These tips are published here with the consent of Debra Power of Get Power Marketing. Her recent presentation through the LEDC regarding creating a marketing plan was very helpful and highly informative. If you would like to contact Debra, her website is http://www.getmarketingpower.com/ and her phone number is 734-741-1134.
Encourage repeat business right from the start. This can be done by in-store, email or Facebook only offers. In services businesses, it's important to get to know your customers and help them to be familiar with all the ways you may be of service to them.
Train your staff to answer the phone with a friendly, marketing-specific message. Be sure all of the people in the business who may answer the phone are informed and on board.
Remember: your best customers are your existing customers. It takes six times the marketing dollars to convert a prospect to a customer compared with an exisitng customers. If some one is already doing business with you, then it's probably safe to say that they like you and would probably buy from you again. Make sure you do whatever you can to keep it that way. Keep them happy.
Present demonstrations, workshops and consultations whenever possible. People like to do business with people they view as knowledgible and experts at what they do. Workshops can be an interactive way for your customers to become involved with your products or services.
Choose a charity and become an advocate. This is good for the charity, good for your community, good for your personal well being and can be a PR asset. The PR is in last place though, because the other benefits are so much more important.
Review you hours of operation and see if new hours might be more appealing to your prospects/customers. Ask your customers for input. Post the question on your Facebook page. Depending on the type of business, after hours appointments may be appropriate.
In addition to today's marketing tips, I also wanted to mention the wealth of marketing information shared at today's Adrian in the AM. The presenters from various marketing related businesses offered professional marketing insight. The program concluded with a marketing tips lighting round among the morning's speakers. Thanks for all the information and thanks Ann for the great Adrian in the AM topic.
Among the upcoming announcements in the Adrian Area Chamber email newsletter you will find information on the next Marketing SIG Lunch and Learn. It will be held on Friday April 22nd and promises to be another great marketing session. Another thanks is due to Ann for giving me the opportunity to share some marketing thoughts and ideas with the Chamber Conversations blog readers. Stay tuned to this blog for more useful and interesting marketing information.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Strategies for Email Marketing
People are so inundated with information everyday, it's hard to get their attention. Consider how many emails you receive that you don't read. These strategies will help prevent your email marketing from falling victim to the delete key.
At the top of the list is having permission to send email marketing to a recipient. There are a variety of ways to build an email list. In the email marketing we do for our business, the email service offers tips on growing your email list. One idea is at your store, or when you meet people you would like to add to your list, simply ask them if it's okay to send them your email marketing.
Be familiar with the people on your list. This gives you the opportunity to segment your list by interest or provide information that you know will be of interest to everyone on your list. Requesting replies to your email also helps gauge what gets the attention of your recipients. Monitor your in box for feed back and reply to comments and questions.
Keep your email marketing personal by using the recipients' names. It makes bulk email seem more personal. The email marketing service we use does this for us.
Email marketing may not be as effective during holiday seasons. People are distracted with other activities. If you have a retail business and your recipients have opted to receive your emails, then shopping seasons are prime emailing marketing times for you. Business to business service organizations may want to think about sending their email marketing early in the week for at work consumption. Business to consumer business may want to email market closer to the weekend when more people have free time to take advantage of email offers.
Email subject lines should state an immediate benefit to the recipient. Mention a discount or ask an interesting question. It's a good idea to avoid $ and ! and "free" as these may trigger spam filters. Our email subject line is the title of our newsletter, which includes our business name.
If you include a call to action, make it clear and easy to follow through. If you want recipients to print a coupon, test it to make sure it works. If you want them to click through to your website, make sure the link works. If you want them to do something specific when they land on your website, make it easy to find and complete.
The email service we use provides us with a variety of statistics regarding our email newsletter. We can learn who opened the newsletter and how many times. Who opted in or out, who clicked through and more. This is usefull information for the purpose of personal follow up and other business purposes.
Email marketing is inexpensive but has significant impact. Our average open rate has been around 30%. If you compare that with direct mail, which is ususally around 2% to 5% and much more expensive, you can see why we find email marketing appealing. The Chamber has a very nice email newsletter and is a good example of how email marketing can be done well. If you would like to see our Boulevard Financial newsletter, please send me an email at boulevardfinancial@comcast.net.
