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The Twelve Secrets to Successful Marketing
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Author:
Article:
The Twelve Secrets to Successful Marketing
By Kevin Lister
In our Website business poll, the number one issue trades people currently report is sales and marketing. Now that the real estate boom has ended and interest rates have stabilized, contractors and sub-contractors are finding it harder and harder to get work - the phone is just not ringing like it used to. Thus, they are putting back on their marketing hats (reluctantly for some) and struggling with just how to market their construction services effectively. With this in mind, my articles in the coming months will share with you my top twelve secrets to successful marketing. I hope these tips will energize you as well as provide some focus and direction on how to profitably market your construction services in the coming year.
The following are the first three of my top twelve secrets to successful marketing:
| 1. Profitable Target Market
To successfully market your business, you need to be looking for the right customers - people who have a need for your services and adequate funds to purchase them. If either of these two traits is missing, your business will never reach its potential.
If you are struggling to achieve job profitability, I suggest that you review your past jobs. Your goal is to determine which jobs were the most profitable and what the customers of these services were like both geographically and demographically. Once you have established this, you should then begin promoting the most profitable services and target your ideal customer. Your goal is to transition over time from doing the less profitable work for non-ideal customers to only doing the more profitable projects for the ideal clientele. | 
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2. Strong Competitive Advantage
Once you have determined your more profitable projects and ideal customers, you need to do start communicating your competitive advantage - what makes you different from your competitors and why customers should hire you. Too many times, I see contractors fall short in this area and thus lose some very good jobs.
When communicating your competitive advantage to your target customers, be sure your message focuses on the benefits of working with your organization, not just the features. These benefits might include saving time or money, less stress, peace of mind, a greater return on their investment, etc. Remember that good customers want to work with a reputable contractor -- one that does quality work, is on time and on budget and will return promptly to address any warranty issues. It is your job to help customers understand that you are that type of contractor, because if you don't, I assure you the contractor you lost the project to did.
3. Simple Marketing Plan
The reason most businesses fail is poor planning. This is also the case when it comes to marketing execution. If you intend to market, you really need a written plan.
A marketing plan not need be complex. It can be as simple as two pages. It should include your sales and profit goals for the year, your target market, your competitive advantage, as well as the four Ps of marketing - price, product, place (distribution) and promotion. I will discuss the four Ps further in numbers four, five and six of my twelve secrets to successful marketing.
One rule of thumb with marketing planning is to budget between 2% to 3% of your projected yearly sales for your marketing expenditures. Your promotion plan should be balanced, include a calendar and costs for all tactics being used. There is plenty of material on the Internet that can provide you with marketing planning help, but if you have a specific marketing planning question you would like me to answer, please feel free to contact me.
I write for the Contractor Power Newsletter on a regular basis and am always looking for interesting and relevant topics. If anyone has a business-related question that you would like me to answer in one of my upcoming articles, please feel free to contact me at info@paradigmstrategies.com. Also, if you would like to read any of my previously written Contractor Power newsletter articles you can view them at our Web site www.paradigmstrategies.com.
About the Author
Kevin Lister, founder and president of Paradigm Strategies, the business advising firm to the trades, is a leader in the field of business performance improvement. He possesses nearly 20 years experience in business management and consulting, effectively operating his own ventures and assisting others with realizing business success.
With an entrepreneurial spirit and CEO's point of view, Kevin brings hands-on expertise to helping building contractors, sub-contractors, and suppliers. Kevin has deep knowledge and understanding of the trades, based on fifteen years in the construction industry, a family history of owning trades businesses, and a genuine interest and enjoyment in helping blue collar enterprises.
Kevin possesses a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Bentley College. He teaches management and marketing for the University of Phoenix Online.
Kevin is a member of several professional and business organizations, including the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC), the Associated Subcontractors of Massachusetts (ASM), the Builders' Association of Greater Boston (BAGB) and the Boston Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). |
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