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Feb
18

Marketing to the Affluent

By | Main Content, Marketing Calendar, Marketing Plan, Neighborhood Marketing

4 Comments

According to Pamela Danzinger (Affluent research expert):

“A new survey among 1,237 affluents shoppers about their online shopping habits found that gift ideas and gift shopping is the second most popular reason they turn to the internet.”

and…

“The affluent shopper are the heavy lifters in the consumer economy. They make up only 20 percent of households, affluent buyersbut account for more than 40 percent of all consumer purchases and more than 50 percent of all income and earnings. Where they shop, what they buy, how much they spend is critically important for marketers targeting customers at all price ranges at retail,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the upcoming book entitled Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury (Paramount Market Publishing, early 2011).

Affluent clients can improve your business profitability fast, but you have to know what you are doing.

Using the age-old technique of ‘faking-it-till-you-make-it’ doesn’t work here.

You must know exactly who you are selling to, and how best to sell to them (meaning they stay clients for years, even decades, to come – and they refer all their best contacts to you as well).

This is a specific area of interest to me as I am working for clients in a couple different niches that target the affluent.

2 other great resources I am reading, and recommend you do as well are:

- The Art of Selling to the Affluent, by Matt Oechsli
- Mass Affluence, by Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson

First, don’t over complicate this… the principles of marketing to the affluent are, in many ways, no different than marketing to the general population.

One of the best sources of tips and techniques for treating people right is the class, How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (also the headline of his blockbuster advertisement).

selling to the affluentHere are just 3 of the principles from his book that apply to anyone you converse with, market to, or want to get to know:

* First, arouse in the person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walks a lonely way.

* Always talk in terms of the other persons interests

* Make the other person happy to do what you suggest

Not exactly rocket science, but so little focus is put on this by most of the businesses and sales people you see out there today.

In order to sell and market to the affluent, here are a few principles to run your business by:

(1) Don’t tell them about your product or service (and how great it is) – SHOW THEM. This is one demographic that will hold you VERY accountable to your promises and claims. So do not try and impress them with your big words or name-dropping… they don’t care.

What they care about the proof that you deliver on what they want. They care about the help you give them (before the sale), they care about your attention to details, and they care about the way you carry yourself in your business.

(2) If you run a service type of business, or they come to visit you in your office… practice your hospitality skills. Do not make them wait (pretending you are too busy to see them). Great them at the door (yes you, not your receptionist). Offer them tea – and do NOT serve it in a Styrofoam cup. Do not tell crass jokes or show off all the war-wounds you got at the rock concert you were at last night – be a professional.

Yes it sounds simple, but you’d be amazed how few people practice the simple things!

(3) One-stop-shopping. Never pass the buck to others when you are dealing with affluent clients. Always be the front person for anything and everything they need (within reason, of course). Put together a response team that fulfills the things you need done – but have you as the person that fields the requests from them. If you cannot do it yourself, make sure you have a top notch team in place that understands how to deal with the affluent, and how to be a professional on the phone.

[Note: in many cases, additional services should be provided free to your clients, unless it was agreed on early in your dealings. Few, if any, will take real advantage of you – rather the opposite – they will gladly send their friends to you if they know you are there for them, no matter what]

(4) Provide Ritz-Carlton Service with FedEx Efficiency (a phrase coined in Richistan). They want you to pamper them – every single time they see you. Explain to them every nuance of your business, how you deal with your clients, what they can expect from you, and what you expect from them. They will want to know how you make your money, and what they get in return for paying you the big dollars.
Now, how do you actually get to the affluent prospects you so dearly want as clients?

At times they will find you – but don’t count your livelihood on that.

1) You CAN find, and market, to them via advertisements, direct mail, and targeted prospecting. The numbers of those who fall into the definition of ‘affluent’ is growing. Depending on the source, ‘affluent’ typically starts with a minimum liquid net worth of $1 million dollars (not counting primary real estate holdings).

marketing to the affluent That said, the absolute best way to get to, and win over, the affluent client is through networking and word of mouth. You must do your research and find out where they frequent (private golf clubs, spas, private fitness clubs, associations, philanthropic events, theatre, etc.)

2) Plan your week properly. Marketing is a numbers game – the more marketing you do, the faster you grow your business. Every Sunday night, plan out exactly how many affluent prospects you need to meet, and then plan out exactly how you are going to do that this week.

Remember, when you are out meeting prospects, you are not there to sell them anything, other than to show them you are a genuine person, and that their best interests are front and centre.

3) Set up your prospecting plan. Design a 3 and 6 month marketing calendar that will lead you down the right path to meeting your objectives. Be specific here, and reasonable. If you cannot commit to 3 networking functions a week – don’t put it on your plan. Leverage all your team members as much as possible to make sure your marketing tools get implemented on time, and on budget.

4) Design your web page to appeal to this demographic. Not the place for a plane jane website with a white background and text only. What should you have on your site, and how should it look?

