Blueprint To the Perfect Strategy

System Of Success

Your Blueprint

to Setting up Your

Perfect Business Strategy

With every small and micro business, whether you employ a few people or just a solopreneur, you play a role in your business, and the roles you play are the biggest part of your job and the most important one in your business.

For most small businesses and one-man bands, you’re doing all of the jobs, often concurrently, and you don’t tend to departmentalize the various functions as you should, whether it is being the Innovation, Creator, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Logistics, Accounts, Management, Cleaner, Delivery, even the Tea maker.

Most small business owners feel most productive when they are doing the work they think is their business, but it’s not! As a small business owner or a solopreneur, your first and primary function (in any business) is to look beyond today, tomorrow, even next month.

You need to be able to see in the future and determine the resources, strategies, and innovations needed to take your business to a place of unknown, looking beyond 12 or 18 months, even a few years from now.

Your first and primary function as the CEO of your small but growing organization weather it is just you on your own or a partnership, family business, it is to grow your business, find customers and sell to them. It doesn’t matter if you are the best of what you do, the fastest, the cheapest, you offer the best quality or even the best service. If you don’t know how to attract new customers and sell to them you don’t have a business, END OFF!

Even if you are really good at selling, if you are not equipped with the right tools and at the right place and being there at the right time in front of the right kind of customers, no amount of good selling tactics will work for long. If there is any role in your business that you need to be really good at, it’s MARKETING. Without marketing you have no strategy, no focus, no plan, no avenues, no control, no leads, no prospects, no customers and with no customers, you have no business.

You might believe that you are in the business of a Baker, Plaster, a Hairdresser, a restaurant owner, a solicitor, or you are in the entertainment business or even in the service industry. But you are not - you are in the business of marketing. You are in the business of generating an income by generating business to pay your bills and to pay you your income so you and your family don’t have to live on the streets. You are in the business of taking control of your life by creating opportunities to sell your product, offer your service show off your skills.

Without creating opportunities to sell your product, your service or your skills, you are unable to generating business to provide for your family.

WHY DO SO MANY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS LEAVE THEIR MARKETING TO CHANCE? - Your business is your income, so don’t leave your income to chance. You need to understand that you are in the business of marketing, first and foremost.

Marketing Without Strategy Is Like A Car With No Wheels - It will not get very far.

Marketing strategy is far more important to the small business than marketing tactics, tactics always come after strategy, you need a plan before you pick your tools, otherwise, the tools you pick may be useless to the job at hand. An effective strategy must be in place before any set of tactics can make sense. Sun Tzu sums it up with his quote from the book ‘Art of War’ “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.”

This might offer a good explanation as to why so many small micro-businesses are still stuck fighting in the trenches and not heading on the road to victory with their business.

So why do the majority of small business stay stuck in the trenches while only a few make it out and on the road to victory?

One main reason is that they copy each other, it’s like the blind leading the blind. It’s like copying in an exam from someone who has the wrong answers. You’re just going to get the same results as they are.

Also, they don’t fully understand what marketing really is, they think a marketing tactic is their strategy, but not fully understand that marketing is really a system with systems, which needs many, many different components to work. They think doing an ad or some Face book marketing will bring in the big bucks, but failing to see that they are all just tinny parts (components) that all help towards building a system. But without the other tinny parts (components) you can’t and won’t able to build the correct system needed, and the confusion goes on and on.

One of the reasons why marketing gets confused is because most people misunderstand what a marketing strategy really is. A marketing strategy is not a wish list, set of goals or a mission statement. It is a clear explanation of how you’re going to get there - a plan.

A good and effective marketing strategy is a clear plan of execution of how you see and reach your objectives.

To become the market leader is not a strategy – it’s an objective.

To serve your customers with a smile is not a strategy – its mission.

To double the number of new customers is not a strategy – it’s a goal.

Marketing is a system, a system of strategies and tactics all working together to achieve one single goal - to generating business - to generating sales - to generating your income.

Most small businesses leave their marketing to chance, hoping their tactics will work, not really knowing what truly works or not.

So don’t leave your income to chance, you need to become really good at marketing, as it’s YOUR BUSINESS - YOUR ROLE!

Three things you must remember and do when putting together a marketing strategy for your business:

1) WHO MATTERS

Every business planning to sell a product or offer a service has to sell themselves or their business to someone who is interested and wants their product or service. So you need to aim your marketing strategy towards a narrowly defined ideal customer.

Using your ideal customer profile to build your strategy around also will allow you to understand your customers and become much more

personal, always remember, business is personal. It also allows you to how you are going to attract them. Without this, your marketing strategy will lack focus.

Create your ideal customer in the most specific and detailed way possible, then build your entire marketing strategy to appeal to them.

