As we conclude this topic, let’s briefly look at a few other ways you could intentionally transform your business.

Revisiting the Net Promoter Score (NPS)

You may have heard about the Net Promoter Score (NPS), don’t you? The Net Promoter Score is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction with an enterprise or its product or service.

NPS measures the answer to the question: “How likely is it that you would recommend a company to a colleague or friend?” This is a great indicator of whether you’re ready to throw gas on the fire.

Enterprises with higher Net Promoter Scores have been shown to have faster, more efficient growth. Why? It gauges customer loyalty, and identifies areas for improvement.

Your business brand is no longer what you put out there — it’s what other people are saying about you. Nothing fuels business growth like it.

Ask, and you shall receive

Ask and you shall receive is not a religious statement but a universal law. Nothing will come to us in life without our asking.

Every industry is made up of people, and between the people in an industry exists an underlying web of connections. Your unhappy customers are always the loudest and your happy customers rarely speak up. So, make them speak up.

Always call old and current clients; ask if they know people who need your products or services. If they have tried you, if they have bought from you, if they have made repeat. Then, make them refer their friends or recommend your products and services to their friends.

Make a list of those who have enjoyed or are currently enjoying your product or service and ask them to recommend you to a friend or family, and you will see what you have been missing.

Now get to work!

Prepare for the people that your referral will bring to you just as you will prepare for prospective clients. One of the ways to prepare is to have a 30- or 60-second elevation pitch or a short video that precisely puts your product or services in an irresistible light.

This 60-second pitch should summarize why people should buy your products or services.

Once your marketing becomes intentional, it will help you focus on what really matters. Remember, when more customers appreciate what you are selling, your business empire appreciates!

Never forget to measure the success of your actions. Listen, watch, and ask for feedback. From the feedback, you would repeat what worked and discard what didn’t. This will allow you to improve your marketing in the future and hence grow your business. Always remember that the marketing that wins must be intentional!

I will love to hear your thought on how you are intentionally transforming your business in the comment section. Should you need some help on this subject, fill free to contact me.

[End]

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.

He maintains a personal blog, where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.

[Featured Image Credit]

Remarkably, the idea of intentional marketing works!

People trust recommendations

The hardest part of marketing is creating awareness and credibility with your products or services. This is taken care of when someone is referred to you by a third party that they trust. Who do your prospective customers trust the most? They are customers who are delighted about your offering.

You can improve your referral results by priming your clients with a cue to know who you want them to refer to you. For example, we ask our clients, ‘Who are three other business owners you know who are looking to take their business to the next level?’

So, the ideal time to ask for a referral is the moment after your client has told you how much they benefited from your product or service. Sometimes, all you need for your next business growth is just a mention.

People trust recommendations from those they already trust. When we adopt the fundamental concepts of referral marketing and how it leverages the natural human inclination to recommend products and services to friends and family, we win.

The Psychology of Referral Marketing:

There is a psychology behind referral marketing. Referral marketing is a powerful strategy that leverages the psychology of human behavior to generate new business through existing customers. Why would a customer actually tell someone else they bought something from you?

There is a reason why people refer others and why recipients act on those referrals. Have you thought of it? Understanding these motivations can help businesses tailor their strategies for better results, or help you design more effective referral programs.

It’s critically important that we understand what motivates referrers and referees. Referral marketing often taps into emotional connections by emphasizing the positive experiences of existing customers and the benefits their friends can gain from the product or service. Emotional connections drive decision-making, and also the fear of missing out (FOMO) drive people to take action.

Be intentional about your marketing communications

To effectively implement intentional marketing, you will need to be intentional about your marketing communications. After determining the scope of your marketing, you have to create a clear impression that you want to leave the market with.

This will also include positioning your product or service to create the right perception that you want the market to have about you.

The concept of positioning is for you to sell your product or service with the best form of communicating what’s in it for the buyer like no other. After all, all that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the buyers or prospective buyers.

You might need to examine the demography. Who are they? Are they younger or older generations, and what’s their preferred means of communication?

Then, you will need to decide the best media and platforms to engage these targeted markets to amplify your brand’s reach, visibility, and credibility.

For instance, an older demography may best be reached through more traditional means while you’ll need to use more agile and digital means to connect with the younger generation.

