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Marketing Strategies to Build Your
Business
Often home health care (HHC) providers will try only one single ad, flyer or in-store
promotion and then become frustrated due to the poor response. They are forgetting that
the underlying principal of marketing and advertising is long-term commitment and
investment in future growth.
Successful retailers follow three basic steps in marketing their business:
- Develop a coordinated marketing strategy that defines the most appropriate marketing and
advertising media to deliver a targeted product or service sales message directly and
effectively to their current and/or potential customers.
- Plan a media schedule to help build the momentum and response of any campaign, because
coordinated repetition in more than one medium not only doubles response but also
determines the difference between overall marketing success or failure.
- Define objectives and desired outcomes to evaluate response and sales per media
component within the overall campaign, enabling you to decide which media are worth
continuing and possibly expanding.
The following presentation of marketing goals and tools offers the building blocks for
winning marketing strategies that HHC providers can utilize to increase their retail sales
and profits.
Increase Sales to New Retail Customers
The goal of retail business is to maximize "opportunities to sell." Every
customer that walks in your door represents another sales opportunity. For an HHC
provider, potential retail customers can be identified as 1) new end-users and caregivers;
2) local residents who have a need for your products and/or services but are unaware of
your HHC business; and 3) impulse buyers who walk or drive by your location.
A continuous, long-term advertising campaign is the most effective means to educate and
motivate potential customers to buy. Co-op advertising programs offered by manufacturers
and distributors help stretch your total advertising budget by sharing media costs and
providing camera-ready print ad slicks for newspapers and yellow pages, personalized
statement stuffers and ready-made radio and TV spots.
Outdoor signage works in two ways to attract new customers into your business location.
First, signage announces your business identity in general, reminding potential customers
that you are the professional source of HHC products and services in their community.
Second, signage highlights specific products and services that you provide or are
featuring via a sale, presentation or educational information. Signage consists of
physical signs outside of the building, window decals and banners (provided at not
additional cost by manufacturers and distributors), and billboards or bus benches within
your immediate proximity.
Increase Sales to Current Retail Customers
Target the 20 percent of your customers who generate 80 percent of your retail sales.
Recent marketing studies document that these customers are very profitable because new
customers cost seven to nine times more to sell. You can increase sales to these current
customer in three ways: 1) stimulate in-store purchases; 2) use direct mail; and 3)
develop a reward program (such as a Gold Card or frequent flier program).
Higher in-store sales result directly from increased usage of category signage,
point-of-purchase (POP) displays and end-cap or window displays. Retail and POP displays
have several functions: attract attention, stimulate impulse and add-on sales, direct
customers to products they need, facilitate product selection, offer product information,
reinforce brand image or a retail ad campaign, offer discounts or coupons, introduce new
or upgraded products and motivate buyers to change brands. Contact your manufacturers and
distributors to find out how you can receive retail and POP displays with your orders at
no additional costs.
Use direct mail to increase sales to regular customers or customers who have stopped
buying from you. Recent direct mail campaigns to loyal customers have generated response
rates as high as 20 to 30 per cent, a very profitable return. Contact your manufacturers
and distributors for personalized stuffers, rebate offers or educational brochures.
Coordinate mailings with seasonal needs, specific customer needs or manufacturer and
distributor special pricing. Direct mail is also an excellent marketing tool to offset
known or forecasted slow sales periods.
Rewarding loyal patronage is the most effective way to increase sales per current
customer. Use special discounts, special "invitation only" customer sales, free
product with a specified number or dollar amount of purchases, or informative category and
product brochures that feature related products for consumers with similar needs. Target
specific product users and request the manufacturer or distributor to help reinforce
customer preference with special discounts or free merchandise.
Increase Sales from Referral Sources
Referral sources are also marketed to as either existing relationships or new contacts.
Current referral sources always respond positively to frequent mailings of information and
product. Direct mail and sales calls are still the most effective ways to solicit new
referral sources. Contact manufacturers and distributors for category and product
literature, personalized flyers, educational newsletters and product samples.
Referral sources have a need for up-to-date education and information. When offering
inservices, highlight the availability of generic educational literature, specific patient
education literature and professional continuing education programs. Marketing studies
have found that if customers depend upon you for information, three-fourths will come to
you when they need to buy related product.
Remember this long-term commitment to marketing. Increased sales result from a
concentrated effort over time to realize specific sales goals. First determine your
immediate and long term business objectives, and then formulate specific marketing
strategies for each objective. And don't try to accomplish these alone, because successful
retailers today are partnering with their suppliers to achieve their marketing goals and
successes.
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