Too many small business owners try to be all things to all people, a ‘Jack Of All Trades’ so to speak. They find it hard to get a firm footing in a market place or segment because they are not focused enough to serve a narrowly defined market segment. Most businesses are suited to serve a narrowly defined market segment best. It is possible to divert into other segments, but it takes a lot of time, money and more importantly focus and effort, diluting your main business.

How To Find Your Ideal Customer?

Many business owners believe that they should not turn away business so they take anything that is offered to them. It may seem like growth to take on a new customer, but if that customer isn’t a good fit, it can actually slow down growth. Once you lose focus your customers will also lose focus and move on.

An ideal customer means that they have a need that you can help with.

It could also mean that they value your unique approach.

It also means that they are happy to pay your price. They like the way you make them feel when they buy from you. They love the value of your product or service.

It does not mean that it takes a long time for them to pay you, they only want to buy at the cheapest price or always wanting a discount, or that they always complain and ask for compensation or to spend more time with them. We can do with less of these so don’t spend your time with these ones, move on it will be the best thing for your business.

Get rid of any non-profitable and waste of time customers and just focus and concentrate on your ideal customers. The ones that never give you a hard time or waste your time, the ones that profitable and happy with your service. The best customers are the ones that always refer others to you.

Profit First

First, you should identify your most profitable clients, look at the amount and the type of business they do with you and rank them in order from the most profitable to the least profitable over the last few years.

Check to see how your most profitable customers are and see if there are any types of work or types of customers that produce any unprofitable work? The key to this is to get to understand your most profitable jobs and what jobs to focus on and not.

Is there any job that you do for a customer that is challenging and you end up spending far too much time on? Then you need to look at these jobs as unprofitable at getting rid of them.

Now Add Referrals

Now dig deeper still. Identify customers who are known to refer others to you. Only happy customers refer, and happy customers are most often found because you provide a solution to their problems in the most

comfortable way. You offer what they want and need when then need it.

Within this list of profitable customers and those who refer others to you is the key to discovering your ideal customer base.

Your Demographics

Such as age, sex, income, habits, and even location, sometimes nationality and beliefs, all play a significant part in the make-up of your perfect customer.

Behavior

Most business owners are hunters, they are trying to hunt down their prey (customer) appose to attracting their customers like a fisherman with his bait. We need to become more like the fisherman and try attracting our customers. Like the fisherman if we aim to catch one type of fish, we would have a much better chance with the correct bait for that type of fish, rather than trying to catch any or all types of fish with just one kind of bait, it just doesn’t work like that.

We need to get to understand what makes them tick, what behavior they typically exhibit to trigger them to buy from you? We need to be attracting, as opposed to hunting,

For example, if your market prefers using the internet to do business you might want to work on your internet marketing and social media.

If they are active with non-profit causes you might want to look towards partnering up with some non-profit types of organizations.

Once you have created a picture of your ideal customer, you now

you need to work on drawing a picture, a vision for your staff, partners and referral sources – How would they spot your ideal customer?

You will be well on your way to building a business that your customers will recognize that your business is built exclusively for them, and that’s something people will pay a premium for.

2) BE DIFFERENT

Once you have your ideal customer profile in place it’s time to focus on how you will attract this customer base. One of the best ways for you to attract those who fit your customer profile is to be sure you are clearly distinguishable from the rest of your competitors. Your potential customers need a way to compare and way up why they should buy from you, and if you don’t give them one, they will default to price comparison.

You will need to do your research and find out what your customers truly value. Look at seeing what is happening in your industry that is frustrating customers. See what you can do differently or offer something better.

You could already be doing something truly unique, in your industry, yet not unable to communicate your message effectively to make a real difference.

Constantly Seeking Feedback

from your customer's viewpoint, this would be extremely unique as most businesses don’t listen to their customers. This is also a great way to learn how to market your business more effectively. This is also one of the best ways to discover what you are doing that actually differentiates you from your competition. Seeking feedback is also a great way to get better and plug gaps.

Ask your customers what does a good service looks like to them and even get them to tell you about a specific instance in which they felt they got great service from you. never accept “you provide good service.” this is not helpful, it will not give you an idea of what parts you are doing great a where you need to improve on.

Questions You Should - Ask them:

What made you decide you use us or buy from us in the first place?

What’s one thing can we do better than everyone else that you do business with?

What’s one thing we could do to create a better experience for you?

Do you refer us to others, and if so, why?

What other companies do you or have you referred?”

What would you Google or type to look for a business like ours?

You should be asking every customer these questions and writing them down

3) FILL IN THE HOLES

Once you have defined your ideal customer and understand who they are, and you have come up with something that distinguishes you from the rest of your market. Now it’s time to turn it all into your stated strategy, a bit like a mission statement, but a stated strategy should define who your market is and lay out a specific diagram as to why you are unique in what you do or offer and the path that you need to take to that ideal market and with what outcome.

