Three important keys to successful marketing

Photo / iStock

In this week's marketing column I'd like to share a quick reminder on what I think are three important keys to marketing success.

Key 1 is to have one or more successful lead generation systems in your marketing.

This just means you do things that encourage potential clients to contact your business.
Now there are hundreds of different lead generation strategies that you can use in your business.

I personally like information magnets for lead generation.

An information magnet is where you package up useful information that a potential client for your business would find useful. (This information might be in a booklet, a video, a live talk, an audio message and many other formats.)

You then offer this information to potential clients in exchange for some of their contact information.

Many businesses have found that adding an information magnet to their marketing strategies is a simple way to get dozens of qualified prospects contacting their business each month.

Best of all, by offering an information magnet you also position yourself as an expert in your field at the same time.

Key 2 for successful marketing is having proven systems to convert interested prospects into happy paying clients.

There are many ways to do this.
You could use a number of persuasive testimonials in your marketing.
A good testimonial is often worth its weight in gold and is a good way to encourage potential clients to use your business for the first time.

Here's a good example:

I was looking at the website of a business called 'Active Building Management'.

This company specialises in managing a number of different types of buildings including apartment building. They have some persuasive testimonials on their website and this one caught my eye:

"We sell and property manage various Auckland city apartments and have noticed the varying standards to how these buildings are managed.

Active Building Management do an excellent job, with tidy and well-presented common areas. Their team are contactable and approachable.

Communication is clear and professional and this makes a huge difference to the feel of the building. Always great to step into a building managed by Active. We highly recommend their services."

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists

Key 3 for successful marketing is to have systems in place to generate easy repeat and referral business.

I recommend AVSIT Marketing to do this.

(AVSIT means you Add Value Stay in Touch.)

One of my favourite AVSIT Marketing strategies is the humble two page hard copy added value newsletter.
With this strategy you just send out by 'snail mail' a helpful two page newsletter once a month to between 100 and 300 people.

These people could be clients, key referral sources and people you would like to do business with.

Now it's very rare today to get something that adds value in the post. (Most of us only get bills and junk mail in the post today.)

So when you send something like an added value newsletter in hard copy it gets remembered positively.

You build an excellent relationship with the people you send it to. And encourage many of them to give you repeat and/or referral business.

Here's a good example from one of my own clients:

"Hi Graham, we've been using the Good News Report newsletter in our finance business for just on six months.

We started using it because we wanted a resource that would allow us to stay to stay in touch in an added value way with our clients, potential clients and key contacts. We know that many of our clients will only use our services every 3-4 years. We didn't want to hassle these clients by phoning them frequently.

However we still wanted a way to create a positive relationship with these clients over a long period of time. The Good News Report looked like the perfect way to stay in touch regularly with our clients and our key business contacts. The Good News Report is sent out in hard copy printed format to around 200 people each month. Because it's in hard copy format (rather than digital format) it gets read and often gets passed on from one person to another.

A large number of the people we send the Good News Report to have told us they really like the positive and fun ideas that each issue contains. We are enjoying a lot of benefits from sending out the Good News Report each month.

First of all we stay in touch in a positive way with clients, potential clients and key contacts each month. So we are always 'top of mind' with these people. Secondly we've noticed that by staying in touch like this it has stimulated some excellent repeat and referral business from the people we send it to. It's also nice to have our business associated with positive ideas.

A number of people have told us we are mad to send out a hard copy newsletter today. However the Good News Report has helped us do everything we wanted it to do and has been a wonderful marketing investment for us. Thanks again for giving us the opportunity to use it.

We are more than happy to chat with any other business owners who are considering using the Good News Report newsletter and give them our feedback on how it has worked for us."
Karen Healy
The Finance Lady

I recommend you take a look at your own marketing and see if there are some improvements you can make in any of these three key marketing areas.

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way."
Napoleon Hill

Take Action:
1: What new lead generation systems could you try in your business this month?
2: What positive testimonials could you collect from happy clients?
3: What added value could you share with existing clients and customers?

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. Download his 396-page Unfair Business Advantage ebook at no charge from theunfairbusinessadvantage.com.