Having effective marketing systems in place can make the difference in your PI business being very successful or being very unsuccessful. If you don't have good systems in place you often become a slave to your business. On the other hand, if you do have effective marketing systems in place, you are able to consistently deliver great results. This is when your business truly becomes an asset.
There are 5 essential components in an effective marketing system, although there are quite a few ways that you can systematize each component. It is important to understand how each one of them works so that you can be an effective marketer.
The first component is lead generation. This might be something like putting an ad in the Yellow Pages, taking out a print ad in a magazine, pay per click marketing on Google AdWords, having an email marketing campaign, as well as many other forms of advertising. It's about getting people to see your business on a day to day basis.
It's important to figure out how many leads your advertising is bringing to your company and ultimately how much you are spending to generate each lead. Tracking your leads is very important in marketing so you can maximize your potential income per customer and minimize the amount you are spending.
The second component is lead capture which is basically getting the information from your leads so that when you respond back you are able to reply correctly and timely. This will help you minimize the amount of their time that you take and maximize your own time so you can get the job done more efficiently.
The third component is lead conversion which is turning someone into a paying client. The things you say and how you say them are really critical at this point. You want to make sure the focus is on the potential client and not on your expertise or all of the cases you have solved. Potential clients want to know what they are paying for and what you are going to be doing to benefit them. They are looking to solve their problem and you have to show them how you can solve their problem more effectively. Sometimes they will pay you a premium for that.
The forth component is follow-up. This might seems like a no-brainer, although a huge percentage of people don't do this step. If you never follow-up you are losing a great portion of your sales. In fact, 80% of sales are made somewhere between the 5th to 12th contact with someone.
Just staying in contact with potential clients could increase most PI's business tremendously because most people want to do business with someone that they feel comfortable with and they that they believe can be relied on to take care of their particular case. Making multiple contacts with clients not only helps to build trust, but also shows that you are persistent, which is a trait that most people look for in a PI.
The fifth component is database marketing. This is where most PI's really drop the ball because database marketing is about marketing to people that have already hired you at least once.
The way your customers can keep you in the forefront of their mind is by having some kind of a follow-up system where you communicate with them on a regular basis. For example, sending out a newsletter every 3 or 4 weeks can help to build rapport. Not only is marketing to your existing customers a lot cheaper, they already trust you so they are the most likely people to give you referrals to other clients.
Following these simple, yet effective, marketing strategies can help you greatly improve your PI business. Not only will they help you to streamline your workflow but they will help you to maximize your leverage in regards to customer acquisition and overall income generation.
