Things are going well for your business. You and the team are busy taking orders and delivering services and no one has time for marketing. Then it happens – quietly, almost imperceptibly – sales slow and continue slowing for a month.
Of course you’re concerned. Your pep talk fires up the team! They start spending more time with existing customers and generating and following up on new leads. A couple of month’s later, business picks up and you breathe a sigh of relief.
Then an unexpected setback happens and sales drop dramatically! Maybe it’s because a key sales person leaves, or the economy softens or, worse yet, your largest customer is bought by a larger competitor and the Four Corners’ office is closed.
You Can’t Handle the Drought
Like a drought-weakened tree, this time around you wonder if your business can weather the crisis. Cash reserves drained during the last cycle are at half the level of a year ago. You’re worried, but feel you really can’t afford to advertise. You’ve got to do something though because you are drying up like the pines!
Somehow you scrape the money together for a new advertising campaign. Sales eventually begin rising. Before you know it, you’re super busy. In fact, so busy you find yourself forgetting about marketing for the next six weeks. But then things go a bit quiet and . . .
Business development advisors refer to this dizzying and frustrating cycle as the Marketing Roller Coaster. The roller coaster begins with a business’ failure to implement (FTI) an annual promotions plan. FTI your annual promotion plan and you can count on taking a ride on the coaster.
Getting Off the Marketing Roller Coaster Once and For All
There’s only one way to step off and stay off the coaster and that’s to market constantly and consistently. A promotions plan is the hub of a successful marketing and will help position your business for steady growth.
Begin building your promotions plan by looking for patterns of sales seasonality. Even businesses with steady demand like grocery stores and hospitals have seasonality. Of course, you may be satisfied with your sales levels during peak periods, even without a great deal of marketing. But sales can be increased at any time of year by relying on a promotions plan.
Say for example your sales are highest during May, June and July. Depending on the time lag between launching a specific promotion and seeing results, you might need to launch promotional activities in April, May and June to further lift your peak months. And if you want to bring up your seasonal lows, you would also need to market well in advance.
It’s worth thinking about your yearly high and low points well in advance. That will give you more time to plan the specific promotional activities that will really boost business. As a general suggestion, I recommend businesses ought to try at least one promotions activity per month.
Of course, a promotional activity has to be effective. If it’s not getting results, it’s a waste of money. And this means you need to do some planning and assessing of outcomes. To that point, I believe a business can only manage that which it measures.
Make sure your promotion activities reinforce the unique features of your service or product. Make sure your customers see you as different from your competitors. What benefits and differences can you usefully highlight to customers in your promotions?
Also make sure your your promotional activities are consistent with your overall business image and identity. Inconsistency looks bad. If, for example, you run a health food store you’re probably not helping your image well by sponsoring a football tailgate party featuring bratwursts and beer – even as tasty and popular as they may be.
You will draw up a better promotions plan if you think long-term and draw up an annual promotions budget. The more detailed the plan, the more closely you can monitor your spending against the budget and determine the return on your investment.
Five Types of Promotion Strategy
Special event activities and sponsorships are the first of the five broad types of promotion strategy. As an example, consider the sponsorship of sporting events. Offering to support your local community or sporting clubs by inviting them to have their ‘sign-up’ at your premises can be a great way to bring new people to you. You can also play a part in planning or implementing community projects like a street festival, Chamber of Commerce trade show, parade or other events.
Holidays provide an ideal backdrop for the second type of promotion strategy – the holiday tie in. In addition to the usual “big” days like Christmas, consider self-proclaimed events as a way to bring customers to your business. As a business owner like you, my business anniversary is an important day in my life. Celebrate it with others! Throw a party!
Public speaking opportunities are a third type of promotion strategy. Speak at conferences, give public lectures or be a guest expert on radio talk shows. If you are a professional with special expertise, this can be a way of showcasing your skills among your peers, clients and the public. Service clubs like Rotary and Kiwanis are always on the lookout for good speakers and the “word of mouth” can be invaluable to you.
A fourth way to promote your company is to contribute to publications such as trade magazines or local newspapers. If you are not a great writer, you can delegate the job to one of your team members or hire some professional help.
Finally, direct advertising is a very legitimate strategy in your promotions plan. Print advertising can be timed to anticipate special events or to let customers know of special products or offers. We are fortunate here in the Four Corners that our media advertising rates are quite reasonable. Pick your message and medium and give it a try. Be sure to ask customers where they heard about you to measure your results.
In summary, creating and implementing a promotions plan can make a big contribution to the stability of your business. Consistent marketing will even out those income peaks and troughs and you will be able to more reliably predict your earnings.
Copyright 2014, Cornerstone Business Solutions, LLC
Chris’ combination of academic credentials, career experience and temperament ideally suit his calling as a business development advisor. Clients say he has a mind for business and a heart for service.