Promotion Planning Can Yield Steady Business
Growth
Chris Hunter, Principal
Cornerstone Business Solutions
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. |
