Reviewing and re-invigorating your business in 2008
OK - bear with me here - before I tell you how to have a more successful 2008, I’m going to talk about the *brand* of your business for a few paragraphs - but don’t go all glassy-eyed on me, OK?
In simple terms, the brand of your business is the total message your business communicates to your customers. It’s the sum of your logo, your shop fitout, your customer service, and your business ethos - everything that adds up to ‘the real you’ in business terms.
In pure marketing terms, ‘branding’ and ‘brand management’ are complex concepts that are often vague and immeasurable - so much so that small business owners don’t often invest too much time in ‘their brand’ - well, not knowingly, at least.
The great news is that the smaller a business you are, the more your own personal ethos infiltrates your business, to the point where your business reflects the person *you* are, and vice-versa - in effect, your own values and beliefs shape your business, and hence how your customers perceive your business
- your brand.
In short, for a small business, the big picture of your brand takes care of itself - all you have to do is keep on making small, smart improvements to your business marketing each year.
With that in mind, here’s some top tips for reviewing and re-invigorating your business in 2008.
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Find last years’ 80/20 winners and losers.
The 80/20 rule is a reality of life, even if the actual ratio changes for your business - that is, some customers and clients will be either easier to serve, or worth more to you than another group of clients. And usually it’s the harder to please customers that take up the most of your time, whereas the in-out-buy customers are the real backbone of your business.
Some homework for you this month is to try to identify those customers that contribute the maximum to your bottom line with the minimum of effort - not with *no* effort, but just to identify the group of your customers that your business would prosper from.
An underlying assumption here is that you *have* some sort of business information to be able to both qualify (find out who) and quantify (find out how much) these customers. Often, you’re left with only ‘feelings’ about who your good customers are - er, that’s really not enough. Only when you’re armed with the right tools and information can you make informed choices about catering to the 20% of your customers that give you the 80% of your turnover. Calculators ready? Commence!
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Add/change your byline.
You might not be aware, but an important component to he marketing of any business is the byline - that’s a line of supporting text the usually accompanies the logo or wordmark/name of your business.
A byline is simply a re-enforcing element that lets you say in concrete terms what your business does, or what makes it different.
It really is the compliment to a logo or to your business name, in that if your business name is really clear and solid (eg: “Bill and Ted’s Plumbing”), then a byline can add some depth to your marketing message (eg: “Backyard water solutions”). Whereas if your business name is more unique, but not apparently obvious what you do (eg: “Aqueous Solutions”), then a byline can re-enforce your business name by filling in the blanks for your customers (eg: “The best darn plumbers in Drysdale”).
The *best* thing about using a byline for your business name is that it’s not set in concrete: if it lasts 3 or 4 years or so, that’s fine - change it to highlight a different aspect of your business at a later stage, or change it from something ‘educational’ to something ‘inspirational’ as your business grows.
Your business name should last 20 years or more; your logo/wordmark might last 10 years before it needs a slight makeover; your marketing message changes with every campaign you do; but your byline might only last 3 years or so - just enough time to serve it’s purpose before being used for a new aim.
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Discover and target a new market.
OK - by finding the ‘20′ of the 80/20 rule, we were trying to find our best customers that we *already* had on our books - now I’ll get you to do some more homework, but this time think laterally, and see if you can think of a new market or type of service that might be able to make use of your existing products/services, without radically reshaping your business.
In McDonalds language, we’ll be trying to upsell or cross-sell, not trying to turn Maccas in to a pizza parlour.
Is there a market for what you already do, but in a budget version? Perhaps in a premium version? Or with the facilities and staff you already have, is there a market that’s *almost* similar to your existing customer base, but that you can confidently move across to? And finally, geographically-speaking, are there opportunities to expand our business to another location or suburb? Is there an emerging trend for business similar to yours going completely online, and being totally ‘free’ of geographic boundaries?
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Splash out on some paint - physical or virtual.
Last, but not least, we all know the wonders that a lick of paint can do for both cosmetic *and* attitude changes - it’s a very small cost to apply a fresh cost to your shop - even just one wall - but it can make a vast difference to the brightness or colour of a room.
Similarly, for our friends either working out of home offices or with online-only businesses, a ‘virtual’ coat of paint implies that your web site might do with a refresh, too. Nothing grand - simply adding a client/project list of the last years’ accomplishments, or sprucing up your front page with some added colour or ‘grabs’ can do wonders to create some renewed interest in your online presence.
In both cases, it’s not even the cost of the ‘paint’, or the time involved that counts - it’s the fact that you went to some effort that will make it appreciated by both your customers and your staff.
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Well, that’s a very short list, but with a lot big questions, and a with lot of homework for you to do this month. Holidays are always a good excuse for some serious navel-gazing, so make use of your downtime - er, if you have any - and plan for some growth in your business in 2008.
AB out