First thing you need to do is get busy on your research – which sites do your ideal affluent clients frequent? What parts are common among the top 5 sites they frequent? Make sure you look like you belong in the same league as the others they are used to visiting.

Some of the things that you need to cover on your site: no fancy, blinking lights type of sites, instant connection to customer service, ease of ordering (or next step, like filling out a simple request form – again, not asking too much of them the first point of contact), and make sure you have a secure site for their information – AND that they know it is a secure site for their personal information (one of their biggest concerns online).

Some things you can consider when designing your new marketing strategies for this market:

• How would you describe your ideal customer or client? Age, sex, work, family, hobbies, etc?
• Thinking ahead, what is the ideal relationship you have with your clients? How do you communicate with them? How often? How do they approach you? Remember, plan this for your ideal business… then build your business to match your goals.
• What do your ideal clients (or should they) value most about what you sell, and how you sell it?
• What do they value most that you do not presently offer to them? How could you offer it to them? What changes do you need to make?
• If you wanted someone else to act as your front-person, how would they describe your business to your ideal client? What, exactly, would they say? How would they describe the value you provide? How would your ideal client describe the value you provide to their friends and associates?

Some facts for you to consider (The Art of Selling to The Affluent):

- 72.2 percent of the affluent are married with children (either still at home or moved out).
- On average they work 60 hours a week
- 22.4% worked their way into the affluent group through their own business, 25.9% are self-employed professionals, and 44.9% come from the salaried or commissioned employee role (with only 0.6% of them coming from inherited money)
- Only 20.4% said that their bank was helpful with their cash management needs.
- 65.5% said that opinions of immediate family members and trusted friends had significant impact on where they start looking and researching their purchase.

Lots to consider here… but the end results are well worth it.

Plan your strategies to target more of an affluent client. Design your business around them, and what they want. Then implement on a massive scale.

The numbers are there – and they are more than willing to spend their money with you (remember, price is the least important decision making factor in this demographic). This is one of the fastest and easiest way to build your long-term profitability.

By living, playing and working with the affluent – it only makes sense that you too become one of them… right?

So get busy!

To your success,

Troy White

PS: I am compiling a new report on marketing to the affluent. If you sell to upper income people, please let me know, I would love to interview you. If you know others who sell to the affluent, please leave a comment below so I can interview them as well. Thx.

PPS: If you want to get much better at marketing to the affluent and writing with a passion, here is a brand new Monster Mailman Bundle for you:

(1) Sales Letter Success Class – a content packed event I put on for getting more results from your marketing.
– complete with pdf transcripts and 3 mp3s on how to write more effectively and persuasively

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(especially highly competitive industries). Includes positioning ideas, testing ideas, 1-2-3 blueprints for
marketing success, lead generation ideas, etc).

(3) My Cosmo Headline Swipe file in pdf – pure GOLD. These headlines have sold millions upon millions of magazines… every week.
Imagine what they can do to build your business!

(4) Story worthy desires that motivate people and keep them reading – in pdf

(5) Marketing and joint venture secrets for small businesses – mp3

(6) Story Selling Bonus Book

(7) The 31k Course – this will get you cranking out content for the next 31 days. Daily ideas to spark your writing genius and get you cranking out content you can use forever. Articles, blog posts, campaigns and Facebook updates – all of them you will uncover with this gem of a course.

Note – all of these are digitally delivered to you right away.

$49 for all of them – and amazing deal for getting your writing cranked up and your customer relationships at a new high.

Plus, if you use these systems and don’t make at LEAST 100 times your money back in the coming year – let me know and I will refund your money. $49 in and $4900 out – talk about a great return!

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Have a great weekend and keep on writing!

Troy

May
06

Affluent Marketing

By | Affluent buyers, Entrepreneur, Leads Generation, Success, Wacky marketing ideas

2 Comments

Depending on who you talk to, the economy is either well on track to a recovery, or is on the verge of the next BIG downturn.  Some people say this downturn will be bigger than the last one we just went through.

To me, one of the tell-tale signs of the REAL economy is the spending going on.

Go to a shopping mall on the weekend – if there are lots of people there with bags in their hands, money is being spent.  Mall empty?  Or just full of browsers and not buyers?  Not good.

There is some GOOD new among the highly affluent though – they are spending.

Some recent research came out from Pamela Danzinger of Unity Marketing.  If you don’t know of Pamela, you should.  Her company specializes in the spending habits of the affluent.

Her recent research findings:

“Affluent consumer confidence is splitting according to income.  Those with incomes of $250,000 or more and called ultra-affluents (which represent the top 2 percent of U.S. households or about 2.5 million households) increased their spending on luxury by 22.6 percent, while the lower income ‘aspirational’ affluents with incomes between $100,000-$249,999 increased their spending by only 1.9 percent from fourth quarter 2009 to first quarter 2010.”

“The aspirational affluents which make up some 21 million households are going back to acting like middle-class rather than luxury class consumers. This shift will have significant impact on luxury marketers and retailers revenues over the next six to nine months,” Danziger warns.

