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Marketing Planning

Marketing is all about psychology—both the psychology of you, the marketer, and your prospect, your potential client or customer. Here are some tips to using the psychology of effective marketing to build your business and improve your customer relationships management.

Know thyself.

Marketing must be repeated to be successful. You can’t use a marketing strategy once and expect to see great results. If you will be marketing your business yourself (as opposed to hiring marketers), you must select an approach that you will do—regularly. And you must be aware of the value of your services or product to feel great and ethical about what you’re marketing. Be honest with yourself and get clear on the value that your business provide and a marketing plan that you will actually implement.

Keep your focus on the prospect or potential customer.

One of the biggest mistakes that independent professionals and small business owners make is highlighting their businesses, services, and features related to themselves. Remember that people want o know “what’s in it for me?” Prospects care about what you can do for them, and not as much about who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

Focus on results and only results.

No matter what marketing you create, if it doesn’t get response, it’s not good marketing. End of story. You can’t fall in love with a web site or a letter or a presentation and use it because you like it. You have to ask objectively, “Is it producing results?” If results are not happening, something needs to change.

Free is often win-win.

It can be hard for people to give away their excellent products or services for free. However, when you start to offer free information to your prospects they will often respond. I firmly believe that you need to WANT to give something away for free for it to be effective. If you are annoyed and resentful by giving something for free, it will not work. If, on the other hand, you give it with joy and a strong belief that it can really help them, it is likely too. And they will then want more or refer someone to you who also can benefit.

Visibility is vital.

Marketing research shows that people need to see an ad roughly seven times before they act on it. Even if your marketing is incredible, if no one sees it, nothing’s going to happen. You need to have them see it over and over again. One mention in the media usually does not directly lead to phenomenal results, but a mention in the media, an article, and an advertisement can. Do what works and do it over and over.

Relationships are one of your most powerful marketing tools.

When you forge a connection with another who can provide an introduction to his or her client base, your prospects can become unlimited. If you leverage relationships, you will be more successful than those who don’t. Plus, it can be much more fun with two minds thinking better than one. And your relationship with your clients or customers cannot be nurtured enough—seek to continuously go above and beyond and exceed expectations.