Profitable Marketing System
Turn Your Business Into a Lovable Money Making Machine.
Create Happy Repeat Customers and Glowing Word of Mouth.
Below is the process I use to help grow owner-operated business.
The Wizard Marketing Compass
The Marketing Compass is a strategy tool I use to help position my clients. It helps visualise where a business is and where it needs to be. It helps keep them on track.
“We could charge our clients to do this, it could become a profit centre.”
“A good idea. And thanks for suggesting. But we’ll absorb the cost.”
That was part of a conversation between one of my clients and a new staff member. The staff member was thinking of the business first. An admirable trait. However, my client was thinking of his customers and the long-term health of his business. Do the right thing by your customers and they’ll do the right thing by you is his mantra.
My client knows his position on the Marketing Compass and makes decisions accordingly. He is in the process of educating his staff so they know too.
Note: If this conversation happened at a bank, the answer would have been, “Great idea let’s charge them.”
The Four Points of the Marketing Compass
The North/South axis represents the marketing focus of the business.
Relational (North) is customer focused.
Transactional (South) is product, service and business focused.
The East/West axis represents the level of marketing strategy and planning.
Systematic (East) is by design. It is long-term thinking and detailed planning.
Reactive (West) is by accident. It is short-term thinking and shoot from the hip planning.
The Four Quadrants of the Marketing Compass
1. Transactional Reactive
Built by accident.
Product, service & business focused.
Short-term thinking and planning.
The way a small business stays small or goes broke.
Not the place to be.
2. Relational Reactive
Built by accident.
Customer focused.
Short-term thinking and planning.
The way a small business can become a good-sized business.
But growth hits a glass ceiling.
3. Relational Systematic
Built by design.
Customer focused.
Long-term thinking and planning.
The way a small business can become a big profitable business.
The way a business becomes a Loveable Money-Making Machine.
4. Transactional Systematic
Built by design.
Product, service & business focused. (for corporates: Shareholder focused)
Long-term thinking and planning.
The way of banks, Telcos, internet providers, electrical retailers & car dealers.
Profitable, but not loved.
Let’s look at Transactional Reactive where most local owner-operated businesses sit.
Transactional Reactive Marketing focuses on tactics, products and services. It’s short-term thinking and short-term advertising. It’s like a series of one-night stands. It’s wheel spinning. It’s emotionally draining.
Transactional Reactive Marketing relies on traditional wisdom, silo mentality, discounting, promotions, irrelevant information, copying competitors, advice from salespeople, well-meaning family and friends, and chasing silver bullets.
What are the consequences of Transactional Reactive Marketing?
A long list of shitty stuff!
You buy short-term schedules on radio and television. You’re disappointed.
You buy digital ads. You’re disappointed.
You post on Facebook and Instagram. You’re disappointed.
You are busy with activity but sales stay stagnant.
You hire SEO experts promising to make you number 1. You’re disappointed.
You spread your marketing budget hoping something works.
You don’t know what to say in your ads. So you let media people say it for you.
You have a series of providers sending out conflicting messages to customers.
You buy media, but don’t know how much to invest.
You drop prices and run a sale. You get a sugar high followed by a low.
You get marketing advice from sales reps pushing their own agenda.
You copy what others are doing; businesses that don’t know what they’re doing.
You have a better business, but your competitors grow, while you stay stuck.
You ask people where they heard about you, because you don’t know what works.
You buy short-term advertising options because you lack confidence.
You don’t add up all your spending for fear it will scare you.
You get overwhelmed with marketing and advertising options.
You are always desperate for more customers.
Your business doesn’t grow as fast as it could.
Your marketing bucket is full of holes. Customers trickle in and fall out.
You don’t think like a customer. You’re inside the bottle looking out.
You get busy and stop doing what worked. Then business gets slow again.
You get frustrated and disillusioned.
Transactional Reactive Marketing wastes mountains of your money.
Transactional Reactive Marketing wastes years of your time.
