How To Attract New Customers

HOW TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS

by BlogCommunications
How To Attract New Customers

I hear time and time again – “How do I get more customers?” My question is…”Who is your ideal customer?” Can you respond in specifics – type of business, revenue, male, female, household income? Without knowing who your ideal customer is, you are unable to attract more of them.

Now that you have identified WHO your ideal customer is, WHAT does your product or service offer that meets those needs? WHY do customers buy from you over the competition? WHERE do your customers hang out? Are there specific Meetup groups, Facebook groups, or LinkedIn groups where your ideal customers are? That’s where you want to be engaging in conversations and activity.

Have you reached out to your current customers to thank them for being a customer?  Do you ask for referrals or testimonials? How often do you receive an automated review request built into a business CRM? You visit the dentist and receive a request to review us on Google or have your carpets cleaned and receive an email about your experience.

Outsourced services can be utilized to interview and draft ta customer’s experience in working with you. People often won’t take the time to write praises, but if they can chat with someone and be provided a draft for them to copy and post – that takes away the process of looking at a blank screen. This process works great when you’re updating testimonials on your website. We have helped many clients update their testimonials section on their websites.

Blogging is a highly recommended acquisition method for businesses of all sizes, industries, and audience types. Running a blog allows you to explore different topics, flex your knowledge in your industry, and build authority among your readers. Blogging also continually gives you new opportunities to engage with your audience, whether through a graphic they can bookmark for later, a question they can answer in the comments, or an enticing call-to-action they can click.

Blogging can also add to your SEO. When I start working with someone one of the first things I look at is if they have a blog and the last time it was updated. Tying the blog to a newsletter will allow you to reach out to the contacts on your list. By effectively segmenting customer lists, you can see who might be interested in a given topic.

A client we have worked with segmented their list to businesses, government, nonprofits. Yet another client’s list is segmented, architects, engineers, and business. A third client has their list segmented by office locations.

Planning monthly blogs to various times of the year, community events and national awareness months allow customers to receive timely information. For example, an insurance company may talk about winter driving tips in January, but shift to drunk driving awareness near prom time.

What does all this boil down to? Planning. As we move into the last couple of months of the year, businesses are budgeting and planning for 2020. Want to grow your business, but aren’t sure how. Let the Edmiston Group help you plan for 2020. Email us or call 724-612-0755 to learn more.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Man turning knob with different stages of sales process to convert strangers into promoters. Successful inbound marketing campaign concept.

ARE YOU WINNING THE 4TH QUARTER

by ArticlesCommunications
Winning Customers

The Christmas creep is once again upon us and Pumpkin everything is being taken over by early Black Friday sales. Businesses are keying in on how to drive sales, increase consumer interest and create limited-time offers. Where in the mix is Thanksgiving?

If your company is looking to take advantage of seasonal marketing ideas, it’s best to look at some of the biggest brands in your space to see what they do to drive sales and pique consumer interest in your own business. Small businesses can compete by delivering unique products, outstanding customer service and using hashtags in posts that will pop up in social media when consumers are searching.

1. Look for easy seasonal hype
One of the easiest ways to jump into seasonal sales around the holidays is to prepare for and participate in Black Friday sales and holiday shopping days such as Small Business Saturday, which encourages people to shop locally. These days are already ingrained into people’s minds as shopping events, so it’s an easy way to jump on the bandwagon. When plugging into the seasonal sales events be sure to hashtag your social media postings.

We recently worked with a hair salon to help them plan the remainder of the 4th quarter. This included a food drive collection, special pricing on gift cards, bundling of unique products for sale on Small Business Saturday, and posting holiday hours well in advance to ensure clients were able to get their services done. Branded social media images can help increase awareness days and prescheduling posts can save time and eliminate the pressure of last-minute planning.

2. Develop an annual marketing plan
How are you incorporating monthly awareness events and fun days into your social media plan? For example, we worked with a mobile dog groomer and in her social media plan, incorporated “National Cat Day”. Restaurants have “National Taco Day”, “Chocolate Day”, etc. Think about how you can align your business. Did you know in November that it’s Military Family Appreciation Month, Men’s Health Awareness, National Hospice Month, National Literacy Month to name a few? December brings about Cat lovers month, Write a Business Plan Month.

If you are a B to B or a B to C – aligning with some of these causes and adding hashtags will help to increase your brand awareness.

3. Capture Emails and Go from Seasonal to Subscription or stay in touch with news updates
By increasing your email list, you can touch your “fan base” with news, offers, and discounts. Use the list to create a subscription service. For example, restaurants may have a VIP wine club that members pay a fee to belong. What does that get them?  Perhaps access to specialty wines nonmembers can’t experience, wine pairing events, as well as other perks.

