As I’ve written previously the 4 general ways to increase your business are:

1. Attract more new customers
2. Increase the average sales amount
3. Make your customers buy from you more often
4. Hold on to your customers for life

Here are just a few ways to improve each of your areas of growth:

Attract more customers:

• Select a niche market that you can easily contact and dominate.
• Establish a proactive program with centers of influence that can open new channels of growth for you and your business.

Increase the average sales amount:

• Up-sell your customers to high quality products and services
• Combine several items into a package that would cost less if sold separately
• Suggest accessories and add-on items and services that compliment your customer’s purchase

Make your customers buy from you more often:

• Establish ongoing communications that present compelling offers that can’t be turned down
• Follow up with your customers to see how they’re enjoying the benefits of the new product or service you sold them and suggest products or services that would increase their satisfaction

Hold on to your customers for life:

• Deliver uncommon customer service by going the extra mile
• Perform surveys from time to time to gauge their level of satisfaction

Your goal should be to design systems and programs that surround these four categories of growth strategies. Follow these strategies consistently and you’ll be well on your way to building a great company!

Welcome to the all new GuruGilbert! I will continue to share my ideas on marketing, entrepreneurship and life as I pursue a life of passion, purpose and prosperity.

I have finished converting everything from blogger to WordPress. Although, blogger was a great starter blog, WordPress is by far the most complex and professional software on the market.

WordPress has incredible capabilities. With WordPress my posts will now be categorized. For example, if I write a post about marketing it’ll be categorized in; yep you guessed it, marketing. If I write about life or customer service, it’ll go under the respective category. This is a great feature as not only will it make my blog more navigable and seamless but you can now choose to read the topics that interest you most. The categories are listed on the right side.

GuruGilbert is now on a stand alone system, meaning that I am hosting my blog on my own server. Simply type or hopefully bookmark GuruGilbert.com and there I am. No more extensions or sub domains.

Another incredible feature, which happens to be my favorite, is now you can and should subscribe to my blog via RSS. When I write a new post, you will get it in your RSS Reader instantly and be able to stay up to date. Now what more can you ask for?

There are a lot of exciting new things happening with GuruGilbert so stay tuned and keep reading!

I send out a monthly newsletter to all of my Ultimate Discount Card clients. I do it for many reasons but reason #1 is because I truly care about the success of my clients. I love helping them grow their business. If I can educate, inspire and offer some great practical ideas and knowledge then I have served my purpose. I really strive to add a lot of value to my newsletter or else they won’t read it.

I want to share an email that one of my older mentors/friends sent me. I thought it was so important that I wound up replying to the email in the next months newsletter so all of my clients would see it. Here it is:

After last month’s newsletter, (and an overwhelming positive response) a well respected real estate entrepreneur I am friends with emailed me back with an interesting response. ‘John’ to keep anonymity, said I was educating incorrectly about marketing. John said ‘promotion’ and marketing is not the same thing. ‘Promotion’ is only 1 aspect of the marketing mix. Product is extremely important if not more important, John added. He also said that I am being totally naive.

Let me respond. First off, I am so happy that I am getting people to think. If you ever have any questions, comments or anything to say for that matter please feel free to email/call me. Marketing out of all the skills needed in business is the most intriguing to me. If you know how to market you truly hold the key to wealth. There is a saying that goes, “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a clever man to sell it”. Now, let’s talk about the marketing mix.

The “old” marketing mix consists of the 4 P’s: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. I absolutely agree with John that promotion is not the only aspect of marketing. Maybe I am being naïve in believing that all of you have done everything in your power to ensure that your product is as good as it possibly can be. Let me make something clear. If your product is not as good as it can be than all of the ‘promotion’ in the world isn’t going to help your business. I personally could never sell anything unless I believed in it 1000%.

Where I come into play is to help you with the ‘promotion’ aspect of your business. My goal is to create for you the very best marketing solution and medium to help increase your business from new and existing customers. Every business on this planet needs to focus heavily on their ‘promotion’ aspect of their business.

You need to get the word out somehow whether it is through newspaper ads, posters, contests, seminars, television ads, signs, door-to-door, radio ads, banners, trade shows, yellow pages, articles, classified ads, charity events, infomercials, online ads, billboards, take-one-box, sales letters, flyers, email, ezine ads, postcards, door hangers, media releases, special events, word-of-mouth, gift certificates, website or business cards to name a few. You get the point. However, promoting your business can only do so much if your product is not as good as it can be.

If that’s the case, then it might be wise to focus your efforts and resources on producing a better product. There’s no point in spending money trying to attract new customers through your marketing efforts if you aren’t providing a good enough product, service or experience for your customers to want to come back. Hopefully, you have done everything you possibly can to make your product as good as it can be. Word to the wise.

As a small business owner myself, there are places you can skimp and save money and there are places to put your money into. Your product is definitely not something you want to cheap out on. You can take the cheese off pizza but how many pizzas are you going to sell?

Everyday I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I want to get done. At times, it’s extremely overwhelming and causes temporary paralysis. I have so many things I need and want to get done but I don’t know where to begin.

What happens when we have things in front of us we don’t want to do? We put them off for later. People naturally do the things they enjoy doing first. Whether it’s studying, work, going to the gym, etc., etc., we procrastinate.

If you say these 5 words to yourself next time you have a mundane task in front of you, they’ll really help motivate you to just do it!

If not now, then when?

That’s right, I ask you. IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?