At the top of the list is having permission to send email marketing to a recipient. There are a variety of ways to build an email list. In the email marketing we do for our business, the email service offers tips on growing your email list. One idea is at your store, or when you meet people you would like to add to your list, simply ask them if it's okay to send them your email marketing.
Be familiar with the people on your list. This gives you the opportunity to segment your list by interest or provide information that you know will be of interest to everyone on your list. Requesting replies to your email also helps gauge what gets the attention of your recipients. Monitor your in box for feed back and reply to comments and questions.
Keep your email marketing personal by using the recipients' names. It makes bulk email seem more personal. The email marketing service we use does this for us.
Email marketing may not be as effective during holiday seasons. People are distracted with other activities. If you have a retail business and your recipients have opted to receive your emails, then shopping seasons are prime emailing marketing times for you. Business to business service organizations may want to think about sending their email marketing early in the week for at work consumption. Business to consumer business may want to email market closer to the weekend when more people have free time to take advantage of email offers.
Email subject lines should state an immediate benefit to the recipient. Mention a discount or ask an interesting question. It's a good idea to avoid $ and ! and "free" as these may trigger spam filters. Our email subject line is the title of our newsletter, which includes our business name.
If you include a call to action, make it clear and easy to follow through. If you want recipients to print a coupon, test it to make sure it works. If you want them to click through to your website, make sure the link works. If you want them to do something specific when they land on your website, make it easy to find and complete.
The email service we use provides us with a variety of statistics regarding our email newsletter. We can learn who opened the newsletter and how many times. Who opted in or out, who clicked through and more. This is usefull information for the purpose of personal follow up and other business purposes.
Email marketing is inexpensive but has significant impact. Our average open rate has been around 30%. If you compare that with direct mail, which is ususally around 2% to 5% and much more expensive, you can see why we find email marketing appealing. The Chamber has a very nice email newsletter and is a good example of how email marketing can be done well. If you would like to see our Boulevard Financial newsletter, please send me an email at boulevardfinancial@comcast.net.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Presentable Presentations
While not all businesses employ presentations as part of their marketing. For those that do, presentations may be very important to the business - prospect relationship. Presentations, in that context are intended to inform in an interesting way and move the audience from prospect to client.
To have an effective presentation it's important to be well informed about the audience. What do they already know about the topic? Why would the topic be of interest or of value? What do you want them to do as a result of the presentation? Why would they not want to do that? The audience, for the presentation to be effective, needs to know why they should think you are credible and qualified. To augment the connection, building a rapport through common interests is a real asset.
The job of the presentation is to take the audience through the process of seeing the current situation and then understanding what could be. Even if the audience has the information they need to make a decision and it's presented in an interesting, credible and persuasive way, without a call to action, the audience may not understand what the next step should be. Some call to action tools, may be spelling out a time line for the next step. Having appropriate paper work on hand and asking for the desired action is another way to go. People with a sales background reading this will recognize this step.
Some nuts and bolts things to keep in mind include making sure that there isn't too much detail on one page. The audience won't be able to take it in. If possible, use photos or images to illustrate your message. If you use a template or a logo on each page, observe that this takes up a large part of area that could be used for clean simple lettering and images. The audience will comprehend the message better with less information per page and one clean sharp font used in a limited number of sizes.
Before your presentation, go through it with someone you trust to give you an honest opinion. Walk through it in your mind until you are comfortable with the flow and how it relates to the audience. Hopefully these tips will help you create and deliver more effective presentations.
To have an effective presentation it's important to be well informed about the audience. What do they already know about the topic? Why would the topic be of interest or of value? What do you want them to do as a result of the presentation? Why would they not want to do that? The audience, for the presentation to be effective, needs to know why they should think you are credible and qualified. To augment the connection, building a rapport through common interests is a real asset.
The job of the presentation is to take the audience through the process of seeing the current situation and then understanding what could be. Even if the audience has the information they need to make a decision and it's presented in an interesting, credible and persuasive way, without a call to action, the audience may not understand what the next step should be. Some call to action tools, may be spelling out a time line for the next step. Having appropriate paper work on hand and asking for the desired action is another way to go. People with a sales background reading this will recognize this step.
