The Power of Awareness

Marketing your small business is simple. Build the greatest possible amount of awareness for your company’s name, location, products and services, reputation and
unique selling proposition (what sets you apart from you competition.) Awareness tracks right along with sales, and the higher your awareness, the higher your sales. It’s no accident that the highest ranked leading products and services you use everyday also lead in top of mind awareness. But, even if you’re not a marketing giant, you can still build solid, on-going awareness that leads to sales success. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot to be effective.

The number one reason stores are not shopped and businesses are not patronized is a lack of awareness. If your potential customers don’t know you exist, and have no awareness of how to find you, they’re going to be someone else’s customer. Business today is in an all out war for the mind of the consumer. Your competitors are bombarding the marketplace all day, everyday, all night every night, trying to increase the awareness of their businesses and their brands. No matter what business you’re in, someone else wants to extract money from your customer. You’re at war with direct competitors, selling the same products and services you are, as well as indirect competitors; everyone else who’s out there trying to get people to spend money. There are a lot of those, competition is everywhere...no wonder we’re at WAR.

Research points out that 4 out of 5 businesses fail, and the number one reason they do, is they have NO PROMOTION PLAN. Conrad Levinson, the author of Guerrilla Marketing, says to limit your marketing plan to just 7 sentences...that way you’ll stay focused on the most important strategies. Here are some simple strategies to help you develop your promotion
plan:

• First...really know your customer. Build a solid Long Term Relationship with people who do business with you. In your business, think about promoting relationships rather than sales. Sales are short term, relationships are long term. And besides it costs you 6 times more to sell new customers than old ones. You must have a data base of your customers...large ones and small ones. It’s as simple as always inviting customers to sign up to be on your mailing list, or develop a data base from invoices. About 68% of lost business is due to apathy after the sale, so it is vital to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis, they’re more important than your friends. Use your mailing list consistently: 48 hours after the sale, send a thank you note. Send another note 30 days later checking in and asking if everything is OK. At 90 days send them an offer of something else they might need or want. At 6 months, give them an incentive for a referral. At a year, send them a free gift for completing a customer questionnaire.. Know your customers and keep in touch. That’s the first step to building awareness for your business.
• Invest in the awareness of your business consistently...every month. Advertise even when you aren’t having a sale. It pays to keep your name in view of the continuous parade of potential customers going by. Most of those in the parade are not in the market for your product or service today, but when they are ready to buy, you want to have enough awareness built up so they give you a shot. I may never need to have a road oiled, but if I do, the name Lyman comes to mind because of their consistent small space newspaper ads. The same is true with any product or service. The one’s with the awareness eventually get the business.
• Use fusion marketing to increase your visibility. The big guys do it all the time: Pepsi and Star Wars promote each other. Airlines give mileage for signing up with long distance companies or credit cards. You can increase your awareness and extend your marketing efforts by teaming up with other businesses, too. Look for obvious tie-ins with businesses who are selling compatible products or talk with a radio station that reaches your specific target customers about a joint promotion.
• Become familiar with marketing on the internet. It is a rapidly emerging communications and shopping trend that is going to be more valuable as time goes on. But, consider some facts about the internet of today. According to the National Retail Federation Conference, in Chicago earlier this year:
  41% of the people in the US have access to a computer (at work or at home). Of those, approximately 20% are on line. On line shoppers are mainly adults; 87% are between the ages of 30 and 64. 68% are male, 32% are female...and just because they “shop” on line doesn’t mean they buy on-line (yet). 64% of on-line shoppers use the internet for research and then go buy at a store. Make sure they are aware of yours.
  Because of its huge potential for marketing, the internet is even more cluttered than TV or radio. One search engine alone lists 3,378,240 matches for Bookstores and 8,189,810 matches for New Cars. It’s no wonder that website location advertising is one of the fastest growing categories in the nation. So advertise your website address just as vigorously as you would your street location.
• 25% of Americans own cell phones. That means that 1 out of every 4 people driving by your business has immediate access to a phone. If your phone number isn’t on your sign, you could be missing opportunities.

Awareness is the key to sales. The more awareness your business has, the more customers you will gain. Develop a simple promotion plan that centers on building the awareness of your business among current and potential customers. Make it easy for your current customers to know more about your company and it’s products by keeping in regular touch with them. Be consistent in promoting your business, even if it’s on a small scale.

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