Stop procrastinating because the sooner you get the things done that you don’t want to do the sooner you’ll be able to do the things you want to do.

Remember these 5 words next time you don’t want to do something.

If not now, then when?

They can very well change your life!

As I have set many goals for myself this year, it can seem overwhelming at times. Like with anything though if you have a plan you can accomplish whatever your heart desires. I believe a wish is a goal that hasn’t been written down.

If you haven’t written your goals, you are still just wishing for success. I find that when creating goals using the SMART formula helps to make them a reality. Ensure that your goals are Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Specific.

Here are also some pointers that can help you to make your goals become a reality.

• Phrase your goal in the present tense and assume success
• Put them in writing
• List the benefits you intend to receive by achieving each goal
• As you review your goals each morning and evening, picture yourself achieving each of them
• Anticipate the challenges you will encounter and plan how you will overcome them
• Take action and don’t procrastinate

Use the SMART formula and you’ll be astonished at how many of your goals are becoming a reality!

If you have been in business for over a year and tracked your marketing related expenses you can easily calculate your “cost to acquire one customer” or “cost to sell one product” by dividing your annual sales and marketing costs by the number of units (or customers acquired) sold.

Your next step is to take your cost to sell one unit or acquire one customer and simply multiply it by your unit sales or customer acquisition goal. By doing this simple computation you will get a rough estimate of what you need to invest to meet your sales goals for the next year.

If you are serious about growing your business you need to invest in it. It’s imperative you create a marketing budget.

There you have it, my 7-step marketing plan. It’s simple really. You’ll need to learn more about your marketing medium(s) of choice, their appropriateness for your target market and your message. Just get your plan down on paper. You don’t have to kill a tree to create your marketing plan.

It could be the most important document you and your team members will ever create.

Goals are critical to your success. A “wish” is a goal that hasn’t been written down. Make sure your goals are Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time specific.

Your goals can include financial elements such as annual sales revenue, gross profit, etc. They should also include elements such as units sold, contracts signed, clients acquired, etc.

Once you’ve set your goals, implement processes to internalize them with all team members. (i.e. reviewing them in sales meetings, displaying thermometer posters or even awarding achievement prizes)

Remember, when I said it’s critical to choose a niche that you can easily contact? You’ll understand why that was good advice when you go to choose your marketing medium(s).

What the heck is a marketing medium?

Glad you asked. Your marketing medium is the communication vehicle you use to deliver your marketing message. It’s important to choose a marketing medium that gives you the highest return on your marketing dollar (ROMD).

This means that you want to choose the medium that delivers your marketing message to the most niche prospects and possible customers at the lowest possible cost.

The following is a smattering of tools you have at your disposal to get your message out:

Newspaper ads, posters, contests, seminars, TV ads, signs, sweepstakes, door-to-door, teleclasses, radio ads, banners, trade shows, yellow pages, articles, classified ads, newsletter, charity events, networking, infomercials, billboards, take-one-box, telemarketing, magazine ads, special events, sales letters, flyers, email, blogs, movie ads, Ezine ads, online ads, postcards, door hangers, agents, press releases, fax broadcasts, brochures, gift certificates, word-of-mouth, website, sign picketing, business cards, catalogs, public speaking, window display.

Want to make a huge impression? Use a blimp!

As you see, there a ton of different mediums to get your message out. The trick is to match your message to your market using the right medium. It would do you no good to advertise a retirement community using a fast paced, loud radio spot on a hip-hop radio station. Or it would do you no good to advertise your restaurant that caters to college students on a classical radio station. That is a complete mismatch of the market, message and medium.

Success will come when there is a good match of these three elements!

Many of you have emailed me about how simple this 7-step marketing plan is so far. Well I got news for you… it is simple. Business doesn’t have to be so complex. If you have a great idea for a product/service two easy things can help you very quickly and inexpensively test to see if you have a viable and sustainable business opportunity.

First, get out there and ask your potential customers what they think because after all you should be going into business to serve them. You may very well think you have the best product/service in the world but you need to ask other people besides your grandma and mother. Ask the people who are going to be paying you their hard earned money!

Second, if you actually sat down and created this marketing plan you’d learn way more about your business, market, competition, price points, etc., than you could imagine. Forget an extensive business plan. You aren’t attracting venture capital (at least not just yet).

1. Understand your market and competition.
2. Understand your customer.
3. Pick a niche.

Step 4 – Develop Your Marketing Message

Not only does your marketing message tell your prospect what you do, but it persuades them to become your customer. This marketing message should be included in all of your marketing materials and promotions. To make it persuasive and compelling include the following elements:

-An explanation of your target prospect’s problem
-Proof that the problem is so important that it should be solved now
-An explanation about why you are the only person/business that can solve your prospects problem
-An explanation of the benefits people will receive from using your solution
-Example and testimonials from your customers you have helped with similar problems
-An explanation about prices, fees, and payment terms
-Your unconditional guarantee

Everybody can’t be your customer! If you say that your target customer is “everybody” then nobody will be your customer. You’ll have more success jumping up and down in a small puddle than a big ocean.

Carve out a specific niche and dominate that niche! Then you might consider moving on to a second niche (but not before you dominate the first one!).
Also, do not pick a niche that you can’t communicate with or that costs you a ton of money to contact!

I repeat, do not pick a niche that you can’t communicate with or that costs you a ton of money to contact. This is extremely important and you’ll learn why.