SmallFuel Marketing Blog

5 Marketing Blogs You Need To Read Every Day

2009-06-08T13:02:00-05:00

Marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum: even the best marketers spend some time every day keeping up with new information in the field. That used to mean subscribing to industry magazines, going to marketing conferences and using other resources that were only affordable if you were doing marketing all day, every day. With the advent of blogs, though, there is plenty of marketing information available immediately and freely. Even better, it’s already broken down into articles short enough that a small business owner can read a few over the course of a busy day. There are thousands of quality marketing blogs available, but there are five that we’d particularly like to recommend reading every day — in addition to SmallFuel Marketing, of course.

Influential Marketing Blog
Rohit Bhargava is the blogger behind the Influential Marketing Blog. He knows marketing inside and out: as a senior vice president at Ogilby’s 360 Digital Influence, Bhargava is out there pioneering digital marketing techniques every day. Among his other credentials, Bhargava wrote a book last year, titled Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back.
Church of the Customer
Ben McConnel and Jackie Huba — the founders of the Society for Word of Mouth — blog at the Church of the Customer. They specialize in covering marketing topics related to word of mouth marketing, but they also include posts with a wider focus. For those of you who don’t primarily rely on word of mouth as a marketing strategy, it’s worth reading the Church of the Customer to understand how word of mouth can still affect your overall marketing plan.
OPEN Forum
While not precisely a marketing blog, American Express’s blog for small business owners routinely has great posts regarding marketing. If you go to the Marketing section of the site, you can see videos from such marketing experts as Seth Godin, as well as find blog posts and articles from a variety of marketing specialists. On OPEN Forum, you get information from a variety of leading business experts.
Copyblogger
If you write the marketing copy, press releases and other communications for your business, Brian Clark’s Copyblogger is a must read. It has article after article about taking the writing you do for your business to the next step, and each one is a must read. Even if you outsource such projects to a freelance writer, Copyblogger is a key resource: the blog can give you ideas on new approaches and techniques, as well as give you the skills to evaluate the work that freelance writer is sending you.
Seth’s Blog
Seth Godin literally wrote the book on permission marketing, as well as ten other marketing books. For the most part, his blog posts are very quick reads. Each post is a concrete idea: Godin will tell the story of a successful marketer, describe an idea or mention a relevant link. Reading Godin’s blog can ensure that you’re constantly getting new ideas about how to market your own business.

These are just five of the best marketing resources you can find online. For the most part, they cover marketing as a borad topic. Other blogs focus on particular types of marketing, marketing for particular industries or even marketing in a specific geographic area. It’s worth your while to find at least one or two of the marketing blogst that are particularly relevant to your business: if you can find a shortcut through the experiences of someone else in your niche, your reading will pay off. There are many more, and if there is a blog you’d particularly like to recommend, please tell us about it in the comments.

Templating Your Press Releases: Save Time and Money

2009-02-11T14:41:00-05:00

Press releases can be a great tool for getting your news into the media’s hands, but crafting a new press release for every announcement can be costly and time-consuming. Unless you have someone on staff that can put together a well-crafted press release, you’ll have to spend time finding a writer every time you want to send one out.

But there is an approach that can help you cut down the time and money you spend on press releases: templates. By templating your press releases you can save time and effort on each release, and if done well you can even improve the overall quality of the announcements you put out.

The Standard Boilerplate

Most companies have relied on at least a little boilerplate for their press releases for years: you probably have a paragraph about your business’ background that you can drop into press releases, as well as other communications related to your business. Your boilerplate probably includes contact information for your company, as well as background information about the business’ history and specialties.

You can use the idea of boilerplate text to move you towards using a template for your press releases. If you routinely direct media interviews to one person, for instance, it makes sense to have a bit of boilerplate saying exactly that, along with that person’s background. Be prepared to tweak standardized text to customize it to specific press releases: when you run a small business, you’re responsible for taking all interviews, even if marketing and public relations isn’t your background. That means that you’ll probably want to emphasize different parts of your own background when sending out a press release. For a press release describing your business’ philanthropy, your background should probably mention why you chose a particular charity. For a press release sharing newsworthy statistics, your background should emphasize the fact that you’re an expert on the topic.

