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| These Seven Marketing Principles to Attract More Business and Close More Sales |
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| 1) Gain Customer Confidence : Customer indecisiveness, skepticism, indifference, or confusion are among the top sales killers in the business world. It's up to you to project an image of experience, quality, dependability, excellent customer service, and/or value to your prospective customers in order to win their confidence. If you haven't clearly communicated the advantages and solid reasons for them to do business with you, then they'll be hesitant to commit and the sale will go to your competitor. |
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| 2) Penetrate awareness of your target audience by using some form of integrated marketing. In other words, the more ways the public hears about you, the better your chances are for achieving brand recognition, credibility, and greater market share. Effective marketing is partly the result of exposing your target group to your name and your selling points (unique selling proposition) as often as possible(frequency), in as many ways as possible, and as cost- effectively as possible. |
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| 3) Enthusiasm , in both print and in person, is contagious (and I'm not talking about using multiple exclamation points after sentences!!! That's just plain tacky.) If you deeply believe in your products, services, your company, and yourself, then your prospects will pick up on that passionate attitude and feel confident and optimistic about doing business with you. |
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| 4) Purchasing is an emotional decision : Instill in your prospects good feelings about your company, your business relationship with them, and how you can improve their lives or solve their problem. Accomplishing that is at least as important in the sales process as focusing attention on product features and benefits. |
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5) Dispel Distrust : Gain customer confidence and overcome potential feelings of distrust by offering written guarantees of satisfaction, customer testimonials, references, and by joining respected and well-known professional organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau, Chambers of Commerce, and industry associations.
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| 6) Impose Deadline : Counteract one of the biggest obstacles to closing a sale known to mankind: procrastination. To overcome the natural human tendancy to deliberate, postpone, and delay, it's often necessary to inject a sense of urgency into your ads, sales presentations, and marketing messages. Whether supplies are limited or prices are going up at the end of the month, some prospects need to have a deadline or an incentive to motivate them to take action now. |
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| 7) Create a Marketing Plan to identify and capitalize on your strengths and opportunities. Your strategic plan should also take into account factors such as your weaknesses (and possible remedies), external threats (competition, economic factors, etc.), your marketing mix strategy (products/services, promotional goals, pricing strategy, and distribution decisions), media strategy, sales and expense budgets, and target market analysis (know your customers). |
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| Public Relations Marketing |
Public Relations involves a variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance a company's image and the products and services it offers. Successful implementation of an effective public relations strategy can be a critical component to a marketing plan.
A public relations (PR) strategy may play a key role in an organization's promotional strategy. A planned approach to leveraging public relations opportunities can be just as important as advertising and sales promotions. Public relations is one of the most effective methods to communicate and relate to the market. It is powerful and, once things are in motion, it is the most cost effective of all promotional activities. In some cases, it is free.
The success of well executed PR plans can be seen through several organizations that have made it a central focus of their promotional strategy. Paul Newman's Salad Dressing, The Body Shop, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream have positioned their organizations through effective PR strategies. Intel, Sprint and Microsoft have leveraged public relations to introduce and promote new products and services. |
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Similar to the foundational goals of marketing, effective public relations seeks to communicate information to:
- Launch new products and services.
- Reposition a product or service.
- Create or increase interest in a product, service, or brand.
- Influence specific target groups.
- Defend products or services that have suffered from negative press or perception.
- Enhance the firm's overall image.
- The result of an effective public relations strategy is to generate additional revenue through greater awareness and information for the products and services an organization offers.
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Goals and Objectives
Good strategy begins with identifying your goals and stating your objectives. What are the goals and objectives behind your public relations strategy and can they be measured and quantified?
Each of these areas may reflect the goals your public relations campaign may seek to accomplish.
Press relations
Communicating news and information of interest about organizations in the most positive light.
Product and service promotion
Sponsoring various efforts to publicize specific products or services.
Firm communications
Promoting a better and more attractive understanding of the organization with internal and external communications.
Lobbying
Communicating with key individuals to positively influence legislation and regulation.
Internal feedback
Advising decision makers within the organization regarding the public's perception and advising actions to be taken to change negative opinions. |
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