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Finding ‘Grand Slam’ Clients Using an Ideal Client Profile to Build Your Business
Mon, Oct 14, 2019 — A Practical Implementation Guide for Small- and Mid-Sized Business Executives Mark Coronna, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders with Todd Eberhardt, CEO, Dynasty Leadership Consulting Somewhere in the historical development of Marketing language the concept of an Ideal Customer Profile emerged. You can find frequent discussion of this concept if you are reading marketing blogs today—it is definitely a “buzz” term, and legitimately so, if you understand the power of the concept and apply it to your customer acquisition programs. We’d like to discuss how to practically implement the concept of an Ideal Customer Profile and talk about why it’s important, as well as how it can dramatically impact your business, when applied to your Marketing and Sales programs.
How to Retain Customers and Develop Brand Advocates - Part 3
Thu, Oct 10, 2019 — Part 3 of 3: Winning Retention Marketing Strategies Retention marketing isn’t meant to replace acquisition marketing, but to work alongside it as part of your growth strategy. The activities associated with retaining customers and/or increasing customer value through re-purchasing or up-selling products and services, is less expensive than acquisition marketing. While you need both acquisition and retention marketing, you will get a better return from your investment in retention marketing and create customers for life. In the previous blog post, we discussed how to develop a retention marketing program that specifically addresses the needs of your business. But are there proven retention marketing strategies or tactics that should be considered regardless?
How to Retain Customers and Develop Brand Advocates - Part 2
Fri, Sep 13, 2019 — Part 2 of 3: Developing a Retention Marketing Program As we learned in my previous post, retention marketing encompasses the activities associated with retaining customers or increasing customer value through re-purchasing and up-selling products and services. It’s anywhere from five to 25 times less expensive than acquisition marketing—and done well can reduce the expense pressure of acquisition marketing to grow your business. Retention marketing should be a part of any business growth strategy. Retention marketing involves communicating with your customers in a way that helps you nurture and keep them. This should be an ongoing priority for the business with buy-in from the top throughout the entire organization. After all, you’ve all worked hard and spent a lot of money to acquire those customers.
How to Retain Customers and Develop Brand Advocates - Part 1
Fri, Sep 6, 2019 — Part 1 of 3: Why retention marketing should be part of your growth strategy If you are losing customers at almost any rate, you are jeopardizing your business growth strategy. Every lost customer creates a hole that you must fill before you can claim any new customer growth. The more customers you churn, the deeper the gap before you can realize any revenue or profit growth.
Is Subscription Pricing Right for your Business? Four Tests To Reveal the Answer
Wed, Sep 4, 2019 — A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, most consumer enterprises were in the business of selling physical items that could be held, consumed, and bought again. Whether it was a cheeseburger at McDonalds, a quart of milk at the grocery store, or a stamping machine from an industrial supplier, the pricing model was simple: Take the cost to produce, add profit (plus padding for high market demand), and you’re done. Ship one unit, charge for one unit. Simple.
Demand vs. Lead Generation: A Strategic Approach to Creating Highly-Qualified Leads
Tue, Jul 9, 2019 — Generating leads for B2B companies is one of the most important responsibilities of your marketing team. The concept of demand generation vs. lead generation many times are considered the same, or that one philosophy rather than the other should be adopted. Cracking the code of generating highly-qualified leads to grow your business involves the right focus on both demand and lead generation.
Moving to a Blue Ocean With Growth Gears: Five Steps to Chart a Course for Success
Thu, Jun 20, 2019 — Whether you are a seafaring sort or not, it’s fairly intuitive to expect that a peaceful, sparkling, blue ocean is much more navigable than one roiled by rolling tides, scary sea vermin and dangerous storms. This relatable parable constitutes the foundation of “Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing - Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth,” a book by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne which provides a series of waypoints by which to guide businesses into calmer seas. I recently successfully led a client through the Blue Ocean Shift process prescribed by Kim and Mauborgne, and realized how well the lessons align with similar ones espoused in “The Growth Gears,” a book authored by my Chief Outsiders colleagues Art Saxby and Pete Hayes. “The Growth Gears” does a terrific job of building a process around how to go from random acts of marketing, to a purpose-based method of marketing an organization, by following three pillars—Insights, Strategy and Execution.
How to Generate Winning Results with PAC
Wed, Jun 19, 2019 — Most of us have heard of the Five P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People) and how getting those right is essential for success. Certainly, all of these have a role and are important, but for small to mid-sized companies, experience shows that PAC is the biggest driver of success. These are: Product Audience Communications Executing well on PAC provides your business with focus and a market-informed approach. The PAC mindset creates a differentiated product and an activating message that reaches those most likely to buy. Consistent revenue and profit growth naturally follow.
Avoiding the “Popcorn-Tin” Syndrome: Three Steps to Strategic Marketing Success
Thu, May 23, 2019 — This post was written in collaboration with Tom Niesen, Sales Made Easy. “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu I had an epiphany about marketing strategy recently – and I’d like to credit it to this quote from the great Sun Tzu, but instead, it happened thanks to a large tin of popcorn. Let me explain: I was working with a client that, shall we say, was not focused on strategy, and the head of marketing, shall we also say, was, instead, keenly focused on doing stuff to show their worth. In this “Marketing of Things” mindset, this marketing leader (who shall remain nameless) felt the best marketing ploy du jour was a large tin of popcorn. Across the country, clients received multiple varieties of popcorn, along with a note asking for more business. I’m sure plenty of people enjoyed sharing the kernels of this marketing leader’s labors – but few, if any, made the connection to the company’s services – and even fewer picked up the phone.