How to check for target market viability in the post-recessionary world. Are you still on target?

Have you ever seen the game show ‘Wipeout’?

Contestants have to complete assault courses over large pools of water – and the quickest person wins.

Indeed, if contestants are too slow, the obstacle might tilt, shift or even shove the contestant into the pool below. If you snooze, you lose – but if you’re quick, you might just win.

The post-recessionary business world is just as harsh on the slow movers

The recent recession (or Global Financial Crisis – or GFC if you’re into your biz-buzzwords) shook up the business world as we know it.

Many businesses failed due to mis-management (financial and otherwise).

A large number of small business owners decided that running a business was too hard, and went back to paid employment.

At the same time, China was booming. Here in New Zealand, we saw an influx of Chinese immigrants* and consequently Chinese-owned businesses. These businesses are able to undercut New Zealand-made products with cheap imports – the downside of a very small country doing a free-trade deal with a very large country.

*In 2001, 3% of the New Zealand population was Chinese; in 2013, that number increased to 4%. In terms of numbers of people, that represents a 63% from 105,057 to 174,411. Source: Statistics New Zealand.

New business models emerged during the recessionary period too: for example, the one-day coupon industry boomed. However, that turned out to be a double-edged sword as these one-day deals commoditised many industries: customers were trained to shop around on price, and customer loyalty dwindled. The coupons might have generated cash flow, but to the detriment of businesses’ medium term viability.

So yeah, the post-recessionary business world is a bit of a mess

Most industries have been shaken, stirred and rattled around, so it’s worth doing a bit of a reality check.

Specifically, be sure to check where your target market is at. There’s a very good chance that the target has moved, and therefore your aim may be off target.

Questions to ask yourself when checking market viability

In my eBook, The Leaky Bathtub – Marketing 101, (which you should check out, by the way, if you’re not clear on marketing stuff, such as target markets), I suggest that business owners ask themselves the following questions periodically:

• Is your target market big enough to be profitable?
• Can you reach your target market with your marketing?
• And can you reach your target market profitably with your marketing?
• Is your target market suitably stable?

With the assault course of changes that have taken place during and after the recession, I’d now add the following questions into the mix too:

• Is your target market willing to spend money on your industry?
• Does your target market value what you do? Or has it become commoditised?
• How does your target market treat your industry? Is it with warmth? Suspicion? As a partnership? As a last resort? With trust?
• Is your target market engaged with you all year round? Or do they lose interest over holidays or other periods? Or do they treat business as a hobby?
• How has the competitive landscape changed?
• How have your competitors altered the marketplace?

How can you answer these questions on market viability?

Chances are, you already know some of the answers in your heart of hearts (even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself).

Also, have a chat with some of your customers; ask them for feedback. You can do this face to face when you see them, or you could consider running a survey. (But face to face will allow you to naturally progress the conversation.) They key is to find a customer that’ll be totally open and honest with you, rather than say what they think you want to hear.

Analyse the questions new prospects are asking you: that’ll give you an idea of what’s going through their minds. You’ll get an insight into their concerns and challenges, and how they view your industry as a whole.

And as for seasonality, look at your website statistics, for example. Do you get a lot more traffic for some months, while other months are very low? Or do you get lots more phone and email enquiries at certain times of the year?

What about your marketing campaigns: are previously successfully marketing tactics falling flat?

All these things indicate a shift in the market.

Shifting markets can mean opportunities – or wipeouts

Many of the businesses I’m speaking with at the moment have faced some major changes in their competitive environment and target market(s). And many businesses are struggling to adapt, because they’re not sure of where the new opportunities lie.

The key here is to be nimble and quick. It’s a bit like the ‘Wipeout’ assault course: if you’re too slow, you might go under. But if you’re quick, you’ll win the prize.

So I’d urge you do seriously evaluate these market viability questions; weigh up your options; crunch the numbers; and go for the prize.

