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Effectively Marketing Your Business

As a business owner, you have dozens of important tasks to perform everyday to keep your operation running. The single most crucial one is marketing, because without a method to let customers know your business even exists, they won't be able to find their way to your door. It takes a person an average of seven instances of being exposed to a name before it is committed to memory. And once they know the name, they need to receive constant reminders of why that name is relevant. These truths are why a famously successful company like Coca-Cola spends so much money every single year on advertising. It's why your mind immediately conjured their logo and branding the second you read their name. Very few business can afford a massive marketing budget however, so how can you convince customers to commit your own brand to memory? The answer is in how creative your marketing campaign can manage to be without outspending the revenue your new customers bring in. This is the value that BOOST Immersive Marketing promises to give you.

An intelligent marketing campaign must be well planned, focused and efficient in order to ensure that every dollar invested is spent wisely. You want it to reach the customers most likely to frequent your business, who will see the value in your product, use it repeatedly and share it with their friends and family. When this process is done just right, it seems like magic. Your customers become friends, you learn their names and they become advocates for your business. This will supercharge your marketing efforts and your quarterly projections will skyrocket. But how do you transition from a floundering marketing effort to one that is evergreen? The first and most important step is to create a compelling offer.

What does your business do best? Do you offer a product at a price that no one else can beat? Do you provide a service that is head and shoulders above that of your competition? Is your business the only one in the area that offers specifically what you're selling? Are you able to boast some combination of these traits? As the owner, you will know what your business does best and that aspect should be the headline of your marketing pitch. It will form the foundation of your campaign and the basis of which your business's identity will form in the minds of your customers. As soon as a customer learns of your name, you will want them to associate your brand with what you can offer them. A tangible and quantifiable metric is the exact kind of seed you want to plant. Advantages like friendly customer service, unbeatable prices, same-day appointments and unmistakable high quality. Communicate a promise to people that they will know to expect when they book an appointment or walk through your doors.

Your compelling offer also needs to be one that will be impossible to resist. For example, fast food restaurants will often bundle fries and a drink with a burger for just a few cents more than just a burger á la carte. People go to a restaurant because they're hungry, so it makes sense to pay a little extra to get more food. The customer leaves satisfied because not only were their immediate needs met, but they also enjoyed a deal. For the restaurant, this practice makes sense because while the cost of beef is high (along with overhead for the building, utilities and labor), soft drinks and potatoes cost them next to nothing. That is known as a 'loss leader', which is when businesses offer products at cost or below with the expectation that they will entice customers to purchase more expensive items alongside them. It is an effective method to increase sales and raise profits. Video game makers and cellular companies often do this with their very expensive hardware, generally selling those pricey products at a loss because their profit margins will be so much higher on software and other services that are needed to function with the big ticket items. Identifying your loss leader, pricing it accordingly and making it the focal point of your marketing can help to increase sales by double or more. Make your customers an offer which they might regret turning down.

Another effective strategy is to reward repeat customers for making multiple purchases, signing up for a subscription and referring new customers. If you look at your transactions as more than a zero-sum interaction and instead as part of an ongoing relationship, it can make your business more efficient, profitable and even more sustainable. Offering a discount on multiple transactions might lead to lower revenues initially, but over time the steady, repeat business will ensure that sales growth remains stable. While your customers are focused on what they're saving in the short-term, you'll have confidence in your ongoing projections. The best business transactions are the ones in which both sides can feel they came out a winner.

Ultimately, the best practice is to focus on building relationships with your customers. As a business owner, you have the power to put a human face and touch to your operations. While it may be daunting to have to compete with giant corporations with massive budgets and hundreds of employees, your business still holds an advantage. A lot of people will frequent chains like Starbucks, McDonald's and Wal-Mart, but hardly anyone would consider those their favorite coffee shop or burger joint. The difference is in the integrity, reliability and dedication only you can provide at your scale. Make sure that your marketing reflects the brand that you've built with pride.