I’ve got to say I feel sorry for business owners who say that they don’t market their business because they rely on on word of mouth. Firstly word of mouth marketing IS a form of marketing. Unfortunately even those using that form of marketing do not have a strategy to increase their results. Invariably these business owners hope the phone rings. They are either super busy and run off their feet or quiet as a mouse – it’s rare that their business is consistent.
All big businesses start as small businesses, but no big business totally relies on word of mouth. Before you say “but I don’t want to be a big business owner” that’s just fine – the fact is if you want to make more and do less work you need more customers paying you more, more often.
It’s not uncommon for us to talk to business owners who want to increase their bottom line but feel if they increase their fees they’ll turn people away. When it’s suggested that more customer inquries will give them more opportunity to increase their fees, they say “but if I increase my fees I won’t have any customers!”.
It just doesn’t work like that.
If you can afford to loose customers you are in a far better position. Let me put this way. If you got 10 more qualified leads a month and you charged 20% more you can afford to loose 20% of those customers you’d otherwise get, and worst case scenario you’d be doing less work for the same amount of money!
To get your business cranking you have to utilize multiple forms of marketing. Use internet marketing, word of mouth, papers, signage etc because you never want your business totally reliant on just one form of marketing. If that slows or stops, so does your business and therefore cash flow.
Aside from word of mouth marketing, marketing your Auckland business online is the most affordable option. You’ve got a 24/7 lead generation machine, if your website is built and designed properly.
Dollar for dollar word of mouth is the cheapest form of advertising in the world. We all know that. But word of mouth never provides you any stability. If you want stability, get a good website, ask for referrals, hand out business cards like lollies, run newspaper ads etc etc etc.
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