Summary

The business world has changed dramatically in the last few years. Answer these questions (honestly) to check on your target market’s viability:

• Is your target market big enough to be profitable?
• Can you reach your target market with your marketing?
• And can you reach your target market profitably with your marketing?
• Is your target market suitably stable?
• Is your target market willing to spend money on your industry?
• Does your target market value what you do? Or has it become commoditised?
• How does your target market treat your industry? Is it with warmth? Suspicion? As a partnership? As a last resort? With trust?
• Is your target market engaged with you all year round? Or do they lose interest over holidays or other periods? Or do they treat business as a hobby?
• How has the competitive landscape changed?
• How have your competitors altered the marketplace?

Keep your eye on the target; move nimbly; and the prize can be yours. 🙂

January’s a time of new beginnings – and a great time to review your marketing plans for the year.

If you’re wondering what to focus your marketing efforts on this year, this round up of small business marketing tips from me, Cornelia Luethi, will help to get the ideas and motivation flowing.

Cornelia’s copywriting secrets…

Discover Cornelia’s copywriting secrets…

Writing marketing and sales copy for businesses is my bread and butter… and here I share the techniques I use to get great results for my clients. (My writing work has again helped my clients win awards this year!)

• An easy-peasy headline writing technique you can use right away…

• How to get your prospects to take action

• Why you’ll get more sales if your marketing materials are easy to skim read (and how to do it)

Video marketing for small businesses

Video marketing is the cool new kid on the marketing block – but getting started can be a bit daunting for a small business owner.

These articles sort out the facts from the fiction, to help you get on the right path…

• Why do video marketing? Video marketing strategies for small businesses...

• Online video marketing: How long should your video be?

Website tips for small businesses

Get better results from your website with these small business marketing tips.

Even though websites have been around for a while now, there’s still a lot of confusion and misinformation out there.

Here are website myth-busting articles to help small business owners figure out the facts from the fiction. 🙂

• What is the purpose of a website?

• How to write a Contact Us page (that actually makes it enticing for prospects to contact you!)

• How to build trust online with your profile photograph

• How to build trust online with your signature

• A rant about CAPTCHA (and a possible better solution)

• How long should a website sales page be?

• How to get more Google love with photo keywords

• How to use the Google Keyword Planner for SEO keyword research

• Major Google algorithm update in May 2013

• Update on SEO copywriting strategy – from Matt Cutts at Google

• Announcing! The technophobe’s guide to getting better website results

Customer retention articles

The key to customer retention is to get clients to climb the magic beanstalk of customer loyalty.

From a series of articles I ran over a number of months, covering all the different technologies and modalities you can use for customer retention.

• INTRODUCTION: Customer retention doesn’t happen by itself: How to get your customers to climb the magic beanstalk of customer loyalty

• FACE-TO-FACE: Discover the 4 different ways you can grow customer relationships face-to-face

• POSTAL: Snail mail: Why it pays to go retro with your customer retention campaigns

• EMAILS (1): Why email marketing should do the donkey work in your customer retention campaigns

• EMAILS (2): The 3 different types of email marketing: what they are, and how to use them together

•  PHONE: Why the humble telephone is your stealth jet for customer retention

• SOCIAL MEDIA: Why social media is both great and terrible for customer retention campaigns

General marketing tips

Here’s a treasure trove of marketing articles – and best of all, it’s the kind of stuff your competitors probably don’t know about. 😉

• How to choose eye-catching marketing photos 

• It’s not cheap if it never breaks even…

• Here’s what a stinky fish can teach you about customer service…

• Why you’re wasting your time focusing on “target markets”

• How to organise client events: your 14-step guide

• Why you need both a 2D and 3D cover for your book or eBook

Time management tips

The biggest marketing challenge many small business owners have is actually a time management challenge. Or in other words, there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day.

