The actions you need to take now fall into four steps:

1)    Truly know what has changed for your customer

2)    Discover what marketing approach works best for your business

3)    Craft an effective message

4)    Use well-chosen marketing tactics—and use them often

Truly Know What Has Changed For Your Customer

Your customers don’t see the world the way they did a year or two ago. While some of the changes may seem obvious, most businesses are still not addressing them strongly enough in their marketing and business models. Make sure you recognize and reliably estimate the impact of any of these points.

Consumers are afraid, action resistant and skeptical.  This means you cannot simply tell them what you do and hope they will hire you. And they really don’t care about your credentials and testimonials very much.  You need to emphasize what is in it for them, emotionally as well as practically. Get them to give you permission to stay in a conversation about your value and show them how what you do is of long-term benefit to them. (Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense yet; we will discuss in detail how to do all these things.)

Secondary Buyers are more important than ever, and consumers want to invest instead of spend. Your customers are expecting more value for their dollar, and they need to feel they are making a smart purchase for the long term. They also have a higher need to justify to themselves and others how and why they got a great deal.

For many consumers, issues of cash flow and timing are as important as price. Be explicit about price and terms, and create creative options to help customers deal with these issues.

For most products, including items normally purchased at the last minute, there is now a longer sales cycle. Start marketing earlier, but expect results at the last minute.

Your customer base shifts to your core market segment. This means new prospects and those outside that core market segment must get even more excited and committed to your value before they will purchase. In times like these, the easiest customer to market to is an existing one—Remember the 80/20 rule and focus on your 20 first! When going after new people, go after those in a specific target market who have a reason to trust you and want what you offer. This is not the time to try to be all things to all people.

Your competitors are more than likely shrinking their marketing efforts.  Consumers are being “let down” by companies who are no longer in business or no longer have the resources to offer top-notch service. This is an opportunity for you. NOW is the best time to increase your marketing presence, not reduce it. Many studies show companies who continue consistent marketing during an economic downturn typically do as much as three times better than their less-consistent competitors as the economy starts to recover.

This is now a GREEN and Eco-Friendly economy. This is a huge value in the emerging economy and it’s on your customers’ minds. Start thinking how you can let them know it’s on your mind too, or you will lose customer confidence and interest. But be willing to back up your words with deeds. Everyone these days is “talking green” but many are not “acting green” and consumers are noticing the difference.  

This economy will become more and more a SIMPLE LIVING economy. This is related to but different from the green movement. Many people are getting burned out on our obsession with mass consumption as a society. Start thinking about how you fit into an economy where people buy less but expect more long-term impact and value from what they do buy.

Discover What Marketing Approach Works Best

In its most simple form, there are four main approaches to the problem of getting more customers. In the real world, most companies mix and match tactics and ideas from four schools of marketing thought. However, you will find in the end most companies will put the most time, effort, and value on the ideas and tactics of one approach or the other.

Generally speaking, the Mass Marketing approach is what you are probably most familiar with and the one on which most people either consciously or subconsciously model their marketing. It is also absolutely not effective for small service businesses because of reasons of cost, timeline and customer trust. Mass marketing relies heavily on brand image, sex appeal, humor and repeated reach. Its most effective weapon is literally millions of impressions through mass advertising.

The second basic approach to marketing is Direct Marketing. Instead of relying on a catchy or clever brand image, this method seeks to provide in-depth information and demonstrations of the product’s features. It also seeks to measure very carefully how the consumer responds to the message. Direct marketing’s most effective weapons are mailings and infomercials. (Direct marketing techniques are often used in Authentic Marketing, the final of our four types of marketing, but with a very different message and approach.)

The third approach, and one that is almost as familiar as mass marketing, is what I call Main Street Marketing. It tends to work for service providers in tight communities, or with a product or service in high demand with a well understood value. That is, it does those things in a good economy. Main Street marketing tends to rely on giving customers easy access to information on what is being offered and placing that information in a convenient location—such as big signage in downtown areas and listings in the yellow pages. More-unique products or services don’t do as well with this method, and almost no service or product does well with this approach in a bad economy.  The problem is consumers have to know a lot already about your service and be actively searching for a way to buy it. The other drawback to this approach is if your services are not radically different from your competitors’, your price will have to be significantly lower in order to attract consumer attention and loyalty.

The final approach is Authentic Marketing, the cheapest and best method for service providers—and hands-down the most effective in a bad economy. Authentic Marketing is the approach this talk describes. Authentic Marketing relies on carefully crafting a message that targets a specific audience and helps them to experience, emotionally as well as practically, what is in it for them in using their services. The focus is not on describing the product or service, but on meeting specific needs for the consumer. Authentic Marketing also relies heavily on establishing relationships with your target audience and referral partners, based on integrity and respect while delivering exceptional value. The methods of Authentic Marketing focus on creating opportunities to solve problems and provide samples of the services offered and of the people offering the services. It seeks to go deep vs. wide in its marketing reach.

Craft an Effective Message

Some studies show you can increase your probability of response to any advertising or marketing message by as much 70% by simply re-tooling the message itself. Before you waste time, effort and particularly money on new marketing tactics, or the latest social media fad, take a moment to make sure your message is on target and fits well with the psychological shifts going on in the marketplace.

