When you're busy operating your business-making sure
employees are doing their jobs, ensuring your products and services
are delivered on time, striving toward goals and so on-it's
tempting to think to yourself that you just don't have time for
marketing. If, in fact, that thought has crossed your mind,
you're not alone. However, neglecting your marketing efforts is
one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur.
You may be concerned with hundreds of business ownership
details, but you still need marketing to achieve the visibility you
require to get noticed in the marketplace. This visibility leads to
more prospects converted, to more customers converted, to more
profits-which is the formula for staying in business. So, by
deduction, entrepreneurs need marketing to stay in business.
In the world of guerrilla marketing, there's a general rule
of thumb that 60 percent of your marketing should be spent on
current and past customers. After all, they represent your best
prospects. These people already know you, trust you and, hopefully,
have confidence in your company, products and services. They've
already had a good experience with your business, which increases
the probability they'll buy from you, especially when compared
to a new prospect who doesn't know you and hasn't yet had a
positive experience with you.
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The remaining 40 percent of your marketing budget should be
split up this way: 30 percent should be spent on prospects, and 10
percent should be spent universally. And all this spending should
happen simultaneously: You need to keep your prospect funnel full
while continuing to convert prospects into paying customers. You
can start by using marketing to:
1. Replace former customers with new ones. Customers come
and customers go. Sometimes they leave because of us, sometimes
because of them and sometimes because of factors beyond the control
of either. This can't always be predicted or forecasted. To
safeguard against this, you must use marketing to replace former
customers with new ones. Obviously, not everyone you market to will
become a customer. But to increase your chances of getting those
all-important new customers, you must continually put your message
in places where they'll see it.
Successful marketing is made up of many, many things done over
and over. Without a consistent, repeated effort, there'll be no
new customers to replace the old ones, and you'll soon enter
what's known as the "death spiral" for your business.
You can't allow this to happen!
2. Pay attention to your customers. Imagine for a moment
that you've secured new business from more customers than you
ever dreamed. The good news is, you'll be busy fulfilling their
every need. The bad news is that lack of attention is the
number-one reason customers abandon a business.
So if you get busy, how can you stay in touch with your most
valuable customers on a regular basis? The answer is marketing.
Different marketing vehicles can reach out to them and show that
you're paying attention to them. You can send thank-you cards,
special offers, tips and techniques, newsletters and more. The type
of marketing activities let you stay in touch without being there
in person.
3. Keep customers informed. Now let's say that your
business is growing, and you've decided to introduce new
services and products. Who will buy them? Current customers will,
as well as new ones-but they won't buy unless they know about
your new offerings. Product announcements, press releases,
newsletter ads and advertising are just a few of the marketing
vehicles that can be used to alert prospects and customers to your
new products and services. Marketing once again saves the day, pays
attention to your customers, informs and educates them, and causes
them to eventually empty their wallets into yours.
Effective use of these guerrilla marketing tactics will let you
keep your marketing costs down while increasing your return on the
dollars you do spend.