Simple SMART Marketing for Small Business – Free Training Part 1

I have created a short, free training on how you, as a small business owner, can prepare your own Marketing Plan to grow your sales.

It follows a simple to follow, step-by-step system of seven steps, which are: –

1. Know what is your real product;
2. Know who is your real customer;
3. Meet your target market’s requirements;
4. Make your Selling Price a factor in your marketing;
5. Choose the most appropriate marketing activities;
6. Schedule your campaign plan; and
7. Implement then Monitor and Evaluate.

I am releasing this free training in two parts, this week below, being Part 1, along with free worksheets listed below.

Next week, I will release the second part, so if you find this first part useful, don’t forget to go to teikoh.com and subscribe to my newsletters so that it is sent directly to you, and you don’t miss it!

But let’s go straight into it!

 

 

This week in the video, I am going to tell you what is “SMART” in SMART Marketing, then take you through the first three steps in the SMART Marketing system.

Step 1 is to know your real product.

I am being provocative here when I say “real” product because of course, you sell your product or products, and to you, it is pretty damn real!

But what I mean is that in marketing, it is important to understand what the product really means to a customer.

This example should clarify what I mean:

Nobody buys a power drill because they need a power drill!

What they really need is a hole in the wall, made really fast!

So, while the seller of power drills thinks that they are selling a power drill, their real product (to their customer) is something that makes a clean hole in the wall quickly.

That is the customer’s real need.

As a small business owner, it is too easy to describe your product in terms of the features that make up your product.

The seller of power drills can too easily get caught up describing the powerful motor or the type of steel that is used to make the drill or talk about the long-term replacement guarantee that comes with it.

These are all features – and the customer is not attracted by features, but by the benefits that those features bring to the purchase.

What are the benefits of those features?

• The fast motor? “Hey, this drill will make your hole fast and accurately in no time at all.”
• The type of steel? “You, know, buy this, and you’ll never break it, even if you forget it’s on the floor and step on it!”
• The guarantee? “You’ll never have to buy another drill again.”

The customer needs a hole in the wall, so your power drill can meet his need and provides the benefits of speed, being unbreakable, and he’ll be using it “forever.”

So, in this first step, stop thinking about features, and instead, take a few moments to look at those features and what benefits they represent to your customer.

Once you have identified some real benefits, write down a few “messages” about what those benefits are (similar to the quotes above).

To help you, you can download a free Features and Benefits worksheet here.

Step 2 is to get to know your real customer.

Yes! I am still being provocative because which small business owner doesn’t know who their customers are?

But what we all struggle with is the fear of missing out.

Rather than understanding who is best suited to buy our product – your real customer – and focusing all our messages and strategies on them, we fear losing out on any sale to anyone who walks past our window.

And that is a mistake because when you try to appeal to everybody, your real customers – those who would really get the messages about the benefits that meet their needs – lose the message in the noise.

What you need to do is to understand who is your target market so that you can focus on them.

Knowing what your product represents in needs and benefits helps you to do this.

In the power drill example, who needs a hole in the wall done quickly and with a power tool that is unbreakable and will last forever?

A DIY dabbler will probably not see their needs met by the unbreakable and replacement-guarantee benefits because it probably represents a price that to them is a dis-benefit for the number of times they’ll use it.

However, a professional tradesman using the power drill every day will appreciate doing the job quickly and weigh up the price against the benefits of it lasting forever.

So, why market to DIY dabblers? Clearly, you need to focus your efforts on the tradesmen.

If you market how your power drill suits everyone, the professional tradesman will probably walk past thinking that your product is for amateurs.

Think about who you sell to and categorise them into segments of your market. Then, think about the benefits you offer in your product and think about which market segment should be your target market to focus on.

You can download a free worksheet to help you discover your target market here.

Step 3 is to make sure that you meet your target market’s requirements.

In this context, their requirements are different from their needs for the product.

Their requirements are what is required by them to see that their needs are being met.

These certainly include the benefits you make public – and you had better speak truthfully about them!

But they also include things like delivery methods, after-sales support, the ability to contact you, product manuals and so on.

Different target market categories have different requirements.

If you think about it, the DIY dabbler market doesn’t require much in the way of technical support – they just need an open store they can bring their power tool into to exchange or get fixed.

On the other hand, a professional tradesman will need technical support – how to use it in certain situations, how to maintain and lubricate the parts, how to get it serviced and can they do it themselves?

You need to understand your target market well enough to know what they require in order to be served.

Then, you need to evaluate your business in light of your messages and promises to see if you can actually fulfil their requirements.

Make the changes to your business so that you can.

The next steps:

The above are the first three steps in the seven-step SMART Marketing system.

This stuff works!

I use it in my own business, and I have taught thousands of businesses over the last 30 plus years to grow their sales using this focused and targeted approach.

The next steps, which I will teach next week, are:-

• Step 4: Using your Selling Price as a factor in marketing;
• Step 5: Choose the most appropriate marketing activities;
• Step 6: Scheduling your campaign plan; and
• Step 7: Finalising, implementing, then monitoring and evaluating.

The SMART Marketing system is based on years of study and practical experience and is the basis of my book called SMART Marketing – 7 Easy Steps To More Sales and is available here.

Don’t miss out on Part 2 of this free training!

Wait for next week’s instalment in my blog at teikoh.com, or better yet, subscribe here so that you get all these free tools and strategies to grow your business sent directly to your inbox.

 

 

 

 

Cover image by Campaign Creators on Unsplash