Marry Your Marketing Plan
Make a vow to keep up your marketing schedule in good times and not so good times. I have said it time and time again that marketing, no matter what type you choose, is a building process. Here is the whole thing summed up in one situation: Assume for a moment that you had never heard of this thing called "Cola". You go to your mailbox and get your mail only to find a postcard that says "New Fizzy Drink! You'll Love It! A Taste Like Nothing You Have Had Before!" You might run right out and try it, but more than likely, not. Most people won't. So you get a second postcard. Still you do nothing. Then you are talking to you're a friend from across town who says "Hey, have you tried this Cola thing?" It turns out that after he got his second postcard he went out and got a bottle to give it a try. Now the Third postcard shows up and you're thinking "OK, fine, I'll give it a try." And you do, and you do love it, and it is like nothing else. So now you have to tell your brother about it. You see where this is going. If the makers of "Cola", whoever they are, had sent cards to the whole town one time and then abandoned the marketing due to a lack of response they would have missed out. So, now that you can no longer argue with the fact that you need to keep up a steady stream of marketing to the same people multiple times you are obviously thinking "How do I keep up with the whole thing while I am closing the customers that I am already getting?" The honest answer is get a direct mail company to help you. Whatever size your mailing list is I suggest that you have enough pieces printed to mail to them at least three times. Usually once every 2-4 weeks is sufficient depending on your industry. You can set the dates for your mailings to go out and let the marketing company take care of the rest. That means that with one phone call you can take care of all of your marketing for 3 months or more. No worrying about remembering, no hassle-filled trips to the post office. All you will have to do is run your business the way that you know how and let them take care of your marketing. Stop worrying about the steady flow of business that you need to survive. Do something about it. Create a marketing plan, date it for a while, then if it really works out, say "I do." If you need more information on testing out your new marketing beau, read my article Don't Assume, Just Test and Track. Best wishes and a prosperous life together! Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing Success - Marketing Strategy - Brand Identity Guru
Marketing message x Credibility x Visibility = Marketing Success
Seven Common Marketing Problems Solved by Marketing Operations
Corporate marketing groups - especially bandwidth-challenged small-to-mid-sized departments - can be so focused on tactics and fire fighting that they jeopardize their marketing investment. There is a tendency to overreact to events, to tackle symptoms rather than underlying fundamental problems and to jump at the opportunity to please the boss. Many times, this kind of tactical knee jerking may be fatal.
Stretching Your Marketing Dollars--7 Cheap and Easy Ways to Market on a Budget
Just because you have to stretch your marketing dollars doesn't mean their effectiveness will decrease. The easiest marketing solution is often to simply throw money at a problem. But that is rarely the most effective. When Businesses are forced to use creativity and ingenuity to market on a budget, that is when some of the best results happen.
The Five Most Common Joint Venture Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
Joint Venture marketing has become a highly popular way for small businesses to maximize their profits. When two or more businesses combine their resources synergistically, it creates greater marketing impact and bigger profits than either can have alone.
20 Power Marketing Tips
Use these powerful yet simple tips from the national best-seller, "Secrets of Power Marketing: Promote Brand You" - the first guide to personal marketing for non-marketers.
Why You Buy
Behavioral economics is a new science that sheds light on some of our most important decisions. It is the study of how and why people make money-related choices. Here are some of the things the studies have shown thus far:
Mobile Auto Detailers and Newspaper Companies as Clientele
If you are a mobile auto detailer or mobile car wash company you might wish to think of attaining the local newspaper as a strategic client for your services. Usually newspapers have large staffs, especially daily newspapers. They do everything in house to save costs. They obviously have lots of cars to clean and this means plenty of customers. In fact as a mobile auto detailer or car washer this could be a half a days stop on your route or even a full day depending on the size or the paper. Think of the employees of a newspaper?
Powerful Direct Marketing Numbers
Direct Marketing works!
Your Headlines Are Key To Your Success Or Failure. Do You Know What To Write?
Looking for Sky In All The Wrong Places
Ever sit with a single puzzle piece of clouds and wonder how you will ever put the
entire sky together? Life as an entrepreneur is often just like that-- lots of the little
pieces, creating products, taking care of clients, wrestling with computers, finances,
taxes, etc.-- and a whole lot of sky. The big open space where you create a
successful and enjoyable business. There were many pieces of 'puzzle sky', I was
drowning in an ocean of sky blue. After over a decade of struggling with my own
company to fit all the 'pieces' together, I have finally put together the big business
puzzle-- and it's not what I thought it would look like.
Dont Use Yourself as Your Pricing Yardstick
"I wouldn't pay more than what I charge now."
Getting Paid to Promote Yourself
We all know we can pay a magazine or a newspaper to run ads for us. Businesses do
it all the time. In many cases, you're obliged to advertise to survive. But wouldn't
you rather promote yourself and your company in a number of publications, and get
paid for it?
How to Critique Your Own Yellow Page Ad
Forget what you know about your business Your goal is to see your Yellow Page display advertisement the way a directory user sees it. You can't act like you know anything about your enterprise that isn't there, on the page. Look at your ad without pride or being identified with your operation. If you pretend it's someone else's, you can spot the flaws you'd otherwise overlook. Mentally put the competition's name on your ad. Does what you say apply equally well to them? If it does, you haven't effectively set yourself apart.
Are You Losing Business?
As a small business owner, you are grateful for all of your clients or customers. But did you know that small business lose over 62% of sales because they don't follow up? You are caught up in the business of running your business you don't take the time to follow up with your clients.
Who is Your Perfect Client
When I started my coaching practice I believed that I could coach anyone. My marketing wasn't targeted. Taking a few clients that were "wrong" for me cured me of that. I began to define my "perfect client" and then started to notice flags that told me that someone didn't fit my definition.
Boost Profits: Market to the Gay Community
Research shows that the gay and lesbian market is worth cultivating, no matter what your product or service. Despite the cultural changes during the past fifty years the gay and lesbian market is still relatively untapped. According to GLINN (the Gay/Lesbian International News Network) from 1996-1998 the annual value of the gay and lesbian market was 514 billion dollars. Online research conducted by Community Marketing Inc. in San Francisco from 2001-2003 showed that gay and lesbian travel accounted for 54.1 billion in annual spending in the United States alone. This research also concluded that approximately 76% of gay and lesbian household incomes are above the national average of $40,000 per year.
Limited Time Only (Shh! Its A Secret)
Under normal circumstances, you'd shout it from the rooftops. After all, when you have something urgent to say, you want others to know about it, right? But when it comes to "limited time only" offers, lately I've noticed a disturbing trend. Copywriters seem to actually be hiding the phrase! Let me give you some examples.
Tracking Your Way to the Top!
I often wonder how people without a plan know where they're going. Or, how they know when they've arrived at their destination.
Mission Statement Impossible
Dant dant da da dant dant da da. Dant dant da da dant dant da da. (That's the
theme from "Mission Impossible"...)FADE IN.
Top 7 Tips for New Businesses
The marketing decisions you make for your new business are the most important part of making your business a success. Marketing is about building a strong presence, name recognition and credibility through various methods. Here are 7 things you can do to get a new business off the ground.
|
