You know the hypothesis; that entrepreneurs are actually evil people. Why? They make profit and the profit margin is not ethical at all. Why should you, I or anyone make more than the cost? And how much over the cost should be made as profit?
Don’t laugh, there’s more. There’s the argument that people are relatively contented. It is your marketing goals that leaves everyone fussy. Why are you trying to convince people that a want is actually a need? But don’t worry. The argument for business and entrepreneurs is pretty solid. You should continue working.
Entrepreneurs themselves have to overcome the feeling of being cheated too. I’m not talking about when your employee is scrolling through Facebook on your time. It’s about marketing goals, again. You’ll be told that marketing is not about numbers and it can’t really be measured. You should just go with that talk about brand power and exposure (this kills creatives).
You may have been convinced that numbers should be left to sales. But sales and marketing are two different things. One of the best descriptions is given by business dictionary – sales happen immediately or in the short term, while marketing has a longer time horizon. But you can still have clear goals, if you really are a ruthless business woman.
In fact, clear marketing goals help you boost your bottom line by crafting the right kind of message. Let’s see the list:
Getting new customers
This is obvious. You engage in marketing so that more people can know about you. If you measure this by conversion rate, it means you were involved in a sales promotion. It was just a transaction and everyone has gone home happy. This has its place. With marketing, you want the flavors to really settle (look, coming up with analogies isn’t easy). You would expect a rise in revenue that actually stabilizes at the level that is. This could happen in 3 months and beyond, after your marketing strategy has had a fair run. A better tool to measure if your campaign worked, or not, includes a direct count of customers. Have the numbers gone up from months ago?
Keeping your old customers
How often do you start a marketing campaign to speak to us customers already under your thumb? You’re taking us for granted, huh? That’s not how you do a relationship. There’s never better people out there, you already know that it costs more to acquire new customers. They may not spend enough to justify the effort you made to reach out. Ask supermarkets, they have loss-making coded into their operations. So, yes, do tell me you appreciate me as an everyday customer (I’m not being needy). You’ll know your plan to retain customers is working when you see that your revenues are avoiding the steady decline that folds many small businesses in Kenya.
Increasing frequency of purchases
Remember what we mentioned in the opening? How do you get people to buy stuff they don’t quite need, on the regular? And especially when they are being taught to save money, instead. It’s not easy. You may also wish for frequency if your sales have slowed down and you have some short term debt due, for example. If you go out there with frequency as your message, you’ll later notice changes in your inventory turnover or money cycle. These reflect how fast money is changing hands in your business. Philosophically, not easy but, I think this is the best way for small businesses to operate. Or maybe I’m just an impatient Millennial (there’s literally nothing you can do about it).
Increasing the average purchase
Malls, supermarkets, neighborhood pubs; they know. Kenyans don’t really have big purchasing power. Sadly, when the chips are laid down you’ll find that our middle class is actually tiny. This is why the Government always mentions GDP growth but never GDP per capita growth (probably, more stagnant than your enemy’s life). Bundle pricing is one tool to entice poor us to buy a bit extra from you. To confirm if your effort will work or works, just divide your revenue by the number of transactions (keep those records!). It will become clearer what the trend is with how much customers spend at your counter.
Are there other unique marketing goals you’ve put into use for your business? Help other women entrepreneurs enjoy your success by sharing in the comments below.