Most businesses practice Transactional Reactive Marketing to varying degrees.
It’s why most marketing disappoints or fails.
However, this presents an opportunity for you and your business!
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expresses what he calls one of Amazon’s most important values:
customer obsession.“We talk about it, customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession,” he said. Often companies say they are focused on customers, but they really spend most of their energy reacting to and talking about competitors.
“If your whole culture is competitor-obsessed, it’s hard to stay motivated if you are out in front. Whereas customers are (always) unsatisfied, always discontent, always want more. So no matter how far in front you get of competitors, you are still behind your customers. They are always pulling you along,” he said.
- www.businessinsider.com.au April 2018
Amazon practices Relational Systematic Marketing.
You can too.
Relational Systematic Marketing is customer focused. It’s a long-term relationship built on a solid foundation of empathy, trust, bonding and delivering all you promise… plus a little more.
Relational Systematic Marketing is built by design. It’s when strategies, processes and tactics work together; aligning the goals of the customer with the goals of your business.
Relational Systematic Marketing is the process that turns your family-owned business, into a Loveable Money-Making Machine.
Naysayers would say, “But Amazon can apply Relational Systematic Marketing because it’s big.”
The fact is, Amazon became BIG by practicing Relational Systematic Marketing when it was small.
Need some examples of some owner-operated business that practice Relational Systematic Marketing?
1800-Got-Junk - Junk removal - Canada, USA, Australia
Absolutely Dental - Dentist - Townsville, Australia
Happy Tint - Window Tinter - Melbourne, Australia
Goettl Air Conditioning - Air Conditioning - Arizona, California
The above are shining examples of how a small business can grow to be a big, profitable business by being customer focused. By applying Relational Systematic Marketing.
So, where do you currently sit on the Wizard Marketing Compass?
The Relational Systematic Marketing Process
Traditional marketing is a three-step process.
Attract. Convert. Retain.
It's all about doing something TO the customer.
In the world of the Transactional Reactive business, it goes like this:
Attract: Have a sale. Drop prices. Run ads on radio or television or on Facebook.
Convert: Sell discounted products or services to transactional customers.
Retain: Hope these same customers dazzled by your customer service will come back later and pay full price for more products and services.
Good in theory but fails in practice.
All you have done is train customers to wait for your SALE.
It's the marketing process that keeps small businesses, small.
Businesses that grow BIG and profitable use the five-step Relational Systematic Marketing process.
Bond. Guide. Satisfy. Nurture. Delight.
BOND
Share your story. Create an emotional attachment with customers.
My business partner Roy H. Williams says it best.
"The purpose of customer bonding is to become the business that people think of immediately and feel the best about when they – or any of their friends – need what you sell. You have to begin reaching them before they need you, and then wait until they do.”
“Customer bonding creates community – surrogate family – connectedness – relationship – belonging. Long-term customer bonding is the way big brands, and big businesses, are built."
Here is an example of a Bonding ad.
"Growing up in Sydney’s Western Suburbs,
I was a skinny ethnic kid with crooked teeth and no confidence.
Not a good mix.
Luckily, I had a caring family dentist.
He explained how he could fix my smile.
And he did.
Being able to smile with confidence changed my life.
He inspired me to become a dentist.
I’m Dinesh Singham from Absolutely Dental
and I'd love to help you smile again."
In 70 words Dinesh shares his WHY.
Now you feel like you know him a little better.
You feel more connected.
Dinesh can share his story on television, radio, newspaper, in magazines or on social media.
It's Dinesh's message that resonates with us, not the media he chooses to use.
GUIDE
Lead the way. Make it easy for customers to buy.
Help customers get from where they are to where they want to be, on the phone, inside your store and on your website. Remove the obstacles and the limiting factors. Reduce the steps. Make it visible what to do next. Help not sell.
Example
Townsville Stone sells natural and engineered stone bench tops. As a customer you have a vast range of types of stone, brands, colours and price points to choose from. With so many options it can be overwhelming and hard to decide.