Um, well yours truly has managed to write all these marketing articles in a year; script, record and edit a bunch of marketing videos; AND launched a couple of new books. (As well as completing all my clients’ copywriting projects.) And I have just as many hours in the day as you have. 🙂

Here are my top time management tips:

• How to get more stuff done (without working longer hours)

• Why you need to take time out from your business

Whoa, that’s a lot of small business marketing tips… and those are just the articles from 2013!

If you like these small business marketing tips, be sure to check out the eBooks written by Cornelia Luethi!

If you want more of my small business marketing tips, be sure to check out my eBooks. The content of my eBooks is totally unique (i.e. they’re written by me, Cornelia Luethi, and you won’t find the eBook content on this or any other blog).

The only way you can get the eBook content is to buy them!

So check out my eBooks! (And buying is easy, as there’s a 60-Day Money Back Guarantee)

Happy reading,

Cornelia Luethi BSc (Hons), DipM
Author of small business eBooks on Marketing

Shop for eBooks written by Cornelia Luethi →

PS. Want even more small business marketing tips?

Here’s the summary of 2012 articles with even more small business marketing tips!
You’ll find articles on topics such as website conversion, writing photo captions, email marketing, plus more copywriting secrets.

Don’t throw your marketing budget down the drain – do a break-even analysis before you spend a cent!

Recently I met a customer, JC, for the first time.

She told me: “I’ve saved thousands of dollars, thanks to you”.

How so?
(I was super curious, as I hadn’t met this lady before… she’d bought an eBook from me, and now we were meeting for her Marketing Consultation for the first time.)

JC revealed that she’d bought the Premium edition of my eBook, The Leaky Bathtub, and with that you get a break-even calculator.

This break-even calculator makes it very simple for you to work out if a marketing campaign is likely to pay for itself – or be a huge waste of money.

JC uses that break-even calculator to assess all of her campaigns

JC told me that the break-even calculator had proven to be a real eye opener as to which campaigns would be profitable, and which campaigns would be an expensive flop.

In other words, she had saved a massive amount of money on advertising campaigns that would never have worked out, and instead has been able to grow her business by investing wisely.

Little wonder that JC’s business is flourishing!

What kind of marketing campaigns can you assess with the break-even calculator?

You can assess any kind of marketing campaign with the break-even calculator. It’s particularly helpful for new customer campaigns, such as:

• Google AdWords campaigns
• Facebook advertising
• Online display advertising
• Print advertising
• Flyers and brochures
• Letterbox drops
• Exhibiting at expos

You can use the calculator over and over again, as many times as you like.

It takes just a few moments to input the numbers, and BAM! You’ve got your result.

I used the calculator myself last week…

I was curious if a Facebook advertising campaign would stack up… after all, it’s so cheap to do Facebook advertising, right?

Well, the calculator told me straight up that for this particular campaign I’d NEVER break even.

(Just because something is cheap, doesn’t mean that it’s worth spending your money on, or that you’ll get a return.)

Who needs a crystal ball when you can use this tool for less? (And this will pay for itself the very first time you use it!)

Cornelia Luethi, author of The Leaky Bathtub, will show you how to stop your marketing budget from leaking away.

Till next time,

Cornelia Luethi  BSc (Hons), DipM
Author of The Leaky Bathtub

It’s important that you have a very specific target in mind for your marketing to be effective.

Knowing whom you’re talking to is crucial when you’re writing your marketing material… this is Marketing and Copywriting 101!

When writing your marketing copy, you need to be able to put yourself into your prospects’ shoes.

That way, it will help you to speak your prospects’ language, and address their specific needs and problems.

The problem is that most business owners don’t have a clear picture of their prospects…

And the reason why business owners don’t have a clear picture of what their prospects look like is because traditional marketing books and courses drone on about  “target markets”. They talk about mumbo jumbo such as “socioeconomic profiles” and “industrial segmentation” …Yawn!

Invariably, business owners respond to this mumbo jumbo by devising really broad definitions of their “target market”. These “target market” definitions are simply too vague to be practical.