Tweaking an existing paragraph is far easier than writing a new paragraph from scratch. You already have an existing structure — all you have to do is fit the relevant information into that format.

Evolving Towards a Template

You can use any existing press release as a template, but it will be a very general template. Such an approach will give you the basic structure: a spot to place your headline, introduction and body text, but that sort of template can be hard to work with if you aren’t used to writing for publicity. Instead, you’ll want a specific template that lets you get a little closer to a ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ document.

Those boilerplate paragraphs you’ve tweaked make a better starting point for your press release template. By building up a few paragraphs that you can easily tweak to reflect the specifics of your current press release, you can create a template that is truly relevant to your business. With an effective template, you’ll only need to drop in a headline and a body paragraph or two covering the specifics of your latest news. Even headlines and news paragraphs can be written off a template. There are certain structures that are more effective than others, especially when it comes to headlines. Those structures reflect the type of press release you’re sending out, as well as your target audience: the structures that catch bloggers’ attention are different than those for newspaper reporters.

Drawbacks of Templates

If you rely on a template to produce your press releases, the news you send out to the media will have a certain sameness. It can be harder for a press release following a template to gather the notice of reporters, because your press releases will seem similar across the board. It’s the trade off of paying less for a press release. There are some compromises that can help you cut costs on your press releases without relying entirely on a template. You can work with a press release writer for headlines and body text, providing boilerplate for the rest of the press release — many writers are willing to effectively write half of a press release. You can also use multiple templates: different templates for different kinds of news or a set of templates you rotate through in order to provide some variety in your releases.

Your Thoughts?

How do you handle your company’s press releases? Do you use them regularly, have you created templates?

Do you have any press release tips to share with other readers?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Using a Portfolio: How To Market Your Business By Hand

2008-10-30T16:16:00-05:00

Putting together a physical portfolio can be a great way to market your small business, whether it’s an offline or online venture. The oft-overlooked folder stuffed with goodies can be just the trick for getting exposure with new potential clients, network easily with other small businesses and possibly increase sales as a result.

A portfolio folder is contains your business profile information, and you leave it with potential customers to browse through. It holds contact information, samples and anything that helps introduce you and your business to people.

A portfolio folder is a great marketing tool, no matter how small your business. It gives people something tangible and helps them learn who you are, what you offer and how you can help them. That folder makes you look good, gathering all your information attractively together in one handy place.

What to Put In a Press Kit

It doesn’t take much to fill a portfolio folder with exactly enough material to attract people to your business. A basic portfolio folder might contain:

Your business card
A sheet with your contact information
A small bio or introduction
A list of your services
A few samples of your work
A press release about your business
Some screenshots or photos of past work
A special discount offer or a coupon
A small promotional gift, like a pen or a magnet

You don’t need to stuff your folder full or spend a great deal of money. You can build your folders at home using store-bought paper, quality ink and your own printer.
It’s nice to have letterhead stationery if you can, though, and it gives your business that extra edge. An alternative is inserting your logo into a Word .doc and making do with that for now. (Make sure the .jpg is good quality and not blurry, though.)

Why Portfolio Folders Work

People like to have their senses stimulated during the shopping experience. Stores play music, they let us pick up and touch items on shelves, and some places even light candles for olfactory stimulation, too.

In fact, human beings crave as much sensory information as we can get – and the more we get, the more we’re likely to buy. A portfolio folder lets people have that sensory experience with you and your business. They can feel and touch what you’ve given them, and they can listen and talk with you.

Portfolio folders also work because they’re not as easy to throw away as a brochure or flier. People tend to keep portfolio folders for a period or even file them for reference later on.

Lastly, this marketing tool engages people easily. People open the folder, look inside, leaf through the sheets, touch the card… They take in plenty of information about your business and their interest is held longer than just a glance at a flier.

Boost the Marketing Potential

Hand-deliver your folder and introduce yourself properly to someone in the business who hires or buys. Your portfolio folder is a tool that lets you strike up a conversation, and it’s the best time to use your elevator pitch.