“The latest luxury tracking survey shows that the ultra-affluents are spending at pre-recession levels, while the aspirational consumers are holding back.  But even with their exuberant amounts of spending, the ultra-affluents can’t sustain recovery in the luxury market alone.  In order to generate real growth in the luxury market, marketers and retailers are going to have to entice the aspirationals back to spending.  So far aspirationals are holding back.”

What does it mean for you?

2 things it could mean:

* If you have a product or service that COULD be sold to the highly affluent – now is the time to act.  Is there any possible way you can create the ultimate high end bundle that could be sold for 10X the price (and 100X the value) of what you sell now?  Think hard here.  I am willing to bet that if you put pen to paper, and get yourself locked away for a few hours without distraction, you can find some ideas floating around.  All it takes is a slant on an old idea, made to fit a new industry. much like the Million Dollar Lobster Report I wrote.  They took a commodity type business, repositioned and repackaged it, and sold memberships to the affluent.  Read that report if you haven’t yet… soooo many ideas in there. After you read it – immediately put your ideas down on paper.

* The second thing you can do with this information is to take the comment here to heart: “ entice the aspirationals back to spending.” They are the majority of the affluent. Their numbers are staggering.  And right now they aren’t spending.  They are looking for a company they can connect with. A company with personality that actually DOES care about them.  How do you do this?  You have to learn how to create rock-solid bonds with your clients.  I call it Marketing Velcro and you will hear from about this system soon.  Think about ways you can make that customer relationship sticky like velcro.  Things you can do to get them talking about you. Things you can do to

Both are fantastic opportunities for the astute marketer.

Question is… will you take the research and do something with it?

Or let a MAJOR opportunity pass you by?

Oct
28

Money making wealth trees

By | Entrepreneur, Success

In your promotions you need to build  a solid foundation that continues to grow year after year with a little effort.

Many entrepreneurs feel lost on where to start promoting their business. This is one way to guaranteed growth in your business.

Step #1 – Planting the seeds

Make a list of all the groups you belong to.  Church groups, volunteer groups, kids sports groups, lunch hour groups, special interest, networking groups, Chamber of Commerce, exercise gyms – anywhere you frequent on a regular basis – write it down

Write out all the publications your IDEAL clients read – both online and offline.  This will take some work, some research, and some surveys.  Find newspapers, trade magazines, general magazines, ezines, paid newsletters, newsgroups, chat rooms, forums, blogs – find everything that is humanly possible.

Write out all the places your customers and ideal prospects frequent.  Special clubs, private golf clubs, interest groups, charities, websites they visit, newsgroups they receive etc.

Step #2 – Spreading the roots

First you must have a free report prepared that outlines the Top 7 Mistakes People Make When Choosing a ______ (insert your area of expertise here). Or the 10 best ways to avoid ______ (the biggest problem your clients have). Make it worthwhile for people to read through good content and information. Make sure you have your contact information at the front and back of your report.

Make copies of these reports – if more than a couple pages – print out on 11 x 17 papers and fold them in half

Hand them out to EVERYONE you know – whether they are a prospect or not (everyone has an average circle of friends and contacts of 200 people – you never know who they know).

Distribute them to the groups you are part of. Put the organizations name on the front of the report (specially prepared for ________ by ___________). Costs no extra but the impact is substantial.

Distribute them to the groups your clients frequent – customize for them as well.

Offer to give presentations on the content in the report.

Contact all the online and offline publications you found that your prospects read, as well as the ones you read or frequent.  Contact the editors and find out what their requirements are for article submissions.  Make yours fit (especially if it is publications that yoru clients read – find a way to make it fit).

Submit your reports EVERYWHERE you can (once again – you never know who will end up reading it – or passing it on to someone they know will appreciate it).

Publish these reports on your web site – get people to sign up to your newsletter and in turn they get your “published” report (mention all the places it has been published to build up the value on your free report).

Offer these reports to other online publishers as a special incentive to their readers (and your potential customers)


Step #3 Growing the Tree

You need a few things in place to grow this at maximum speed.  First, you MUST have tracking software on your web site – most of the time it is free from your ISP.  Make sure it tells you where your traffic is coming from.

If possible, all offline publications that promote your report – find a way to track the results – have people email you at a special email address, or go to a special link, or phone and ask for a certain department or report.  Find a way to track all your incoming leads and sales.

Keep spreadsheets on where all your reports are being distributed – and what response each medium or group is getting. This tracking sheet is GOLD!

Go through that spreadsheet once a month and find out who is sending you the most leads, and the most business.

Reward those groups through more information – profit sharing – incentives to run more.

Offer special presentations to those groups who bring you the most business. Develop custom reports only for them of your best information and tips. Do everything you can in your power to get them to keep promoting you. And deliver good quality information in return.

The formula to a healthy, long lasting wealth tree! Firm roots, lots of water, and time to grow.  Analyzing how the tree does month after month will show you if the care you are giving it is paying off – and where it is paying off.