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Audit Your Business Marketing
 A Personal Message from Nial Adams
- Business Growth Specialist & Founder of Positive-Response.net
Firstly, a Serious and Important Statement:
“Let me start by giving you some startling facts…”
1) The vast majority of business owners (small, medium and even the large ones!) are NEEDLESSLY wasting staggering amounts of money every month on marketing that just doesn’t work for them. Not surprisingly we speak to lots of people who see their marketing as a business cost, never really knowing where the money goes, or why - all they know is they need to do something else to make their business marketing work!
2) Spending money on marketing doesn’t guarantee you positive results, no matter how enthusiastic your efforts might be – you need to use the RIGHT TYPE of marketing methods – ones that are APPROPRIATE to your business. Lots of hard-earned profit is wasted because business owners and managers are simply doing the wrong things when it comes to marketing.
3) Getting your marketing right is critical if you want to build a strong, sustainable and above all PROFITABLE business – all successful business owners know this. If you’re new to business, or perhaps just thinking about starting one you need to grab this fact clearly – without good marketing you will struggle to get customers and without them you’ve no hope of surviving!
There are lots of shocking statistics about business failures but the one to pay attention to is that nearly 80% of all new companies will fail in the first year of trading. Of what’s left about the same percentage will go bust in the next five years. In nearly all cases it will be for the same reason – a lack of profitable customers…
With a clear approach to marketing you can avoid all this pain and see your efforts grow and reward you, go on to enjoy your business and reap the rewards.
If you’ve been in business a while you’ve probably seen your industry change, maybe customers are more astute and have greater choice, perhaps you are getting diminishing returns from your advertising and other marketing efforts. Maybe you have recognised that it’s time to review things and set a new plan for the future.
“The general approach to marketing simply doesn’t work for me!” – does this sound familiar?
To know what to do next we recommend you take just a few moments to complete the self-test below before you read further in this report.
Self Test –
Before we go any further I’d like you to take no more that 60 seconds to complete the following self-test. This will confirm if you need to read further and find out how we could help you solve your marketing headaches. Just by considering and answering these questions, for yourself, will help you understand what you need to do next.
Question 1. Do you expect to see your business grow in 2007? If ‘YES’ then by how much?
a) By less than 10%
b) 10-25%
c) 25-50%
d) 50-100%
e) More than 100%
f) Not Sure
If ‘NO’ why do you feel like this?
Question 2. Do you feel you are getting the right results from your current marketing?
a) No, it’s just not profitable
b) Not doing any marketing
c) Not sure what results we should be getting
d) Yes, my marketing is working!
e) Yes, an increase would be great though!!
f) Yes but how do I do more and be different?
Question 3. How much time and money do you currently invest in your business marketing? (Tick more than one if needed)
a) Nothing at all at the moment
b) Less than £100 per month altogether
c) I never seem to have enough time to focus on it
d) Over £100 per month but less than £467
e) Between £467 and £1000 per month altogether
f) More than £1000 per month
Question 4. If you recognise you want your business to grow, and you know you could be getting better results from your marketing, why isn’t this happening? (Tick more than one if needed)
a) I’m just not sure of WHAT to do or HOW to do it
b) I guess I’ve not yet committed to making these changes happen
c) I want to create changes but really not sure it will work (need more confidence)
d) I am not sure how much I need to spend to make this happen
Question 5. What is the most likely course of action you can see yourself taking next (honestly!)
a) I’ll get to the end of this report and think “that’s interesting” but probably not do anything
b) I’ll get to the end of this report and think more about how I can make some changes
c) I’ll get to the end, think about it more and probably do something, search Internet, read some books and then come back to it again when it crosses my mind
d) I think I don’t need to get to the end because the penny has just dropped – I need to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING in order to make sure change happens – perhaps I should call Nial and ask for his help
Hopefully that has helped you to get a better understanding of what you need to do in order to progress.
So What’s Going On Out There?!
It’s worrying to hear so much rubbish talked about marketing and often I come across business owners hanging on to ideas and approaches that just don’t work for them. And yet surprisingly they still do them and expect things to change for the better! They do this for two main reasons;
a) They follow everyone else, copying what they are doing thinking they must be right – when often these other business owners are also getting terrible results and just hanging on by a thread, or…
b) They simply get SOLD marketing and advertising by ‘professionals’ who have one singular goal; extract the most amount of revenue from the client
It’s a fact that most business owners often find themselves having to trust those people who are there to help them get their marketing right – like advertising agents, web designers, printers, PR agents, graphic designers, etc. Please don’t misunderstand us; there are lots of good providers out there (I work closely with some of them!), unfortunately though, many of these people just aren’t marketing experts. And whilst most have good intentions (but a serious lack of knowledge) listening to what they THINK they know about marketing can present a huge risk – a risk with your money and your business future!
