Wednesday 26 January 2011

Finding Your Perfect Customer

Nearly every book on marketing will remind you that you need to identify your target market and offer something that meets their needs. But what if when you do this you identify a group of people or a product or service which leaves you cold?

Working with your perfect customer and the services and products you offer should really excite you. If it doesn't, it's bound to have a knock-on effect on the perception of customer service and certainly impact your bottom line. But if it doesn't excite you why would you want to be doing it anyway?

So in an ideal world you want to be dealing with people with whom you share interests, values or enthusiasm. So how do we find the ideal customers?

Start by listing what you enjoy, what's important to you. Can these be incorporated into your business? If your business reflects your interests the likelihood is you’ll attract other people who share them. You're more likely to be able to build rapport with them, and you can be more targeted (and successful) with your marketing, both externally and on-site.

Create your values around what is important to you. If it's important to you to use sustainable resources, or care for the environment create your values around these principles.

Your core beliefs should really influence what you offer; whether you focus on just one of those beliefs or a number, it's a combination of these that add up to make business different.

One way of really capitalising on your interests and capture the interest of your customers is to become an expert in something that they and you are interested in. In addition to attracting the type of customers with whom you can build a good rapport and a better prospect of repeat business, it also gives you a great opportunity to get noticed. By writing articles, blog posts, guidebooks or maybe even organising clubs or seminars around your interests or topic, you'll be on the radar of people who share your interests, which in turn enables you to build your prospect list. It also provides a great opportunity for PR.

Any of these ways of tying in your interests into your business not only enables you to enjoy what you do and who you work with, but is a great way of being unique and really standing out from your competition. If you have a very niche interest it will translate into a very niche target market!

Thursday 20 January 2011

Competitive Advantage

There are more opportunities than ever before for SMEs to embrace CSR to improve profits, whilst playing a more productive role in their communities. Take social media for example, with an innovative and strategic approach to CSR combined with the audience exposure of platforms such as Facebook & Twitter the potential is incredible. This is further fuelled by the Generation Y demographic and rise (even through the economic crisis) of ethical consumerism.
Regulation is coming, slowly, but it is coming in one shape or another. The key is better regulation rather than more regulation as CSR should be integrated into core business anyway. We already have CSR legislation as part of UK Company Law, it’s not burdensome by any means but it already exists.
Progress at the global level is accelerating toward an even deeper embedding of the CSR / sustainability agenda for a multitude of unavoidable reasons such as climate change, resource depletion, energy security, biodiversity, population growth and water scarcity.
CSR is beginning to demand to be seen as a competitive advantage rather than a burden. It is like any other commercial pressure, you can ignore it, comply or embrace and excel.