Marketing Wizard eZine: Know What Your Clients Value
In This Issue:
Marketing Resources: Growth Marketing Power Groups
Feature Article: Know What Your Clients Value
Kevin Recommends: Marketing Tools and Resources
Do you know what your clients value? Read this edition of the Marketing Wizard eZine to see what I mean.
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Marketing Resources:
Marketing Power Groups: Take Your Business to the Next Level
Would you like to take your marketing to the next level but you feel stuck and are not moving forward? Sometimes it's not that you don't know you should be marketing or what tools you want to implement, it's just that it's not getting done or producing the results you expect.
The Growth Marketing Power Group is for small business owners and professional service providers who have experienced success, but are ready to take things to the next level. You know there is more out there and you want to make a bigger contribution, but maybe your marketing is holding you back.
Participating in the Growth Marketing Power Group will help you create a more systematic approach to your marketing. Plus, it gives you a structure of accountability and support from fellow business owners to keep you focused and on track. The dynamics of working with a group will help you create momentum like you've never had before.
New Growth Marketing Power Groups are currently forming. If you've been thinking about how to take your business to the next level, take action now.
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here to get more details on this powerful program.
Feature Article: Know What Your Clients Value - by Kevin Dervin
Do you know what it is that your clients value most from your services?
If you knew the answer to this question would it change the way you're marketing your small business? If you knew what your clients wanted from a business like yours more than anything in the world, it sure seems like it would make marketing a whole lot easier.
A key to the foundation of successful marketing is to make sure your service satisfies a need or desire that your target markets actually have. So what is it that your clients value the most from your services?
Too many small business owners don't know the answer to this question. Most just don't take the time to figure this out for their business.
It blows me away when I ask someone what it is that their clients value most from their services and they don't know. If you don't know what your clients want, then how can you ever hope to provide great services to them?
Most small businesses seem to follow one of a few paths on this issue:
Some have created a product or service based on something that they really want to offer and they believe that lots of people or businesses will want it.
Others tend to have some general knowledge in a particular area. Unfortunately, what they communicate is so broad and vague that they end up reactively taking whatever business they can get. Some clients might get what they want, but it's not a very focused way to run a business.
It seems to me that a much smaller percentage actually tries to figure out what their target market values and then provide a service around that.
Take some steps to position your business for success that others in your field just can't generate. It might be just as easy as figuring out what it is they'd love to have from you.
How do you find out what your clients value? There is an exercise that I take my clients through where I ask them to generate a list of what their clients would absolutely love to have from a service like theirs. It's not unusual that business owners struggle to come up with much for this exercise. The fact of the matter is too many small business owners really do not know.
If this sounds at all like your business, then my question to you is simple. "Have you ever bothered to ask your clients?"
Let me back up for just a second.
First of all, I do think you should determine what it is that you do best. What are you committed to and totally passionate about? What are you out to cause with your business? Are you clear about who you want to help and what you want to help them get done? Knowing where you're coming from is critical to building a business that is enjoyable as well as successful.
Next, figure out what it is that your target market would love to have more than anything from a business like yours. What are their greatest challenges and issues that your company could get involved in helping them overcome? What is the greatest result or outcome you could ever hope to deliver to your ideal clients? If time and money weren't an issue, what service would you offer that would consistently produce the greatest possible outcomes?
Take some time to carefully consider and write out your answers to these questions outlined above. You may not know all the answers, but do the best you can.
Now simply call up a handful of your best clients and a couple of your most trusted business contacts. Buy them lunch and then sit down to talk through what you've come up with to get their input.
Get in the habit of asking your clients what they want, need, and value from a service like yours. Find out what you're doing that they love and what you are not currently doing that they would love.
You might be amazed at how much you can learn from your clients. If for some reason you're not comfortable asking your clients directly, then find someone that you trust who can ask for you. You'll generally find that your clients are more than willing to answer a few questions if it will help increase the value of your services.
Sometimes if you want to know what people want, you just have to ask. Don't be surprised if your conversations go deeper and you learn even more than what you were after. Also, you'll get better results when you interview clients with your thoughts already outlined.
Once you know what clients want, you can begin aligning your services and developing your core marketing messages around that. And suddenly marketing will become easier.
Think of the benefits having this information can mean for your business.
You'll blow your competition away because you can focus on delivering exactly what your clients want while competitors are still guessing.
You just may discover a strategic differentiator that helps you stand out from the crowd of competitors in the first place.
You'll have your clients raving about your customer service so they're not only coming back; they're bringing friends and contacts with them.
Do you know what your clients want from a business like yours more than anything in the world? Create an action plan to start gathering up this information and get ready for your business to explode.
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Want to use this article on your web site or in your ezine? You have my permission as long as you include the following author attribution:
Kevin Dervin is the owner of Proven Small Business Marketing Solutions. If you find this article useful, you’d probably enjoy Kevin’s FREE monthly eZine called Marketing Wizard. To subscribe, just go to: http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com
and follow one of the links to the Freebies page.
Kevin Recommends: Marketing Tools and Resources
Action Plan Toolkit.
A program for anyone who is looking for support to put your marketing into action. Includes five powerful Modules for focusing, brainstorming, planning and scheduling your marketing.
Aweber
Capture your web site visitors' information so you can stay in touch with them. Provides for unlimited auto-responders to systematically follow-up with contacts. If you're managing an email newsletter subscriber list, look at
Aweber.
In my opinion, they are simply the best on the web. Get a fr~ee 30-day test drive.
Sonic Memo
Make your web site come alive. If you want to add exponentially to the effectiveness of your web copy, add your own voice. Want to know how I put the streaming audio on the Growth Marketing Power Group web page or other pages of my site?
Sonic Memo
is the incredibly powerful, but easy to use program that I used.
Blog Lightning
By-the-way, if you're going to create a blog you should consider getting a step-by-step guided tour from John Jantsch. John is one of the early bloggers out there and a true expert on the marketing power of this tool.
Web Site Toolkit
If you don't have a web site or your current site is not producing for you, get some help. The
Web Site Toolkit
from Robert Middleton is a comprehensive program that gives you everything you need to create a web site that works for your business.
***Note***
These links to products & services are being provided for a resource. They are products & services that I use and recommend for the value they provide. It's your responsibility to check them out to see if they make sense for you.
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