Marketing guidelines to improve sales

IFE ADEDAPO writes on methods to make enterprises more profitable

To join the league of business managers with records of soaring profit, uninhibited business expansion and increased demand for products and services, tactics used in marketing your business has to be improved upon.

Experts note that the ability for a business to be successful lies in its marketing. According to them, the process of marketing, involves the introduction of a product or service to potential customers, and represents the core of every business.

They add that poor marketing may lead to sales drop and if this persists, can lead to business insolvency.

Marketing professionals observe that attracting customers is not as easy especially when there is tough competition in the market, however, if people are not buying the products offered, you may need to make efforts to change this by changing your marketing strategy.

Experts advise against wallowing in losses but encourage business owners to be determined in order to improve on their marketing capacities by adopting the following strategies.

Evaluate new business opportunities

The business world is being flooded daily with rapid change in technology; work processes, competitive strategies, and consumer preferences, and business owners are always encouraged to adopt these changes in order to remain relevant.

New apps and software that promises faster and more efficient way of executing tasks are being introduced, with stakeholders not given the opportunity to evaluate the pros and cons because other competitors are already using them.

Experts note that new ways of executing business operations emerge daily and it may include innovative marketing technologies that have been adopted by prominent organisations to make marketing easier.

According to them, these opportunities can either be profitable to the venture or pose a huge risk, but its potential impact on the business can only be determined by proper evaluation.

A business consultant, Mr. Dayo Ogunleye, says that a marketing agency being offered a new product that will enhance marketing should be wary of the effect of the offering on cash flow.

“The proposal may be interesting and may promise a lot, but how do you determine that new marketing software you are being offered by an Information Technology agency is not hype? How can you be certain that you have adequately analysed the costs and risks that a new technology, service, or product brings?” he says.

Ogunleye says that for instance, mobile phone service providers offer special subscription packages to data services at cheaper rates but users who have subscribed to such services without analysing the benefits eventually discovers that it is not different from the regular monthly or weekly subscription.

He adds that a marketing expert therefore should assess an innovation to determine its ability to enhance marketing power and improve sales.

Demand the best from service providers

To avoid getting being hooked by offerings that have little relevance to your ability to generate cash flow, experts advise business managers to change the way they interact with their service providers when they introduce new products.

When consultants are introducing new products, Ogunleye advises business managers to request for a demonstration of how it will generate measurable value, in terms of profit for the organisation.

He adds that the ability of the new product being offered to solve problems encountered by the organisation at the moment should be stated including success stories.

“Questions bordering on the evidence of gains that the vendor helped the client achieve with the product and its ability to identify new sources of cash flow for my firm should be asked,” he says.

Improve on the quality

Only the quality of the marketing messages will eventually drive sales. Experts say that the quantity of marketing campaigns does not guarantee increased patronage. In the end, your customers will tell you if your campaigns are working.

According to them, quality is measured by how relevant your message is to your customers, and how effectively the message is delivered.

Citing an example of the website for a start-up, Ogunleye says the complexity of a website does not interest the visitors but when it is easily accessible it will attract more people.

Let marketing campaigns have impact

Email marketing campaigns that are sent to people to create awareness for your business sometimes are not opened by recipients, experts observe.

According to them, this may be because the subject of the mail is not attractive enough or is not of interest to the prospect.

To ensure that at least 80 per cent of campaign mails are opened, Ogunleye says a call to action should be added to the content, such call to action can be in form of “Join successful business people” etc.

He says the sharing buttons should be added to the messages thereby enabling others to easily share posts they find interesting.

He explains that the objective of e-mail marketing is not only to increase the number of subscribers but to maintain and keep a fruitful relationship with them; he advised that the content of such mails should contain interesting and exclusive information.

Whatever the media used to broadcast the marketing messages, experts suggest that the content of the messages should grab the clients’ attention before they turn the page, delete the mail, switch off the radio, switch to another channel on the television or leave the website.

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