Front Line Marketing

One of the least expensive areas of marketing is what we call front line marketing.  This type of marketing is done by your employees during customer interaction whether on the phone or in person.  Front line marketing cost your business plenty if done incorrectly, done properly it not only costs nothing and actually earns you money.

If you own a small gastropub for example, how attentive are all of your staff to making sure that the client is promptly seated and served?  I have dined in many Philly gastropubs and with the exception of one particular location, I have felt like a valued customer.  When I feel appreciated then I not only continue to patronize the business but in addition I recommend it highly to others.  This attentiveness by the staff not only cost nothing other than their time (which you are paying for anyway), it actually has brought additional business in the door through recommendations.

To make your front line marketing program a success you have to find a way to motivate your employees to be involved.  While monetary incentives are always welcome there are other ways to motivate your employees such as flexible schedules, gift cards, incentive gifts (branded with your logo) or even just a great and friendly work environment.  You can also mix and match any employee incentives by doing a different incentive each quarter with the reward given at that point.  Don't dawdle by giving late rewards........this is sure to reverse the process you strived so hard to put into place.

Small business marketing

It still continues to amaze me that business owners and managers think they can do all their marketing by themselves, without hiring professionals. Owners and managers are part of the entire marketing plan but they need outside help to make the overall program a success.

The first thing your professional marketer is going to do with you is to find out your objectives and develop a marketing plan for you to follow. When you plan your objective you must be specific and not just a general "bring in more clients" or "I want to increase business 10%". As an example, if you have a hair salon and want to "increase business" you need to take it down further to make it specific. Lets say you have 5 part time stylists and 4 are booked 85% capacity consistently and the fifth stylist only has booking equal to 30% capacity. Your objective then is to increase the bookings for stylist 5 alone. This more specific goal is measurable by looking at their bookings and you will also accomplish your previously more general goal of "increasing business".

Once your goal is met it is now time to develop your next marketing plan. This is where most companies make a mistake by not continuing to market their business. If you don't continually involve your company in marketing, eventually you will find yourself falling short of your competition who may wind up stealing your clients.