• Start with an overt emotional benefit. Make it very clear and very specific. Don’t talk about what you do and your process or the features of your product until you first tell them what they get out of it.
• Name their pain. In a marketplace where people are grumpy, bland optimism and vague promises just make people ignore you. Fearlessly but authentically point out how they have a problem and you can provide a solution. Don’t worry about “being negative”; it isn’t negative to name a problem and a solution. Your aim is to be the solution.
• Keep it simple. Don’t rely on splash and “sex appeal” and cleverness. You must communicate directly with your audience about how your product helps them tangibly and noticeably.
• Focus on showing you know and understand their particular concerns. Find a target market and build relationships within that niche first before you venture out. Think of it like sewing a quilt: one square at a time.
• Tell them all of their $ options and your timeline for purchases and DON’T HIDE THE PRICE. When you do address the price, talk about high value, not about low cost. Don’t over-emphasize the “bad economy” or you will increase fear and reduce your own credibility.
• Figure out how you are different—and tell people about it. Don’t rely on the customer to figure out you are better than or different from the competition; they won’t take time to make the effort. Do it for them, honestly, clearly and with facts to back you up.
• Tell them why they should believe you. Give them a concrete reason to trust you. Don’t assume they will. Given the current cultural climate you must give them a way to personally verify your claims.
• Continue marketing and repeat your message often. Your competitors are ignoring this and letting their relationships fade with the larger customer base. Your competitors are also more than likely using the same old tactics. This means if you stay in the game now you have the potential to get a firm foundation with a base of new customers and increase your client base.  
• Strengthen relationships within your core market—even if customers are not buying right now. The medium really can be the message. People will forget your ad copy or website text but remember how you made them feel. So get to know them and make them feel understood and valued.

Use Well-Chosen Marketing Tactics

There are literally hundreds of tactics you can use to keep your marketing flowing in a tough economy—without a large outlay of cash. If you keep the messaging principles in mind and focus on the following points you can usually find a few simple ones that will be authentically right for you.

·         Deepen your relationships with your best customers. Take them to lunch or coffee, or call them up and chat. Invest your time in face-to-face or at least voice-to-voice contact and listen to their lives, their problems and their viewpoints. Don’t sell anything, just learn what they need. Then go home and brainstorm how you can take that learning and turn it into added value or new service/product offerings.

·         Offer a wider range of options, from sample and low-cost options to luxury ones. You may be able to raise your profit margin and reduce your customer’s costs at the same time if you innovate. This requires learning clearly what the value you offer really is in the customer’s eyes and finding ways to deliver that value at different levels.

·         Think about your customer’s cash-flow as well as your own. Often you can create a difference in the marketplace by changing your terms of payment and delivery.

·         Shift your resources to reference-based and relationship-based tactics. Reference-based marketing means things that stick around and are referred to multiple times by the customer; phone books and refrigerator magnets are examples. These are more valuable in a down market than traditional promotions such as magazine ads and one-time coupons. Relationship tactics are strategies that allow people to get a sense of you and a taste of what you do. Articles, podcasts, demonstrations and sample sessions are examples.

·         Connect with other businesses and create co-marketing and/or referral partnerships. Pool your resources to put on a joint seminar free to all your clients, create information products together, or simply create systems for sending clients to each other. Whatever you do, do it within your target market and do it together with other excellent, inspiring business people. In the long run, partnering will be cheaper and more fun and will create greater customer loyalty and exposure to new customers.

·         Focus on unexpected value, making added value more than just a catch phrase. Look for ways to provide extra useful information and in-person connection. Tip sheets, office hours, free seminars, samples and surprise add-on services are examples.

·         Review your business and make sure you are honoring the basics. When you think of your marketing efforts make sure to DO THE MATH. Make sure you are marketing your most profitable product or service the most. Also make sure you know exactly how effective what you are doing is—or is not. “We get most of our customers from x source” isn’t good enough because it doesn’t give you the information you need to create a repeatable strategy. And make sure you know your sales cycle and the lifetime value of a customer so you can create the best systems for serving your clients and using your own resources profitably.

·         Start early, repeat, repeat, repeat and don’t give up or get discouraged too soon. Purchases will likely be more last-minute than ever. This doesn’t mean your marketing has not been working, it just means that people take longer when stressed out to make the final commitment. Adjust your cash flow to reflect later sales and a longer sales cycle and keep trusting in your plan.

·         Keep an action worksheet and make sure you reach your folks multiple times in multiple ways. Try to create a 7-point process. For example: a reference impression, followed by e-mail, web, phone, print, personal, and referral-partner impressions. Then repeat. But add value each time so that it is creating a useful relationship—not just pestering.

Mari Geasair specializes in helping entrepreneurs and creative people find more success with less stress. She can do this because she has been there! Mari has been an entrepreneur for over 18 years and has owned five successful businesses of her own. She has worked as a hands-on partner with hundreds of small-business owners and self-employed individuals to help them find their own success. Check out her website at www.authenticprosperityclub.com.

Copyright 2009 Mari Geasair