One of the big marketing mistakes all businesses make is that we always want to invent or try something brand new. Photo / iStock
Recycling is big business all around the world today.
Recycling makes sense because it means we get to reuse material more than once rather than just throw it away.
And recycling is also a valuable strategy to use in your marketing.
Take some time and carefully review all the sales and marketing activities you have used in your business over the last 1-3 years.
There is a good chance you have done a lot of different things in this time frame.
Now what you are looking for are the sales and marketing activities that have worked exceptionally well in the past.
What was the single best sales or marketing promotion you tried in your business?
What was the second best, what was the third best and so on?
Next ask yourself the question 'How can I take these successful sales or marketing promotions and either reuse them exactly as they are or make minor updates or tweaks and use them again?'
(In other words you take past sales or marketing successes and recycle them.)
One of the big marketing mistakes all businesses make is that we always want to invent or try something brand new.
But when you have marketing promotions that have proven to be successful in the past they will often work again and again in the future.
So why go and create an entirely new offer or new campaign (that may or may not work) when you already know what did work?
Many years ago I developed a simple marketing campaign that allowed me to collect 50 or more glowing testimonials from my best clients within 7 days.
Customer testimonials are a great way to prove your product or service is the right one to buy and they are very useful to use to encourage new customers to spend money with you.
I have recycled this same campaign many times over the years and used it on behalf of a large number of my marketing clients.
The recycled testimonial campaign has worked well with every single client so far.
The big lesson marketing lesson here is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Just take a marketing campaign or promotion that has worked well in the past and recycle it.
Now when you look at marketing campaigns they usually fall into one of three areas.
1: You have marketing campaigns that generate leads for your business.
In other words they create interested, qualified prospects who want more information about what you sell.
What lead generation campaigns have worked well in the past for your business and how you can recycle them in some way?
I find that in my consulting business I get a good number of leads by offering a short no cost marketing consultation (for say 10-15 minutes) on a particular topic.
And a number of these consultation turn into new marketing clients.
I've recycled this free marketing consultation strategy dozens of times over the years and it still works well today.
2: You have marketing campaigns that create paid sales.
In other words you do things that encourage potential customers to spend money with your business.
Example:
I find that offering an added value incentive can be a good way to create paid sales.
So I might go to a small number of people who are interested in a particular service I offer.
I'll offer to give them some exceptional added value providing they give me a paid order within a certain time frame.
A number of people like the idea of getting some added value and will choose to spend money.
What have you done in the past that worked well to get potential clients to take action fast and buy from your business?
How can you recycle and reuse these campaigns again?
3: You have marketing campaigns that create repeat and referral business.
In other words existing customers buy from you again and they also give you referrals to other people who are interested in what you sell.
Example:
I find a simple way to get repeat and referral sales is to send past customers some useful information in the form of a regular added value newsletter.
I call this AVSIT Marketing where AVSIT means Add Value Stay In Touch.
Every time I send out an added value newsletter I get repeat and/or referral sales.
What have you done in the past that worked well to get repeat sales or referrals?
How can you recycle these campaigns and reuse them in some way?
The good news is that most of us in business have successful marketing campaigns that have worked well for us in the past.
And many times these same campaigns can be recycled and reused again very profitably today.
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity
is where you are.
What marketing campaigns worked well for your business in the past?
How can you recycle or reuse these same campaigns again today?
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