Some great EASY marketing that you can do RIGHT NOW

Ever been a little unsure of your marketing efforts? Not knowing if you are really pursuing the right options. Thinking about how you should be focuses on an ROI and making decisions of the various options?

Well not everyone is in a position to do so.
What about market research? Scientific, well conducted research is a beautiful and rare thing. But I'm not talking about that, it's expensive and demanding.
It's this easy:

1. Select 5 existing customers.
   I hope you have five customers. If not, no problem just proceed to step two. It is best if these five customers aren't competitors, or territorial, or secretive. But even if they are it doesn't really matter. Find five people who already use your product. It doesn't matter if they are satisfied customers, or ex-customers, they just have to be people who have at one point in time bought your product.
    
2. Select 5 people who aren't customers.
   Preferably they are people that you wish were buying your product, but aren't.
    
3. Select an event or restaurant that you think these people would want to go to.
   This could be a BBQ cookup out the back of your shop, or fine dining, or a football match. It could be anything but it definitely has to be something that your customers would really like.
    
4. Buy 11 tickets, write 10 invites.
   This is the tricky part. Tricky for two reasons: 1) it costs money and 2) you need a little bit of skill here. Most recipients of such invites will be suspicious that you're trying to make them buy more. That's an indirect goal but you're looking at the bigger picture here. You need to word it in a way that says "I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOU".
    
5. Attend the Event, have fun and get to know some people!
   Even if you spend $100 per person this is a great event, but you need to keep your eye on the purpose. What is that purpose? It's a fact finding mission. Find out why (or why not) these people buy your product. Ask them if they are getting a better offer elsewhere, find out how they spend their time and what makes them tick.
    
6. Don't let them see the hunger in your eyes
   This is the most important point. And it needs to be repeated for emphasis. If these people get the sense that you're trying to sell to them you have lost the game. They will close up and stop giving you want you need, and the whole exercise will be a waste of time.

Please don't leave this up to your salesmen. Good salesmen are great relationship builders, poor salesmen are pushy and irritating. This event needs to be about understanding a range of complaints, problems and issues. Having all of these people in the same place means you can quickly see what problems are shared (and therefore definitely need addressing) and which might just be unique to a subset of customers. This is a marketing exercise because it is about understanding the market better. Change the number of invitees based on your time, budget and capability.

I laid out this plan to a friend recently who was struggling to get her café up and running. It was in the middle of a busy café strip in which every single shop was full except hers. She couldn't understand it and neither could I. One afternoon she had a closed session such as the one I'm describing. Obviously there was free coffee for everyone on arrival but when the food was brought out hardly a nibble was had by the existing customers. The 'hopeful' customers were trying and turning up their nose. The session revealed the following:

• Her food was a big turn off, putting her at a disadvantage to all other cafes.
• Her lower priced coffee (intended to bring more customers) made people think she was using low-grade coffee beans
• The music she played drove people away
• The fish tank near the front window needed a good clean.

She's addressed most of these issues and all of a sudden things are starting to turn around. It cost her $300 and her daily turnover has tripled and is continuing to go up. Amazing how simple it can be! The skill comes from keeping it informal and personal. Whatever you do, do NOT use the term FOCUS GROUP!