Do You Know What you Think you Know?

Let’s get right down to business. Grab a pencil and list 10 things you know that you know about your customers. While you’re doing that, listen up…

I once knew a great business woman who owned a bridal shop outside a small city in the northeast. She had a thriving business, was nearing retirement age, and didn’t really worry too much about growing. She placed sporadic ads, gave an annual bridal show, and let the chips fall where they may.

I asked her the same question… “What do you know about your customers?” She had it all down pat. Most of them were local brides who knew the reputation of her business and the family name. After all, she’d sold wedding gowns to half of their mothers!

I have to give her credit; she had gathered information about every bride that came through her doors. Every bride-to-be filled out a little card before trying on a gown (no bribe needed for that one). The problem was that she hadn’t paid a bit of attention to the goldmine she had buried in her filing cabinet.

Nearly one-fourth of her customers were from a metro area about 150 miles away. How did that happen? Their families owned camps in a nearby forest. Their periodic visits brought them past her shop where they stopped in, discovered that the prices were unbeatable and bought!

The moral of the story is that accuracy counts… especially for small businesses striving to keep one up on the competition. No matter how long you’ve been in business, or how successful your business is, it still pays to ask the consumer the questions you think you know the answers to.

Finding out the TRUTH about your consumers may very well be the most profitable decision you make this year!

Do you ever wonder who the “perfect customer” is? Stick around…

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

Do Surveys Really Work?

Do you like surveys? Heck, some of the information they ask for makes you wonder. Now be honest, have you ever been tempted to tell a little white lie on one? Would they really notice if you said you were under 18, born in 1964, have a family of seven, and make $200,000 a year?

Before we dig into surveys, let’s backtrack a minute. We’ve been talking about the value of honing in on a target market in order to increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost of advertising. Knowing who your consumers are, and having demographic information about them at your fingertips is powerful stuff!

Think about it… if you market business to business, and you’ve done your homework, you might know:

• The annual sales of the businesses
• The number of employees they maintain
• The types of businesses they purchase from
• The credit card companies they use
• The magazines they subscribe to

If you know that twice as many of your customers use Master Card, it would be a safe bet to buy ads to be stuffed in Master Card bills. If two-thirds of the businesses subscribe to Forbes Magazine, it’s a no-brainer. Forbes is the place to put your ad.

All of that is great, but now for the big question… how do you get the information you’re looking for? People aren’t likely to just hand it over randomly. Extremely busy business men and women are even less likely to spend time giving away information.

Here’s the key… ASK!

Now wait a minute… Who’s going to stop their busy schedule and tell you everything they know about themselves or their business?

Okay, okay… we might need to make it attractive. So let’s add a little bribe to the equation. Now incentives do work! Ask any youngster to do something and offer candy as a reward, and it’s done. We never outgrow our enjoyment of a good bribe.

Coupons, free newsletters, discounts, bonuses… The key to a good bribe/incentive is finding out what the consumer is interested in. Two sure bets are money and information (although a box of chocolates still sounds nice.)

*** Make an offer in return for those nuggets of information your mining for. ***

What about those little “white liars?” Sure, you’ll get a few clowns out for a laugh. Anonymous surveys are great cover-ups. You can cut down on the chances by making them state their name and address. If you choose anonymous surveys, you might want to do a little cross referencing to see if the answers are within reasonable bounds compared to their “named” counterparts.

Do you really know what you think you know about your consumers? Next time, we’ll find out…

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

Are you Growing Yourself Right out of Business?

I came across a question that made me sit back and think.

Is it possible to grow yourself out of business?

Grow yourself out of business? I thought a growing list of customers was always profitable, but not according to some marketing experts. Heck, when you stop to think about it, if you’ve got a huge list of new customers, yet your profit is shrinking it’s time to take another look!

Getting a new customer doesn’t come cheap. That’s why marketers are looking for ways to reach potential consumers without spending a small fortune.

Direct Mail Marketing is the most cost-effective and consistent marketing strategy there is. It’s a system you can use again and again and get the same positive results.

Computers have simplified the steps to successful direct mail. Data bases collect the necessary information and feed it into their databases where you can access it with a few quick clicks.

What demographics do you need to gather to feed your database?

• age
• sex
• marital status
• home ownership
• car ownership
• major purchase history
• credit cards
• income level
• occupation
• previous mail order response
• magazine subscriptions
• cable TV subscription.

All of these demographics provide vital insight into the mind of your potential clientele. By collecting and organizing it you’ll find out things that can make a drastic impact on the effectiveness of your direct mail marketing campaign.

Knowledge is the power that can make a difference between growing yourself out of business by spending to much on a potential customer or targeting your campaign in a cost-effective and successful effort to increase profits this year.

Stay tuned for more information on how to zero in on a targeted market that will pay!

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

The Secret to Keeping Consumers on “Your Side of Town”

I recently observed two toddlers having an all out battle over a toy. Neither wanted to share with the other. The screaming brawl earned them both a stern lecture on sharing from their pretty young mother.

I couldn’t help grinning at the two tots. Why? Because I know how they feel. Yeah, I’m a grown adult, but there are times when I just don’t feel like sharing. Especially when it comes to sharing customers with my competition!

Do you ever get tired of finding out that your once loyal customers have been wooed away by a sweet-talking competitor? Listen up. Here are four ways to avoid sharing with those profit stealing …

1. Induce your customers to buy more from you. Don’t forget that it’s easier to sell more to a current customer than it is to get a new customer. Focus on selling more to the customers you have.

2. Keep your customers happy! Hey, a satisfied customer isn’t as likely to go across town. Familiarity and satisfaction work together to keep consumers going to the same place of business over and over again.

3. Give them lots of tender loving care. Why are fickle customers wooed away from you? Most likely it’s because someone is giving them more attention than you. Shower them with TLC and keep them on your side of town.

4. Watch out for undercover agents. Is there a sales representative that does all of the PR for your business? Tell me this… what will happen if that rep decides to work for someone else? Yeah, you stand to lose a lot of customers! Don’t put your eggs all in the basket of a sales rep. Be sure you are building a direct link between you and your customers

Direct mail is a great way to establish a regular and direct link between you and the consumers. It bypasses the layers of distribution between you and the customer, and gives them a direct message from you and your business.

There are a lot of ways you can implement direct mail marketing…

• Use them to introduce new services and/or products
• Explain and warn of price increases
• Present discounts and special sales
• Provide helpful and informative material
• Recognize the importance of valuable customers
• Announce seasonal specials

There are no safe shortcuts when it comes to building a solid relationship with consumers. They’ve got to know that they’re tops with you, have a direct line of communication, and need to be reminded why you are the best choice.

What about using direct mail to get NEW customers? We’ll talk about it next time.

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.