Here are examples of the kind of “target market” definitions I’ve come across:

• Flooring supplier: any home or business within a 10km radius.
• Property manager: property investors in my catchment area.
• Manufacturer of high quality dog treats: anyone in Auckland with a dog, with a household income over $60,000
• IT supplier: all SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Wellington.

These broad definitions may be well and good for the academics teaching about “target markets”, but you’ve got a business to run and sales to make.

And these broad definitions are actually going to hold you back, because the resulting marketing messages are likely to be too vague to be useful.

Vague “target market” definitions lead to weak marketing messages

The problem with these vague definitions of a “target market” is that they lead to vague and uninspiring marketing messages.

Here are some examples of marketing messages addressing a “target market”… these examples are fictional, but very typical of what I’ve come across over the years:

• Flooring supplier: Do you have a home or business in Auckland? We can help you with all your flooring needs!
• Property manager: Let us help you with your property management, so you have more time to spend on things you enjoy!
• Manufacturer of high quality dog treats: Nutritious treats for your best friend!
• IT supplier: One-stop shop for your business computer needs!

Those kinds of headlines are 100% snoozeworthy! They’re so general; they won’t grab anyone’s attention.

So you need something less theoretical and less broad when targeting – and more “real” and specific.

How to be more specific in your targeting

The reason why this concept of a target market doesn’t work is because it’s too vague. It’s so broad, that you won’t appeal to anyone.

Instead, you need to get really really specific with whom you’re targeting. And the best place to start is with your existing customer base.

Specifically, look at your top-notch, A-Grade customers.

What’s an A-Grade customer?

A-Grade customers are the ones who:

• Spend a good amount of money with you – and are likely to do so again in the future.
• Pay their bills on time and without haggling over the price.
• Are a pleasure to deal with, because they’re people whose company you enjoy.
• They are respectful of you, and you are respectful of them.
• They may also be raving fans, and regularly send new customers your way.

Let’s look at some (fictional) examples of target profiles:

• Flooring supplier: Alisha and Ben have just bought their first home, and it’s a “do-up” job. They put new flooring into every room, transforming a drab house into a chic home that’s ideal for entertaining their friends. So the flooring they’ve chosen is both fashionable and hardwearing and easy to clean, to suit their busy lifestyle. Alisha and Ben are about to buy a puppy, and are thinking of starting a family.
• Property manager: Rupert has just been promoted to Sales Manager of a large corporation, and has just bought his first investment property. He has a plan to accumulate a portfolio of investment properties over the next 5 years. He’s hungry to maximise his profits and have no tenant-related headaches. Rupert wants to delegate the property management, so he can focus on his day job and earning the bonuses that’ll let him purchase more properties.
• Manufacturer of high quality dog treats: Jane’s west highland white terrier, Lili, is her best friend. But like many dogs of her breed, Lili has skin disorders, which are triggered by certain foods. Jane wants to be able to give Lili treats, but the mainstream products make Lili sick. Jane’s discovered that Lili responds well to these dog treats, and has a standing order of treats automatically delivered each month.
• IT supplier: Siobhan’s just hired another bookkeeper for her growing accounting business. As her business is totally reliant on computers running smoothly all the time (plus data security is important), she’s invested in on-going remote monitoring of systems, premium anti-virus software, plus online data back-ups. The supplier also visits once a month to fix any computer bugs and niggles, and checks printer supply levels, re-stocking as needed, so that Siobhan can focus on running her business.

Notice that target profiles work for all types of businesses

Defining target profiles works for business selling products and services, as well as B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) companies.

This is because your customers are always people! Even in the B2B world, buying decisions are made by real, live people with names, challenges and aspirations. (People do business with other people, not businesses.)

What do you do with the target profiles?

So you’ve identified your target profile – what happens next?

There are a number of things that you should be doing with them:

1. Target them in your copy

Have your target profile in your mind when you’re writing your marketing and promotional copy.

