Some of the more common challenges come with:

• Not identifying your ideal client demographics well enough.
• Not identifying what your ideal client thinks and their purchase motivation (Psychographics)

Demographics give you their characteristics that identify their abilities, needs and interests of your customers; Psychographics identify their motivation or reason for making the purchase.

Demographics: who is buying your service

Psychographics: why they are buying your service

Where are you missing the mark?

All too often we see people jump straight into the sales process without building a relationship with that potential customer or even communicating with them in a way to suit their pace and relationship style.

If we are to look at this further have you really defined your ideal client Demographics and Psychographics enough?

To define these further we need to also look at when and how they communicate.  The type of language they use, at what speed and format it is delivered in, where they source this information from and how much creditability they place upon it.

By examining it further you may well discover that the information you have for your ideal client is too long and wordy or not even in a language they understand.  Worse yet you may be selling the benefits or features of your product rather than how your product or service actually provides a solution for their unique challenge.

If you convert this to lost leads, this may be the reason your marketing information is not performing as well as you wished.  Is it in the wrong language at the wrong speed for the wrong audience selling features not solving challenges?

Take the time to revisit your ideal client profile.  Once this is streamlined and perfected, you can then duplicate it across to another service or product.  Just like most franchises do, they start with one systemized product and then drop an almost identical product into their client base.   The language they use to capture the young children is much different to the language etc  used to capture the family meal market.

Sit back, Take a moment to reflect and get some outside perspective on your Marketing.

John Burkhardt

Apart from the initial limbic response of their brain to weigh up their environment and consider the immediate response of stay or fight/flight, there is a considerable portion of their communication style which may not connect to the way you are communicating your message or ideas?

I hear you saying, “what are you talking about” – EXACTLY.

As I may waffle on and include the details and facts of this, are you:

Just get on with it… give me the facts and move on OR

Yeah I hear you, but can’t we slow down a bit and get to know each other OR

Yep, Yep; Ok just shorten it and lets go for a drink so I can tell you a bit more about me OR

Yes, I understand that, maybe a question or two on the limbic system………….

Does one of these messages resonate with you?

This is effective communication, all I need to know is how I communicate best and then how you communicate best and adapt my style to match or at least get closer to the way you are communicating.

• Are you missing this with your niche target market and those ideal clients?
• Are you talking to them in your communication style and not theirs?
• Is the language structured to suit them and what they would prefer?

Communication (or lack of it) is the basis of all relationships and happens nearly as quickly as the Trust component.

To learn more about your Communication style, visit FACE-Matrix and do a quick, fun and easy to understand profile.

Have fun with it, share it with your friends and if you want to know more, then the best buy is the FACE, The Global Language e-book

Learn to love it and embrace it.

Let me know your results and what you think.

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

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I have numerous requests for marketing advice and as such have the following critical steps prior to you getting to marketing and sales:

1. Know what your Goal is and where you are heading first. Plan with the end (or exit) in mind
2. Know your Product or Service
3. Know your Pricing structure
4. Know what place to find your client – the product market
5. Know everything about your client  – their habits, challenges and where they get information
6. Know your clients distribution channel – where to connect with them
7. Know the benefits to your client of solving their challenges
8. Know how to structure a compelling message – Headline, sub-headline, challenges, solutions, call to action etc.
9. Develop and implement a promotional strategy

Missing any of these steps will lead to a lot of wasted time, energy and money.  This is quite a short list of the steps to developing effective relationship building via marketing.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

At times you ponder the differences in getting the cheaper less known or the dearer established brand.  Personally, I like quality and timeless performance.  I’d rather spend the extra on a quality product or service that I know (or imagine) will go the distance rather than a cheap alternative.  For tools this sometimes I buy something I may only use rarely.  But when I do its a great feeling.

How does this relate to business?

Why should people pay extra for your service or product?  Is it the extra mile your staff goes to, the constant communication of things relevant to them, the experience of quality time and time again or another factor?

Does all of this stuff matter?  Yes it does! Why do customers leave a business – because they thought the business didn’t care!