Hand delivering also lets the potential customer see you, talk to you and ask questions. A personal conversation also lets people see your face and associate you and your business together better, making you more memorable. If you just drop off your folder with the secretary or a clerk, no one will ever match your face to your business.

While you talk with the person, ask the questions customers are dying for you to ask. You can also ask about the business’ current provider, too, and whether they find the service or products are satisfactory.

Be subtle with these questions, of course. You don’t want to appear as if you’re attempting to steal the competition’s business.

Questions you could ask include those about the businesses usual needs, such as how often they buy a certain product or service or in what quantities. You could inquire over any small frustrations (or large ones) that they currently experience, especially ones that your product or service resolves.

You might even suggest small improvements or propose a solution while you’re there, just to be nice.

If you can’t deliver your folder in person, one idea is recording an audio file and adding a CD to your folder? People will at least be able to hear your voice. Tell the story of how you got started or share some extra information on how you can help the business achieve more.

Do you have any other items that you’d add to your portfolio folder? What would be something that you’d like to find on the pages if you were handed one of these marketing kits?

What McDonalds Can Teach You About Sales

2008-10-15T13:32:00-05:00

When it comes to selling, there is little that McDonalds doesn’t know. Being around for almost 60 years, they have had time to explore just about every possible way to sell more. And they’ve found some good secrets too – like selling package deals.

Package deals are great for selling merchandise or services. Shoppers like it when everything they need is right there and they don’t have to think too much. Sellers like package deals too, because they’re easily presentable and boost sales as well.

In this post we’ll show you how McDonalds uses packages to sell lots, and then we’ll show you how you can use packages can improve you’re own sales. Read on for more…

Why selling packages works

Look at our McDonalds example. The fast food giant doesn’t just sell hamburgers. The menu doesn’t list many single-sell items. McDonalds offers the whole deal to hungry people, full meals that have the works plus fries and a drink. No one has to worry about figuring out which side order or extra they want. It’s all taken care of in the utmost convenience and the consumer is happy all his needs are met.

That’s why packaging products or services works – it’s handy. It saves time because it’s fast and easy.

Package deals also save consumers a little money (in a roundabout way). Look at the McDonald’s strategy again: For a discount off the purchase of single items, consumers get a full meal.

Those hungry people aren’t thinking about comparing costs between buying it all or buying individual. They’re thinking about how much they save, or maybe how little it costs to get a hot cherry pie tossed into the order.

By adding upsells to package meals, McDonalds increases sales even more. They smartly package together a burger, a drink and fries, then offers upsells of bacon, cheese or dessert for an even better sale—and a more satisfied customer who has everything they need or want, and then some.

Ka-ching!

Getting started with your own packages

Packaging your own offerings is easy, and the benefits to your business (and to the customer) can be worth it. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Write up a list of à la carte items or services. Group together related items that beg to be paired up together in a gift-basket style.

For example, if you sell coffee, package up coffee, two mugs and fancy spoons. If you blog, offer ten posts, relevant images and posting to the client’s blog. If you own a garage, package tire rotation with break verification and an oil change.

Don’t have too many package deals – the purpose isn’t to make choice more difficult but rather easier for the consumer to do. A good strategy is using the small, bigger, best theory (or bronze, silver and gold). Each package adds on extra products or services to increase the value of what the consumer receives.

Set prices for your packages by totalling the individual costs and determining a discounted price for grouped items or services. If it costs $50 for one item, set a purchase of three items at $125.

A few tips for boosting package sales

It’s always a good idea to have a handful of add-ons and extras you can offer that enhance package deals. For example, if you’re a web designer, an add-on could be a half-hour of consultation or a custom banner ad. If you market, a half-hour review in a month’s time to track progress might be nice.

Always make sure that shoppers can compare costs between single items and package deals. They won’t start to calculate a great deal, but they will glance and see the differences in pricing.

Select some catchy names for your package deals. People aren’t buying products or services, they’re buying an emotional feeling. Think of McDonald’s Happy Meals or the Burger King Whopper Meal. Try to reflect your brand image with the names you choose.

