year?s Resolution to make this January, let it be: Don?t talk about taxes or accounting.

?What?? you?re asking. ?What do mean? What else is there in life but taxes and accounting?? Well, plenty, and you know that.

But the point is: Your clients or your corporate colleagues don?t really care about taxes, accounting, auditing, financial reporting, comps, reviews, bank rec?s, or all the other stock and trade you live by. They do expect you to care about and to know that stuff. After all, that?s why they hired you ? so they don?t need to worry about it.

So what?s left to talk about? Making money! Selling! Closing on new business! Marketing!

Every businessperson cares about success. And if you?re in your own practice, you can talk like a pro. In the process you?ll probably learn more about the other person?s business ? how it works and where it doesn?t ? in 10 minutes, than you would in a day and a half of poring over financial statements.

So where do you start? Glad you asked! Here?s a handy-dandy list of marketing tips for small- and medium sized businesses. Most of them are low-budget and easy enough to deploy. Some of them may even apply to your business. All of them are worth thinking about and talking about.

1. Enlist Your Clients and Vendors
The people you do business with every day know you and already have a stake in your success. If they can?t recommend, who can? Bring them into you Inner Circle. Offer them special deals. Let them be the first to know about new products and services. Turn them into referral machines by giving them an incentive?and it could be as simple as a thank you note with a $10 gas card (er, make that $25 these days). And by the way, if you can?t spend 10 minutes a day sending out handwritten thank you notes, then think again about what, if anything, you might have to be thankful for.

2. Make Partners of Other Small Businesses
In you lobby, in your literature, how often do you publicize the offerings and successes of of your (non-competing) compatriots. It?s free to them. You get an implied endorsement. And they?d probably do it for you ? if you ask.

3. Downsize Your Advertising
As a longtime publisher, it?s hard for me to say this: But most small businesses spend too much buying ads that are too big. Sure you can make a splash in your local newspaper or trade journal with full-page ads. But it?s usually better to run more ads, than big ones. So cut down on the size of ads, and run them more frequently. My experience shows that at takes at least six ads for anyone to even recall an ad it takes about 28 customer ?touches? to close a sale. So think about year-round marketing programs.

4. Do Something Different
As a small business you have the opportunity to try something new. That small ad I just sold you? Try that in a postcard campaign. Maybe an email? And check out Google Local; it?s fast replacing the Yellow Pages.

5. Raise Your Prices
What? Raising prices is a marketing strategy? Yes! It can be ? if it?s tied to a new, premium service. You may be surprised at how many clients would be willing to pay more for a higher grade of service ? hand-delivered tax returns? IRS audit ?insurance?? A computer system safety and security checkup and monitoring? Or bundle a few services together call it something new ? tax and write-up for one, fixed annual price, paid in monthly installments with free phone calls off the clock?

6. Lower Your Prices.
For new clients, when you?re still in the getting-to-know you stage, try a stripped-down version of your service. 1040?s without the fuss, but all electronic? Or how about a introductory offers? After settling on a an annual bundle of services, try the special three-month trial offer. Just remember, you?ll still need to deliver on your promises.

7. Revel in Being a Small Business
You?re a small business. Be proud and loud about it. The Fortune 1000 advertise to create brand awareness, name recognition and future sales. As a small business, you can’t afford to do that. Instead, develop your marketing programs to produce sales . . . today! For one thing, make sure every ad promotes a special offer ? an offer they can?t refuse or it?ll expire. Make it worthwhile. Maybe it?s as simple as a position paper on how other small businesses in town are saving money. Or it?s a free diagnostic of last year?s tax return. But give them a reason to react, not later, but now.

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Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.

Copyright 2005 Bob Leduc

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It?s said that most small businesses don?t last five years. But kudos to them; at least they tried. What concerns me are the 9 in 10 small businesses that never make it past the owner-operator stage to the next level ? the level where the owner can turn the business over to someone else to operate.

Some people are born owner-operators. Some want more. Today?s lesson is for those who want more.

If you want to drive your small business to the next level, there are a few tried-and-true lessons you can?t afford to ignore.

Some will tell you starts with a lack of good marketing. And that may be partly true. But I think it starts with a mindset about the role our business lives play in our larger lives ? our lives around family, friends, passion and spirit.

So take this to heart:

Mistake No. 1: Working in your business instead of on your business. If you?re managing people instead of building systems, go read ?The E-Myth? by Michael Gerber, a classic, or CPA Bill Reeb?s new book,. ?XXXXXXXXXXX,? sure to become a\one of the accounting profession?s classics.

Only about 50% to 60% of your time should be spent on income producing activities, say the experts. About, 20% to 30% of your time should be spent on marketing activities. And the other 20% should be spend\t on everything else.

Mistake No. 2: So the second biggest mistake in failing to implement systems. In a small business, you must automate and optimize every possible area. Use technology to its fullest. Delegate repetitive tasks immediately. Focus on opnly thos things only you can do.

Mistake No. 3: Thinking that marketing is No. 1 or No. 2. It isn?t. But nothing is going to happen in your business until you create and follow a marketing plan. Businesses that consistently use a marketing plan are 70% more likely to be in business in 7 years. I?ll take those odds any day.

Mistake No. 4. Forgetting to market to your current clients. I?d say 60% to 70% of your marketing budget should be directed to the people who already know you. For every month that you fail to communicate with your customers ? ?touch? them in some way — their propensity to do business with you drops by 10%.

Mistake No. 5. Failing to test or track your sales and marketing efforts. What you don?t know, in this, could definitely hurt you. As a financial maven you already know: What you can measure, you can improve. And in this day of digital marketing, there?s just no excuse for not using the right tools for the job.

Mistake No. 6. Failing to follow up with prospects and clients. Everyone gets busy. But in many businesses, the average sale happens after the fifth attempt. Successful businesses have a process in place that automates the follow up process to make sure they are following up with prospects regularly. If you?re not using a customer-relationship management system, like Act! or Goldmine, just to name a couple market leaders, you can?t say you?re serious about service.

And for that, there?s no excuse. This is, after all, a professional services business. Act like a professional and reap the rewards.

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Posted on December 19, 2000
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