You’re doing well, your marketing is working and you’ve got a potential customer who is interested in what you do... what’s next? To be seriously considered you have to build trust and prove that you can do what you say you can do.

What is the best, easiest and cost effective way to do this? Testimonials!

This simple and FREE marketing tool is often overlooked, but can help to seal the deal when a customer is making a purchase decision.

You’ve got my attention – but can you hold it?

Captivate your customers in three simple steps.

Think for a moment about your ideal customer. How do they look for your product or service? Are they searching online, are they talking to friends, are they walking down the street?

Once they have found you, how do you hold their attention and get them interested enough to find out more?

It is not enough to talk about what your business does or the promotion you have at the moment. You need to be more inspiring than that. You need to be relevant, interesting and credible to be ultimately considered.

Marketing is critical for every business because if the customer doesn't purchase your goods or services, nothing else matters! Marketing is not just advertising, it’s not just selling and it’s not persuading people to buy things they don’t need.

Marketing is the whole process of taking your goods and services to market and getting them into the hands of your ideal customers. That means marketing is about winning the hearts and minds of your customers and ideal clients. Reaching the right people with the right message in the right place at the right time!

It all sounds pretty simple but business owners often complain that their marketing fails to deliver the results they want.

For marketing to be successful so your business thrives, it must have the right why, who, what, how and do. A brief explanation of each component follows:

Last month we learnt that the secret to marketing plans that work is the science of what makes your customers buy.

Successful marketing meets your customer at every step of the buying process so that you retain as many prospects as possible, capture your customers and generate sales. The best marketing plans create strategies to make sure customers notice you, like you, trust you, try you, buy you and then love you.

The first essential step to creating a marketing plan that works is to get customers to notice you and become familiar with your brand.

There’s no denying that John Harrington, founder of Harrington’s Brewery knows a lot about craft beer. So when John and Derek McCullough, both long-time Mt Pleasant residents, got together to think of ways to raise money for the rebuild of the Mt Pleasant Community Centre, the conversation soon turned to beer.

From there, the idea of producing a Mt Pleasant series of beers was born, using the best and most popular of Harrington’s award winning craft beers.

Muritai Marketing, as local residents ourselves, decided to get behind this community initiative. On the 25th November 2015 to much fan fair, we launched four beers - Broad Reach, Ziraffe, Muddy Duck and Road Cone Red - under the by-line of ‘Good beer doing good.’

Combined with Mike McGurk’s stunning beer label designs, the beers are set to become a popular way to raise much needed funds to complete the centre.

Believed to be the first social enterprise initiative of its kind in New Zealand, every beer purchased equals a gold coin donation to the Mt Pleasant Community Centre rebuild. Timed to coincide with the summer time BBQ season these beers are a ‘hopping good’ Christmas gift for business clients and craft beer lovers alike.