The following is found in numerous marketing books addressing the need for commitment and patience when promoting your product or service. By focusing your marketing efforts, you’re likely to reduce a few of the steps!

• The first time a man looks at an ad, he doesn’t see it.
• The second time, he doesn’t notice it.
• The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
• The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it.
• The fifth time, he reads the ad.
• The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
• The seventh time, he reads it through and says “Oh brother!”
• The eighth time, he says, “here’s that confounded thing again!”
• The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
• The tenth time, he will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.
• The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
• The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
• The thirteenth time, he thinks it might be worth something.
• The fourteenth time, he remembers that he wanted such a thing for a long time.
• The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
• The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.
• The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum of it.
• The eighteenth time, he swears at this poverty.
• The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
• The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys the article or instructs his wife to do so.

Amazingly, it was written in 1885 by Thomas Smith in London, at a time when consumers were receiving significantly fewer daily marketing messages.

Businesses of all size and type have to consider three main factors when selecting a price for their product or service.

1. Their customers’ demand for the product or service
2. Their competition’s pricing structures
3. Their own costs, both fixed and variable.

Small businesses, in comparison to larger organizations, generally have limited resources for studying and analyzing pricing options. Here are a few practical big picture questions to address when your small business is focusing on pricing issues.

1. How easy is it for your customers to obtain prices from your competitors?
2. Do you have a large or a small number of competitors?
3. If you price too low from the start, will it be too hard to raise your price?
4. Is your product or service price-sensitive, including small changes in price, prices ending in “9” or “5” or the overuse of sales? Do you have industry information or your own data to guide you?
5. Do your costs vary by customer? Accountants and financial documents provide meaningful insight.

Referrals are the Way to Go

Many of you will likely agree from personal experience that referrals are the most efficient means of producing new sales.

One expert found that within the financial industry, one sale is gained for every 3.3 referrals. In comparison, it takes 10 seminar attendees, 50 cold calls or 60 letters to generate one sale.

Furthermore, according to Paul and Sarah Edwards (authors of Getting Business to Come to You), up to 45 percent of most service businesses are chosen by customers based on the recommendations of others.

So how does a business get more referrals? Undertake an intentional effort to get the right people talking about your company and your products and services.

Chicago-based Gaebler Ventures recommends these five steps when developing a referral program:

1. Select the best clients
2. Ask them
3. Provide promotional tools
4. Develop rewards
5. Track results

Every year, a greater number of small businesses utilize websites. Here are some important considerations when investing in a website.

1. What are the number of and types of special individual needs of your customers?
2. What level of contact do you maintain with your customers? Does your site need to be interactive (selling, customer service and/or accounting) or will it just be an informational site?
3. Consider what changes you may need to make if you start selling on the web. Examples include vendors for shipping, packaging materials and payment options (credit cards).
4. Costs will include establishing your domain name, the web hosting service and maintenance. One expert also recommends registering variations and misspellings of your domain name.
5. Is the message of your website consistent with all your other marketing items?

(Compiled from various sources including Chris Espinosa, ceGraphics)

Postcards are a great way to communicate with customers and offer four advantages over the traditional letter/envelope: 1. lower in cost; 2. don’t require receivers to open an envelope; 3. force sender to provide concise message; and 4. faster to print.

So what are some great uses for postcards? Here are some ideas, especially for targeting your best clients.

1. Pre-print with your logo, address, slogan and/or picture, add meaningful comments and mail while on a trip, business or personal, to stay in “front” of your clients.
2. Utilize for important announcements including new services or products, new employees or location, revised hours, upcoming meetings or seminars, or new strategic alliances.
3. Pre-print with important industry facts or new regulations impacting your business, industry or services.
4. Provide notification of upcoming special sale or discount, or use as a coupon.
5. Use as thank you, reminder of their next appointment or need to schedule an appointment.
6. Employ to solicit comments about an idea, or even a resume, for personal use.

Findings from customer service research conducted by Richard Gerson, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Institute, indicate the number one thing people wanted from someone they did business with was to be listened to.

Here are some ways to gather information from your customers that demonstrates you’re listening to them!

1. Establish advisory groups, customer councils or board of directors, especially involving your best customers
2. Conduct focus groups
3. Use after-purchase surveys
4. Ask employees for feedback based on interactions with customers
5. Use customer suggestion box
6. Undertake formal written surveys sent via mail, email, fax, telephone, or within a newsletter or promotional piece
7. Conduct personal interviews over the phone or in-person
8. If you distribute a newsletter, ask for customer comments
9. Seek follow-up to customer complaints after problems are solved
10. Hire mystery shoppers, especially retailers.

Why do customers leave?

• 68% upset with the treatment they’ve received
• 14% dissatisfied with product or service
• 9% begin doing business with the competition
• 5% seek alternatives or develop other business relationships
• 3% move away
• 1% die

Customer loyalty and the lifetime value of a customer can be worth up to ten times as much as the price of a single purchase.

For every complaint a business receives, there are approximately 26 other customers with unresolved complaints or problems.

A dissatisfied customer will tell up to ten people about his/her experience. Thirteen percent of those unhappy customers will tell up to 20 people!

(Source: U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce)