Thursday, October 25, 2012

Is Email Marketing Still Effective?

I don't know about you, but I receive too many emails. I have begun taking advantage of the "unsubscribe" option to try to reduce the amount of clutter in my inbox. Does that mean that email as a marketing device has lost its usefulness?

Years ago, when I was just starting my consulting business, I used email to stay in touch with my clients and/or potential clients. I developed a list of email addresses from everyone who attended my seminars or who I met in the course of doing business. Every month (note - month, not day or even week) I would issue a short two or three paragraph tip about marketing, followed by my "signature". I received many compliments about my monthly communiques, and ultimately new business - either from the recipients or from their referrals to others. It was an effective way to establish myself and raise my profile.

I did this email marketing for about two or three years until too many others began to do the same thing. At the point where I felt my messages were getting drowned in a sea of other emails, I stopped. Why? If email is free and the opportunity to be in front of my prospects is very important, why would I abandon it?

First, email is not free. Every month I had to spend time - valuable time - crafting a new message. Email marketing is only as effective as the value of the message. If you don't have the time (or the skill) to send a useful message, don't bother. After a while, your recipients will decide your messages are not worth reading. Even if they do not "opt out", they may remove you from their approved senders list and your messages will go directly to spam. When/if that happens, your ability to communicate on more urgent matters is severely restrained.

Second, once email marketing became THE choice of marketers and small businesses everywhere, the inbox became too crowded. SPAM was born and even legitimate communications could be considered SPAM.

Third, email marketers have become so aggressive that, I think, they ultimately hurt more than help themselves. And that makes it difficult for those of us who tried to use this medium responsibly. I know I have even stopped contributing to causes in which I believe because daily emails asking for more money just became too annoying. If you do not know your recipients, you can not effectively communicate via email and thus are simply wasting your time.

So, here is what I recommend to anyone who wants to try, or continue to use, email marketing.
1. Keep your postings short, entertaining, and helpful.
2. Confine your frequency to no more than once every two weeks. Frequently enough to retain TOMA, yet not so frequent as to become a pest.
3. Encourage responses to engage your audience. Submit a poll, ask a pertinent question, request input on an issue.

Email marketing might be effective again, but only if you use it strategically.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

How is your TOMA?


TOMA – Top of Mind Awareness – is an important component of a comprehensive marketing plan.  It always helps if a prospect has heard of you when he/she receives your letter and/or call.  And if your business name is part of a directory, TOMA helps makes someone looking for your type of service think they already know you – and call. 

 

But how does one achieve effective TOMA on a limited budget?  Here are a few ideas: 

1.      Build a media list and send announcements of every little thing you do!  Got a new client?  Attended a seminar?  Participated in an event? No action is too small!

2.      Write an article for a professional publication.  And if it’s published, be sure to issue a press release and send copies to prospects. 

3.      Write a letter to the editor of a professional publication commenting on some recent article.

4.      Purchase a small display ad with a compelling headline to run regularly in a publication that reaches your target audience.  The compelling headline is more important than your business logo, because that’s what grabs attention and leads the reader to see who you are. 

5.      Send regular postcards with industry-relevant facts of interest to prospects and clients. 

6.      Be a regular on social media.  Tweet, post on Linked In, Facebook, Google +, etc.  Blog.  Use the opportunity to display your expertise by either original posts or by sharing.  Keep your name front and center! 

 

Remember, everything you do to keep your name and your reputation out front contributes to your TOMA, and helps grow your business.











Monday, February 20, 2012

What to do with that press release


What is the best way to build a media list and issue a press release?  Here are a few tips.

Let’s start with the media list.  If your product, news, or service has a national or regional scope – or you want it to – then sign up for wire service distribution such as that offered by PR Newswire and others.  Fees are reasonable and generally are based on the size of any release.  They will see that your release is distributed to the geographic regions and to the media outlets most likely to be interested in your news.  Many of the wire service’s media outlets will post your story on their web sites, thus enhancing your SEO (search engine optimization).  However, wire services only distribute to their member outlets, so be sure to enhance the visibility of your release by utilizing the wire service e-mail service.  The wire service will maintain a list of specific reporters – and any other recipients of importance to you such as board members, stake-holders, current and prospective clients – and distribute the release to them via e-mail or, where necessary,fax. 

What if your business – and news about it – is strictly local?  Make and maintain a local list.  Develop a comprehensive list of the local media – radio,TV,print.  Phone each outlet and ask to speak to a reporter who covers your news.  If you have time, arrange for a visit to see the operation, get a sense of who is who, who does what, and what types of stories are covered.  You may learn that different reporters receive different types of news.  Some specialize in personnel announcements while others prefer activity and feature news.  In some instances you shouId send releases to more than one reporter/editor in the same newsroom.  Ask about the preferred way – e-mail, fax, or (almost extinct) hard copy. 

Once you have created your lists (e-mail, fax, and other) it’s time to plan distribution strategy.  First, create e-mail groups for those outlets that have noted this mode as preferred.  When you send an e-mail release, paste the copy in the body of the e-mail.  Reporters hate to open attachments – although you can send a related photo as an attachment – and some outlets prohibit attachments.

This all may sound complicated, and it can be time consuming at first.  But once you have established a list and a distribution procedure, it is easy – and very important.



Friday, February 10, 2012

Eight creative marketing tips for your business

Found this blog via Entrepreneur.com and wanted to share because it's spot on for any size business!  http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222769

It's a boggling year for marketing, isn't it? New social-media platforms seem to be springing up like mushrooms, mobile is exploding. . . it's hard to know where to focus your marketing time and dollars.
Everywhere I turn lately, I've come across tips for how to do innovative marketing this year. So I've collected a short list of my favorite tips.
Here are eight ideas for giving your marketing effort a boost:
1. Ask your customers how to reach out. When is the last time you got some data from your customers about how they'd like to interact with your brand? There's really no excuse when you can run instant polls on your Facebook page.
Related: How the White House Became a Social-Media Powerhouse

2. Triggered emails. Do you send customers an email that makes additional offers after they abandon a shopping cart on your website, or maybe an email that provides free information? If not, you're missing a great opportunity to keep your name in front of a customer who's close to buying.

3. Text marketing. Find out what customers want by texting them a question. Then, send them a coupon for a discount on that item. This one's particularly useful for those Gen-X and -Y customers, many of whom don't seem to use email anymore.

4. What your competition isn't doing. Analyze what marketing methods your competitors are using, and look for the holes. Be somewhere they're not -- maybe on Pinterest, or YouTube, or bus boards.

5. Don't just network -- host an event. Hosting an event is a powerful way to get known by a lot of people at once. Why? Everybody comes over to thank the host. Hold the event at your place of business if you have a physical store, so people learn where you are.

6. Referral rewards. This one's an oldie but goodie that's still around because it works. Let customers know you'll pay them $100 if they send you a customer, and turn your customers into your marketing team on the cheap.

7. Simplify. Remember that too many marketing messages confuse customers, especially as you spread them across various social-media channels. Try to pare down to three choices in all aspects of your marketing, from how many fonts you use to how many times you follow up.
Related: 10 Lessons in Brilliant Marketing

8. Make it musical. Does your company have a theme song? A musical jingle you could share? Use tools such as Spotify to share a musical message with prospects.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Pest? Or Persistent?

         

At least once a month I used to hear from Wally.  Sometimes it was a phone call.  Sometimes it was an email.  Sometimes it was a postcard.  But no matter what the means of communication, it was consistent, friendly, not pushy, and it had the potential to someday pay off – for both of us.

Wally was an advertising sales representative for a national magazine in which I had an article published.  Although at the time I was not ready to commit to advertising on that scale – or in that particular vehicle – I never told Wally it was over.  And, like any good sales representative, he continued to stay in touch until I did tell him to stop.

One of the biggest obstacles to effective sales is our fear that we will be perceived as a pest.  So, in order to avoid that appearance, we err the other way and fail to be persistent enough to close a prospective sale.  I think Wally was persistent, not pesky.  He effectively kept himself in my consciousness in a friendly way.  Yet I never feel bothered or pressured. 

Whether we are the official sales rep, or the business owner, we have an obligation to ourselves, and to the prospects we think will benefit from our product or services, to keep the conversation going until we are asked to stop.  As demonstrated by Wally, this can be done in a variety of easy ways that do not require excess expenditures of time on our part. 

So fire up that data base and make a list of those prospects with whom you have had conversations, but who are not yet ready to avail themselves of your services.  Make a few phone calls, leave a few voice mails, send a postcard or a reprint of an article of interest about your business, send an e-mail.  Keep the message friendly and remind them that you are still interested in helping them when they are ready.

Kathryn Lima, president of Sharon-based Faro Enterprises, is a marketing, public relations, and fund raising consultant.  Send your questions to klima@faroenterprises.com, or visit http://www.faroenterprises.com.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

What do people want, anyway? Ask.


An article in the Wall Street Journal documented the unorthodox way a new CEO of a major company was using to market products – he actually asked customers what they wanted, and gave it to them.  It seems like such a simple, and obvious, technique that one wonders why others haven’t thought of it.  Well, actually, many others have.  The trouble is that too few businesses put it into practice.

