While it is the obvious response, it isn’t strictly the truth.  When they ask for more customers, most businesses really want something else… More money! The assumption that more customers result in more money doesn’t always hold true.

The Problem

The problem with targeting more customers with your marketing, is that each customer costs money in the form of paperwork and staff time for customer service.  Marketing to new potential customers is also expensive.

The solution is better customers

Rather than aiming for more customers, how about focusing on creating more great customers.  A great customer is a heavy user of your products or services, they buy more, more often.  The never complain about your prices, and best of all they brag about your business to their friends and colleagues.

A great customer is valuable to your business from a profit perspective, but they also give you the best type of marketing you can get – word of mouth testimonials.  In short, they send you referrals!

Getting great customers

There are two things to keep in mind about great customers.  Firstly, you already have some great customers.  and secondly, your great customers think differently about your products or services than your regular customers.

In a cafe example:  To a regular customer, the cafe might be a place for an occasional pick-me-up, or a casual place to meet a client out of the office.  To a great customer, the cafe is their breakfast bar.

Get talking to the the great customers you already have.  Find out their thoughts on your products, what is it about them that make them great customers, and  why they choose you over your competitors.

Once you have an understanding of who your best customers are, and WHY they are great customers. You can use the information to:

1. Encourage your standard customers to become Great customers
2. Target your marketing at those people who are most likely to become great customers

Rather than aiming to get just more customers, your ultimate goal should be to get more GREAT customers.

Last Question:

What do you offer to your best customers to let them know how much you value them?  Do they know they are a VIP to your business?

It is easy for us all to believe that creativity is some sort of magic talent, or a gift given to the lucky few at birth.  I always considered creativity was the domain of artists and musicians, and was in awe of those who could  pick up a pencil and draw spectacular illustrations seemingly effortlessly.

Creativity for business innovation

Artists are talented but the very best still practice for years and years to refine their natural creative abilities.  Creativity in business is at the heart of innovation, whether it be for marketing campaigns or new and ground breaking products.  But unlike natural born talent, it can be learned and turned into a creative system.

Tip: steal ideas!

I’m not talking about blatant plagiarism of ideas from your nearest or most successful competitor, (though it obviously happens).  A much more effective and creative approach is to study other industries or market sectors. Preferably an industry entirely different from your own… If you sell bicycles, compare your business to an ice cream truck. If you’re an accountant, compare yourself to a book store.

Think about their business model? How do they market their products? How do they serve their customers?  What other systems do they have?  Challenge yourself to bring one idea from another industry into your business!

With this tip in mind, get into the habit of carrying a notebook with you everywhere.  When you see great ideas or are inspired by something others are doing, write it down and review it later.

Another great resource for finding new ideas to re purpose for your business is Springwise.com, which gathers great innovative business ideas from around the world. Also check out their sister site trendwatching.com for upcoming consumer trends.

photo credit

Existing customers have already chosen to do business with you, the chances they will do again is high if you look after them.

Sending your current customers something as simple as a thank you card could be the best value marketing you could do.  Of course you could also give them a small gift or make them a VIP offer to encourage them back to see you.

I know one business that sends one handwritten thank you card to a different customer everyday.  It is a habit that pays dividends.

To employ this idea, you need to know who your customers are.  Do you have a list of customer contacts?  If you don’t, you should – start building one today!

I had the privilege of being introduced to them as they were on the hunt for a Graphic Designer to improve on their previous wedding photography brochure.

This couple blew me away with their work. Still a young company, Khan Photography are steadily gaining a good reputation that is well deserved. Nazeef and Rachael carefully refine each image to achieve the best possible results for their clients.  Their attention to detail in this way is what I think makes them so good at what they do.

Nazeef and Rachael were keen to see the size of the existing brochure and it’s content reduced, so to create an attractive DLE card to replace it, became the brief.

Khan Photography - Brochure design

What we came up with was a clean and simple design, which showcased their stunning work. The change in direction was subtle enough to support their current branding but offered a smart, fresh and contemporary result.

If you or anyone you know is getting married soon, we would defineately recomend checking out  more of Khan Photography’s beautiful images.  You won’t be disappointed!

The trouble I have always had with getting my hair cut, is explaining what I want to the hair dresser.  I can never express how I want it, or even how I have had it before. A few times I have resorted to cutting a picture from a magazine and handing it over – “I want my hair to look like this, as long as it won’t make me look stupid”.

So why don’t Salons take pictures of their clients?  Before and after shots every time they come in, would make it easy to discuss with the client what they liked and what they didn’t.  It would build a tangible history with their clients.  Do you think this would build loyalty from the client when the hairdresser puts that much effort into knowing what they like?

Could be very interesting looking back after a year or two.

How could this idea be used in other businesses?

Lemonade stand

When I was a kid, I used to make a little stall in front of our house during the holidays.  We used to make Lemonade to or go up the back of a farm nearby and pick blackberries or passion fruit to sell.

I always remember getting excited about how much money we would make while picking the berries or lemons.  Followed by the boredom and frustration after hours of sitting waiting for people to buy our produce.  Sometimes we would knock on doors to try and sell some faster.

