WANT TO MAKE A WITHDRAWAL? YOU'VE FIRST GOT TO MAKE A DEPOSIT

Let me ask you a question. How many times have you said to yourself, “I sure wish we were doing more business and that we had more clients coming in the door”? Answer - I’m sure all of us have thought this very thing! Let us take a look at a simple analogy…

When you go to the bank and wish to make a withdrawal, would it be fair to say you must first have made a deposit? If you ask your body to jog five miles, would it be fair to say you must first give it the proper fuel with a good meal? Then how can we as sensible adults reasonably ask our stores to produce business and clients without first marketing properly?

You see, marketing would be likened unto a farmer plowing a field and planting the seeds. Only then can he “reasonably” expect to reap a harvest. So what am I getting at with all of these analogies? Gee, I thought you’d never ask! 

Instead of sitting around living off past successes and glory of days gone by, waiting on a client to darken your door, why not do something about it? Get your calendar out and plan a succession of promotions, sales and events that will attract someone to your store?

I’ll give you a few examples that have worked well for me as of late. In the fourth quarter of 2016, I took the time to invest in doing inexpensive Facebook social media promotions that really paid off. The nice thing about this was, I could target the exact client I wanted. One ad I ran costing only $50 brought in a new client who purchased a ring for $2499 - not to shabby!

Another success was that I took the time to identify a newspaper in a small town near me that still works well. Taking a small part of my Christmas ad budget, I placed several ads in this newspaper I’d never used before. The results? Several sales from new clients who’d never visited our store or town even though they only lived a half hour away! 

Are you starting to see what I’m getting at? In this day and age, you simply have to be proactive instead of being reactive. It’s my personal opinion that gone are the days we can just open our door and wait for customers to flock in. It’s up to you to give them a reason to come visit. That reason is something only you can answer, but good marketing is the vehicle!

You’ll also discover that integration is key to your marketing success. It is not good enough to just run an ad in one medium. Take the time to plan your marketing and have key elements of it appear in each form of marketing you do. For example: combine newspaper with a radio ad combined with Facebook, combined with a well-timed e-blast to your e-mail list.

Over time, your efforts will build and start paying off with more regular visits from your customers as well as new visits from new customers! I admonish you, don’t complain to the stove about not providing heat if you didn’t put any wood in to start the fire!