Marketing and Business Management Consulting
for When You Are Short of Cash, Time, or Know-How

Use Target Marketing
To Beat Your Competition

Simple Steps to Identify and Land
Your Most Profitable Customers

Part Two

By John Rust

A marketing plan keeps you aimed at the most profitable customers. It gives you the discipline to identify your ideal prospects; to know what they want that only you can give to them; which ones you will have less competition for, how to tell them about your service, and how to convert them from prospects into paying clients.

In the last section, we saw how to identify a target market based on two critical factors. In this section, we will look at how to turn a target market segment into profitable customers.

The Six "P's" of Marketing:

Once you have identified your target market, you can choose the best tactics to land profitable customers.

The next six steps are called the "Six P's" of marketing. The "P" stands for Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People and Politics.

Marketing Step 2 "Product":

This defines what you do. The service you provide. How you give your target customers exactly what they want. Do you provide delivery? Do you offer certain brand products? Do you server steaks cooked on a griddle, or over a mesquite wood fire? Do you guarantee satisfaction? And so on. You get the point.

Ask yourself what the prospects want you to provide, and what your competitors dont offer. Put this in as few words as possible. When you clearly state who you are and what you offer, your prospective customers will be more likely to remember you, and they will retain an impression that you are better than your competitors.

When you book them as a customer, your professional service and follow through will quickly assure them that they were right to choose you. Sounds simple enough, but most of your competitors wont define themselves so clearly, nor present their products as well as you.

Marketing Step 3 "Price":

How you price your product is critical. Almost no business has ever failed because their prices were too high. Just the opposite usually happens. Businesses often fail even though they have the lowest price.

Few of us ever make a buying decision purely on price. Competing on price is a no-win plan because there will always be someone who will charge less.

Successful businesses set a competitive price, or even a higher price, than their competition. You can justify a higher price because you build more value into your service, and you target only those prospects who appreciate it.

But be sure that your price exceeds your costs. No joke! Plenty of businesses discover that they lose money on each sale. They sell more, only to lose more! Cutting your price to get more customers means that you will end up working harder for less money. It becomes a vicious, no-win, cycle.

Better that you know what it really costs to provide your service and then charge appropriately for it. Your bookkeeper can help you identify all your real costs.

Marketing Step 4 "Place":

Place means where you meet new customers, and where you provide your services. Pick the place where you have the best chance of finding your target customers, and where you will stand out from the competition.

You might meet your target prospects at your business location - a retail store, restaurant, motel, trade show, club meetings or conferences. Be one of the few businesses of your type there.

Will you focus on one particular local area? Many clients want to shop in only one location. Be the easiest to find in that area and you will get the most calls. In retail, it has always been "location, location, location."

Marketing Step 5 "Promotion":

Promotion is the method you use to get out your message. It includes your advertising, brochures, mailings, sports shows, websites, press releases, seminars, sales pitches, and telephone calls. Once you know all about your target market, you can pick the method that is best at reaching them.

For instance, if your targets look for information at trade shows, you should be at the show, not advertising in a newspaper. If a booth is too expensive for your budget, or if there are already too many competitors present, you can still reach your targets at the show by presenting a seminar, a demonstration or by entering a contest.

Promotion is also the deals and incentives you offer to get your target's attention and motivate them to buy from you. This might be a discount for paying in advance, or some added free service like an optional item at half price.

Always require some action by your targets in exchange for the deal, like advance payment, buying additional services, or buying during an off-peak day or season.

Next: Marketing Steps 6 and 7 "People" and "Politics":

The next steps are about people and politics. Every marketing campaign is delivered by and to people. Your message, your employees, your sales persons and you customers must hear and understand your message and how you are different from the competition. Our businesses are also constantly being affected by outside influences from the political arena - regulations and taxation for example.

Your marketing plan can prepare you to deal with these factors

Continue reading Part Three of: The Six P's of Marketing.

Return to Part One of: Target Marketing.



This article originally appeared in the Professional Guide,
the official magazine of the Maine Professional Guides Association



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