A good tactic to try is naming packages in a way that conveys the smallest is less attractive than the largest. For example, no one likes to be considered a skinflint, so consumers may subconsciously opt for the “Royal Regalia” versus the “Budget Baron”.

Throughout all of this, remember that your goal isn’t to squeeze more money out of people – your goal is to have a more satisfied customer. You achieve that goal when you make a client’s life easy and fulfill all of his/her needs.

Let’s hear what you think. Do you like it when you can buy package deals? What’s the best deal you ever received?

Have You Made Marketing Plans For Christmas?

2008-10-07T15:42:00-05:00

Christmas may seem far off right now, but it’s creeping up on us. There are a few things besides presents you may want to be thinking about, especially if you have a small business to market.

Many business owners use the winter holidays as an opportunity to thank and reward their customers. Some business owners send out a small gift to clients, others offer a holiday discount — but no matter what sort of marketing you’re planning for the holiday season, now is the time to start.

Christmas is for Rewards

Many Christmas promotions focus on rewarding reliable clients, and ensuring that you’ll get more business from them after New Year’s. In many ways, marketing to current clients is easier than getting new clients. After all, you already know quite a bit about your existing customers. You know that they all share a need for your service or product, and you can use that to guarantee return business. You already have a list of people you’ll be sending your Christmas marketing materials to.

There are so many options for promoting your company over the holiday season. Even something as simple as a thank you note for each of your clients guarantees that they’ll at least think of you at the beginning of the year. If you take the time to reward your clients in some manner, you let them know that you value their business. As long as they believe that value is genuine, most clients are more likely to stick with you on a long-term basis.

Why Start Now?

If it’s easier to market to existing customers, you might wonder why you need to start so far in advance. There are a number of reasons:

Everybody else markets during Christmas, too. If you want to get your marketing materials designed and printed, you’ll need to get in line.

Even a stack of thank you notes and postage stamps can be expensive. It makes sense to spread the expenses of your promotion over several months.

You probably have year-round marketing efforts in place. Adding another promotion on top of that may just require more hours than you’ll have available in December.

If you’re working with someone outside your company, they probably have already started their holiday planning. Magazines, for instance, often decide on their content (and advertising) four or five months in advance.

Getting New Customers For Christmas

Most small business owners would much rather get new customers for Christmas than two front teeth. And it’s a great time of year to move product: everyone’s looking for a present for that person that already has everything. You just need to figure out who is the perfect recipient for your gift.

Plan to market to that ideal recipient’s mother, student, employee or anyone else that might give him or her a gift. But get going on your marketing: many people start their Christmas shopping in November. If you’re planning on buying advertising for November or have any marketing materials you need develop, time is getting pretty short. You’ll want to get your marketing for the next few months ironed out now, before publications sell all of their advertising spaces and moms buy all of their Christmas gifts.

Planning for Any Holiday

Just as you should plan for Christmas a few months ahead of schedule, you should move scheduling up for any other holiday promotions you’re planning. Christmas isn’t the best time for promoting every product. Maybe Halloween or Valentine’s Day will get you a good response. But no matter what holiday you’re planning for, you will want to handle your marketing plans in advance.

There’s a secret that great marketers live by: if you set your calendar ahead six months, you’ll be right on time for every holiday.

5 Marketing Mistakes To Avoid At All Costs

2008-10-01T14:44:00-05:00

Communicating with potential customers is one of the foundations of marketing any company—and it’s something that many people ignore for far too long. Some mistakes in how you discuss business or sell your product will quickly turn away clients. Other mistakes will just leave money on the table.

Think about what you typically say to potential customers. Which words do you choose? Which angle do you take to stir their interest and sell your product?

It’s very important to consider these things, since the words you choose can significantly influence your income.

Here is a list of five things you should never do when talking with your potential customers:

1—Never Knock the Competition

One mistake many people make is knocking the competition in the hopes of boosting positive perception of their own business. It’s a bully’s attitude and one to avoid.

A better idea is to tell people why your product is good – better than the next business’s – without dragging them down in the gutter. By doing so, you show that you have integrity and respect for your competitors and that you believe in the value of what you sell.

2—Never Make People Feel Stupid

“You’re not doing that, are you?” Patronizing people is a common mistake. It makes people doubt themselves and feel embarrassed and silly. They haven’t done anything wrong. They just didn’t choose your products or services, that’s all.

Acknowledge that potential customers have been doing X action or using Y product and make them feel like this decision was fine – because it was. You can then point out how your product or service offers more value or better results.

3—Never Forget Initial Contact

When you’ve been in contact with a potential customer already and have a second opportunity, recall a detail about the initial encounter. Otherwise, you leave the customer feeling like he or she is forgettable – not a good feeling.

Want a trick for those moments when you just can’t remember a thing? Ask, “Did you have that shirt on last time when we met? No? Oh, well I really like the color. It suits you.” The person feels flattered and memorable – and may be more in the mood to listen to you!

4—Never Ask Too Many Questions

Some people try to determine the needs of potential clients by flinging out a hundred questions and hoping one sticks. Avoid asking too many questions; ask the right questions and listen to the answers.

Make sure that the questions you ask have to be answered by more than a yes or no. Pay attention to what the person says to determine needs, hopes and desires. Narrow in to what the person really wants and then provide it.

5—Never Seem Desperate

No matter how badly you want this consumer to become a customer, never appear desperate. Desperation turns people off and doesn’t sway many into becoming a loyal customer. Be confident, be honest, be forthcoming and be ready to let go.

Your goal in marketing is to create a positive and memorable consumer experience, even if the person didn’t become a customer at the moment in question. The more favorably people perceive your business or offerings, the more likely they are to think of you the next time they want to buy.

What Can Facebook Really Do For Your Company?

2008-09-24T16:00:00-05:00

Are you on Facebook? There are millions of potential customers on there, just waiting for you. Through Facebook, you can market to people you would be unable to reach otherwise. It’s just a matter of knowing your options and becoming familiar with the site.

But what can Facebook really do for your company? Read more to find out.

Advertising

Many companies in a hurry to take advantage of social media marketing pass by the advertising opportunities available on Facebook. Instead, though, they should be your first stop: how would you like to advertise directly to your chosen demographic — and only your demographic? With Facebook Ads, you can limit your advertising to women in your hometown between the ages of 18 and 30. That sort of narrow focus is ideal for a small business with a clear picture of its target market. You can even limit your choices further: relationship status, workplace and other options let you profile your perfect customer.

You don’t have to have a huge budget to take advantage of Facebook Ads either. Instead, like many other websites, Facebook allows you to bid for either pay per click or pay per view ads. No matter which you choose, you can limit the amount of money you might spend in a day.

Free Marketing

Beyond advertising, Facebook does provide some free marketing opportunities. Chief among them is the Facebook Page. You can create a Facebook Page for just about anything, including your small business. You can use a Page to share information about upcoming events for your company, news and even to talk about your products. While such a Page isn’t a replacement for your company website, it can complement it by directing Facebook users to your site.

Seeking Out Customers

If you’re looking to take a more personal approach to marketing, Facebook can help you build a community focused on your product or brand. You can create groups, host discussions and invite people to show their support for your product — you could use a forum on your own site for the same purposes but Facebook might be a better choice for several reasons. For one thing, the infrastructure to build such a community can require some technical expertise as well as some money. Why reinvent the wheel when you can use Facebook for free? Also, Facebook just has more people. There are millions of users on Facebook, a number that most small businesses simply can’t hope to rival. So why not take advantage of the user base that Facebook has already built?

There is plenty of work associated with converting Facebook users into customers for your business, no matter whether you are inviting them to join a group or take a look at your business’ Facebook Page. You have to make sure that even the title of your page makes your value clear. Most Facebook users won’t click on a link unless it looks interesting — and they’ll leave a page or group immediately if it’s boring or they think you’re just trying to sell something. When you’re making a plan for marketing on Facebook, think about how you can help or interest potential customers.

Applications

If you want to dedicate some resources to marketing on Facebook, you might consider creating a Facebook application. It takes some technical know-how. If an application is fun or useful, though, it can wind up on thousands of user profiles in a matter of minutes.

