It’s Time To Raise Your Prices (this is not a typo)

How to Raise Your Prices in 2012/2013

I know more than a few of the people reading this are going to say “Chris, are you NUTS!”"How can I put my prices UP with the economy like it is and with all the lower priced competition I have?”You CAN and you SHOULD.Most of my clients increased their prices in the last six months – many in VERY competitive marketplaces!Certainly there are a few qualifiers:

* You won’t be able to put your prices up immediately
* It won’t happen without a lot of work, focus, and precision execution
* It will probably take you 6-12 months before you can put your prices up
* It may take longer depending on your current situation

But you CAN do it and here are what I believe are the eleven (11) key factors that allowed my clients to do it in 2012:

1. Hire a Business Coach
2. Fine-tune Your Offline Marketing
3. Improve Your Marketing Message
4. Create a High-Performance Lead Generating Website
5. Hire an Internet Marketing Expert
6. Have a Formal Highly Optimized Sales System
7. Massively Increase Your Online Visibility
8. Leverage the Power of Testimonials & Reviews
9. Get Top Ranked at Google and with Google Places
10. Make “Analytics” Your New BFF
11. Education

Hire a Business Coach

* Find and hire an experienced, results-focused, business coach
* Check out Joan Nowak, at Hybrid Business Advisors
* Create a strategic and DETAILED 12-18 month plan with your coach
* Stick to it and review results monthly – be accountable!

Fine-tune Your Offline Marketing

* Your offline marketing strategy is critically important
* Traditional marketing is not dead
* Fundamentals work, but don’t do things just because everyone else is
* “Tighten up” and optimize your offline marketing program
* You can’t do this using “just the Internet”
* EVERYTHING in your offline marketing should direct people to your website

Improve Your Marketing Message

* Your marketing message is what gets brides to take action
* Have it reviewed by a professional
* Focus on UVP (unique value proposition)
* Focus on WIIFM (what’s in it for me – the bride that is)
* Be THE SOLUTION to the problem a bride THINKS she has
* But make sure you know what her problem is (i.e. ASK in the sales process)
* Promote VALUE
* Promote your EXPERTISE

Create a High-Performance Lead Generating Website

* Today, a website is the cornerstone of your marketing and sales
* Facebook is NOT a website or where you “sell” your services
* Your website must create the “Oh Yes” moment
* It must be professionally designed – do it yourself (DIY) will not work!

Hire an Internet Marketing Expert

* Don’t be fooled; you can’t do this on your own, you don’t have the time or expertise
* Without the right advice and guidance you’ll never be able to put your prices up
* Find, HIRE, and LISTEN to an expert
* Ideally, they have wedding industry experience which should accelerate things
* Have access to them 24/7/365
* Make sure they know your objective is to increase your prices
* Have agreed upon goals and objectives with milestones along the way

Have a Formal Highly Optimized Sales System

As your leads and online inquiries increase…

* Make sure you have a highly-optimized follow-up and SALES system
* All inquiries MUST BE followed up the same day they are received – BY PHONE
* EMAIL follow-ups are NOT (repeat) NOT effective
* Hire a sales expert to analyze weaknesses in your current model
* Invest in training for your existing sales team if they aren’t closing a high % of new sales
* Or FIRE them and find better qualified sales people
* Incentive based sales should be part of every sales system (i.e. commissions)

MASSIVELY Increase Your Online Visibility

* If brides can’t find you, you won’t be able to increase your prices
* Being the needle in the haystack puts your business at a competitive DISADVANTAGE
* Optimize your website, blog, and social media posts for search engines
* Immediately start “aggressive keyword-rich blogging” – 3 new blog posts per week
* Guest blog at least monthly at another local wedding vendor’s blog
* If you can’t do it hire someone to do it for you!
* Create and distribute a monthly online press release (have it professionally written)
* Send it to your local media also (television stations, radio stations, newspapers)
* Post it at your blog for additional visibility and SEO value
* Link building exchanges are still effective and important to visibility, traffic-building, and SEO
* Buy online advertising in SEO friendly wedding directories
* Use PPC (pay-per-click) targeted advertising at Google (i.e. Google Adwords)
* If you use email marketing effectively it can become “viral” marketing very quickly
* Subscribers should be able to easily forward your newsletter or share it on Facebook
* Be sure to use the appropriate keywords, as well as links, in your Facebook and Twitter posts
* PERSONAL Facebook pages for your business should be converted to a BUSINESS page
* Use YouTube aggressively, it’s the #2 site on the Internet used for search
* Remember: YouTube is owned by Google!
* Start using Google+ aggressively
* Use keyword-rich content and links to your website, blog, even Facebook page!

Leverage the POWER OF TESTIMONIALS & REVIEWS (pictures, videos, awards)

* You have to get them to use them!
* Include testimonials, reviews, and awards from Wedding Wire, Yelp, Google
* Awards are powerful testimonials and imply “Best of the Best”
* Use graphics/pictures with testimonials for added impact
* Videos can be used very effectively ONLY if produced well
* Find and hire a Professional Videographer to do your videos – it makes a HUGE difference

Get TOP RANKED at Google and Google Places

* Top rankings at Google directly and immediately generate more leads…
* Optimize for products and services brides are searching for – NOT your company name!
* Search engine traffic is high-quality traffic
* High-quality traffic is more likely to convert into inquiries and sales
* Top ranking has an implied “Best of the Best”
* Top rankings will make appointments easier to get and sales easier to close!
* You’ll probably need to hire a professional to help you with your search engine optimization
* Search engine optimization got significantly more complex in 2012 and will be going forward

Make “Analytics” Your New BFF

* Measure results (Google Analytics)
* Monitor results: you can’t fix something if you don’t know it is broken
* You’ll make adjustments along the way, that’s how it works – don’t be frustrated, stay focused
* Have your online marketing consultant review your numbers
* Have them give you their analysis and recommendations monthly
* Stay on your plan!

Education