Some nuts and bolts things to keep in mind include making sure that there isn't too much detail on one page. The audience won't be able to take it in. If possible, use photos or images to illustrate your message. If you use a template or a logo on each page, observe that this takes up a large part of area that could be used for clean simple lettering and images. The audience will comprehend the message better with less information per page and one clean sharp font used in a limited number of sizes.
Before your presentation, go through it with someone you trust to give you an honest opinion. Walk through it in your mind until you are comfortable with the flow and how it relates to the audience. Hopefully these tips will help you create and deliver more effective presentations.
Friday, March 25, 2011
More Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today
These Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today are published here with the permission of Debra Power of Get Marketing Power. Her recent presentation at LEDC was highly informative and very helpful. You can learn more about Debra by going to her website GetMarketingPower.com or call 734-741-1134. These are some of Debra's useful and clever tips.
Host a contest for something related to your business. Keep in mind the expense of the prize and any collateral expenses versus the benefit.
Make your telephone on-hold message a marketing tool. Keeping this fresh is a great idea.
Start a blog. If you have email addresses for your customers, contact them and invite them to follow you. Be sure to put your blog address in other promotional materials, including your business cards.
Review your pricing strategy and see if there are opportunities to improve. It's not a bad idea to know what your competition is charging for the same or similar items. Is it possible for you to afford a loss leader for a period of time to bring new people into the store? If you offer a loss leader, it's important to advertise. Your pricing may also need revising if there is something you offer that just isn't selling. Remember that your customers may also have some insight for you on this topic.
Keep quality a priority. Customers are disappointed with shoddy merchandise. If you have a service business, make sure that your entire team is on the quality band wagon. Customers remember and share a good experiences with a business. Customers remember and share not so good ones too. For which would you prefer to be remembered?
Host a contest for something related to your business. Keep in mind the expense of the prize and any collateral expenses versus the benefit.
Make your telephone on-hold message a marketing tool. Keeping this fresh is a great idea.
Start a blog. If you have email addresses for your customers, contact them and invite them to follow you. Be sure to put your blog address in other promotional materials, including your business cards.
Review your pricing strategy and see if there are opportunities to improve. It's not a bad idea to know what your competition is charging for the same or similar items. Is it possible for you to afford a loss leader for a period of time to bring new people into the store? If you offer a loss leader, it's important to advertise. Your pricing may also need revising if there is something you offer that just isn't selling. Remember that your customers may also have some insight for you on this topic.
Keep quality a priority. Customers are disappointed with shoddy merchandise. If you have a service business, make sure that your entire team is on the quality band wagon. Customers remember and share a good experiences with a business. Customers remember and share not so good ones too. For which would you prefer to be remembered?
All About Women
If your business could benefit from meeting your customers face to face, then "All About Women" could be just the event for you. "All About Women" Women's Health Fair and EXPO is being held Saturday, April 16th at The Centre. This event allows businesses to sell, show & demonstrate their products and services to a mostly female audience attending the event. The cost to be a vendor is reasonable and an 8 foot skirted table is provided in each of the 10' X 7' display spaces.
For most businesses, women are a highly desirable audience. They tend to lead the way or have a lot of input on many decisions in their home. Women also make up a large share of business owners. Some vendors at the show may find women an attractive audience because their products are appealing to women.
Women attend the EXPO because the price of admission includes health screenings, pampering services, workshops and more. The featured speaker this year is America's Nutritionist, Zonya Foco. If participating as a vendor isn't in your plans for one reason or another, coming out to attend promises to be loads of fun. For more information on being a vendor or attending, contact the Chamber 265-2320.
For most businesses, women are a highly desirable audience. They tend to lead the way or have a lot of input on many decisions in their home. Women also make up a large share of business owners. Some vendors at the show may find women an attractive audience because their products are appealing to women.