There are basic qualities that shine through to your customers:

You care - why else would you communicate with them and invite them back into your business!

You admire confidence in their ability to transact with you.  They are confident that you have the product or service for their needs.

You offer stability and through that continuity in dealing with you.  (It’s very important to be seen to be stable and longterm)

You offer them a quality character and business behind your product or service.  They value the fact that you value your business and them as customers.

Be careful about discounting or free services/products.  The taste of poor quality disappears quickly after the cheap product or service fails.

Position yourself, your product or service and then let people know about it!

Position yourself to be the business that everyone comes to when they are looking for your service or product.

Start with the end in mind.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

What it did list in order of effectiveness:

Email newsletter

Networking

Word of Mouth (these were all around the same mark)

Website

Direct emails

Local newspaper advertising

Printed flyers/letterbox drop

Paid marketing in search engines

Direct mail.

They also offered 10 high value, low cost marketing ideas of:

Email newsletters

Networking

Referral programs

Frequent buyer programs

Free trials

Public relations

Search Engine Optimization

Online Ads

Invoice Mailings

Letter boxing

Courtesy of NETT April 2009 (C) www.nett.com.au

Until next time

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

Surprise, Word of Mouth marketing is by far the most effective method of marketing!

So why do so many businesses put so much time and dollars into other forms of advertising?  The best response is that during the business life (phases) different methods work at different times.  All too often this is because the business (or their marketer) doesn’t know what their market is so uses different forms of advertising to gauge the response until they find their market (not my idea!)

Remember its about how your target client buys, who, when, how and how to you get in touch with them?  A lot of research and thought needs to be put into the marketing plan prior to advertising.  Also you need to test and measure everything.  It is pointless to spend all of this time, energy and money if you have no idea of your KPI and how to measure them.

Some simple steps:

Plan it (Research it, write it down, challenge the content)

Your Product (what differentiates your product)

Your unique selling position (what differentiates you)

Plan it some more

Work out how to track your different forms of advertising

Work out your KPI and how to track them

Revise it, control it and plan it again.

“Does everytime you contact your client, do you add value to the transaction and build a better relationship?”

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions.

The use of graphic designers becomes more and more important in visualizing the effect of color use in business branding.  Again, see our other posts about being careful about name choices but when you have sifted through all of that, move onto a quality graphic designer.

How do you source a quality graphic designer? I would suggest referral as the first port of call, but most importantly have a look at their portfolio to see if that is the type and quality of work you want your business to have.  A quick look at the portfolio should show you the quality and depth of the work.  You can spot a quick logo throw together (or clipart) compared to a quality thought out logo/brand which matches your business and its mission.

Don’t be afraid to ask for generic quotations on what work you want completed.

The feedback should include a sample of their work, reference points, some helpful information and also an obligation free appointment to see if you can work together.  Their pricing should be transparent and most will charge from $250 upwards for one quality logo design.

The upside is that the amount of information that they source from you to start with should be around your business, colors, products and business planning to clarify what you are after.  The end result will be a design (or number of them) which translate a fact finder into the logo your business has been waiting for with the color scheme to match.  Win/Win.

Before you start, have a look on the internet for logos and see what ones you think would compliment what you are looking for.  Give your graphic designer plenty of information and examples and let their training and creativity take over.

Good luck with this one.  You will be surprised of the examples that come back.

More soon.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Think of the colors used in business, been to the bank lately and been hit with power colors such as Red, Bold Blue, Black and Yellow?  This is all part of the branding process.

Colors are chosen to match up with where the business is trying to portray to you its customer how good it is and how you should feel about it.  Would you use a bank with the colors of gray and black? Probably not!

Certain businesses focus on products that already have colors associated with them.  Fruit and Vegetable shops for example usually have a lot of Green, Red and Orange in their color schemes and maximize it because of the product they offer.  These are great to work with because you can top the imagery up with great pictures of fresh, healthy fruit and people to market to your audience.

