Marketing,Strategies,Guarantee business, insurance Marketing Strategies Guaranteed to Stimulate Your Staging Bu

As we all know to live in this world we have to perform some activity by which we can earn money. There are many activities by which we can earn money and meet the standards to live in this society. And from one of them is franchise.  Franc Small offices have unique needs, and thatincludes document shredding. Designed with the smaller business inmind, the Dahle 20314 is a cross-cut shredder that offers Level 3security and brings you into compliance with federal regulations. The

Copyright (c) 2009 Alice ChanAs your business changes and increases you need to determine what has worked in your business and what needs improvement. One area that frequently gets passed up for what we believe to be "more important" things is marketing.Home Stagers need to understand that we are not in the business of Staging Homes. We are actually in the business of marketing our Home Staging business. As one of my mentors says, "the marketing is more important than the mastery".We could be the best Stager around. We know how to plan out the optimum floor plan, choose the best colors, turn crack houses into model homes, but if we don't market ourselves and get the business, we will never get to optimize that floor plan, choose those colors or create those beautiful spaces and receive payment.I had a conversation with a Staging Designer who admitted she had not marketed her business the last few years. The real estate market was very strong until recent months and business just came to her. So she didn't really have to market or did she?However, she also mentioned that she was upset that she hadn't increased her prices and now that the market has turned, it was difficult to raise her rates and she was stuck working with the "cheaper" clients.So I posed this very important question to her. Despite the fact that she was getting business with little effort, how would her business have increased if she had actually marketed her services to other realtors?Could she have gotten higher paying clients which would have allowed her to eliminate the penny pinching cheapskates that were keeping her busy, but broke? That's the million dollar question.If that resonates with you, reevaluate what you've been doing, how you've been doing it and improve upon it. First, and foremost, make marketing your Staging business a top priority.Just because the market is slow, does not mean there is no business. There's business and if you're not getting it, someone else is. You have to be in front of your prospects CONSTANTLY so when they need HOME STAGING, you're the first person they think of.Turn to the dilemma of the soft market and how to raise rates. Were there many Real Estate Agents who jumped on the real estate bandwagon when the market was hot? How about mortgage brokers? Do you think all of them are still in the game?The same applies to Home Stagers. There are plenty of Stagers who jumped on the bandwagon who are falling by the wayside daily. What does that mean for you? Less competition, right?Business is all about supply and demand. If there is less supply, meaning less available services, your value automatically increases. You must capitalize on that.Having great professional services is a given, but price elasticity may be a moot point. If you're the "only game in town" or the "best game in town", you will survive and likely thrive in this economy. Raising your prices will not necessarily affect you negatively.As part of my ongoing effort to help Home Stagers "stand out from the crowd", I've outlined five marketing strategies to help stimulate new business, increase business from existing customers and build repeat business. You may not use all of them, but you can certainly use some of them.1) Create a Frequent Buyer Rewards program.Consumers have all had experiences with punch cards or stamp cards whereby you earn a free product after purchasing a certain number of products. There are frequent buyer cards for car washes, cheese steak sandwiches and bubble tea.As a Stager, you can offer this with your Staging Consultations. Perhaps your Realtor clients can buy five to get one free or if they Stage three properties with you, they receive one free consultation.The idea of the frequent buyer type incentive is to encourage the customer to return to your business rather than spreading his business around. To make this type of incentive even more effective you can tie it to an expiration date so that the points have to be accumulated and redeemed within a certain time period.With the Stage three properties and receive a free consultation deal, it is best to definitely limit that to three properties within a quarter or something to that effect, not three properties over an open ended period of time.2) Have a Sale.This is the most commonly used marketing strategy. Every business in America uses discounts at various times in various ways. Just be careful not to overdo it, for example take the store that had a "going out of business" sale for four years running. The ongoing sale soon lost its appeal, especially when you knew the same sale would be available next week, next month and even the following year.It's vitally important to have a logical reason for the discount opportunity. Some common ones are inventory overstock, an anniversary, a holiday, an introductory offer for new customers, and a special offer on a new product or service.One strategy that works well for Stagers is to have an inventory overstock sale. This is particularly effective to utilize at the end of the year when business slows down.Advertise that your warehouse is overstuffed so in an effort to manage the surplus of available rental inventory, you're having a sale. This could be all Staging projects booked in the month of December receives 25% or even 50% off the regular rental fee.3) Offer Prepay Agreements.This is frequently used with museums and amusement parks. Customers pay for a season pass that entitles you to use the facilities 'X' number of times or for 'X' length of time rather than paying per visit.The same idea can be applicable to your staging business. Take your Staging Consultations for example. You could sell a membership card good for ten consultations in a quarter (that's only three a month).If purchased individually the average consultation might be $300 each, costing the customer a total of $3000.00. By purchasing the card in advance with the special offer the customer can save $600.00 or 20% off the regular price (essentially getting two free consultations).If you sold just one membership a month, you immediately collect $2400.00 and consultations have little to no overhead attached to them. Your only expense is time.By selling two or three memberships a month you will increase your cash flow significantly. For even bigger revenue you can tier those programs to work with clients at various levels of volume.4) Accept major credit cards.If you don't currently accept credit cards open a merchant account immediately. Every business should accept Visa and MasterCard at the very least. Adding American Express and Discover would be a bonus.The easier the customer can purchase services and the more payment options you offer the customer, the better. This also helps you get paid quicker and you don't have to deal with billing customers for recurring payments for extensions on rental inventory. You just automatically charge their credit card when it's time.Keep in mind that when homeowners are selling their properties, their cash flow may be limited due to multiple transactions occurring simultaneously. They could be in the process of buying another property while selling their current home which means there are various expenses fighting for the same wallet.For some potential clients having the option to pay by credit card may be the determining factor for choosing one Stager over another. It's not always about the price. It may be about convenience.5) Mail marketing information to past and current customers regularly.This is the single most effective marketing strategy that any business can use to build customer loyalty, retain customers and stimulate more frequent purchasing by customers. Direct mail efforts can be in different forms such as fliers, postcards, letters or a monthly newsletter.A regularly published newsletter is an extremely powerful, cost-effective marketing method. By keeping in touch with clients with your own newsletter you create top of mind consciousness with your customers. They will automatically think of you when it comes time to buy your product.A newsletter is especially valuable when you can pass along useful information and ideas that your customers appreciate and you can continue to demonstrate your expertise in your field. This ultimately results in word-of-mouth advertising. Another perk is that you can advertise sales, special offers, new products, new services, new locations, etc. in your own publication.As a Staging Designer, you could publish a newsletter on home design, home care, and other real estate related topics. You have the option of a hard copy newsletter or an electronic newsletters, otherwise known as an 'ezine'.Now that you know the five strategies to help you stimulate new business, increase business from existing customers and build repeat business, think how to effectively incorporate and use these tools in your own business. Article Tags: Marketing Strategies, Staging Business, Real Estate, Frequent Buyer, Three Properties