The Marketing Madness strategy; is to become a successfully recognizable small/micro business marketing training brand.

Teaching and training micro-marketing to small and micro business owners and solopreneurs on how to fix and to dramatically transform their marketing into an automated, systematic system.

Helping and showing those who want and need help with their marketing, by providing them with the correct knowledge to develop a successful marketing strategy for their business that will open up new opportunities and help increase their bottom line.

Our strategy is very clear, decide and narrowed in focus on who our target market and our ideal customer profile are Very small & micro one-man bands. Not aiming for every size of business big, medium and small. You could even focus it even more by aiming for a specific type of market, like the entertainment industry or the restaurant industry.

Our strategy also offers a clearly distinguishable difference from our competitors. We train and teach micro-marketing strategies. We revolutionise the way that business owners look at their marketing, (as a successful automated, systematic system) and replacing failed tactics with a prosperous marketing system that works.

I’m not approaching everyone, even though I could help them all, but many people can’t see that they need help or refuse to listen, so these people are not on my list of ideal prospects. We’re looking for business owners who know that they need help and value their business enough to do what it takes and reach out for help.

You could add in your precise route or journey to achieve your goals.

If you plan on specialising in the form of an approach like; mail-order, telesales, cold-calling, networking or even social media.

You could add it in that it’s your main and preferred way.

Our strategy outcome is to dramatically transform and revolutionise their marketing so it opens up new opportunities and help increase their bottom line.

WHAT IS PPV?

Passion: Every business owner must have a great deal of passion for

their business, they also must learn to be able to communicate that passion to others, otherwise people will not care if they don’t believe that passion also. Deep passion is the way you need to communicate.

Purpose: This gives life to your business it is the reason why your business exists, it’s what motivates you to strive every day.

It’s the reason why people buy from you and why your customers become loyal ambassadors of the brand. Purpose helps to build trust, when people can see your objective and intentions they begin to believe in what you do and only then, they start to trust you.

Value: Value is what you package your product or service in to generate sells. A successful sell is it’s not what you offer. it’s how you presented and package it. it’s the value from your product or service what you offer that counts.

Never understand the power of Value, this is what your customers value the most. What your business is worth to them?

Whether it is your service, your product, your price or your buying process. If you do not give value your customers will not be attracted to you, as this is what attracts customers. You need to offer value to your customers otherwise they will make a decision on price alone.

Apple, Samsung, Beats by Dr. Dre, Boss and Nike, all are good examples of value, all offer a much higher priced product than their competitors, and they routinely blow their competitors away in the market place, because of the value they perceive to give to people.

They all became some of the most in-demand brands and their logos are all now stylish icons. Their image that they project to their customers is that they are cool and hip and their products always guaranteed to make you look good, feel good and be part of a uniquely young and trendy class.

Some of the products, services, and ideas we sell can be acquired for free these days, the money’s in your package of service and experience.

Any brand that has a solid purpose and offers true value to their customers can effectively enter and dominate any market.

SOME PROVEN WAYS TO DEFINE YOUR CORE VALUE.

Let Them Know; Too many businesses try to serve the mass audiences, one of the best and powerful way is to carve out a niche market which means narrowing out a specific segment of the overall market that you are in. Then you will need to explain clearly through every communication avenue at your disposal that you are the expert in your chosen market.

Making Things Easier; make the buying process more simple, accessible and more manageable, make your ordering much easier and quicker, don’t put obstacles in the way of your customers placing an order with you. Make it easy and comfortable for enquires and to contact you.

Being Unique; If you can offer something that your competitors are not doing then your product or service will be a highly profitable proposition.

Find something that already exists in your market and look at re-creating it so it is different and isn’t available anywhere else.

Savings & Reducing; By offering your market a way to save money or lower their risk will always be a strong way to differentiate a business. Not being cheaper but by offering value, that will save money in the long run. You will need to demonstrate how your product or service will clearly allow them to save money, or how it will lower the risk of them losing money.

Convenience; If you can come up with a way to transform an existing

product or service and make it more convenient, for customers, or a way of doing business with, you’ll have the makings of a winning proposition.

Making it easy to do business with, should be a big part of your marketing strategy.

Image; Apple has done very well with this and rightly so. They have re-created for themselves a young trendy cool image, an image that most people aspire to own and have one of their products. They give the impression that if you are not owning one of their products you are not cool enough to be a part of the gang, a gang that everyone wants to be part of.

Connection: It is vital that you tap into the Why People Buy and Their Buying Habits. Understanding this is the key to developing an effective marketing strategy. The human’s wants and desires are rooted deeply in the mindset of the customer and when studied, shows a pattern. When studying this pattern, will, in essence, create a connection between a company, its products or services and ultimately its customers.