Mark Sanker, the owner makes it easy.
Do you prefer natural stone or engineered stone?
Light colours or dark colours?
Patterns or plain?
Then Mark shows the customer three price ranges, high, medium and low.
This process quickly guides the customer to the perfect stone for their budget and taste.
SATISFY
Meet customer expectations. Deliver the experience you promise.
The stories you tell, build an expectation. Don’t set the bar so high you can’t jump it.
All business owners think they deliver excellent customer service. And most local advertising promises that. However…
"According to a recent CEI Survey, 86% of buyers will pay more for better customer experience. But only 1% of customers feel that vendors meet their expectations. In another study by Bain & Co., they asked 362 executives if they were customer-centric. 96% said there were and 80% believed they were superior at delivering great customer experiences, but tragically only 8% of those companies’ customers agreed."
*Big thanks to my business partner and good mate Bryan Eisenberg for sourcing those surveys. Bryan is an internationally recognized authority & pioneer in online marketing, improving conversion rates, and helping organizations improve their customer experiences.
So, if there is a deficiency in the quality of your product, service, customer experience, FIX IT!
NURTURE
Strengthen the bond. Build the customer relationship pre & post exchange.
Customer support. Keep in touch but focus on the customer, not you. Remind customers to revisit. Share stories. Reward loyal customers. Get involved in the community. Don’t always be selling!
Example
Roy H. Williams writes the Monday Morning Memo. The Memo is FREE marketing, advertising and life advice. Every Monday for the last 25-years the memo has gone out. Roy has NEVER missed a week in those 25-years. Many readers become clients OR attend classes at Wizard Academy, OR become partners in the International marketing firm Wizard of Ads. Roy gives away valuable advice but never sells his services to the reader. The Memo is Roy's way of building and nurturing relationships.
STORY & EXPERIENCE
Story: is what you say.
Experience: is what you deliver.
Trust and Credibility happen when Story and Experience align.
Customers give you money in exchange for your product or service. You’re even-steven.
You’ll have SATISFIED customers.
But, when these don’t align, you lose customers and get bad reviews.
But SATISFIED will not create glowing word of mouth.
SATISFIED will not make your business a Lovable Money-Making Machine. You need something more.
DELIGHT
Surprise customers with pleasurable experiences.
Your product or service performs better than expected. You have planned word of mouth strategies. You give customers a little bit extra.
Example
When we travel, Buddy our Toy Poodle goes to Yapper Valley Pet Resort. Yapper Valley has a pet taxi pick up and return service. Individual cabins with air-conditioning, music, television and a great play area. All for only $28 a day.
But it is the planned word of mouth strategy that creates Delight.
Every day we get an email from the resort with photos of Buddy enjoying himself plus what he did that day!
"First up this morning, we turned on the sprinkler for those water babies to play in 💦 while the others enjoyed sunbathing on the verandah. ☀️
Afterwards, we played hide and seek with kongs filled with delicious treats. 😍
This afternoon we’ve decided to have a chill one and nap. 😴
Tonight after dinner we are watching The Incredibles 🦸♀️🦸♂️"
The daily updates allow us to relax on holidays or while away on business know Buddy is being looked after. One email creates Delight.
You can add Delight at the Bond, Guide, Satisfy or Nurture stages.
Magic happens when Delight touches all four.
There you have it. The five-step Relational Marketing System.
It’s the process to create Happy Repeat Customers & Glowing Word of Mouth.
It’s the process that will make your business a Lovable Money-Making Machine.
Don’t think Relational Marketing is a do once and set and forget.
The Relational Marketing System is a process of continual optimization.
It’s SIMPLE. Not easy. As the saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”
Craig Arthur
Don't have the time to do your own marketing; prefer to concentrate on running your business? Hire Wizard of Ads Marketing to guide your marketing and grow your business faster. Schedule an alignment meeting, call 0417 780 882 or send an email.