Are You Looking For Customers In All The Wrong Places?

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
 
Marketing any business can be a serious challenge. This is especially true if your business is relatively new. After all, trying to take your business from something that no one knows about to something that has a firmly established customer base can be incredibly difficult. In fact, when you’re just starting out, it can seem borderline impossible. And there are plenty of very promising businesses that end up falling at the starting line for this very reason. They end up looking for customers in all of the wrong places and they’re never able to build up the kind of audience that they really need. With that in mind, here are some things that you can do in order to stop that from happening to your business.

Know your demographics

Every business is different, and because of that, every business is going to connect with a different customer base. One of the most common mistakes that a lot of new businesses make is that they try to please everyone and, in doing so, end up not really pleasing anyone. The truth is that you need to figure out what your business’s demographic actually is. Otherwise, you could end up putting a huge amount of effort into a marketing to a group of people who are simply never going to be interested in your business or your product.

Know your techniques

Different techniques are effective in different ways when it comes to marketing your business. In the same way that different customers connect with different businesses, different marketing techniques are going to be better and worse for different demographics. Whether it’s b2b sales VS b2c, social media marketing vs traditional marketing, or even understanding how the tone of your marketing attracts different customers, if you don’t know which techniques are right for marketing your business, you’re going to end up flailing around, trying everything, and wasting a huge amount of time, effort, and resources without much return.

Know your strengths

It’s amazing how often businesses aren’t able to connect with customers simply because they don’t know how to play to their own strengths. After all, if your business is exactly the same as its competitors, then there’s no real point in it existing at all. Because of that, you need to focus on leaning into what makes your business different. What sets your business apart from all of the others that a customer could choose from? By highlighting and focusing in on your business’s unique selling point, you’re going to be able to attract customers much more quickly and easily.

Of course, understanding these things isn’t going to suddenly make marketing your business into a cakewalk. It’s always going to a challenge and one that you need to dedicate a decent amount of time and resources to. Whether you put together a dedicated marketing team in-house or you outsource it to someone else, making sure that your marketing is getting the time and attention it deserves is essential for making the most out of your business.

The Art of Persuasion: 7 Negotiation Techniques That Won’t Leave You Hanging

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleNegotiation is an art form. It requires interpersonal skills, a masterful control of language, a deep understanding of human emotion, and excellent listening skills. This is perhaps why a small company’s success often hinges on the quality of its salespeople.

Find common ground

The very best salespeople don’t just push for what is best for them and their affiliates. They identify precisely what the other party wants to get out of the negotiations, then finds a way for both parties to leave the negotiations happy.

The only way to do this is by asking questions. Get as much information as possible about the other party and be upfront and sincere about what you hope to get out of the negotiations as well. Coming from a place of openness and honesty will prompt openness and honesty in the other party and the common ground will be found much quicker.

Build eye-catching visuals in presentations

Putting together boring sales presentations is the first way to turn potential customers and clients off. Put together engaging and eye-catching presentations with the presentation software that top companies use to enhance your sales pitches.

Know when to walk away

You can’t win every battle. Sometimes you just have to walk away, dust yourself off, and get ready for the next one. Knowing when to walk away is a skill. You should enter every negotiation with some red lines that you are not willing to compromise on. If these can’t be met, politely end the negotiations and walk away.

Set the first offer

The person that makes the first move sets the anchor around which all further negotiations will be set. It allows you to take control of the negotiations and forces the other party to react to your offer.

Appeal to human emotion

Humans are emotional creatures. We often display patterns of behaviour for no other reason other than the fact that our parents did. We buy the same products our parents did, cook things the same way, and have similar routines.

This can be applied to your sales strategy. If you have an existing business relationship with the company, stress this fact. If your team are very excited to start dealing with the company, show the other party this. A little bit of ego stroking can go a long way. They are humans after all.

Make sales a company-wide initiative

Selling isn’t just carried out by the sales department. Including other departments in negotiations can help close the deal. Maybe your marketing department could run a joint campaign and raise awareness of the other party’s brand? If you have inbound marketing strategies in place that use personalized content, maybe you could generate some content to drive traffic to the other party’s website?

Create a sense of urgency

Closing the deal is one of the hardest parts of the sales process. Even if clients and customers like the product or service, getting them to commit can be challenging.

