Graham McGregor: The helpful marketing strategies to use at this time of year

There are always marketing seeds that you can plant. Photo / 123RF

COMMENT: In many ways marketing is a lot like gardening.

And the marketing seeds you plant today will produce a great harvest of happy clients and profitable sales in the future.

So in this message I thought I would mention four marketing strategies that are helpful to use at this time of year.

Here they are:

Strategy one: Collect 3-5 million dollar testimonials

One of the most effective marketing strategies you can ever use is having some of your happy clients saying in writing why they love your product or service, why it is better than many of your competitors and why they highly recommend it.

When you and I read positive testimonials like these from happy clients who really like a particular product or service it increases the chances that we will buy it ourselves.

Here is a simple way to collect million dollar testimonials from some of your best clients.

Ring up 3-5 of your best clients and ask them some simple questions on the phone.

Why did you buy our product or service? What do you like about our product or service? What benefits have you enjoyed as a result of buying our product or service? Why would you highly recommend our product or service to other people?

Take notes on what each client tells you and then write up these notes in the form of a short testimonial.

Email this testimonial to your clients to approve or modify.

You can then use these testimonials a lot of different ways in your marketing.

Strategy two: Give added value to key referral sources

If a person has given you at least one referral in 2018 now is a great time to thank them again for the referral and give them a bit of added value.

You might sent a short letter that says something like this

"Hi Jane, just a quick note to say thank you one more time for the kind referral you gave me earlier this year. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Here is a small gift to show my appreciation for your thoughtfulness. All the best for the rest of the year. Kind regards Your Name."

(The gift you enclose can be appropriate to the value of your referral. So if the referral didn't turn into a sale you might send the person a scratch and win Instant Kiwi Ticket or something similar. And if it turned out to be a valuable referral you might enclose a double move pass that this person can use.)

Even though you will have thanked this person when they first gave you a referral it is always nice to thank them again. And it makes it more likely this person will give you further referrals as well.

Strategy three: Give added value to your existing clients and contacts

At this time of the year I like to give my own clients and contacts some added value in the form of a short booklet that has positive motivational ideas on success and happiness.

This is always appreciated.

I do this two ways.

First I will offer a helpful booklet like this in digital format. I will also send a booklet in hard copy format as well to selected clients.

If you would like a free copy of a booklet like this just contact me using the email address at the start of my column.

I'll then send you a helpful booklet called "The Success and Happiness Report Volume 1" which I think you will really enjoy. (With my compliments.)

I like to provide added value to clients and contacts in November because most businesses wait to December to say thank you to their clients and contacts.

By doing it a month earlier my added value stands out and is more noticeable.

Strategy four: Added value lead magnets

I find that November is a great time to create brand new lead magnets that I can use to attract ideal new clients at the start of 2019.

Two of my favourite added value lead magnets are added value articles and added value special reports.

I explain how to use both of these in my free guide 'Easy Sales with Added Value Marketing' which you can download at no charge by registering at my website.

I recommend you create your own lead magnets well before you plan to use them so they are ready to start using at the beginning of 2019.

That way you can get the New Year off to a flying start.

Summary:

The good news is that there are always marketing seeds that you can plant.

So take some time this month to plant a few marketing seeds for your own business.

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson.

Action exercise:

What marketing seeds will you plant this month?

- Graham McGregor is The Added Value Marketing Expert™. Register at his website www.addedvaluemarketing.com and Graham will give you a free copy of his brand new free guide 'Easy Sales with Added Value Marketing'. (This guide contains ten time tested strategies that any business can use right now to create easy sales and delighted clients and is with Graham's compliments.)