Mega-Marketing on a Boot-Strap Budget
By Paul Montelongo
The dust has finally settled after the biggest sporting and media event of the year. I am talking about the Super Bowl. I suppose that this year's winner, the Patriots, won as a matter of righteous justification in answer to the world changing events of September 11, 2001. And… they had a better team.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, as it was played the way a Super Bowl should….the winner is determined in the last seconds of the game.
But, if you are like most Americans, you watched more than the game. You watched the commercials. I just can't wait to see the commercials during the Super Bowl. Oh, the commercials. Huge companies pouring millions of dollars into thirty or sixty seconds of airtime. I absolutely love these commercials, not only for their entertainment value, but because they teach us so much about the psyche' of the average consumer, including me.
Every commercial is predictably intended to tug at some emotional response that consumers will have.
And therein lies the key to their advertising success.
If you watch the commercials beyond their entertainment merit, you will see that their marketing strategies will make you laugh, make you wonder, make you excited, make you question and even make you cry.
Most every human emotion will be addressed in some form or fashion in these advertisements.
And that can be the key to your marketing and promotional strategies as well. Just because you don't have 2.5 million dollars to run a commercial during the Super Bowl, doesn't mean that you can't be just as successful with your targeted market of customers.
In fact, you may only have a 'boot-strap' budget. There are hundreds of ways to get mega-marketing results with low-cost or no-cost marketing strategies.
I am often asked, "What is the best way to promote my business on a very low budget?"
There is not one absolute strategy that will create a windfall for your business. However, after careful consideration of the question, I will suggest one strategy that I know first hand will result in more business than you can handle.
Create an 'incentive-based' referral program. Reward your existing clients for referring you to their friends, neighbors and work associations. Here is how it can work for you.
Each time you sell a project, immediately inform your client that you appreciate their business so much that you will offer them an incentive to sell for you. Inform them that your long-term success is highly dependent on their satisfaction AND THEIR REFERRAL. At that point introduce your new client to your incentive program.
Your incentive program should be creative, attractive and persuasive. Your intent is to convince your client to recommend you to everyone they know. It is much easier to convince them when they know there is a substantial incentive attached to their referral.
Perhaps you can offer a $250 cash back bonus for every qualified lead that turns into a sale. Or you may offer a $100 gift certificate to a local restaurant. Or you can offer a small discount on some additional services or products.
You might offer them tickets to the opera, the theater or to see the hometown professional sports team. You can even have a sliding scale incentive program. In other words, greater rewards for larger projects that you land due to their referral.
The point is…. have a disciplined plan in place and just start somewhere. Every time you obtain a new client, go to visit a new prospect, or attend a business mixer event, let everyone know about your referral program. The word will spread very fast and you will have more prospects and customers that you can imagine.
And whatever you do, please remember to include your employees, vendors, contract laborers, accountant, lawyer, banker and chiropractor in on the referral plan. These folks already have an established relationship with you and they usually will not hesitate to recommend you to their friends. Especially when they know there is a reward.
There is one more thing about any of your marketing strategies. You must have the mindset that you are not just in your primary line of business. What I mean is that whatever product or service you sell is not what you do. The main focus for your enterprise should be marketing and promotion. You can offer the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows about it, then what good have you done? Something to think about.
Paul Montelongo is the author of 101 Power Strategies; Tools to Promote Yourself as the Contractor of Choice. Paul is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant to the construction industry. Register for a free E-mail newsletter to receive tips, strategies and concepts to help you grow your business and increase your profits. Paul has owned and operated his own multi-million dollar construction company for over 23 years.
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