All successful businesses need to have a strong customer base at their foundation but they also need to attract new customers both by exposure from word of mouth from their loyal customers and also by their marketing activity.

As we move into Autumn many of us are looking forward and are keen to attract new business but as any successful company will tell you, it is not just as simple as deciding on your offer or promotional hook, then placing an advert or adding the offer to the website then sitting back and waiting for the business to come in. Like all areas of running a business you have to work hard at it and running a successful promotion is no different. We hope these three tips will give you food for thought and assist your business in attracting new customers over the Autumn period and beyond.

1. Is your marketing a one trick pony?
It takes on average five times for someone to see a message for them to really take it in and make a decision that they are going to buy from your business. So if your promotion only consists of one communication your chances of it working are greatly reduced.

As costly as it may feel to you at the time one advert in the paper is not going to bring lots of business to your door. You need to have a series of adverts, they need to be well designed and stand out and yes gradually you will raise awareness of your business. But for a promotion to really work you need to have a range of communications as part of your promotion as people might see your advert but it doesn’t really register any more than they know it’s your company in the paper. But if you then follow that up with a press release, you send out an e-newsletter and you run a social media campaign and adverts, your promotion is far more likely to be successful. This shouldn’t be done just once either, the first time you talk about your promotion people might not be in the mood to buy so you need to make sure that you send out regular e-newsletters and that you regularly talk about your promotion on your social media sites and frequently use Facebook and Twitter advertising to reach new audiences.

Yes it is hard work but if you do work at it your promotion is far more likely to be successful. The key is to make sure your promotion is communicated across a range of channels and that you communicate your offer on a weekly basis.

2. Team work pays off
This is a crucial element which businesses often overlook.

The business owner makes a decision to run a special promotion, places the promotion in an advert or via other communications and fails to tell the team that the promotion is running. So that when a potential customer makes an enquiry the team member knows nothing about it and the customer is left with the impression that the business is badly run and it creates distrust in the business. Equally the team member is left feeling as if they haven’t been communicated with and are not valued. The reverse of this if is that the team know about your promotion, know the channels where it is being communicated and know what you want to achieve they can be your best communication tool as they will sell the promotion for you.

So tell your team at the time you are planning your promotion, they are also likely to have their own ideas and enhance your own thoughts. Let them know what communication channels you are using. Show them the promotion and keep them in touch at how the promotion is going at every team meeting so they know the promotion is important and they assist you in making the promotion a success.

3. How do you measure up?
So often people spend money on a promotion and then fail to put plans in place to measure the promotion and then declare it’s not been a success. But if they don’t measure it do they really know? Plus if this is indeed the case why has it not worked? Is the offer wrong? Have you a badly designed marketing promotion that does not get across the quality of your business? Was the timing wrong? Or have you used the wrong marketing channels? You won’t know unless you measure it.

Obviously the key thing to measure is the amount of new business it generates. But we would advise that you do this over a period of time just like you need different communication tools and you need to communicate frequently over the period of the campaign you also need to measure the business the campaign brings over time. You can’t after a week or two declare the campaign a failure you need to give it time. We would suggest a period of at least three months. When you are doing so you also need to take current market conditions into account.

You also need to have measurements for each of the communication tools that you are using. If you are running an advertising campaign assess over time have you seen new customers and has it resulted in customers you have not seen for some time returning? What is the open rate for your e-newsletters? Have you got more Facebook and Twitter followers and as importantly has the level of communication on your social media sites increased?

There are many ways of measuring your campaign. The important thing is that you have them in place at the start of your campaign, measure them as the campaign is in process and then sit down at the end of the campaign and really think about what has worked and what hasn’t and why. So your future promotions are enhanced by this learning.

Getting you noticed
We hope that these three marketing tips will help you with your promotions this Autumn and beyond. But if you need professional help Bright Light Marketing are experts in getting businesses noticed by coming up with innovative ideas and creative campaigns that immediately attract attention. Don’t market your business like your competitors – stand out from the crowd and get noticed.

Bright Light Marketing - t 01750 505051 - e janice.nisbet@brightlightmarketing.co.uk