Posted by Tina Brandts on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 @ 01:16 PM
Do you have a "when I remember to do it" marketing approach?
Do you market to "only some of your clients" and "only some of the time"?
Does your marketing tend to be a messy, thrown-together, if-I-have-time, last-minute effort?
Are you discouraged with your marketing results?
If so, you aren't alone; but I implore you to re-think your marketing initiatives. The truth is, messy marketing produces little to no results, which is discouraging... causing you to avoid it until the next marketing requirement rears its ugly head... at which time, you quickly produce a messy, thrown-together, last-minute piece... that yields little to no results... leading to increased discouragement and avoidance... Do you see where this is going?
It doesn't have to be this way! You can quickly send out professional marketing campaigns that yield successful results. And it can be done easily if you incorporate 5 key elements into your marketing. It's what I call Intelligent Marketing.
Intelligent Marketing is a well thought-out, multi-channel lead and client nurturing process. It is a process that relies on both traditional media and e-mail marketing to send messages that foster our credibility and trust. Intelligent Marketing is:
• Personalized - It's more nurturing and enticing when we receive a marketing piece that feels like it was written just for us. I LOVE my name - I love to see it, hear it, say it. And studies show (or at least I'm under the impression that they do) I'm not alone (because that would make me narcissistic). Most people love their names - so make sure to include a ‘Dear Tina' opening line. Also, sprinkle other known personal info into the body of the message - just remember to keep it professional, not creepy.
• Relevant - Our marketing pieces should contain information that relates to our customers' needs, wants and behaviors. The last thing we want to do is send discount offers on snow blowers to our Florida residents. Remember the target audience when sending marketing messages.
• Well-Timed - Be considerate of people's inbox. We don't want to lose business by over-loading our customers with emails, or by sending them too infrequently. Find the "just right" for your industry's customers. In regard to marketing follow-ups (or follow-throughs), research shows that our first contact attempt with new leads should come within 5 minutes of receiving their information, or they are likely to purchase elsewhere.
• Thorough - We always want to use a variety of media throughout our marketing campaigns to create a multi-channel approach. We want to include a mix of postcards, letters, emails and phone calls.
• Automated - Last, we want to deliver our intelligent marketing pieces consistently over a prolonged period of time. To do this efficiently, consider implementing an automated system, also known as a drip marketing system. Drip marketing is a system that automatically sends our marketing messages to our targeted contacts.
Implementing these 5 key elements into our marketing initiatives can, ultimately, save us time and money - and our precious sanity. With some initial efforts on our parts, we can transform our marketing efforts from messy to moneymaking!
Learn more about one of the industry's most powerful drip marketing and email marketing programs.
Posted by Tina Brandts on Tue, Jan 12, 2010 @ 04:31 PM
Let's face it, given today's economy, it's a buyers market - and us buyers know it. As a frequent buyer myself, I admit that I have gotten more selective about what I buy and who I buy from. I also unabashedly admit to having increased expectations about the products and services I am purchasing. To capture my loyalty, you must do more than send out the occasional, random sale offer, or on the opposite end, overload my mailbox with daily sales offers that don't really pertain to my buying needs or patterns. You must deliver consistent, long-term meaningful messages or offers that show you understand and value me (or my business, for all you BTB companies).
You NEED to implement a comprehensive, automated marketing system to achieve maximum marketing success. You NEED to follow one of my favorite business mottos in 2010 to succeed - Go BIG or Go Home! With automated marketing, you can:
B... Build professional, long-term, targeted marketing campaigns designed to...
I... Increase brand awareness; Increase consistent client and prospect follow-ups;
Increase customer relationships and loyalties; Increase savings of time
and money; all so you can...
G... Grow your business!
Don't let your competitors beat you to it. Start automating your marketing initiatives. Go BIG - don't Go Home!
Feel free to attend our upcoming public webinar, Maximize Your Marketing with ACT!, during which we will demonstrate how to easily create and send automated marketing campaigns.
Posted by Tina Brandts on Wed, Dec 23, 2009 @ 02:23 PM
Another year comes to a close - and it continues to amaze me how fast the world changes. Technology is forever advancing at the speed of light. Admittedly, it is exciting to continually be offered new, innovative business tools, and to have a multitude of ways to "get connected" with people, but it can also be a bit daunting and over-whelming.
With the creation of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., our marketing efforts are being transformed. In this fast-paced, consumer-dominated world, you'll find your biggest marketing ROI comes from taking your messages to the places (or sites, in this case) your customers and prospects are most frequenting. Yes, if you haven't already, it is time to plug your nose and jump into the social media pool.
Scary - yes (esp. if you are over the age of 20 and just can't grasp 'tweeting' - 'twittering' - 'twitting' - whatever it's called); Impossible - no; Easy - it can be!
According to a recent survey by Strongmail, most businesses understand the importance of this growing trend and do have plans to increase their 2010 spending on e-marketing and social media. (So you best get started or you'll miss the boat!)
However, most businesses report that they aren't sure how or where to begin and more importantly, they don't know how to measure their results for optimal success. Thankfully, for us at KSC, the new social media tools in ACT! 2010 allow us to easily see which social media sites each client is involved with, enabling us to gain valuable insight. When combined with the powerful ACT! e-marketing tools, we can create targeted messages to any number of clients - and quickly track and analyze the results. ACT! has made it easy.
However, regardless of the tools you use to increase or enhance your e-marketing and social media initiatives, it is important that you simply get started. Launch your company's name and brand into the social media-obsessed world by creating a company Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, etc. profile. Update it often. Connect with others who have the potential to become a customer or can help you find customers. Think of it as social media networking.
Embrace the current craze (or at least accept it), then plug your nose and jump into the 'Tweeting' (now you know) pool, the water's nice and the rewards are nicer.
Posted by Tina Brandts on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 @ 03:43 PM
In today's competitive business world, the key to business success revolves widely around the relationships you build with your customers. And it's more than simply providing fast, on-time deliveries of high-quality products and services; or follow-up satisfaction calls. Don't get me wrong, fulfilling these customer expectations are important. But let's face it, nowadays we all have competitors nipping at our heels that are offering the same things. So if we aren't careful, if we don't set ourselves apart from the competition, if we aren't diligent about building better business relationships with our customers, our competitors just might steal them away - shriek!!
To outshine your competition you need (and I stress, need) to take your customer relationships to the next level! They all have lives outside of the business world. Each contact has a favorite past-time, a birthday, life celebrations and upsets, etc. Wouldn't it be great if you knew?! Imagine the WOW factor your client would experience when you remember to ask how his kids, Tom, Sue and John, are doing; and how John did in his baseball game last Saturday. Imagine how impressed and surprised he would be when a gift basket arrives because baby Sally has finally arrived. It is the attention to details and the personal touch that is going to keep you clients coming back to you. They trust you and they like you; after all, you remember their birthday every year.
Are you aware that statistically, it costs 5 times more to attract a new customer than it does to satisfy and retain an existing one! Start using ACT! today to track all the important details in your customers' lives. Get organized, build strong business relationships and increase your sales success and profitability. WOW them and keep them coming back.