One holiday when I was a bit older, I spent a whole day writing a leaflet offering my services to do odd jobs washing cars and the like.  When it was finished I had to talk my mum into going to town to make lots of copies on her work photocopier, and then spent a few more hours posting them in letter boxes around the neighbourhood.  I got a few jobs washing cars and cleaning swimming pools for my efforts, giving me a tidy sum of pocket money.  The thing I remember is the making and distributing the leaflets took twice as long as the actual jobs, which only took a few hours to do.

I always think of these experiences when I hear people mentioning celebrities getting paid huge sums of money to front brands.  Back in the early 2000′s Nike reported paid Tiger Woods more to market their products than they paid their workforce in china to make their shoes.  Many people considered that unjust, but I can’t help thinking, that you make money from selling products, not just making them.

photo credit: EvinDC

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When people love a brand, they will forgive that a product is a little more expensive, or that they have to go out of their way to find it. They will refuse to admit another brand can be as good, let alone better. They’ll purchase the product(s) over and over again, and they’ll rave about it to friends and colleagues. A great example is Karen recently professing her love for her new Apple Mac.

On a recent blog post, Seth Godin writes about Love and what he considers its opposite… Annoying. Check out Seth’s full post here: Love (and Annoying). He gives some great examples of companies and products that aim to be loved by their customers and others that aim to be less annoying.

The ultimate goal in branding or designing a product is to be loved by our customers. While we would all love to have a brand that is universally loved by everyone, it is not always possible. Seth suggests, “If you can’t do that [be loved], perhaps you can make your product or service less annoying”.

The problem with love is that not everyone loves alike, and those who don’t love your brand will likely find you annoying. If your business model will work with fewer, but more loyal customers, then love maybe you should try to create a brand for people to love. But if you need more customers, then spend your effort making sure you are less annoying.

We had been doing a lot of traveling and it was looking pretty rough. Then the front tyres were replaced. All of a sudden, just with having nice black tyres, I felt motivated to complete the transformation and voila! Just like new.

Amazing what a difference cleaning the car has made to its appearance and the way I feel about it.

The same can apply to the way your brand looks. Sometimes just giving your logo a spruce-up can work wonders (providing this is carried through your whole branding of course).

Maybe your brand as a whole just needs tightening up so that across all areas it remains cohesive and strong. For example, you might have a logo but your business card still looks different to your letterhead, and your letterhead bears no relationship to your invoice. Tying these all together helps increase the professionalism in your brand and the way your business is seen by your customers (as well as those you want to gain).

Sometimes small things can make all the difference.

Design in print is one thing. But the design OF YOUR PRINT is another thing altogether. AND well worth taking a look at exploring.

Within the realms of paper finishes and print finishes there is a whole new element to design and the influence it can have over the completed job.

 A designer can and should consider the end product when developing a concept. This means more than taking into account the most appropriate paper stock. It means thinking about how a myriad of other tricks and techniques (within the budget) can be used in tandem with the graphics to meet the brief.

Our son was given an organic cotton toy that was packaged in a special brown shoe box, printed in natural ink colours and die-cut at the side to expose the logo. Everything about the packaging screamed “natural!” to me and even though it had a matt finish and was predominately brown (think paper bag), the overall impression was one of absolute quality and that the product was worth treasuring.

A simple business card doesn’t have to be on clean white stock like everyone elses’ UNLESS this supports how your business is positioned. Sometimes a different finish, such as an emboss or metallic for example, can set your business apart from others as well as saying more about your brand.

To increase the effectiveness of your brand and all related advertising and marketing, you need to know who your most likely customers are.  Lets be honest, you already know this… it isn’t rocket science.  It is easy to slip into the “I’ll take money from anyone” mindset (and so you should, but you shouldn’t market to them), or consider it too hard to define your core customers; I’ve been there myself.  But it is CRITICAL to the success of your brand.

Think about it.  If I told you, that you could have all the profits from any nappies you could sell to one hundred people, would you ask the first hundred people you meet? or would you do better asking the next hundred people pushing a stroller?

The more knowledge you have of who your customers are, the easier it is to target them with your branding and marketing.  You can draw better conclusions as to what they want to buy, and why.  What their likes and dislikes are, and how they want themselves to be perceived.  It also gives you an insight into what radio stations they listen to, and what newspapers and magazines they read.

Demographic information you need to know about your customers:

·        Age (range)

·        Employment – Are they management, professional, or owner

·        Location – City, town, region

·        Gender

·        Education

·        Occupation

·        Marital status

·        Ethnicity

·        Income – total household income. Can they afford your products or services

·        Family status – do they have children? What age and stage?

If you supply products or services to businesses, you can also collate demographic information for the businesses you deal with.  Such as:

·        Industry

·        Size of business (sales, no. employees)

·        Type of business (manufacturer, retailer, primary production)

·        Location

·        Geographic scope of the business (regional, national, international)

So how do you get this demographic information for your business?

The best way to gather demographic information is through using market research companies.  However, these can be expensive.

It is possible to do your own research: it is relatively inexpensive to run your own phone survey, or observation of your customers.  My favourite method is to ask your customers if they would be willing to complete a quick questionnaire during the purchase transaction.  You could even offer an incentive such as a prize draw, small discount (or better a bonus).