This knowledge would help you to better position your solution to this audience in a way that will produce the desired outcome

…To be Continued

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.

He maintains a personal blog, where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.

What is the intention behind your marketing plans and actions? How will it drive the results that you want? This is where having data comes into play.

Make data-based decisions

Your marketing numbers tell you a lot about the state of your business – where and how you are winning or losing. Data is the weapon of modern business. Like a sword, it is only as useful as the person who wields it. To make good marketing decisions, you must depend on accurate data.

Every marketing effort that is not measurable is no marketing. How will you know if all of your marketing effort was a good investment, an expense, or a waste of resources? Are you delivering the right values to your market? Only your data will tell.

You must learn to make data-driven decisions by relying on data to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

This allows you to adjust your strategies and tactics based on key performance indicators. When you ignore your numbers, you will struggle in business.

And when get some market insights from the numbers, keep doing and improving on what is bringing the result.

Don’t let your customers go

In the marketplace, it’s not what you think that matters but what the customers think and do about what you are giving to them. That is why someone shared that, ‘Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function.

It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view.’

Your customers are your business power base. So, if you don’t stay in touch with your power base, you’ll never attain power in your business.

When it comes to lead generation, a happy customer is the best tool. Find out why they buy and build on that. That to me is the most important aspect of the voice of the customer (VoC). Let’s face it, enterprises that can harness the power of extremely loyal customers win!

Unlocking the opportunities inherent in referrals

You may have had people use your products and services in the past, and you think that’s all. No! Intentionally engage them as your referral agents. Make them talk about you both on- and off-lines; it has a way of generating a ripple effect.

The real key to earnings is repeat customers, and those that they refer to you. Referral or recommendation works wonders; it is one sure way of driving business growth. More than 70% of the jobs that I have done for a couple of years now came via referrals and recommendations. Interestingly, we intentionally moved those customers to actions.

Referrals are often the best source of new customers. Hence, it makes sense to look at maximising opportunities from existing contacts. A referral is ‘pre-sold’ – they are coming to you because they genuinely need what you offer. That is to say, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.

We shall continue this discussion in Part 3, and dig deeper into the subject of referral which is at the heart of intentional marketing. See you then.

…To be Continued

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.

He maintains a personal blog, where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.

Many still lack the required confidence to make that bold move that would market their solutions to the targeted market in a way that would produce the desired result. It’s necessary that you break out of the marketing clutter and then fashion a better way to move most of your target market to action.

Understanding intentional marketing

Intentional marketing is a marketing approach in which enterprises are purposeful and deliberate in their efforts to reach their target audience.

It involves carefully planning and executing your marketing strategies, and plans with a clear focus on the intended outcomes.

Being intentional in your marketing means that you are putting thought into areas other businesses might be neglecting, so as to grow your business (and customer base) with purpose.

In other words, it is marketing with intent and intentionality. Here, you spend less and get more out of it.

Intentional marketing helps you to align your marketing efforts with a clear purpose to achieve specific goals. However, before you deploy this strategy, you have to be clear about your marketing expectations.

Clearly define your target market

Your first job is to define your target market. Who and where are your past, present, and future customers? You can’t market to the customers you don’t know, and can’t identify who they are and what they want.

You will have to identify and understand your target audience – their demographics, preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This will enable you to tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with what they need and care about.

When you have a better understanding of who your target market is, you will develop a clear goal on how to reach, relate and retain them.

The better you understand your target market, the better you are able to fulfill their needs, and ultimately win their approval.

What results are you gunning for?

It’s important that you are specific and detailed with what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts, and how it would impact your bottom line. You need to know exactly what you want out of your marketing efforts and be willing to invest the time and money in doing so.

Without a marketing goal and objectives, you wouldn’t know if all of your marketing efforts were worth it.

Every enterprise wants to increase sales but saying that you want to increase sales is not objectively convincing enough.

For example, when you specify that you want to secure ten new customers from a particular location and demography in the month of March, who will buy your product or service is quite clear.

The further you make clear your marketing objectives the quicker you actualize it.

…To be Continued

Tony Ajah is a Business Growth Strategist, and the author of BUSINESS SENSE, and ON BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR.

He maintains a personal blog, where he shares proven business ideas and principles for SMEs.