Regardless of the type of product or service you are trying to sell in your small business, there are 3 very important factors that you have to be on top of. These key critical success factors needed to be handled in the order that they are listed here:
1. Identify and thoroughly analyze your target market or your favorite client or customer. You need to understand the way they think, the pain they are suffering, the reason they buy from you and the language they use when they refer to your product.
2. Develop and craft a marketing message that very clearly and succinctly tells your target market exactly how your product will take away their pain and solve their problem. Do not confuse this marketing message with a universal selling proposition (USP). The USP is typically developed to highlight the top features and benefits of the specific product or service. Remember that your buyer could care less about you or your product. He/she only listens to one radio station WIIFM… “what’s in it for me?”. “How does this product/service solve my problem and remove my pain?” Your marketing message must be designed to answer this question.
3. Understand the quickest and best way to get this message to your target market. When you research your target market you try to find out out not only how they think but how they communicate and what they use to search for a product or service like yours. If you deliver the message in their language via the media they use the most, the chances are better that it will resonate with them.
These three items when executed in this order will substantially raise your chances of succeeding even in a tight economy.