Hope things have been going well for you. Some of my out of town friends were in Los Angeles for Ali Brown’s Diamond Mastermind meeting so I got to spend some time catching up with Michele Dekinder-Smith of http://www.janeoutofthebox.com/ and Kendall Summerhawk of http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com/. It’s safe to say that I am definitely a people person. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks speaking at events and I’ve made some new friends and amazing connections. I’ll be speaking at Kelly O’Neil’s Marketing to Millionaires Retreat happening here in LA at the end of October. I’d love to meet and spend some time with you! Kelly is actually hosting a Q&A call TONIGHT (Thursday, October 1 at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern). If you have any questions about how to attract affluent clients (AKA the people who can afford your products and services) then I recommend you take a look http://marketingtomillionairesretreat.com/QA/. In the mean time check out this weeks article about increasing your profitability. Enjoy,
Beth
Here I am with Kendall Summerhawk. Kendall, her husband Richard and I got to spend some time together while she was here is Los Angeles. I’d love to meet and spend some time with you later this month at Kelly O’Neil’s Marketing to Millionaires retreat. She’ll show you step-by-step how to market your business to the affluent – AKA the people who can afford your services. Then I’ll be there to facilitate a bonus day so you can get everything implemented immediately. Can you join us? Check it out http://www.marketingtomillionairesretreat.com/
The Jesse James Strategy: 3 Reasons Marketing to the Affluent Will Increase Profitability in Your Business
Interviewer: Jesse, why do you rob banks?Jesse James: “Because that is where the money is”
By Kelly O’Neil
There are a lot of reasons to own your own business. The freedom it can provide, the ability to do something that you are incredibly passionate about, and the ability to have unlimited income. Unless you are running a non profit, the most important factor of successfully running a small business is to create profitability. While many small businesses simply rely on increasing revenue, more important is increasing your profitability.
Target Marketing is a strategy that involves breaking a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments. Target marketing can be the key to a small business’s success. Target marketing provides a focus to all of your marketing activities. The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the promotion, pricing and distribution of your products and/or services easier and more cost-effective. Now you have a choice to make….target people who can easily afford what you are selling….or market to people who can not.
Honestly, it has always made sense for businesses to target affluent clients. However, with the shift in the economy, if you are not targeting affluent clients who have discretionary income to afford your products and services, it is a business killer.
Here are three reasons why employing the Jesse James Strategy and marketing to the affluent will increase profitability in your business:
Profitability Point #1 – They Actually Have Money to Invest In Your Services
If you would like to achieve financial wealth, you need to figure out where a vast majority of the money is and then go there and get it. It reminds me of the great quote by infamous bank robber Jesse James. When asked why he robs banks, he said “because that is where the money is.” I know that seems like a no brainer, but I come across clients every day who are wasting all of their time and money trying to sell their services to people who simply do not have the money to pay for them which is extremely time consuming and costly.
The affluent have money and plenty of it. And they are absolutely willing to invest money in services and products they find valuable. In fact, statistically speaking 22% of U.S. households have over 55% of all earned income. That is more than half of the income is concentrated in one of five households.
Profitability Point #2 – Affluent Clients Shop on Value, Not Price
Affluent clients will pay the asking price even if it’s 100% more expensive than the competition IF they perceive there’s added value what you are offering whether that is one-of-kind exclusivity, proven results or VIP customer service. Higher price points create more wiggle room for higher profitability margins.
Profitability Point #3 – Loyal Customers = Highly Profitable Customers
We know that affluent customers are extraordinarily loyal which brings a bevy of benefits including the fact that most are a pleasure to work with, it will decrease in your marketing costs and ultimate create higher profitability.
As a result of their innate loyalty, affluent clients have a substantially higher customer lifetime value. Customer Lifetime Value is defined as the total value, in monetary terms, of your average customers spanning the entire period that these customers are likely to do business with you. It's the potential contribution of your customers to your business over a period of time.
When acquired as customers, the affluent customer base could potentially lead to more profit for your business. In my many years in marketing, I've met many business owners who don't understand what Customer Lifetime Value is, much less its importance and the impact it has on their bottom-line. To most of them, what matters most is to increase revenue by continuously acquiring new one-shot customers.
This is one of the fatal mistakes that many business owners make, but it is totally avoidable. Consider this staggering statistic - it’ll cost you 7-10 times more to attract a new customer than it does to bring one of your past customers back to you.
Where do you want to invest your marketing dollars?
If you're a smart business owner, you'll understand that every penny you invest in marketing is most likely going towards acquiring new clients. You'll also realize that once you've acquired the clients, you just can't afford to let them go.
Isn’t it time we all took a lesson from Jesse James?
Kelly K. O'Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies, Inc.
Award Winning Strategic Coach and Marketing to the Affluent Expert Kelly O’Neil publishes the ‘Arrive!’ weekly ezine for small service businesses and information marketers. If you are ready to learn the best strategies to market to the affluent so that you can make more money and have more freedom and fun in your small business, get your FREE CD “7 Surefire Marketing Strategies to Market to Millionaires” at http://www.marketingtomillionairesgift.com/.
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to info@uplevelstrategies.com.
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