Are you frustrated by marketing or advertising that barely gets enough response to cover the cost? Or maybe it’s even worse – you get no response! You’re not alone.
Famous department store pioneer, John Wanamaker, in the late 19th Century claimed that he knew half his advertising dollars were wasted, he just wished he knew which half. Now it is even harder. For most business owners, spending money on advertising seems as risky as gambling. More often than not, it is just like money put into a slot machine with nothing positive to show for it.
The Ultimate Marketing Model – Make Your Business Attractive
Instead of attempting to grow your business by unreliable advertising and marketing, the ultimate marketing model is to make your business so attractive that you can attract and retain clients who become raving fans, resulting in a viral growth. That is surely the key to business success.
This is exactly what a company called Zappos did. In the year 2000, Zappos was a struggling cash strapped business with sales of $1.6 million for the year. They decided to scrap their marketing budget altogether and instead, focused on making their company so attractive that they became known for “Delivering Happiness,” the name of the book written by Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh. This strategy phenomenally helped them grow their sales to over $1 billion in 2008.
Obviously, this strategy is unconventional. But if you are willing to put in the time and effort to build the model I am about to present to you, your efforts will soon start to pay off in so many ways that you will wonder why you ever found it difficult to find customers.
Understand the Psychology of Your Market
In marketing and sales, it is critical to know that customers always buy for their reasons, not yours. It is important to know and understand your typical customer’s buying strategy so that you can attract them and sell to them effectively and efficiently.
The reality is that most business owners and marketing managers never make the effort to truly understand their customers and get to know them intimately. Imagine how much easier it is to attract customers if you know exactly how your customers think. Instead of operating in the competitive scramble, you can create a relationship with customers who will never even consider a competitor’s offering if you get this process right. It’s all about understanding what attracts your customers.
Make your business attractive
Making your business attractive is about developing the clarity and certainty about what you stand for, which will automatically attract people who aspire to the same goals and repel the ones that don’t. This means creating services and products and business systems that:
- Draw people in irresistibly
- Make people want more
- Make them want to talk about you.
Clearly communicate your message
Clearly communicating your message in the correct way will elevate your marketing approach from one that focuses on getting new customers for the purpose of making a sale, to initiating a relationship with a sale that is just the beginning of converting those customers into Raving Fans. The steps here are:
- Attract the attention of your ideal client
- Intimately involve them in ongoing communication
- Educate the market on what really matters
- Propose the start of a potential lifelong relationship
- Engage them in the ultimate experience.
Deliver the ultimate experience
The key to creating Raving Fans is crystallising the physical, psychological and emotional needs of your ideal clients into an ultimate experience that is inspiring and compelling. You need to develop:
- People who care
- Processes that serve
- Services that wow.
Build the Raving Fan Community
Building a Raving Fan community is all about uniting your raving fans and mobilising them as a powerful force to accelerate your client growth exponentially. To do this you create:
- Exuberant Celebration
- Significant Connection
- Viral Communication.
The key to business growth and success is clear. If, like Zappos at the start, your business model fails to inspire and compel your customers to return and become raving fans, no amount of money spent advertising your business will help. The only viable long term strategy should be to make your business so attractive that it grows virally without the need for advertising.
About the Author:
Troy Eadie is a business growth specialist and co-director of consultancy firm Business Success Systems. He specialises in assisting smart but frustrated business owners to discover their unique market positioning and to quickly leverage their business by attracting more ideal clients and building the systems to create raving fans. To contact Troy please visit www.BusinessSuccessSystems.com.au or email him at troy@bssteam.com.au.