Over a number of years I’ve learned that a very large proportion of people who work inside the marketing industry and sector often have very limited, or even no, real knowledge of what works. This is especially the case with those in advertising sales (for more of an insight on this request a free copy of my e-Book The Marketing Index, which tells all – go to www.positive-response.net). Often these people have come from another sales background and probably know very little about marketing (last week they were probably selling replacement windows or photocopiers!).
Okay, Now the GOOD NEWS!
You probably feel you are getting nowhere fast with your current approach to marketing and you’ve realised that if you really want your business to grow, want to see it become successful and most of all, want to enjoy the rewards of all this hard work, you need to GET YOUR MARKETING WORKING. And please understand that means you are just like thousands of others out there.
Together with my growing team of independent Associates and Professionals we can help you do just that. To be completely clear, our job is to help you find out what is and isn’t working for you, why and then what to do about it. It’s that simple. With over 18 years of business experience; setting up companies (in the UK, Europe and the US) I have come to realise that when it comes to Marketing there are some fundamental principles that you MUST FOLLOW in order to succeed.
What We DO! -
As Business Growth Specialists to get your marketing working we focus on four KEY AREAS:
STEP 1. The Marketing Audit – Where You Are Right Now
Firstly, we offer you the chance to go through a Marketing Audit. This is a simple but highly effective way to understand what you are currently doing and what the results are. It also focuses on what you do as a business, why this is of VALUE to prospective customers and clients and how you can translate this into MARKETING ASSETS (the components that will help you build a plan – see next step).
The Marketing Audit also works if you are about to start a business. It will uncover some vital and essential elements about your business plans, as well as you and the skills/experience you have. This is a relatively simple process but does require a level of attention and focus on your part. There are three stages to the Marketing Audit –
Firstly - an initial conversation to determine if a Marketing Audit is right for you and if so which one. This first stage is often done by telephone (or Skype), lasts approximately 30 minutes, and is completely free of charge and without any obligation. This is essential, as the next part is charged for and as we give a UNIQUE 100% Money Back Guarantee we need to ensure the Marketing Audit is appropriate to your needs and your business.
Secondly – we will send you the Marketing Audit Questionnaire; this is a MS Word document and is normally about 18 pages. It asks a carefully structured series of questions, including what your business is all about, what marketing methods you currently use and what results these generate, etc. It also asks questions about you and your team, what skills/strengths you have and what your objectives are for the business. [Don’t worry, if you haven’s started your business yet, the MAQ has also been written with this in mind and there will still be plenty questions that are relevant to you].
We have lots of very positive feedback about completing this Questionnaire, for many business people this is the first time they have really had to think about their business and commit the answers to paper!
Thirdly – we will conduct the Review & Recommendation Session. This lasts approximately 1 hour but can be longer (in such a case we will advise you in advance). This takes place either face-to-face, or by ‘phone (or Skype). We will probably ask you further questions and then be able to deliver our recommendations on what you need to be doing to improve your marketing.
People who go through the Marketing Audit find the experience incredibly rewarding and a great way to start to get to grips with their future approach to marketing their business, as well as other areas.
[There are also two other Audits we can recommend you to use if it is apparent that these are going to be relevant. The SALES Audit focuses on how you actually sell your products/services and is ideal if you have staff within your business, or you just want to get some focus on how you can improve sales performance and results. Likewise, the RELATIONSHIPS Audit focuses on the PEOPLE within your business or organisation i.e. all the stakeholders – which could include; you, other directors and management, general staff, associated staff (e.g. subcontractors), suppliers, agents, as well as customers, would-be customers (prospects) and others who all have an impact on your business.]
If you are serious about sorting out your marketing, starting with a Marketing Audit is the quickest and most effective way of finding out how to quickly start getting results.
The most basic of Marketing Audits costs very little and will help you save many hundreds, if not thousands of pounds on fruitless marketing exercises over the years to come!
To start this process pick up the phone and call us now on 0870 033 3570 – first we’ll have a no- obligation conversation about your business and we’ll be able to tell if the Marketing Audit is the right thing for your business. Call me now, or visit www.positive-response.net.
So please, call me now, email marketing2007@positive-response.net or visit www.positive-response.net
Nial Adams
Managing Director &
Senior Consultant
Positive-Response.net
t. 0870 033 3570
e. nial@positive-response.net
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