One of the best ways to overcome this and get them to sign on the dotted line is by creating a sense of urgency in the negotiations. Reiterate that you can only offer this exclusive price if they sign today, otherwise tomorrow the price goes back up to its normal rate. This may be the nudge they need to seal the deal.

What To Think About When Giving Corporate Gifts

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management ArticleAs Christmas draws closer, business owners around the world will be starting to think about organizing, purchasing, and giving corporate gifts to their clients, customers, and suppliers. Whether these gifts seem like an expensive and unnecessary thing to do, or they feel like a Christmas tradition that can’t be broken, the point is that, if you want to make a good impression going into the new year, you’re going to need to give at least something to someone.

If you don’t quite know what to offer up as a holiday gift yet, and you’re not sure what to think about when choosing the gift, here are some key pointers that will help you out and ensure that everyone is happy with what they are given.

What Is Your Work Culture?

If you can distill your company’s culture down into one gift, this will certainly help you to be remembered, and it will ensure that whatever you choose to give will be completely unique. To do this, you need to think about the work that you do and the people who work for you. You might be famed for your dress down Friday, or perhaps your office parties are something that everyone talks about. Maybe it’s the fact that you give everyone their birthday off, or you include your employees’ families in everything you do. Whatever it might be, search around for a gift that speak of it, and give this to those important business connections that you want to impress.

Be Inclusive

It is important to find something that you can give to everyone because buying individual gifts will be expensive and time-consuming to find and purchase. If you want to offer up branded t-shirts, for example, think of the cut and the material – will everyone like it? Is it going to work for both men and women? This is an important point but one that will help to set you apart and show how caring you are and how you think of others when it comes to all aspects of your work.

Think Of Presentation

No matter what you are giving and to whom you are giving it, presentation is all-important. Wrapping a gift well in nice paper, perhaps with additional bows and ribbons will always be appreciated, especially when the alternative is a poorly wrapped gift that no time, thought, or effort was put into – assuming the gift is wrapped at all. Although this is a corporate gift, it should be treated no differently to any other that you would give to someone important to you. Make sure it looks good, because first impressions regarding anything county for a huge amount.

Ask Employees

As a business owner, you have final say in what corporate gifts you want to give, but it could be worthwhile to speak to your employees and get their opinions too. If you are completely drawing a blank, then ask your employees to come up with some ideas that you can work with. They might have more insight into what your clients and customers would like because they work with them more closely.

If you do come up with some ideas but can’t decide between them, again, you can ask your employees. They might be able to help you to determine which of the two, three, or more ideas is the most viable, saving you from buying and giving something that just wouldn’t really work.

Ask Questions

Being considerate and asking questions is another important step. You may feel you have discovered the ideal gift, but if there is any doubt then getting in touch with the recipient to determine whether this really is the case will help you – it will show that you are thinking of your clients and customers rather than simply buying the first thing that comes into your head (even if, in reality, you are). For example, if you are thinking of offering a food-related gift, it is a good idea to speak to the recipients and check to see if they have any allergies, or if they prefer beer to wine or red or white wine. You don’t have to tell them what you are buying in detail, either, so the surprise element will still be there.

Make It Local

Something that is always widely appreciated is a gift with some local flavor. This is a great gift whether the recipient lives nearby or far away – it’s always fun to be given something made in a specific place, perhaps in a specific way. You could choose a calendar showcasing your local area, or some food products that a local maker has created. If your area is famous for anything, this is a great gift to give as it will help the recipient get a better idea of where you are based and what the place is like.

This is also a great way to support local small businesses who might be able to help you in return. By doing this, you are enabling the economy to thrive, which is certainly another bonus.

Make It Personal

Whatever you choose to give, you need to ensure that it reflects your company in some way, and the easiest way to do that is to brand it with your logo or company name. Many companies such as Perfect Imprints make this an easy thing to do, and your branding can be added to mugs, coasters, Christmas decorations, t-shirts, pens, and much more.

You should remember not to overbrand, however. You can make yourself remembered with just a small logo, for example, rather than printing your name all over the front of everything that you give away. This can look much more attractive, and will even do a better job of reminding those who receive the gifts about you, as they will be more likely to use items with only small amounts of branding on them.

Give Quality

Whatever it is you choose to give, it needs to be of good quality. If you buy cheap and give items that are poorly made and that break apart quickly, or that can’t be used, worn, or even eaten, this will reflect badly on your company. You don’t need to spend a fortune to find good quality products, but you should take the time to read reviews and even sample the products for yourself if possible, to ensure that you are happy to give them to important clients and suppliers.

