CHICAGO — Getting the word out about what a drycleaning company offers and can do for its clients is essential to bringing new customers through the front door or onto routes. Cutting through the ever-increasing noise that the public is subjected to, however, requires some planning and action. Fortunately, there are low-cost options for cleaners and other small-business owners to do just that.
During their webinar, “Nine Steps to Marketing on a Shoestring Budget,” hosted by SCORE (the Service Corps of Retired Executives), Brian Moran and Jocelyn Ring offered ways open to owners and operators that cost little, if anything. Moran is the founder of Brian Moran & Associates and Small Business Edge, and Ring is a brand strategist and leadership coach. Also, together, they founded and host the “Bricks or Sticks” business podcast.
Before launching into their nine steps, however, they suggest that owners answer some fundamental questions about what they want to achieve before setting a course on a marketing plan.
The Nature of Marketing
“Terms in business can get very confusing and overwhelming,” Ring says, “so we like to break them down and make them as simple as possible. At a basic foundational level, marketing is simply telling people about you, your business, your products and your services.”
The goal of marketing, she says, is to prod the recipient into motion.
“Most marketing messages will include an invitation to buy,” Ring says, “but if they don’t have that, every marketing message should have some kind of call to action — something to invite people to learn more, to build that relationship, because marketing really is about relationships.”
And, as there are more and more marketing messages bombarding potential customers every day, there is a basic tenet that operators should never ignore.
“What we’ve learned over decades of doing this is that people do business with people they know, like and trust,” Ring says. “So, marketing, at the heart of it, is building relationships and offering people the opportunity to learn more about you and for you to learn more about them.”
Strong Marketing Foundations
Ring says that, before sending out marketing messages, successful business owners need to think clearly about the message they plan to send.
“Part of marketing is understanding what makes your product, your service and your company unique,” Ring says. “What are your values? What is your unique selling proposition? What is your pricing? How do you want to sell? You need to know all of that first before you ever create any messaging.
“You also want to have an understanding of who your customer is, so that when you are creating the messaging, you have a very clear idea of how to connect with them.”
Understand what the competitive landscape looks like is also key, Ring says.
“You might have different competitors in different facets of your business,” she says. “When somebody’s deciding whether to purchase from you, they have a consideration set in their head of other options. Knowing what those are allows you to figure out how to position your product and service in a unique way to connect with your customer.”
A big part of this puzzle, Moran says, is finding out what your customers are thinking.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” he says. “A lot of times we don’t want to bother our customers with questions, and we feel like we might ruin the sale if we ask them why they bought from us. But customers buy from you for different reasons. It could be quality, it could be convenience, it could be price or it could be the uniqueness of your product or service. The more you know about that, the more solid your foundation is in terms of marketing, because you know how to send the right message to the right segment of your audience.”
“We want to be aware of our competition,” Ring says, “but not so fixated on beating them. We want to know what is involved, but really our focus should be on delivering to our customers and delighting our customers.”
Come back Thursday for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll begin our dive into the nine steps to marketing on a shoestring budget.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