Think: does what you’re writing appeal to your target profile person?

Let’s take a look at the (fictional) examples again to see how this works in practice… the companies have re-written their introductory blurb to appeal to their target profiles:

• Flooring supplier: Renovating your first home? Budget-friendly, fashion-forward flooring that’s housewarming-proof, pet-proof and baby-proof. Flooring that’ll cope with whatever life (or your kids) throw at it.
• Property manager: New to property investment? We’ll grow your assets with property management services designed to make you richer.
• Manufacturer of high quality dog treats: Poorly pooch? Organic, nutritionally-balanced dog treats for a healthier pet. Formulated to address common doggy difficulties, from bad breath, to itchy skin, flatulence and more – or your money back.
• IT supplier: Never experience a computer bug again with our proactive, fixed-price maintenance services! Focus on growing your business – on computers that run faster than your competitors’.

Note: This is the high-level, condensed copy… in most cases you’d have more space to expand on that message (e.g. on a web page, or in a brochure).

The idea is for you to see how this copy is more specific (and more intriguing) than the generic target market-centric copy shown previously.

If you were the target profile for any of these examples companies, you would most certainly want to read on to find out more information. (Which is the whole idea of a headline, or introductory sentence/paragraph.)

2. Obtain (and use) testimonials

Make sure you get (good) testimonials from your target profiles, and put them on your website and in your proposal documents. Remember, like attracts like.

3. Get feedback

Have you ever had a new idea or concept for your business – but you didn’t know if it was lousy or genius? Ask your target profile for feedback.

And no, they won’t be offended… chances are they’ll be flattered to be asked! Really!

Sure, you don’t want to bug your target profile all the time about every tiny little thing, but asking them on important matters once or twice a year is absolutely fine (and a good way of keeping in contact with them, above and beyond your regular customer retention activities).

4. Keep your finger on the pulse

There are external factors (political, economic, social, technological) that create change in your business environment. You can’t change these things; rather you need to continually adapt your approach to use this change to your advantage. By having a continuous dialogue with your target profile, you’ll be well prepared to make these changes in your business.

How many target profiles should you have?

When you look at your list of A-Grade customers, chances are you may have several names on the list.

It’s good to have multiple people to approach for testimonials, feedback, and keeping your finger on the pulse.

However, when it comes to writing marketing copy, you need to pick just one target profile person. Yes, just one.

If you try and address multiple people in the one message, you’ll be back at square one, talking to the “target market” and trying to be all things to all people.

Instead, you need to pick the one target profile that is the most representative of the type of customers you’d like to have more of. You know, the profitable, big-spending ones – who are also pleasant to deal with.

Pick that person and write your marketing messages as if you were speaking to that individual directly. If it helps, pin up their name on a Post-It note on your computer to help you keep focused on that one person.

Isn’t it too narrow an approach to focus on just one target profile person?

Seriously, the sooner you move away from the “everyone is my target market” approach to being more specific, you’ll get better results in your marketing.

Because you’ll be communicating at a meaningful level, your message will actually appeal to more people.

Best of all, your message is most likely to resonate with future A-Grade customers. So not only should you be getting more enquiries and sales, but also they’ll be coming from the kind of people you want to be working with.

I challenge you to try it!

All my consulting clients that have embraced this haven’t looked back since, because it’s made a real difference in their business. It’s given them a sense of focus and direction that they were lacking – and made them feel more connected to their customers.

So go and really get to know your target profile – you’re bound to develop deeper relationships with your best customers in the process!

Summary

• The traditional “target market” terminology is too broad to be of real use to small business owners.
• Look at your A-Grade customers, and analyse those instead. These are your “target profiles” – a one-person target market.
• Speak to your target profile in your marketing material.
• Obtain (and use) testimonials from your target profile people.
• Get feedback on business-critical decision from your target profile people before you take any further action.
• Keep in regular contact with your target profile people so you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your market and industry.
• Getting your A-Grade customers involved in this way usually deepens your relationship with them – most people will be happy (and feel honoured) to help a business that they already love!

