Does your marketing plan resemble a trip to the casino?

Mark Harari, director of marketing at Remodelers Advantage, the Maryland-based support organization for renovators, recently asked small business owners to name their number one source of new business. The answer was, not surprisingly, referrals from past customers. Indeed, a happy customer is often your best salesperson. The problem, Harari points out, is that you can’t control referrals. “You have to hope someone knows someone who’s going to remodel and remembers to drop your name.”

Also near the top of list for new business sources were canvassing, coupons and mailers, ads in local papers, and even radio advertisements. These can be effective, though they may suffer from the so-called ‘Shot Gun Effect,” i.e., your message is spread without any specific idea of who is interested. With newspaper and radio ads in particular, you could be spending money to reach thousands of people who have no intention of having any work done. You need a rifle, not a shotgun.

Granted, it only takes one or two of the right people to either hear or read your ad to generate a genuine lead. But it’s still a hit-and-miss proposition. Harari observes that all too often a small business owner tries a new marketing idea once, then gives up because there are no immediate results.

Mark Harari

The Casino Effect

Harari calls this one-shot marketing approach ‘The Casino Effect’.

He says: “Doing it only once is relying heavily on luck, hoping your message will hit home with a prospect at the very moment that they have a need or desire for your service, have the money to spend on your service and have a motivation to proceed that outweighs the desire to keep their money.” Harari likens it to putting your one and only chip on Red-12 at the roulette table.

What is needed is a way to keep that chip on Red 12 every time the wheel is spun. In other words, how can you run a marketing plan consistently without breaking your budget?

For Harari, the answer is e-mail. A database of past and prospective new customers is an almost zero-cost audience for your message twelve months a year. The trick is to build that list.

How do you encourage people to give up that information?

Every time you answer phone inquiries, letters, or business emails, or attend local consumer home shows, you are making contact with a prospective client. You can use your website to encourage people to contact you, and from there you are on your way to logging their contact information.

Maybe offer a free Tip-of-the-Month Newsletter, Harari suggests. “Promote the newsletter on your truck, on your print ads, on your estimates, and on your business card.”

Keep the ‘news’ in ‘newsletter’

However, make sure your e-mailings and newsletters contain information of value! Don’t make every issue an advertisement. Don’t forget your manners. Don’t sound technical or show off. And don’t use a generic email address (like newsletter@…) or use a noreply@… address

You want your prospects to know that you are a human and there to help them, so keep everything conversational and find ways to encourage a response. Try this: “Send me your questions/problems and I will write about that next time.”

Harari believes a quality e-mail list is your most valuable marketing asset. “If you’re not actively trying to build a list, then you’re missing an opportunity to increase your company’s value.”

follow John on Twitter 

@john_bleasby