One Drawback

Facebook can do plenty for a small business, but there is one fact you need to keep in mind. Despite the constantly growing numbers of Facebook users, not all demographics are equally represented. If your business caters to an older age group, marketing on other social networking sites — like LinkedIn — may give you more bang for your buck.

Know What Your Website Is Doing: An Intro to Analytics

2008-09-19T15:40:00-05:00

Websites are pretty much a requirement for marketing a business these days. But it can be hard to figure out just how successful your site is — is it bringing you new customers? Is it helping to educate your existing clients?

To begin to answer these questions you need take a look at your website’s traffic. You need web analytics.

Choosing an Analytics Package

There are thousands of web analytics packages. These applications tell you all sorts of details about the traffic your website receives: what sites are referring lots of visitors to you website, what sort of internet access visitors are using and more. Web analytics software can be divided into two categories: hosted analytics and analytics that you must install yourself. Luckily, there are free options in both that more than adequately address small business’ needs.

AWStats is a good example of web analytics software you have to install. It takes a little technical know-how, but if you work with a web designer, he or she will probably be able to handle installation. Google Analytics is pretty much the main option for hosted analytics — all you have to do to set it up is add a few lines of code to your site’s HTML.

Personally, I rely on Google Analytics. I know I’m providing Google with a lot of information about my site’s traffic, but Google Analytics is just one of the easiest-to-use options I’ve found.

What to do with Analytics

Once your analytics software is set up, you’ll be getting tons of information. Before you go into information overload mode, though, let’s look at how you can use that information.

Knowing how many users you get in a month is nice, but without a few other pieces of information it doesn’t tell you a whole lot. If you take a look at which days during the month — and times of day — that you get the most visitors, you’ll know when to launch any new product, promotion or project. You want to launch before most of your traffic shows up, so that more people see what your business is up to.

Knowing where your traffic is coming from can help you tweak your online marketing plan. If a few websites are sending you most of your traffic, you probably want to build up a good relationship with those sites and approach similar sites, as well. If you’re getting a lot of traffic from search engines on particular terms that you don’t necessarily want to show up for, you might want to spend some time on optimizing your site for other search terms.

Knowing what countries your visitors are located in shows you where you might be able to sell more products. If you’re only set up to sell in the U.S., but you get lots of visitors from the U.K., it might be time to check out just how hard it is to ship to England.

Setting Up Special Analytics

If you’re running a promotion and want to see just how successful it is, you can get information from most analytics packages on how well a particular page on your site is performing. With Google Analytics, for instance, you can set goals: your goal is to get visitors to a specific page, such as a “Thank You for Your Purchase” page. Visitors can only reach this page by making a purchase, and the analytics for just this page can give you quite a bit of information about who is buying from your site. The same technique works on landing pages, confirmation pages and any other page you can think of.

Comparing Information

Your analytics package will be able to provide you comparisons between different variables — like how many new visitors you get compared with how long a visitor stays. You can use all of this information to improve your website, as well as tweak how you market it.

Overall, this is just a very basic introduction to analytics. There are many more things you can do with the right analytics package, and most of them will significantly improve your efforts to market on the web. Do any of you have examples of how web analytics has helped you make a decision or improve your business?

5 Tips for Keeping Your Contacts Straight

2008-09-16T15:42:00-05:00

No matter what business you’re in, you need to know people. No matter how detailed your marketing or public relations plan is, there are times that you will need contacts who can help you promote your business. A reporter at the local newspaper or a blogger who covers your niche is a contact worth cultivating: these are the people who can help your company become a success.

But not all contacts are so clear cut. Maybe you have a list of past clients or sales leads that you want to use for marketing. You might have a list of local companies that might be interested in your product. All of these contacts, plus your friends in the media, make for plenty of names and email addresses to juggle.

Managing all of these contacts can be a major endeavor, but there are a few ways to simplify the process.

1. Choose an organizational system

The simple fact of the matter is that handy address book you have synced to your email account probably isn’t going to cut it for managing your business’ contacts. There are literally thousands of types of customer relationship (CRM) software and you want one robust enough to handle your needs and affordable for your business. Zoho CRM is a good place to start — it has a free version and can handle most of a small business’s needs.