Motor sport is another great example.  Black and white, red and then other sharp deep colors dominate it.  Why? Because of the checkered flag, black tyres, black racing tracks, red, green, yellow and orange flags, the list goes on.  Try wearing a pink polo shirt to the drag racing if your not a perfect size 12 lady going out.  Somethings just don’t work.

The best news is that the colors usually sort themselves out during the organizational planning and business planning processes.

Don’t fret early on, the process will take care of itself when you keep moving along.

Next blog on using graphic design in your business branding

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

Well, personally I think that the name will come first, but this is because it is a logical step into the organizational planning and business branding process.  Most people have the product or concept first and this tends to drive the actual business planning and will drive the business name usually before the branding kicks in.

A good example is authors and book writing.  Most of the time the Title comes much later in the writing process, as the book and its chapters, plot and magic are getting woven.  Business is the same, you have a lot of things happening and suddenly the process starts to crystalize and everything appears to be falling into place.

The more the business is planned, then the easier it is to make intelligent logical decisions about the business name.  This will happen as your business name will develop to meet your product, your client market and other items that drive your business.

The previous blogs referred to choosing your business name and some things to consider. You will quickly become aware that the name will become less relevant than the image created to people and what they associate it with. i.e. business branding.  When large companies like Dell and Nike etc started out, most people didn’t associate anything with the name.  They were just another supplier of goods.  As time goes on and companies provide that service, their name becomes the branding of the that industry’s quality product or service.    Just think now of how suicidal it would be for those companies to “rebrand” their name.

A few years ago major insurance companies went through the rebranding phase (I would like to have scored some of the great dollars dumped into the bucket there), but for some it destroyed consumer confidence in over 200 years of business branding.

Moving on, you need to ensure that everything you say, do and project is about your brand.  Not about your individual people, your individual product (unless business branded as well) and not about blowing your own trumpet.  It is about people associating your brand with a certain industry, products/services and a definite quality service experience.

Branding insures your name appears consistently in the same colors and formats that link you with a great feeling and product.

More later.

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

I am using what we went through with our business name as an example.  We had the choice of anything and put a lot of thought into what business name will serve us best.

It has to compliment your business. Not much sense calling your dog washing business “Mikes Pizza Shop”.   It has to be relevant to what you do.

It has to compliment your business direction. If you are wishing to only service one area and wish to tie the name into the area, then use the geographical name in your business. e.g. Our area is Robina, you could call gardening service, “Robina Quality Gardening” and restrict the look and feel of the business to that area.

Will you be franchising? This is a great basis for getting rid of warm and fuzzy names and those thought up by family members.  You need to cover the geographical implications again and also what the name may mean in the countries you are looking at franchising in.  No good trying to sell a “stinking fly horse” to a country because you picked the wrong name.

Check out the restrictions on business names. This may seem common sense, but a lot of business put all their energy into design of names etc just to find out that the name is already registered or trademarked.  What a waste.

Domain Names. Make sure your name or a good portion of it is available for registering a website domain.  No good going to all that hard work to discover your domain name has been bought up all over the world already.

Using your own Names. Personally I don’t prefer this method in naming your business unless you wish to stay small and not sell the business for any reason in the future.  Simply, it restricts you too much for future growth and exit strategies.

More soon

John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

Maybe one of the most forgotten steps in any business naming or change of naming a business is the customer.  All too often we get caught up in our little piece of the world to stop long enough to ask what the customer sees as the perception of our business, its name, its product or service and also asking them for referrals (another subject)

At a breakfast meeting the other day, a professional business had re-branded to move into a similar service.  The move had been planned and the business platform was now established, but they were lacking the growth to fill up the platform.  Most of the discussion evolved around marketing and client management which is correct, but no one had actually been back to the customers to ask them what they thought of the new business branding, the service levels and also what they thought the new branded business actually offered as services now?  (Don’t ask them for referrals either, you will grow too fast!)

From the discussion (and without talking to the customers), there seemed to be a doubt as to whether the existing customers actually cared about the branding (they were after the same or improved service levels) and were they really aware of the extra services now offered?

