Effective Marketing Strategies

Q:The basis of all effective marketing strategies is NOT creating a unique selling proposition, but finding that perfect match between what you can offer, and what people want. It is a point of common ground, a resolution of an inherrent conflict or compromise. In essence, it is a very basic and natural process. For a small business or start-up, it is totally situational, and not structured.

A:If you are a sole practitioner, it is critical to your success that you remain goal oriented. Stay focused, flexible, and adaptable to your changing situation. One day at a time. Contrivances such as USPs, etc., are for organizations that have lost the focus you now enjoy. They have a rigid management structure, and have too big an investment to adapt to shifts in the market. They come to businesses such as mine because they have lost the capability you have now, to steer their own course. I've been having this fear that if I narrow my USP down, I will exclude people from my advertising. E.g. If I advertise offering training for home users, then a small business user may choose to ignore me, whereas a more generic advert would cover both prospective customers. My focus will be on training for home users. My unique(ish) distinctions will be: 1. I provide notes on the areas covered. Often, notes are not provided if the client wants to pick and choose training topics on an ad HOC basis. I hope to tackle this with ready prepared modules. 2. A money-back guarantee, if not satisfied. 3. A reducing price for further appointments, like a loyalty scheme to encourage further purchase. 4. 2 Free technical support vouchers for incidents of up to 10 minutes, to be used within 3 months. 5. A Quarterly newsletter. 6. A free information pack with tips, tricks & advice on installing software, setting up your printer, a glossary of terms, and where to buy software and parts at rock bottom prices. 7. If one of our consultants is over 10 minutes late, we will offer an extra 15 minutes free as our way of saying "sorry". My focus will be on training home users and small businesses on using Windows, Word, Excel, setup and simple stuff. Simple stuff only because I hope to employ several employees who can cope with easy training tasks, but no more.