2. Keep in touch

Sending a regular newsletter or otherwise communicating with your contacts on a regular basis is a good idea. You don’t need to touch base every day, but if you go months without a word, your contacts may forget who you are and what they like about your business. This point is especially true for media contacts: wish them ‘Happy Holidays’ and remember their birthdays. Send stories their way even if they don’t have anything to do with your company. Generally, build goodwill with both your media contacts and potential customers through contact.

3. Stop contacting people who ask

If you send out emails or other marketing materials to your list of contacts, give them an opportunity to remove themselves from your list. Any other choice technically makes you a spammer.

4. Get as much info as you can

One of the great things about CRM software is that you can make notes about your contacts — their birthdays, their children, their alma mater and anything else you can think of. It’s worthwhile to get as much information as you can about your contacts — and to use it. Make a practice of reviewing contact information before every interaction. Use it to ask after your contact’s children or health. Going that extra step will help you build a strong relationship with a client or customer.

5. Don’t forget real world interaction

These days, we all seem to rely on email and other online contract methods to stay in touch. But the value of an in-person interaction is incredible: if you actually meet someone in person, he or she is far more likely to remember you down the road. And if you can meet more than once, you’ll greatly improve on your relationship. Real world interaction should be one of the goals of getting your contacts organized. Maybe your CRM software can send you alerts when you haven’t met up with someone in person in a while or maybe you can just work your way down your list — either way, these interactions will help you go beyond a name and a phone number in your contact list.

More than a few business owners think that creating any sort of contact list is worthless — and maintaining one is just throwing more effort at it. But a good contact list will frequently come in handy. You know who to call when you have a great story for the evening news and you know which of your clients will be interested in the latest version of your product. You can easily get in touch with both groups and hopefully sell some product.

So, how are you currently managing your contacts?

5 Tips for Successful Long-Term Marketing

2008-09-12T15:35:00-05:00

We all try to convince people to buy on first contact, but the reality is that this situation rarely occurs. Some report that it takes about seven or eight points of contact before you convince someone to buy

This is why taking a long-term view, and marketing consistently, matters so much. The more a person sees your logo, your name or your product, the more likely that person is to move from prospect to buyer. Exposure counts and you need to do everything you can to make that exposure happen.

Most people make half-hearted attempts at marketing. They skimp on expenses and advertise only every now and then. It's true that it can get expensive to continually buy ad space or maintain marketing campaigns.

But if you don't have the consistent exposure, you're losing out on sales.

Focusing on the short-term immediate costs isn't the way to go;. Marketing is a long-term affair. Its goal is to increase your sales over time and grow your business from a clientless entity to one with a solid base of customers.

Here are five tips to help with your long-term marketing ventures:

Have a long-term plan.
It's not enough to know where you want to be in six months or a year. Know where you want to be in two years, five years and even in ten years with your business. By knowing what you want to attain over time, you can create a strategic marketing plan to help you achieve growth milestones along the way.
Follow through with every contact that occurs.
If you receive someone's email address, send a note a week or two after they contact you to follow up and ask if they have questions. You could even call them – a voice has greater impact than a text message.
Find ways to achieve long-term exposure.
Short marketing bursts are nice, but maintaining advertising in a location that many consumers can notice over time produces better results. Posters are a good idea; banner ads on websites are another. Visual impact counts.
Focus on one marketing strategy at a time
When you create three separate means of exposure, for example, it's tough to know which one made clients noticed you more and which method was the most effective for the cost involved.
Examine immediate costs of versus long-term income.
In many cases, investing $500 sounds like a lot of money to a new business owner, but if the expense offers the potential to bring in $10,000 worth of sales over one year, the immediate cost becomes negligible.

Always try to plan the goals you want to achieve from your marketing campaign. Analyze the related expenditures and the potential gains before making a decision. With a clear milestone in sight, you have a better opportunity to choose the method or strategy that works best with the budget you have.

And when you do make your choice for the tactic you think will work best? Measure, measure and measure again. By doing so, you'll make more informed decisions later on down the line.