Happy New Year to you!

The new year is a great time for marketing planning. And whatever’s on your To Do list for the year to come, you’ll find a topic here to help you.

Here’s a round-up of the most popular small business marketing tips from Cornelia Luethi at The Leaky Bathtub from 2012… enjoy!

Hint: bookmark this page so you can easily find the small business marketing tips you need!

How to use technology to generate more repeat business…

The key to customer retention is to get clients to climb the magic beanstalk of customer loyalty.

… a.k.a “How to grow your beanstalk of customer loyalty”.

This series of articles looks at all the different technologies you have available to you to grow your customer retention rates:

• Customer retention doesn’t happen by itself: How to get your customers to climb the magic beanstalk of loyalty

• Why social media is both great and terrible for customer retention campaigns

• Why the humble telephone is your stealth jet for customer retention

• Snail mail: Why it pays to go retro with your customer retention campaigns

• Business thank you cards: How to grow your business with two little words

• Why email marketing should do the donkey work in your customer retention campaigns

• The 3 different types of email marketing: what they are, and how to use them together

This series on customer retention will resume in 2013 (it ain’t over yet!), so make sure you’re on the Marketing Tips email list to get the latest instalments as soon as they’re released.

More articles on email marketing…

Discover how to use email marketing to zoom your customer retention rates.

Because email marketing is such an important part of customer retention, here are all the small business marketing tips on email marketing:

• How to get more email newsletter sign ups on your website

• Why you shouldn’t ask prospects to ‘subscribe’ to your newsletter

• Are your email newsletters suffering from the “message in a bottle” approach?

• What’s a “normal” open rate for email newsletters?

• Email marketing breakdown? Here’s your recovery plan

How to increase your website conversions

Getting your readers to trust (and like) your website straightaway is vital for good website conversion rates. Discover how to do it.

A lot of the time when I’m engaged for website copywriting and advice, it’s about helping small businesses get better conversion rates from their website.

Here are some of my top website conversion tips:

• How to make your website ridiculously easy (and pleasant) to use

• Which fonts are best for websites?

• What’s the purpose of a website home page?

• Your quick, 10-step guide for building trust online

• Are you using this little-known online trust building technique?

• What’s best: a contact form or email address?

• How to make your business friendly

• How to make your website appeal to both Decisive Dan and Tentative Tom

• Does your website have calls-to-action suitable for both Decisive Dan and Tentative Tom?

Shhh… here are Cornelia’s copywriting secrets!

Headline writing is just one of Cornelia’s many copywriting secrets you’ll discover here…

Did you know that more than 90% of my work is copywriting for clients – and that I often have a waiting list for my services?

(I have a waiting list because I’ve earned a good reputation for getting great results for my clients. Business owners would rather wait for me than make a wrong marketing move.)

Here are some of my most important copywriting tips and secrets…

• Why are headlines important?

• What makes a good headline?

• Common words you need to stop misspelling

• Is your negative language turning prospects away?

• Discover the one word you should never use in your marketing copy…

• 3 cunning ways to use numbers in your copywriting

• Why article writing is the reluctant marketer’s best friend

• How long should an article be?

How (and why) should you write photo captions?

Photo captions are twice as likely to be read as the body copy… so it’s a no-brainer that you should always use (good) photo captions.

I have a bee in my proverbial bonnet about photograph captions (understatement!).

In the next set of small business marketing tips, you’ll discover why you absolutely must use photo captions in all your marketing.

There are also step-by-step guides that show you how  to write good photo captions:

• How one measly sentence could double your readership:

• How to write photo captions that’ll get remembered

• Understanding Features and Benefits and how to use them in photo captions

Whoa, that’s a lot of small business marketing tips… and those are just the articles from 2012!

Happy reading,

Cornelia Luethi BSc (Hons), DipM