December was a blur for many of us with the hustle and bustle of shopping and cooking taking a demanding first place on our TODO lists. (For me, add to that three choir group rehearsals and their final concerts.) Then top that off with continuing to run our businesses.
As we settle into a new year, we must leave behind the negativity and wrong focus of the year past. Clients who are overly demanding, one-sided partnerships, and marketing that didn't work should all be cast aside like a smelly pair of sneakers.
Breathing a sigh of relief we can now focus on discovering new opportunities and challenges to grow both our business and ourselves.
One thing we can do more of this year is promoting our businesses. Whether that means focusing on social media or monetarily spending money on well-placed advertisements, we need to start by doing a bit of groundwork.
There's no two ways around it. When you skip the research, you set yourself up for failure in your marketing efforts. So, first off, decide what you want to offer. I mean exactly what you want to focus sales on. Don't try to advertise your entire store, but what exact item(s) you want to sell more of.
Pick up any retail store flyer and compare the number of items in it with the total number of products in their store. Notice the infinitesimally small number of items begin advertised. These store owners know that all they have to do is entire you to visit their store and while you are there you will see other items you may not have known they have-and you might even buy something other than what you left home for.
So as you can see, limiting your offer to specific products and services can bring the type of customer you want to attract to you while keeping your costs at a minimum. Imagine for a moment, if you will, your local grocer. If they had to list every single item in the store, you can just imagine the expense for all that paper and ink, let alone the cost of mailing.
Once you have decided exactly what it is you want to sell more of, the next step is to decide who would buy it. This is best answered by evaluating who your niche or target market is. Drill down to the least common denominator. As an example, don't just say everybody. Ask yourself questions like, what sex, are they single, or married, mothers or fathers, work at homers or employed, are they of modest means or wealthy, etc.
Once you know who you are selling to you can then do two things much easier with this knowledge. You can uncover facts about them such as what drives them to purchase and where they frequent. When you know what their attractors are, such as color preferences and what they need you to tell them before they purchase you will be better prepared to create your advertisement. Further, when you know where they frequent, you will know exactly where to run your ads.
So, you can see that doing your homework before spending your hard-earned money is of paramount importance to your marketing success.
Set some goals for yourself, do your homework, and focus your efforts on achieving them.
