“How do you Win Business In A Competitive World?” is the question that’s being asked at my next speaking gig
It’s a big question, but one that starts with the basics of research and marketing and is something that needs revising on a regular basis
Here are 5 Tips So That You Can Win More Business
1. DEFINE YOUR CUSTOMERS AND IMPORTANTLY LOOK WHERE THEIR EYES ARE
When starting a business most businesses will look inwards and ask what do I offer? What Do I Stand For? What Makes Me Different From My Competition?
When it comes to winning new business your customer needs to be at the heart of the marketing decisions and you need to define clearly your customer demographics, interests and truly understand your customers
Once you have the customer profile set in stone, this will influence the design and the language of any marketing you use regardless of the platform – but you then need to look where your actual customer’s eyes are looking
It’s common place for start-up businesses to take an advert out in the local newspaper because that’s the way marketing has always been done – but do your customers even bother reading the local newspaper. Sure for some products /services the newspaper may be the best option, but for a large percentage it certainly isn’t
Similarly with social media – there are many different platforms that need researching before going all in on every platform for the sake of it. Twitter is the only platform I would say 99.9% of businesses should be using – the rest it entirely depends on your target market and you may find more value using Instagram or Snapchat than Facebook for instance. There are many questions on which Social Media platform which is why we just released the 7 Tips For 7 Different Social Networks free download here
2. YOU HAVE MORE COMPETITION THAT YOU ACTUALLY REALISE
Most businesses underestimate the level of competition they have, as they never look at the wider picture.
When writing your business plan – remember your competition is not just the businesses that do exactly the same “job title” or “role” that you do – but expansive of much more than that
For instance – I offer Social Media Training & Management Services
- My immediate competition are other Social Media Companies
- My wider competition are other marketing companies in general i.e newspapers, flyer distributors, web designers, SEO / PPC companies, PR and so on
Taking it wider than that in the service industry you’re also competing against any other businesses expenses from HR to Finance to Admin. Businesses have a set budget and often the competition between expenditure can actually be widely different industries rather than your specific skill set
You are competing for time, attention and £££s and you can never underestimate how many marketing messages your target customers are seeing each day
3. WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR BUSINESS PLAN HAVE A MARKETING BUDGET
The biggest fail for Start Up companies is they make no budget provision for marketing when they start out
If you have spent months or years perfecting the product or service – does it not make sense to have a budget in place to launch your business in the most effective way so that you win customers and win hearts
You can have the best business in the world, but if nobody knows about it the business will fold before it’s even been given a chance.
Because you have spent time above defining who your customer’s are, your expenses should already be lower because you’re targeting exactly where your customers eyes are
Bring in experts to help you on graphic design, web design and if you don’t know how to use Social Media – get some 121 Social Media training that’s focused specifically on your business. 1st Impressions do count and online marketing is as important as Traditional Marketing.
When launching a business you should be prepared to make sacrifices in order to have a great marketing plans. I’d always discourage getting huge loans when starting up a business and as preachy as it sounds you can save money on that expensive meal out for 1 month in order to budget for printing business cards, you can get a part time job to save up money for marketing training or a website and so on (and i’m speaking from experience here – when I launched this business I was also running another one and spending 40 hours a week on the existing business and another 40 hours a week launching Altrincham HQ)
Marketing is not an expense – it’s an investment – so for every £ you spend you will be looking to get that return many times over
4. TAKE MASSIVE MASSIVE ACTION
Plans without action are not worth the paper they’re written on
There’s a lot to be said for actually actioning stuff and delivering on the plans
So often I hear in business (business coaches – sorry this is mainly you!!) “You’ve got to have a plan” or “Work Smarter, Not Harder” … but I never hear the same people talk about case studies, specifics or actually acting on any of their grand plans or how they’ve worked smarter to greater degrees of success
Make no mistake – to win business in a competitive world – you have to do great marketing and you have to do lots of marketing. Your name has to be synonymous with your area of business to the point where your competitors are a distant memory
The very reason I blog so often is I care enough to write 30,000+ words a year of free marketing advice to help small businesses … but also because my direct competition only writes a 1/4 of that
Actions always speak louder than words
5. MEASURE EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF MARKETING YOU DO
What is working? What isn’t working? Why is / isn’t it working?
Those should be questions that you can back up with data at the click of a button
All it takes is a simple excel spreadsheet to track each of your marketing channels by the month and the overall success over the past year
You should also be able to track which of your services or products are generating the most income as well
By having the data to hand you can then throw more resources at what is working for you and delivering huge returns and also look at what’s not working and the reason behind it
AND THATS HOW YOU WIN BUSINESS IN A COMPETITIVE WORLD
- Know Your Customers In-Depth
- Know Your Competing for time and attention as well as your direct competition
- Have A Marketing Budget Set Aside To Employ Experts
- Take Massive Action On Marketing Plans
- Measure Your Marketing Success
If you do all this you will win business in a competitive world
If you would like to speak about Social Media Management Services from Altrincham HQ call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
