The Secret Sauce of Great Marketing

With so much information available on the internet, so many strategies, so much of proven and not so proven advice, deciding on your marketing strategy and figuring out your secret sauce can become overwhelming. Sometimes the great innovative ideas and wordy posts do sound appealing but are either too cumbersome to try or do not leave an impact. The only impact that is left on you as a small business owner is that you are stuck – Where do you begin?

Well, the magic lies in the basics. And following the basics is your secret sauce to great marketing. Many times you only follow strategies that have worked for you in the past – they could be word of mouth marketing for some, newspaper advertisements for others and posters for yet others. What we do not realize is that we can be trapped under our cocoon without any recognition that we too need to change with the times – after all, change is the only constant! Let us explore a few things that can help you create your secret sauce.

Know thy customer

Now there are three methods to grow your small business performance: growth through new customers, growth through existing customers investing more money in your business by purchasing more stuff, growth through existing customers by increasing the frequency of their purchases. Which one of these would you think would be the most beneficial one? The second one, beyond doubt! When your existing customers buy more stuff in a single purchase, you sometimes double your profits! Is that not what McDonalds does – tapping into existing customers? You buy a burger and including the coke and fries seems to be the best option to you – it saves you money!

What has McDonalds done here: ensured that you pick up fries and coke from them and improved their profits. What does it cost McDonalds? A two minute training to the sales rep! Isn’t it a cool, inexpensive marketing strategy by McDonalds – they knew that their existing customers would want a drink with the burger, topping it up with fries was the innovative and intelligent secret sauce that they deployed. Can you use this in your small business? Absolutely yes! Say you sell lemonade in your store. In order to increase your sales, you should either get more customers, or make the same customers visit you more often. The third method is that the same customers buy something in addition to lemonade from you. This is the McDonalds strategy. How about offering a hotdog at a discounted rate with regular lemonade or offering regular lemonade free with a glass of flavored lemonade if the customer has company?

The idea here is to understand what your customers want and create your marketing strategy based on that. Of course, customer age, gender and other demographics count, but that is not all. What counts most is how you tap into the customers mind and he is sold to your strategy. He believes that your tailor made deals are especially for him and he cannot get these anywhere else. That belief lays the foundation stone to a long term engagement and huge profits.

Collaborate effectively for building your new customer base

When you rely on your existing customer base 100%, you run out of customers in the long run. Therefore, it becomes important for you to build your funnel of new customers. Marketing through newspapers, fliers, radio etc. may not always yield the required results that you are looking for. How do you then ensure that you have a consistent pipeline of new customers? The cheapest and the most innovative method here is to tap into the loyal database of customers that your complimentary businesses have. The best thing about this secret sauce is that you are creating a threefold winning strategy: it’s a win for the customer, it’s a win for the business complimentary to you and it’s a win for your small business.

An example here is say you are a cardiologist. Can you collaborate with the general physician? You could offer a $10 incentive to the physician if he offers to send a patient to your clinic for a check-up. You want to make it more lucrative – offer $15 if the patient undergoes an ECG and $20 if the patient undergoes an echo test. Now, how does it benefit both of you? You get a new patient and the physician gets some commission along with the trust of his patients – specialized services available as well! And how about the customer – the patient? He obviously benefits as he does not have to run from pillar to post trying to find a specialist doctor. Here, you have earned a new customer and provided him with what he wants. If he likes your services, he will come back again – definitely!

Focus on your customers

The secret to retaining and building a great customer base is focusing on them – always! Maintain your focus on them. Let your marketing strategies tell them how important they are and how your products can benefit them. You can talk about how you customize products keeping them in mind. They have to feel that they are the most important part of your plan, that you really want them to benefit, that they will miss out something if they do not associate with you! Your job is done the moment they feel that they are special – to you, to your business!

Develop trust through content marketing

Your bottom line increases above and beyond your expectations if you deliver value to your customers through content marketing. You could offer free content through videos, articles, podcasts etc. This enables you build trust, get some direct word of mouth marketing and develop customers who turn into fans.

The most important ingredient of your secret sauce is the plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Develop a robust plan using tried and tested principles and follow through. Revisit your annual plan every month and if need be, every fortnight! Proper planning and focus on the basics can help you reach the zenith of marketing your small business! Fo

Do you have any “secrets” to share on effective marketing?