Escape The Recession

Escape-the-Recession Manifesto A Manifesto is generally associated with elections and since this is an election year I decided to put into place a “marketing manifesto” to help you rise above the recession woes. It’s a list of 10 principles to help you achieve business success. Business owners who are successful practice at least 80% of them regularly. Study the list and see how your business measures up. Are you doing any of these items? It will point out areas to work on in your business. It’s a blue-print for your future prosperity. And of course this month I’ve sprinkled some photos of my latest designs throughout the letter to get you excited about adding new pieces to your display! You may want to print this out and see how many of these you actually do and keep it handy to be inspired to implement some new practices. ,[object Object],Find a NICHE market. There is a marketing saying: “There is riches in niches”. It is so true. In fact right now the businesses that are doing well even in our economic downturn are the specialized businesses. The more you can be specific about your product and where it sells you can market your target EXACTLY for immediate sales. Learn every last detail about that niche and then tailor all your product and services to it. ,[object Object],Extra value will persuade your customers to do business with you – and not your competition. Now a days customers need a compelling reason to part with there money. Customer service, scarcity and experience may give them that reason. Price should be the last thing you change. Add something before reducing prices. All the fast food chains have been reducing prices (the $5 whatever) and all it has done is reduce their profits because there is still the same amount of people buying but their paying less! Do you know what what item influences YOUR customer? ,[object Object],Communicate regularly with your market and let them get to know you. I’ve talked about this several times previously and it is very key. Use a variety of media. Never just use one method. This is the reason social media has become so important to businesses now. Many of the large corporations are creating whole departments for social media communications through Facebook and Twitter. I’d LOVE for you to become a fan of mine on my Facebook business page at www.facebook.com/barbaragarwood. You can also use direct mail, internet newsletters, advertising, seminars etc. ,[object Object],Copy that sells has little to do with the ability to write well. It’s more about knowing the right ingredients and using them appropriately. I’m planning on writing more about this in detail in another letter as there is so much to include here. One item that is an important copy item is connecting at the point of pain for your customer in your writing. Ask yourself what is the strongest objection or pain for your customer about buying your product. Then overcome that in your writing so as to eliminate the reason for not buying. 5. Customer Service EXCELLENT customer service, not just any customer service is critical. I just had my kitchen cabinets redone and I went with the installer who was a bit higher in price because of the customer service. It went on forever. First the salesman was good, then the owner came out to check things out, then the installers were great, then the salesman came out afterwards to be sure I was happy, then they sent a follow up letter to give me a referral program etc., Customer service tells each customer how highly you value them. Every interaction is a marketing opportunity: how you thank them after a sale, handle an enquiry or complaint. All of these influence people to become a repeat customer or refer you to others. 6. A Strong “Offer” Always include an offer whenever you market your product. This is usually a savings or free gift of some sort linked to a time deadline to create urgency and inspire action. The more fabulous the offer the greater the desire to buy. I recently read that a jewelry store offered a Jaguar with a purchase of $100,000! Pretty outrageous, right? They worked out a deal with Jaguar and they got one sale and a whole lot of publicity about their retail store worth lots of future sales! 7. Measure and Test Marketing is an experiment that helps you discover what does and does not work. Keep track of how many you sent out of a marketing item and note how many dollars it has brought in. Your basic ROI, return on investment. Then you tweak it with one change every time till you get the results you want, or you abandon it if it isn’t getting you any results. That’s why offers are important. They are a built in meter to measure your effectiveness. Send out small runs of a new idea to test it first. Intuition may be a good thing in the short term, but in the long run testing will save you $1000s. 8. Guard Your TIME! I know my time is SO valuable to me. I am designing, marketing, traveling, selling etc. and it all needs to be budgeted so I can get it all done. Your time is you most precious commodity. Jealously guard it. Never spend time on tasks that lack the potential to grow your business. Set up time to do particular things the same time every day and get in the habit of that time schedule. And don’t go over the time allotted for it! (I’m always working on this one myself!) Delegate the other tasks as much as possible. If you don’t have respect for your own time, who will? Being bled my time vampires and failing to honor your own commitments are all down to you. No one else! 9. Work ON Your Business rather than IN it Make sure at least 50% of your energy is focused on marketing your lines. This goes back to #8 where you dedicate time to marketing as part of your regimen. This allows you to set aside time to create a marketing process. You can design the next campaign and all the sequencing, media and copy involved with it. Again delegate all the tasks that you can and this will free you to have a marketing schedule that flows smoothly rather than one that stops and starts. 10. Your Mental Attitude Accept that your business success has a big percentage to do with your mental attitude and less to do with the mechanics behind what you do. You need to visualize your goals and train your subconscious to become congruent with your conscious. THEN you can begin to put into action what needs to be done. I’m always thinking about HOW can I improve my business. I may know I want to do something new but am clueless as to how. As I take the time to meditate and continually set aside time to think on the ideas, then shortly it all comes clearer to me what I need to do. Work your brain! PUT THE MANIFESTO TO THE TEST… Which are your weakest principles you need shore up? Which item has the most potential to make the greatest improvement to your business? Which are you most guilty of ignoring? I’d love to hear back from any of you who implement any of these changes and tell me of your results. It’s always great to know about your successes. I’ve uploaded many NEW designs to our cyber gallery at http://gallery.me.com/importbarb So come take a look! Call us and you can speak with Shannon for your next order at 770-434-7936 or email us at info@importfolio.com and will gladly help you put your order together!

Escape The Recession

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Escape The Recession