If you are a B to B, we utilize a given process to increase your newsletter subscribers. Why is that important? It keeps your company top of mind to supporters and people who you want to do business with. For our construction clients, we share news on new projects, project updates and community involvement.

4. Plan your own seasonal sale
It’s planning ahead to take advantage of one-off discount days. Where I see businesses fall short is they lack the advanced time to promote and plan. Think about your celebration and consider offering this on an annual or quarterly basis.

We work with an eye doctor and they have an annual back to school sale. Every year in August and September they promote this sale. Their customers know it is coming and they are booked solid. They don’t discount prices throughout the year, only at this event.

The holidays may be right around the corner, but by planning ahead, your business can create its unique holiday promotions that will help you increase sales, grow brand awareness and connect with customers. Need help in pulling a plan together? Email us or call 724-612-0755 and ask about our Business Marketing Planning Package.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Master-Marketing-Plan

THE MASTER PLAN

by BlogCommunications

Master-Marketing-Plan2018 is coming to a close. As a business owner or someone who works for a company, do you take the time and reflect back on the year to see if you hit the mark or where you fell short? If you don’t measure, you’re missing opportunities to either do more of what’s working or shift from actions that aren’t working. The one thing for certain is there will always be change.

Often, I’ll talk with business owners and ask how did that client come to you? They typically can tell me where the last client came from, but when we dive deeper into how many new leads have you had in the past 3 months and from those, what turned into business, they haven’t written the information down in some format – either a CRM, Excel sheet or whatever system works for them.

We are coming into the last month of the year. For many, that means a plethora of holiday parties and vacation days. Is your company preparing for a customer appreciation event? Add the stress of preparing for the holidays and often you will hear, “Let’s touch base after the first of the year”. So, how are you using some of the downtime toward the end of the year? Perhaps that is the time to lay out 2019’s plan of action.

Here are some things to consider:

Have you established strong referral partnerships? The Edmiston Group works closely with McKibbin Consulting. We look for opportunities for each other and as a result of this partnership, many of our clients are in the commercial construction field. We’ve made introductions for them and manage their marketing efforts. Some people have strong ties to BNI or are involved in other category specific networking groups. The point is, find what works for you to grow your business and nurture those relationships. Be certain that the giving of referrals and looking for business for each other is a two-way street.

Do you speak? There are often missed speaking opportunities for breakout sessions at trade show events, but you must plan ahead and submit the required outline that will position you as an expert. Are you trying to hit a niche market? Does that market have a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) requirement for licensing? Can you create a program to meet those requirements? Think about it, if you’re marketing to accountants, nursing, social workers or attorneys that have CEU requirements – you become a subject matter expert in front of a room full of potential customers. This takes some effort on your part, but it certainly is targeted advertising.

Email marketing is a great way to stay top of mind when the need arises. A client of ours, Wright Business Systems recently talked about branded apparel and corporate gift giving for the holiday season. They have over 400 people on their email list. We can see who opened the email and which contacts clicked on the links within the newsletter. They are now warm leads for the team to follow-up with. Undeliverable emails represent opportunities to touch base with companies to determine who the new purchasing agent is and set an appointment.

Social Media helps level the playing field for small business owners. In working with many smaller businesses, they don’t have the big bucks to compete with the large box stores, but through engagement with social media, they have grown their followers. Sometimes business owners we speak with say I don’t have the time or know what to post. At the beginning of the year, the Edmiston Group offers a free social media calendar to download. Look for that in our January issue. However, in 2018, we’ve developed some customized calendars for specific businesses. Branded sales and/or holiday wishes touch their social media audience. Business owners are given a plan and taught how to preschedule postings. For those that are too busy, they outsource this service to us or someone else, but there is a plan to follow.

Sample Customized Social Media Images

Thanksgiving-Social-Media-Sample    Custom-Social-Media-Sample

If you haven’t picked up on the theme of this by now, it’s having a plan and setting aside time to think about goals for next year. Write down monthly activities and execute the plan for 2019. This makes it easier for you and your staff to look ahead to first quarter and see things such as we’re attending a trade show, something for Valentine’s Day or a St. Patrick’s social media post that should happen.

The Edmiston Group helps you create a yearly marketing plan, customized social media calendars, and branded social media images specifically for your business. Customized programs can be designed to fit your budget. Take some time as the year comes to a close, reflect on your successes and plan for 2019. Want some help in putting together your 2019 plan? Download a sample of a Custom Marketing Calendar or give us a call at 724-612-0755 or email [email protected] for more information. Make 2019 your best year yet!

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Effective-Habits

Stop Putting Out Fires and Create Effective Habits

by BlogCommunications

Effective-HabitsAre you busy putting out fires in your business? We all have issues that come up in our daily operations. As a business owner, there is always that constant pressure to improve the bottom line. So where do you draw the line and put processes in place to market your business? If you’re too busy working IN your business, there is not the time to work ON your business.