Marketing is the product!  The other aspects – sales, price, promotion, location – are all driven by the product.  The most successful businesses strive to identify what’s missing, or what can solve an issue, or something that’s an improvement on the competition’s offering.  Then they develop products that will meet those needs.  The other aspects of marketing are then employed to sell the product.  The best advertising in the world won’t sell a dud of a product for very long.

Do you offer a service?  What kind of service – within the context of your experience and skills – do your prospects need?  Once identified, make that aspect of service the centerpiece of your business.  You can still do the other things if the opportunity presents itself.  But use your centerpiece to prioritize your sales and promotion activities. 

How do you find out what your customers want or need?  Ask.  Do primary research if you can afford it.  Conduct secondary research by reading the results of other surveys, using Internet searches, and keeping abreast of demographics, trends, etc. in your targeted market.  And, last but not least, use guerrilla market research.  Ask people at random.  Ask your current customers.  Seek feedback.  Strike up conversations with likely looking strangers. 

There are many ways to conduct research – some scientifically valid and some not – that can help you make sure your product or service is the one you need for success.  The important thing, however, is to ask, and to keep asking.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Low-cost Marketing Ideas for a New Business


If you have little or no money for marketing, consider using a mixture of old-fashioned, low-cost resources.  Comprehensive marketing strategy means a marketing strategy that employs more than one means to reach a prospective customer base.  The application of a variety of low-cost strategies can spell success for any business – especially if you are just starting out. 

When beginning a new business from scratch, one thing you have plenty of is time.  After all, you are not busy taking care of client business.  So, finding clients IS your business.  The following low-tech, low cost methods have proven successful for others, and can work for you.  Here they are: 

1.    Telephone
Get lists or directories of clubs or organizations whose members are your best prospects and start dialing!  What do you want?  A few minutes to meet with them, learn about their needs in your area of expertise, and perhaps tell them about you and your business.  And don’t stop until you have reached a pre-determined quota of calls.  This is hard, I know.  But it’s the most effective way to get in those doors.
2.    Mail
Print up a bunch of announcement postcards and send them to all the prospects on your list.  Postcards are cheap and easy to read.  If you do have a few bucks, have them professionally designed.  If not, work with your printer to create a simple message and a clean design.  Be sure to include your address, phone number, e-mail and, if you have one, web site addresses.  Don’t forget to mention what you do.
3.    Drop-in visits
Take your extra postcards, pick a neighborhood, office building, etc., where prospective clients do business, and just drop in.  If no one has time to talk with you, leave the postcard.  Pick a time of day when your prospects are less likely to be swamped, and don’t stay long if he/she seems disinclined to have a conversation. 
4.    Volunteer to give talks on your areas of expertise
“No audience too small” should be your motto, as long as it is within your target market. 

Even with little or no resources, it’s still possible to market effectively and build a successful business.  Good marketing takes time and persistence – as well as a variety of techniques.  

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Effective Networking

You attend all the local Chamber of Commerce meetings and events.  You attend local charity events.  You spend company money to pay for membership in your local country club. In short, you wear yourself out making yourself personally visible in the interest of expanding your business.  So, how much business are you getting as a result of all this activity – and money?

Well, it probably depends on how well you network.  Do you spend time at these events visiting with the people you already know?  If they are your customers and you are solidifying the relationship, fine.  But if you are simply socializing, you probably should not consider this a business activity.

How can you maximize your business results at social occasions?  How can you maximize the investment in local clubs and organizations?  Here are a few ideas:

·         Go beyond your comfort level.  Seek out people you don’t know and introduce yourself.
·         If you belong to a country club, attend special club events and – again – introduce yourself to people you don’t know.
·         Set goals for an event – such as meeting at least two new people and exchanging business cards.
·         Follow up.  Once you’re back at the office with those new contacts and/or business cards, call the ones who seem like good prospects and schedule a “get better acquainted” meeting.  Or send a note with a little information about what you do.  Don’t forget to follow-up on that note with a phone call. 
·         Add likely prospects to your mailing list.  Create an e-mail distribution list and send occasional up-dates on your area of expertise.  Keep the up-dates short and simple, and don’t forget to include an “opt-out” paragraph for those who do not wish to hear from you.
·         If you have employees who attend events on your behalf, discuss strategy and set goals for the event beforehand.  Who might they meet?  Then debrief the following day. 
·         If you buy tables at special events, invite clients and/or prospective clients to be your guests at those tables.  Don’t fill them with staff members who are likely to talk among themselves and leave the event without having met anyone new.

Don’t let those networking opportunities go to waste.  Your time is valuable.  Consider attendance at public functions an integral part of your overall marketing strategy and use it to your advantage.