Effective marketing techniques

Take your business to the next level

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Contents It starts with the customer 4

Articulate product and service offerings 5

Focus on the value 6

Take your website seriously 6

Time to go social 7

Personalise your emails 8

Be consistent with your messaging 8

Track your business performance 9

Use events to your advantage 9

Build on your influence 9

Top notch sales team 10

Preparing your books with MYOB online accounting software 11

Which accounting software is for me? 12

Looking for an Approved Partner, bookkeeper or trainer? 14

Find us 16

The information provided within this document is of a general nature and is intended to be a guide only, in accordance with our Legal Disclaimer. For specific advice regarding your particular circumstances, please consult your tax agent or the Inland Revenue Department as appropriate.

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For a small business, the marketing budget is often small or non-existent. Taking a strategic and integrated approach can help maximise your marketing efforts and costs.

It starts with the customer

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Articulate your product or service offering

Your marketing, like your product or service, must start with your customers’ interests and needs.Unless your marketing addresses what they care about most, buyers will never see your small business as a valuable resource for information with viable product or service solutions.

Think about what problems your customers face and how your business can resolve these problems. The convergence of these two areas is what is known as the ‘sweet spot’. By narrowing in on your ’sweet spot’, you will see your business thrive, as your customers will see your business as a useful resource for problem solving.

When planning your marketing initiatives, try to avoid focusing only on your solutions or offerings.

To really understand and connect with your customers, first identify the problem behind the solution you offer.

+ How can your product make someone’s life easier?

+ What is the challenge you can solve for your customers?

By understanding what problems your customers are experiencing, the better you’ll be able to understand and deliver to their requirements using your solutions. Your customers will love you for it.

sweet spot

Unique brand expertise and value

Customer interest

and needs

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Many small business owners discount their product or service to attract more customers and increase sales. However, cutting prices may not be the best option when you have a quality service or product. Building value takes hard work and does not happen overnight, but it’s a much more sustainable strategy than discounting. If you discount too easily and quickly, customers may perceive your product or service to be of a lower quality.

Both the quality of your product and your customer service contribute to your business value. If you make your business the best at what it does, your reputation and testimonials will attract customers willing to pay more for good work.

In the increasingly digital world, it’s hard for a small business to be taken seriously – or to be found – without a website. It can really boost your credibility if you have a great, informative website with a custom domain name and matching email address. e.g. www.dogwashers.com and jessica@dogwashers.com

Being consistent with your messages on and offline will help your credibility.

Focus on the value

Take your website seriously

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Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can be very powerful tools when used the right way. The aim of promoting your business through social platforms is to expand your connections, engage your customers, and strengthen your network.

When someone opts into one of your email lists, you can easily ask them for some basic information such as their name. When it comes to email marketing, giving each email a personal touch makes a big difference. Being personal shows you know something about your customer and makes it easier to connect. Your communications should include what will interest them the most. Test different wording, calls to action and subject headings and analyse the results to see what works best.

Think about all of your communications, including advertising, brochures, websites and social media. If one consumer saw your ad, visited your website and opened your direct mail, would they recognise your business everytime? If the answer is no, gather all of your marketing communications in one place – from ads and emails to uniforms. You’ll be able to get a good overview of the consistency in your messaging.

Time to get social

Personaliseyour emails

Be consistent with your messaging

Be honest and look for inconsistencies in your messaging and correct these as you go along.

Boomerang for Gmail allows you to personalise your emails, schedule them for a specific time to be sent and reminds you to follow up.

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There are virtually hundreds of ways you can track the performance of your business. But if you tried them all you wouldn’t have time to get anything else done. Instead, it’s best to only track activity that relates to your marketing, sales and business goals.

Keep your business goals in mind. Schedule time to measure performance. Keep your metrics simple.

Track your business performance

Events are still some of the most effective lead generation strategies for small businesses. When choosing the events you’re going to host, sponsor, or speak at, think about how your product or service offering will interest your customers the most.

Use events to your advantage

Listen, help, provide solutions and build trust. It starts with networking and building relationships.

Communicating with your staff and customers is all about connecting, engaging and being transparent. As a small business owner, your goal is connecting and influencing people, not controlling them. Your aim should be to build your credibility not your popularity.

Build on your influence

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Top notch sales team

Post-sales

Once the opportunity has closed, congrats! That’s a great win for your business and a step toward meeting your revenue goals.

Post-sale, marketing is as important as ever. You still need to demonstrate value to your customers and ensure they’re successfully using your product to its full potential. This is a great way for you to stay in touch with your customers and keep relationships from going cold. Happy customers are very important for your marketing, as they will be more likely to provide you with testimonials and influence good word of mouth.

Reward regular customers

Positive word of mouth can bring a lot of customers your way. Reward your regular customers to say thanks for passing on the good word, and encourage them to continue to do so.

Pre-sales

As the owner of your business, your biggest driver is making sales! Once a lead has indicated they’re ready to speak with you or your sales team, think about how you’re going to close your sale. When delivered correctly, your sales pitch or tailored conversation will push your buyers to purchase. Remember, each customer is different – tailor your sales pitch as much as you need to.

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Preparing your books using MYOB accounting software can save you a lot of time. It has all the smarts you need to complete your pay run like GST codes that you can allocate to each of your business transactions. Generate reports detailing GST related income, expenses and capital purchases to complete your GST return with ease and efficiency.

Preparing your books with MYOB online accounting software

Using MYOB to do my books has been a huge help. It makes it easy to file my GST returns, something I dreaded having to do.

Denyse Forsyth Kruizey Kidz

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All the features you need to take care of business.

Quick and easy to set up, MYOB Essentials has all the features you need to take care of your day-to-day bookwork, including:

MYOB BankFeeds™

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Try for free

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Take care of your people

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Meet your employer obligations

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