Page 32 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

GETTING STARTED

My advice following the survey was simple—send out
a brochure and make a follow-up call and they were 90 per
cent more likely to get the business.

Market research can be as simple as asking someone
how they heard about your business. This tells you if the
marketing dollars you are spending are working. Hopefully
a lot of your business comes from word-of-mouth recom-
mendations from other satisfied customers, a topic that is
talked about in greater detail later in the book.

A common problem with companies doing market re-
search is that if they don’t like the answers, they ignore
them. If you are going to take the time, cost and effort to
do market research be honest enough to listen to the results
and to do something about them. The success of your
business depends on knowing and understanding the needs
of your current customers and the needs of your potential
customers. Market research should be ongoing, targeting
different aspects of your business on a regular basis.

Once again, of all the companies I have dealt with,
those that are the most successful regularly conduct market
research at all levels with their customers, their staff and
even their competitors. They use the information that they
collect to improve their level of service and to plan the
future direction of their business.

What type of promotional material should
you use?

Promotional material evolves as your business matures.
Today it may be a simple, one-page, photocopied flyer that
can be dropped into letterboxes if that is all that you can
afford. Perhaps tomorrow you will have a glossy magazine
featuring your offices around the world. The main aim is
to always make the best promotional material that you can

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