Women attend the EXPO because the price of admission includes health screenings, pampering services, workshops and more. The featured speaker this year is America's Nutritionist, Zonya Foco. If participating as a vendor isn't in your plans for one reason or another, coming out to attend promises to be loads of fun. For more information on being a vendor or attending, contact the Chamber 265-2320.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today
The tips in this post are shared with the permission of Debra Power of Get Power Marketing. Recently I attended a workshop at LEDC presented by Debra. She is an exceptional speaker and her presentation was both informative and useful. If you have an opportunity to hear her speak in the future, I would recommend it. Just for reference, her web address is http://www.getmarketingpower.com/ and her phone number is 734-741-1134. The title of her presentation was Your Path to Marketing Success and the core topic was developing a marketing plan. Since wiser minds than I have recently addressed that topic, I'm simply going to pull out a few key tips for simple marketing steps you can take today. These are drawn from the workshop booklet I received at the meeting.
Survey your customers. They are a treasure trove of valuable information.
Create a customer database and use it. It requires 6 times the marketing expenditure to gain a new customer compared with getting an existing customer to do business with you again.
Follow up with your customers after the sale. They will be impressed that you care.
Use coupons, offer free samples or a free hour of consultation. Consider the impact on your bottom line before implementing this tip.
Hand out free promotional gifts. See above.
Re-examine your signage. Look at your business inside and out, like you have never seen it before. This can be a real eye opener.
Enjoy your weekend everyone! Spring is just around the corner.
Survey your customers. They are a treasure trove of valuable information.
Create a customer database and use it. It requires 6 times the marketing expenditure to gain a new customer compared with getting an existing customer to do business with you again.
Follow up with your customers after the sale. They will be impressed that you care.
Use coupons, offer free samples or a free hour of consultation. Consider the impact on your bottom line before implementing this tip.
Hand out free promotional gifts. See above.
Re-examine your signage. Look at your business inside and out, like you have never seen it before. This can be a real eye opener.
Enjoy your weekend everyone! Spring is just around the corner.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Your Telephone Is A Marketing Tool
There is a marketing tool in every business that can be put to better use today. It's your telephone. How you answer your phone may be a new undiscovered asset to your marketing.
To begin with basics, all your staff should answer the phone the same way. Think about first impressions. How do you want your staff to sound and what do you want the caller to think about your business as a result of the phone being answered? There is one business I have called a couple of times recently where the person who usually answers the phone sounds like they dislike talking to customers. Not a good first impression. Consider that on the other end of the phone line is a potential or existing customer and you have the opportunity to communicate something about your business. What will it be?
If you are having a sale or a special event, a very brief description of the promotion may be a good way to start. If you are unique in the market place and have a slogan that reflects that, saying your slogan as a part of phone answering protocol may be a good choice. Using the fast food drive thru approach may be something to consider. If you have a new product, ask the caller if they would like information about it. Even if they aren't interested at that moment, they know about something else you have to offer. This can also be used for product lines that you already have, but would like to emphasize. If you have a recorded message on hold, update it to include new information you would like to communicate about your business.
Remember to get everyone in your business who may be answering the phone on board with the kind of first impression you would like to give callers. The caller has already sought you out, you have the opportunity to give them another reason to do business with you.
To begin with basics, all your staff should answer the phone the same way. Think about first impressions. How do you want your staff to sound and what do you want the caller to think about your business as a result of the phone being answered? There is one business I have called a couple of times recently where the person who usually answers the phone sounds like they dislike talking to customers. Not a good first impression. Consider that on the other end of the phone line is a potential or existing customer and you have the opportunity to communicate something about your business. What will it be?
If you are having a sale or a special event, a very brief description of the promotion may be a good way to start. If you are unique in the market place and have a slogan that reflects that, saying your slogan as a part of phone answering protocol may be a good choice. Using the fast food drive thru approach may be something to consider. If you have a new product, ask the caller if they would like information about it. Even if they aren't interested at that moment, they know about something else you have to offer. This can also be used for product lines that you already have, but would like to emphasize. If you have a recorded message on hold, update it to include new information you would like to communicate about your business.
Remember to get everyone in your business who may be answering the phone on board with the kind of first impression you would like to give callers. The caller has already sought you out, you have the opportunity to give them another reason to do business with you.
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