5 Business Tips to Help Orthodontists Get More Clients

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 5 Business Tips to Help Orthodontists Get More Clients

Whether you are a new orthodontist opening a dental office or want to increase the number of patients you see, implementing new marketing strategies will boost your revenue and growth. With so many dental clinics popping up, it is also an excellent way for dental specialists to stand out from the competition. Here are five business tips that will help orthodontists get more clients.

1. Build a Visually Pleasing and Informative Website

Did you know that about 90 percent of consumers visit websites before going to a local business? It is the best indicator as to why businesses need to pay attention to the aesthetics and engagement of their websites. Most especially in the healthcare industry, there is not enough consideration placed on website aesthetics even when it is the most significant avenue businesses have to convert their website traffic into patient sales.

A great example of such a website built for patients is Baum Orthodontics as the website is aesthetically pleasing and provides patient tabs that make navigation accessible.

2. Use Strategic SEO to Rank on SERP

When Google updated its search engine results page (SERP) algorithms, search engine optimization (SEO) was no longer an easy process as there are now more than 200 factors that web pages are scored. Optimizing pages using a variety of keywords is now a critical component to ranking which depends on authoritative backlinks, content variables, keyword clustering, user experience and page load speed. A local SEO strategy will also promote conversion rate optimization, which will boost your traffic in your local area.

3. Use Google My Business

As you are a local business, you must use Google My Business as Google Maps only displays the top three businesses in one-mile radius as there is a push for mobile accessibility. You want to claim your free listing and use location-specific keywords that show location like city or neighborhood dentist, long-tail SEO services like ophthalmology or specialty service and contact information that target customers searching for services.

4. Use Word-of-Mouth Advertising

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most influential advertising tools available whether it is from your patients or from comments on your social media page. Nine out of 10 consumers will trust a recommendation from a friend or family over another form of advertising. Their testimony will also convert a customer faster because of experience, which is something you would not be able to do in just one conversation. Set up a patient referral program to build your clientele as it will convert to sales quickly.

5. Use Pay-per-Click Internet Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising, such as Google AdWords, is a valuable tool that allows your keyword specific ads to appear on the same page as organic search results which helps if your page is not ranking because of SEO. You also do not have to buy the ads but rather pay a click-through-rate when a potential customer clicks on your advertisement.

Many of these marketing tips are affordable and easy to implement in-house. Even if you must hire a website or SEO specialist, the new patient return-on-investment potential is worth the investment.

Email Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticlePotential real estate clients are of high value. Independent real estate agents and large, well-established realty firms and businesses are equally invested in reeling in potential clients at the first chance they have. After all, the average home seller pocketed a whopping $54,000 throughout calendar year 2017, says Attom Data Solutions. This marked a 10-year high on average returns on investment of between one-fourth and three-tenths of their original investments!

As you can already tell – as if you don’t already know – the worth of a potential real estate client is nearly priceless. For this reason, combined with the long-ongoing market trend that buyers are shopping online more and more, digital marketing is of utmost importance for professionals in the real estate industry. Email is especially crucial, as 94 percent of REALTOR realty agents make offers and tend to clients’ questions via email. An astounding 96 percent of REALTORS use email on a daily basis, making the communication channel more popular than even smartphones.

Here are a handful of solid tips for all real estate agents when it comes to email marketing.

First Impressions Matter – Both In Person And In Email Subject Lines

According to iContact, a holding of tech giant Apple, roughly half of all email recipients decide to or not to open emails based on nothing but subject lines. Real estate professionals should avoid using all capital letters, excessive exclamation points, and other symbols, though they should always otherwise try to make email headers as engaging as humanly possible.

Emails Need To Be Short

Some things in life aren’t, in fact, best when kept short ‘n’ sweet. Realty-related marketing emails should generally contain all pertinent information above the fold, meaning recipients shouldn’t have to scroll down to understand the email in its entirety.

Be Consistent In Sending Emails

Nobody likes to be spammed with marketing emails, though it’s generally a good idea to send out at least five personalized, targeted emails to each active buyer on your contact list.

Email marketing for real estate agents isn’t a walk in the proverbial park to master. However, since it’s so important in today’s realty trade, all real estate professionals should strive to master the art of email marketing.