So by exploring and embracing the buying patterns of your customers,

you will be able to create a remarkable marketing strategy that will be a game-changer in your business.

Communication: Communication is fundamentally the heart of your marketing, so effective communication is vital for the success of your business. It’s not where you communicate, it’s how you communicate is the key. When communicating your “why we do what we do” with a passion that resonates with your customers will generate magic.

Use simple but consistent communication in your marketing

strategy, don’t complicate or confuse things, but always use passion.

Simplicity: Keeping things simple is a key role in its self. Life’s seems to be too complicated nowadays. Complicated instruction manuals with long processing return policies, design features that are too complicated to figure out. Simplicity is the most appreciated attribute of the products and services a business could have, and yet, it can be one of the hardest to achieve.

Businesses for some reason like to over complicate

things. By simply getting rid of all the red tape, complicate ordering facilities, long ordering processes and confusing information, can dramatically increase your business.

It’s quite often better to do just a handful of things very, very well and with passion, then trying to do lots of things half heatedly.

The Element of Surprise: Nothing looks better than exceeding someone’s expectations. This is one of the best ways to turn customers into your volunteer sales forces. Use the power of giving more than was promised and exceeding someone’s expectations in your marketing strategy.

Who doesn’t like to get a little unexpected gift, free overnight shipping, and handwritten thank-you note? And yet, when was the last time you got any of those? Or even when was the last time you exceeding someone’s expectations and gave more than you promised?

By building your business model and marketing strategy based firmly on any one of these proven propositions will allow you to carve out your place in the market. However, if you can combine several of these propositions you’ll have the foundation for something downright incredible.

Making It Real.

Yes the S is before T - and Strategy must be before Tactics, all your systems must be in place before you can start generating any leads.

The lack of a clear and precise marketing strategy is a clear path to becoming mediocre. But by developing and executing an effective marketing strategy is the key to becoming extraordinary phenomenal.

You need to relate to your customers, your business needs personality and passion. Your marketing is the cornerstone of your business, it is the lifeblood of your income, you’ve got to give your marketing strategy 110% over everything else in your business, otherwise, you won’t have a business to provide for you and your family that all-important income.

Don’t just say it, do it! Many people understand the notion of having a marketing plan but very few really understand the importance of having an effective marketing system in place before they can have any real impact on their business.

To make it work, you need to make it real. It must be a real and regular part of your business process. You and your staff must embrace it as part of the normal day to day process. In fact, you should not view it as part of your business you should view it AS your business.

Questions That Will Lead You to Your Perfect Marketing Strategy

For most business owners, running a business is all just guesswork, not sure what they are really doing. In most cases after having some medico success with what they have done so far, they are usually unable to repeat the same success with the same tactic.

Developing a marketing system actually should determine the direction of your business. But most business owners if they consider marketing at all, usually consists of some social media, maybe do a leaflet, perhaps put in some sales calls or some emails every now and again, but mostly relying on hope and prayer.

But it’s not all their fault, nowadays with most books, courses and online advice on business and marketing can be very confusing and contradictory. They also seem to focus on just one subject and dismissing the rest, claiming that their tactics are the silver bullet that will build your business for you, that they are looking for. But in reality this is not the case, in fact, it could cause more problems if it is not done correctly and in the right order. Without an effective system in place, there is no point in spending money and time in marketing. If you are not completely committed to your marketing, you will always be disappointed with your results, accusing marketing doesn’t work.

A marketing strategy is the how, what, when and where, of your plan that shows you what your resources and tactics available to you to build an ongoing flow of business.

If you can expand your view of marketing, then I would suggest that you answer the following questions to measure where your strategy stands today, and where it could go once you understand and integrated it fully within your business model:

Are you passionate about your business, product, service, and message?

Are you providing a purpose to all your customers?

What value do you offer that your competitors are not doing?

What does your ideal customer look like?

What’s your stated strategy that explains your marketing?

How will your market become aware of your business?

How will you get your message across that you have the answers to their problems?

What would be the perfect customer buying experience?

How can you improve your own customer buying experience?

What companies would make perfect JV partnerships?

What would a result of using this strategy model to run your business look like?

THE FIVE KEY REASONS WHY BUSINESSES FAIL.

1) ‘Following the Blind’ - By Following everyone else that is failing to do what is needed and correctly.

2) They fail to view their marketing as an investment and not an expense.

3) Fail to create all their marketing into a Result Based Marketing

Platform.

4) They have no real systems in place to effectively capture high-quality leads. Therefore not generating enough high-quality leads.

5) The inability to convert those desperately needed high quality leads when they do get them into enough happy regular paying customers to sustain a regular flow of business.