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Synergize Your Center Marketing! 

Is Your Marketing Firing on All Cylinders? 

I’ve worked with over 1500 startups and small businesses and can tell you that building a sustainable business is not easy.  A business needs to take off before it runs out of time, energy, money and resources. The reality is that most won’t make it past five years.  

Repeat and referral business is the key to long term success. That means getting to a “critical mass” of happy and loyal customers. The good news is that while we often underestimate what it takes to get off the ground,  we also underestimate the magnitude of success we might have once we take flight.

BRAND

Good branding amplifies and lubricates nearly every aspect of your marketing. Having a good name and domain makes it easier for customers to find and refer you. Corporations like Apple, Amazon and Starbucks understand this and their brand components are off balance sheet assets worth billions. 

While a brand ultimately lives in the hearts and minds of your customers, a good name gives you a huge head start.  The best ones position their  business well, are unique, memorable and easy to find on the internet. In a world with over 300 million registered domains, a unique dot com address offers tremendous advantages! 

WEBSITE

A good website makes it easy to communicate your offerings, features and benefits to prospective customers. The best ones grab attention, engage customers and tell your story.  Essentially, they are digital brochures and stores on the internet. 

 Here are questions to ask yourself:

  • Does your site look professional?
  • Does it present well on smart phones? 
  • Does it offer sliding billboards and videos that help you tell the story? 
  • Is it easy for customers to schedule or book appointments online?  
  • Does it offer pre-paid packages, discounts to special groups and  integrate with your PMA?

Understand that not all websites are created equal and that there are hidden meta tags, embedded, SEO terms, links, favicons and other site components that you may not fully appreciate.

PRINT / SIGNAGE / PROMOTION

A few years ago, my neighbor had engaged a handyman to do some home repairs.  He had a number of magnetic business cards stuck to his van and I took one.  The result was that he received  thousands of dollars in repair business from me.  Anyone who was been to a business mixer or networking event knows that going without a business card is like going naked. It just isn’t done! 

Questions to ask yourself: 

  • Do you have a professional looking business card, email, and website address?  
  • Are brochures, flyers, postcards and gift cards part of your marketing collateral? 
  • Does your print marketing share a common look and feel? 

If not, you could be losing sales. 

BUSINESS MODEL

Bartolomé de Medina was a successful Spanish merchant who became fascinated with the problem of extracting silver from ore in  the Bolivian Andes. For months Medina experimented with a number of techniques but nothing worked.  Out of desperation he added leather tanner (copper sulfate) to the mix catalyzed the reaction to unleashed the silver in the ore. 

For 265 years, Potosi’s silver contributed nearly 20% of all known silver produced in the world. It was at the core of the Spanish Empire’s great wealth.

A business formula refers to a systematic approach or set of principles used to achieve success in business. It encompasses various elements, strategies, and tactics that contribute to the operation, growth, and profitability of a business.  As in Medina’s case, missing a key ingredient can make all of the difference.

The business formula is the real treasure of your business!  Questions to ask are: 

  • Do you know what a business model is … and why it is important?  (Hint: Finding a location and installing equipment is not a business model.) 
  • Do you have “product-market fit” or understand your key financial metrics?
    Hope is not a strategy!

LOCATION

A top marketing guru has said that “Location. Location, and location are the three most important marketing decisions you will make for your business”.  In other words, the importance of where  you locate your center cannot be understated. This is especially true for retail businesses that depend upon consumer walk-in traffic and shopping behaviors. Questions to ask include: 

  • Is the market area big or dense enough to sustain your offering?
  • How accessible is your location? 
  • Are their transportation arteries? 
  • Is the center of an appropriate size and potential floor plan configuration? 
  • What do the lease and terms look like?

LEAD GENERATION

Getting repeat and referral business is a key for long term success.  Word of mouth and networking are two great ways to grow your business but you may first  need to prime the pump. 

Not all lead generators are created equal. Google and Facebook offer free listings but understand that those are merely “foot in the door” offerings. Real and consistent lead flow comes from paid digital advertising. Paid YouTube Ads are an especially good bargain right now. 

Old school lead generators such as neighborhood Val-Paks, style magazines and every door direct mailers might also be considered. In summary, not having consistent lead flow is like not having blood flow…it can kill your business. 

It is important not to rely on just one channel.  For a year, I have the advantage of being top ranked on Yahoo.  Unexpectedly, the search engine revised their algorithm and moved me to page five…essentially eliminating any leads from that channel.