Tips for Effectively Marketing Your Business to New Customers

Quick story: Yesterday, I was clearing snow from my front walkway when a professional-looking truck stopped in front of my house. As the driver got out of the truck and ambled up my walkway, I turned off my snow blower and took off my headphones. The lettering on the truck door said something about steaks, but I couldn't imagine what he could possibly want, and my first guess was that he was lost and was going to ask directions.

To make a long story short, he was apparently an owner of a local meat store (a few towns away) that offered a delivery service. He was very well spoken, enthusiastic, and friendly. After chatting about the weather for a couple minutes, he proceeded to pitch me about earning my delivery business and that he was offering insanely low prices (my words), today, on steaks and other meats. He invited me to look at some meat he had for sale in his truck. I politely declined, and said I needed to finish clearing the snow from my property.

How to Avoid 'Dropping the Ball' When Marketing Your Business

Even though there was an extremely small chance that I would ever buy steaks, poultry, or fish from the back of someone's truck, I thought he made some interesting marketing blunders that might stand in the way of acquiring other customers.


First: What did he do right?

1. He was friendly, enthusiastic, and well spoken.
2. He didn't go directly into his sales pitch, but engaged me in some relevant small talk about the weather, which, in this case, involved the first major snowfall of the season.
3. His overall sales pitch was fairly good, emphasizing low prices, quality, convenient delivery service, and that he happened to be in the neighborhood making a delivery and wanted to let me know about their introductory offer. 

How was his marketing approach flawed?

1. He annoyed me. The fact that I had to turn off my snow blower, take off my earphones, and stop what I was doing did not put me in a receptive state of mind to hear his sales presentation. Not only that, but it was cold and wet outside, and I just wanted to finish my work and go inside and drink a hot cup of coffee. I think his enthusiasm for his product line clouded his judgement about when he should or should not approach a prospective customer.
2. He left no marketing materials or contact information. I'm guessing that he either forgot or didn't know that marketing your business is a process and often requires that potential customers be exposed to your business in more than one way and more than one time. I was surprised that he didn't leave me a marketing flyer, brochure, door hanger, marketing information, or even a business card. Some professional-looking coupons with appetizing photographs of steak, lobster, or barbequed chicken would have given me some 'food for thought', too. That way, he could have sold 'the sizzle instead of the steak' and gotten some more mileage out of his pricing strategy. He said nothing about 'visit our website', 'get on our mailing list for more discounts', or anything that might have gotten me interested or caused me to follow up at my convenience.

A good marketing strategy would be to immediately follow up on our conversation by mailing me a marketing letter, postcard, packet of discount coupons, or other cost-effective marketing tools. Following up in a non-intrusive way would begin to show me that this business is not a fly-by-night operation and that this individual is conscientious, business like, and really believes in his products and services.

Except for the fact that he interrupted what I was doing, he did make a somewhat favorable first impression on me. However, there were still a lot of sales barriers in place, including the fact that I didn't know this guy and had never heard of his business before. Not only that, but the chances of me ever buying meat out of the back of someone's truck are extremely remote! I do appreciate that he provided me with some relevant content for my blog on the topic of effectively marketing your business, though.