SMART BUSINESS: High Performance Marketing

The home building boom has simmered, home turnover has declined and home prices have decreased.
 
Consequently, the cause for concern among small business owners is a decrease in personal consumption, according to Bill Rossi, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. For example, when people feel wealthier, they spend more freely, but when housing prices decline and people feel as if their pennies are being pinched, they grab a tighter hold on to their purse strings Rossi says. 
 
As prices continue to level off or decrease, depending on the market, companies in industries directly related to the housing boom, such as landscaping, could suffer a sales slump. 
 
As a result, investing in a smart, high-performance marketing plan is critical now more  than ever.

STEP 1 – UNDERSTAND YOUR POSITION IN THE MARKETPLACE. To market effectively, knowing your market is the first step. 
 
Who are your ideal clients? What towns do they live in? How much money do they have? What are their homes worth? What is their marital and family status? What types of jobs do they have? What is their lifestyle? In answering these questions, not only will you discover your client niche, but you’ll also discover what types of people are not your clients.
 
What problems are you solving for your ideal clients? You might be solving their one big need or you may be attempting to solve a few different needs. Do they need a complete package? A budgeted solution? Healthier lawns or trees? Are their frustrations taken care of? Hint – if you can solve important problems that no one else can solve, you can make more money.
 
Why is your solution the best? This is known as a company’s unique selling proposition (USP). You might have one answer to this question or a list of answers. Make sure your USP solves their problems, has a lot of perceived value and is unique.

STEP 2 – SET YOUR SALES/PROFIT OBJECTIVE. Are you trying to grow total sales? If so, by how much? Or are you trying to grow a new service? Or become known for something in particular or attract a certain kind of client? Set a three-year goal and a one-year goal to separate your different needs.

STEP 3 – CREATE THE MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT MEET YOUR OBJECTIVES. Here are  lessons I learned from my own mistakes and successes.
 
Lesson 1. You need an external and internal marketing strategy. External means direct mail, flyers, networking, etc. Internal means your trucks, signs, office, store and people. Your people are key. How your employees treat your customers defines your reputation. Develop a plan for how you train and treat your employees.
 
Lesson 2. Use multiple marketing strategies. A single marketing strategy can fail at any time. For example, I used leads from real estate agents last year and they suddenly stopped producing. If that had been our sole  strategy, we would have been sunk.
 
Lesson 3. Exploit each strategy for all you can. For example, when you invest in a route, get as much bang for your buck. Or, if you set up a Web site, just don’t throw it up – find multiple ways to use it.
 
Lesson 4. Your clients need multiple impressions before they call you. It is all about frequency. It’s even better if your clients get these multiple impressions from different sources. One client recently told me “I heard about you from some friends, I saw your advertisement, and I looked on your Web site and liked what I saw.” Don’t just run one ad; run a lot of ads in different places where your clients will see them.

A MARKETING EXAMPLE. Let’s say you are a landscape contractor selling to young families with dual income households. Assume your USP is that you are “an expert in creating family-friendly environments.” Assume your objectives are:

• To expand in the four surrounding towns.
• To get clients with more discretionary income.
• To get more leads earlier in the spring.
• To grow your company by $500,000 in two years.
   
  And, let’s say you are willing to spend 5 percent ($25,000) to obtain that growth. So, what is your strategy?
   
  First, identify where your current leads are coming from. This is a system you need to have in place. Perhaps your leads come from people seeing your trucks, from networking and from referrals. Following Lesson 3, exploit these three areas further.
   
  How do you exploit leads coming from your trucks? Make sure all of your trucks are clean, clearly labeled and unique in some way. Start by choosing a color you can own. 
   
  Second, if referrals work, put more energy into this. Visit, call and write letters to clients who love you. Remind them why they “fell in love with you” to begin with. Ask them for help in reaching your goals.
   
  Third, if networking works for you, pick the town in which you most want to make inroads and start there. To attract the wealthier homeowner, network with people who already work for them: Realtors, lawyers, architects, builders, patio furniture stores, etc.
   
  To get leads earlier in the year, plan to market earlier in the winter or the fall before (actually, the spring and summer before because it takes time to put a solid plan together).
   
  To get people with more discretionary income, you need to identify where they live, what they read and where they hang out. Also, explore their interests. Do they want to save time? Keep up with the Joneses? Create environments to entertain their friends? Then build your marketing strategy and “message” around this.
   
  And if your town has a preferred newspaper, then advertising in it might work because you know your ideal clients read it. But if there is no clear leader, be wary.
   
  Direct mail is another popular approach, and it works because buying mailing lists that are targeted to your ideal client is easy. Be prepared to experiment with different lists. Getting one that works for you may take a couple some time. Make sure your offer is clear. Why should readers call you? What action should they take? Your ads and direct mail pieces must reflect your USP and convey why you are unique and the best choice. 
   
  One caveat: You may find you don’t have enough money to do all of these different marketing strategies. In this case, pick fewer strategies and go deep with them. It makes no sense to run an advertisement once. So either commit or do something else.

STEP 4 – MEASURE YOUR SUCCESSES AND FAILURES AND MAKE CHANGES. Measure where appointments come from, which ones turn into sales and which leads are more likely to fizzle out. For example,   you closed one of every two referral leads, but just one in five advertising leads?
 
Likewise, determine for every dollar you put into a specific marketing strategy how many dollars in sales and profits were generated?
 
This is called the return on investment, or ROI. For example, it’s natural to think about ROI before you buy a piece of equipment. Now do the same when you spend money on marketing. And do it with guts, passion and imagination.

The author is co-owner of Glen Gate Pool & Property. He can be reached at jeffs@glengatecompany.com.