Interior Design as a Value-Add

Marketing, Owner

I have a guest post for you this time from Natasha Bozic, an interior designer in my network group. Builders in particular should consider adding in an interior design service to what they offer to clients in order to help differentiate themselves from competitors and also deepen the relationship with the potential client. Being married to a builder, Natasha knows the process and how best to fit in. Here’s her story.

How many times it has happened that instead of following your daily schedule and focusing on your construction work, you got caught in long discussions and questions from clients about what paint colour to choose, what is the best floor plan for a bathroom renovation, where to buy certain products for the renovation projects, what colour vanity to choose, what do you think about their tile selection etc? Read more….

niche target

The Power of Niche Marketing

Marketing

With the construction industry being in a fairly buoyant state at the moment the apparent need to focus on marketing does not seem to be a high priority.  This may appear to be the situation on the surface, but ignoring it can lead to a roller coaster of leads coming in and result in a feast or famine of work in the longer term.  Why not take the opportunity to proactively refine your marketing and provide a solid lead generation machine of your ideal projects?  A corner-stone of this is the strategy of niche marketing.

Niche marketing, or specialization is used by industries of all types because doing a few things with a high level of expertise will bring recognition and a reputation of excellence quicker than doing many things well. Read on to see how you can choose a niche for your business and the benefits it brings.

What Is Your Signature System?

Marketing

Your “purple cow” is also known as your signature system, your unique selling proposition, or USP.  It is a sentence or phrase that explains what makes you special. It gives your prospects a reason to do business with you rather than your competitors. A good USP that is properly used makes your marketing a lot more effective, because it gives you dominance over a market niche.
It can be one of the most transformational shifts in your business right now and can be done at little or no cost. So how can you do this?

The Discipline of Market Leaders

Marketing, Planning

No company can simultaneously excel at delivering market leading performance in all three value disciplines. This is because each disciplines requires completely different operating processes, different ways of thinking and behaving. When a company choses one ‘lead’ discipline to excel in they are placed to become market leaders.

Conversely, when a company attempts to excel in all three disciplines they become, at best, mediocre at all and will oscillate in the market. Which market discipline is the right one for your company?

Still Using A Spreadsheet to Track Leads?

Marketing, Sales

While spreadsheets are relatively easy to use and widely known, it’s definitely not the most efficient or effective way to collect, analyze, and manage business data, especially if you’re a company that’s hoping to grow in the near future.

There are clear distinctions between the features of a CRM versus a spreadsheet. If you have to manage multiple leads coming in and have a multi-step sales process, using a CRM system may be a step worth taking, and need not cost much.

How to make your emails look professional

Marketing

People these days expect your business to have a domain name and a website. An email address like jsmith@yourcompany.co.nz tells people you’re serious about your business. 

Free email services, such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, are great for personal use, but when you use a free email account for business purposes, people will start to doubt your professionalism and credibility.  If you want your prospective clients to take you seriously and you don’t have your own domain name email address, I recommend you….

How to stop wasting money on advertising

Marketing

There was a classic statement from a company executive I read once (can’t remember who) that said, “I know we waste 50% of the money we spend on advertising, I just don’t know which 50%”.

That might be okay, but not ideal, if you are a big company with a big marketing budget. Most of my clients don’t fall into that category, so I am insistent that money spent of direct advertising is as effective as possible and is intended to generate an action or response by a prospect.

Catch More Sales Leads

Marketing

When you are out fishing and only have one line over the side, you limit the number of fish you can catch in the time available.  The same applies when marketing your business.  Use only one marketing channel and you still may catch a customer, but if your channel goes unnoticed, you can come up empty handed.

The answer, just like when you are fishing, is to use several baited hooks in your marketing.  Also, make sure the bait is enticing and kept fresh.

How successful companies think

Marketing, Owner

No company can be successful today if it attempts to be all things to all consumers. Rather, the most successful companies — the Market Leaders — select a unique value that they alone deliver to their chosen market better than anyone else.
The big question is, “where will you focus your business’s Vision and Value Discipline for the future?” Pick one corner of the Value Discipline triangle and make it your anchor point, then develop your business processes to deliver on it. Read on to find out more about the different value Disciplines.

Marketing 101: Horse before Cart

Marketing

I often see small companies approach their marketing on a random, suck-it-and-see approach, therefore waste a lot of money and time going nowhere.  They will try one channel, after being approached by a slick salesperson with a “deal”, put a quick campaign in place and more often than not, be disappointed by the results.  Thinking…