Advised Marketing to Customers

Many hard-working, well-meaning, marketing-minded business owners will incapacitate their businesses with imprudent marketing. That’s even worse than no marketing because bad marketing is incredibly expensive. Reckless advised marketing is usually the result of a personality flaw in the business owner. The most common flaw by far is impatience. So many entrepreneurs are overwhelmed at the prospect of instant gratification that when they don’t get it they begin again their marketing campaign, never giving it a chance to take hold and soar. 

Business owners figure that they know finance and they know management, therefore they also know marketing. Not true. They may know marketing as it existed when they embarked upon the road of individual enterprise, but everyone knows how much marketing has changed since then. Often, their humungous egos motivate them to write their own marketing copy, design their ads and websites, select media based upon their own personal tastes rather than the tastes of their prospects and customers; better know their brand philosophy.

Another personality blemish that puts marketing on self-destruct is the ridiculous notion that word-of-mouth will do the trick all by itself. It’s thinking that they simply can’t render better customer service than they’re providing right now. Don’t ever think that thought. There is always room for improvement. Just ask any customer. Ask them, perhaps with a questionnaire, how an ideal business would be run. Be ready for true enlightenment when they tell his experience.

Another hindrance to marketing success is being too good to a consumer. Such business owners fall prey to lots of fast-talking media reps and buy things they don’t really need. Or they spend too much on the production of their marketing materials. Have the insight to remember always that there is no marketing strategy strong enough to withstand the personality of a clueless businessman.

Marketing is a pipe with one and his customers. It does not exist in a vacuum and it does have a goal. To reach that goal, personal data about each customer is mandatory. Knowing them as a group helps a little but not nearly as much as knowing them individually. Gain that information by talking with them, listening to what they say, sending them customer questionnaires, visiting their websites, meeting them at community events and trade shows, and making yourself available to them for any dialogue they wish to initiate. An important strategy is to know about individual customers, the better is one who able to custom-tailor its marketing strategies. 
As one custom-tailor its plans, the marketing becomes more effective and economical at the same time. Instead of doing a mailing to all customers, mail to only those customers who will be interested in what business one dealing or offering now. That cuts down on one’s cost while increasing business response rate. When one know specific customers are interested in sports, do send them tickets to such events or gifts that connect with their interest. That’s one of advantages as a small, customer-centered business. 

Knowing details about customers enables one to connect closer with them, adapt conversations with them to their own personality types. If they are Type A people, always in a hurry, that’s a cue to keep it short and do it quickly. If they are deliberate, studious, now the time is to give them all the facts they need and not speed through the presentation. Personal knowledge about individual customers enriches one’s customer list exponentially. What they like, what they read, what they watch, what excites them, what turns them off, where they shop, how they perceive one’s business, tiny details that make the difference between a one-time buyer and a lifelong customers.