What is the Single Biggest Problem in Marketing? How do you market your business so as to overcome this?
Some would say it’s targeting and reaching your market. Others the large expense for a small return. And more than a few would say that it is a complex subject, clients are fickle and wonder if it is really worth doing.
Personally, I think the largest problem is getting a business to produce and implement a coherent marketing plan.
The majority of companies lack a marketing plan and engage in marketing in a haphazard manner. This, of course, leads to the symptom of large expense for little return. This is remedied by putting in place a marketing plan with a monthly to-do checklist which covers all the key points such as sending out the monthly e-newsletter, updating the blog and the web site, sending out a press release etc.
The second symptom of “is it worth doing?” and “how do I deal with fickle clients?” is answered by working out the the lifetime value of your clients and then working to keep them.
The vast majority of the clients you lose (about 67% of them), leave simply because they have forgotten about you. As it costs you about 8 times more to attract a new client than to keep an existing one, it is worth keeping hold of the ones you have got. Also, on average, a client has to deal with you 2 1/2 times before you recover the time and money you spent in attracting them so it is a must to get them keep coming back. The trick to this is keep reminding them that you are there so as to keep the relationship in tact.
But how about the first problem of targeting and reaching your market? Any good marketing plan starts with your target market and how best to reach them.
So the biggest marketing problem most businesses face is simply a lack of a structured and practical marketing plan.
Kind thanks to Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the photo.