For many business owners, they are great at what they went into business for but figuring out how to market their business is daunting. You know you need to market your business, but how do you know the best way to get your name out to new customers? I hear time and time again – “People don’t know we’re here.” Marketing seems labor intensive, expensive, and like something to tackle down the road once a business is better established, but the reality is now is the time to be marketing your services.

Planting the Seeds

A recent Constant Contact survey found that nearly two-thirds of small business owners (64 percent) are focused on increasing revenue and/or sales while a quarter (25 percent) identify making a profit as their biggest business challenge.

You can create habits and processes that will play a key role in driving business growth. It’s the strategy and the plan that can take speaking events and convert attendees into your mailing list. Consistent messaging and touches to this group of individuals can result in new prospects and potential clients that are regularly being added to your mailing list.

Set goals with measurable results and consider picking up the phone to call a prospective client versus always sending an email. Use different forms of communication such as instant messenger in social media platforms.

Identify “Small Marketing” Tasks and Execute

Break larger tasks into smaller pieces. Take one important marketing task, something you need to do consistently, but that you find yourself putting off, like calling prospects or sending an email newsletter, and break it down into smaller steps. Put the task on your calendar and mark it off when done. I personally like Asana and can break my task into smaller steps and check off when that task is done. I try and complete daunting tasks early in the day, so I can get them off the list before interruptions of the day begin. Working with numerous clients, I can color code various tasks for the day per client. Planning is key.

The Building Blocks of Marketing Strategy

Blend the small marketing action with a process and determine how you will implement the action Can it be made it easier, faster and better; or better yet, can the task be automated?

  1. Automate it. One of the easiest ways you can create marketing consistency for your small business while gaining valuable time to invest back into your business, is by automating the action. If email marketing is your focus, the click segmentation coupled with an autoresponder series, allows you to send personalized emails your customers want to receive. I use this tool when networking to grow my newsletter lists. My clients use this process following a tradeshow or special event.
  2. If You Aren’t Measuring How Do You Know If It’s Working? Measuring your actions will enable you to see what’s working and adjust accordingly. Measuring can come in many forms – analytics on a website, coupons redeemed from a print ad, calls received on a dedicated phone line, engagement on social media or reviewing reports in your email marketing program. Don’t just market…measure the results!
  3. Marketing Your Business is NOT a ONE and DONE! Little things done consistently can make a difference. Remember to not only repeat the initial tiny action, perhaps daily over weeks at a time but also the process of making a big challenge smaller. Any action, no matter how small, can be transformed into a positive habit and drive real results.

The key is to start somewhere and keep pushing forward with small and purposeful steps. There is no magic fairy dust to make every marketing activity a success, but consistency in your brand and messaging can create a powerful momentum.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Business-mindset

Is Your Business Stuck In A Rut?

by BlogCommunications

Business-mindsetDo you often feel you are in a rut? You do the same thing over and over with less than desired results? The sales and promotions you ran in prior months no longer have the same effect. When your small business gets stuck in a rut, you need to find a quick way to snap out of it. This can mean finding a new source of inspiration, following some new trends or kick starting your marketing efforts.

What stops you from moving forward?

  • FEAR. Are we doing the right thing? Going down the right path? What will others think? INDECISION is the seedling of FEAR! Indecision crystalizes into DOUBT, the two blend and become FEAR! The “blending” process often is slow. This is one reason why these three enemies are so dangerous. They germinate and grow without their presence being observed.
  • PROCRASTINATION. It’s easy to always do the simple tasks of being busy. But what happens when you have a large project, or need to focus on something new? Do you spend your time being busy, or block off time at the front end of the day to tackle the project? Try breaking the project into smaller chunks so it seems more manageable and schedule time to accomplish those chunks
  • I CAN DO IT ALL. Often this is where I see business owners get stuck. They have the mindset that they can do everything themselves, yet by not releasing tasks to either outside consultants or employees the business owner is the bottleneck in their own growth.
  • DECISIONS. As you move about your day decisions pile up. Interruptions occur and your head becomes full of deadlines and stuff. Make the most important decisions early in the day while you are fresh. By giving yourself 24 hours, it allows you to “Sleep On It” with a fresh look first thing the next morning. You will find it easier to be clear on your decision.
  • TIME MANAGEMENT. How often do you c heck your email? Do you make a plan and/or a list for tasks to be completed with a due date? Do you assign tasks to others and hold them accountable? There are a variety of project management tools to do that. Asana is a tool that I use with members of my team.

The first quarter of 2018 is over. As you review your marketing plan going into spring/summer, what are you going to do differently that will yield results? If you don’t have a plan, now is the time to put one together. If you don’t have time to create and execute the plan, let the Edmiston Group help.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.