Our suggestion was to get back and ask your existing client base about their perception of the business and then hang onto the ride.  Follow that up with asking for 3 referrals off everyone and hang onto the ride!

More shortly. John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

I will break this down into a few posts, mainly because there is a lot of material to cover.

Firstly, not all of us have the luxury of naming our own business, as we may have inherited a business and its name or purchased an existing business or franchise.

All of this means that there may be certain legal restrictions on the name you are using and if and when you can change it (if you wish to).  This should all be covered in the purchase document including any time restrictions and the confirmation of the ability to transfer trading names across to your entity.  If in doubt check with your lawyer and make sure you have got full access to the business name, registered business name, any trademarks and Intellectual Property rights that go along with the business.

With respect to a family business, you may not be in any rush to update the name.  They work best in smaller communities and often have the reputation of being the place to go for “whatever it is you sell”.  To change a name in this circumstance without any major reasons why could lead to your business suicide.  By all means take the existing name and modernize the look of it, repaint the business, clean up the store etc, but the namesake will be one of the last remaining Goodwill factors in a business sale (down the track).

There are also considerations to be taken into account with the legacy of family and also with the business structure before changing anything.  You will do best by sitting down with your Accounting and Legal advisers prior to any changes and thinking through the consequences of any changes.  Capital gains tax, exposure to litigation etc should all be considered.

More tommorrow. John Burkhardt - Amplio Business Solutions

It is easy to get lost in the product, position, your USP, demographics and much more!

The short answer is about building mutually beneficial relationships for the long term.  Getting a win/win result for both your and your product and for the people using your service or product.

By using a marketing funnel approach you identify your product, your USP, the benefits to your customer and reduce the amount of wasted marketing and advertising just by ensuring that your product or service is targeted as much as possible to your end user.  However, marketing is a process of building trust with your future customer and once they have used your product to get them to come back for more of your great product (or service) and to refer you to others.  (We all know that referrals are the best way to expand your business, but how often do we ask for them?)

The more experienced the end user, the less time they have for extra graphics, extra text and essentially things that waste their time.  Get back to basics:

Get a headline relevant to the customer and their challenge

Tell them what you have simply and concisely

Explain the benefit to them of using this product or service (to meet their challenge)

Let them know of any time restraint or delay (i.e. price only for x days etc)

Call them to action. Give them the how to contact you.  (By email, phone, calling into the store etc and the link or number to do it on)

Save yourself time and money in being clear and concise.  The aim is to get them to contact you to move to the next step.  Don’t try selling them the product then and there, arrange an appointment and move onto the next step.

Some of my best clients are those that took several steps to secure.  Guess what? They were checking me out, my ethics, integrity and building up their trust level of me until it reached a point where they were able to deal with me.  For some people this takes one interaction, for others it can be quite a few.

Just because you want them all to buy the same product or service, doesn’t mean they will all do it in the same way.

More in later blogs to come!

John Burkhardt – Amplio Business Solutions

I’m partially deaf.  Well sometimes I pretend to be totally deaf!  Last year I was researching and looking at getting new hearing aids and to get information from one website I had to enter my postal address and name etc to receive the information.

Long since forgotten about, which is a bugbear as they could have contacted me earlier; however, in the mail today they have posted me a specific letter addressing a few items:

It was personalized

It was relevant about my hearing and new technology released

Why the new technology would benefit me

It was an obligation free offer (to attend a information session, complimentary consultation)

The offer got better; they are offering a free 14 day no obligation trial of the new technology

It finished with a time window to act and telephone numbers to call.

This was a great example of using the information on your database to tailor offers specifically to a predetermined market with a great product.

This is what marketing principles is all about.  They haven’t wasted their time marketing a great product to someone who doesn’t need it.  They have explained the benefits of it and made an offer even I will take up.

With the cost of printing and postage now you need to be specific in your target market and ensure that your business marketing has the best possible chance to return a high strike rate. (Your ROI)

Other information is available at www.ampliobusinesssolutions.com

John Burkhardt