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Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Make Your Web Site a Resource for the Media
Reporters, by nature, are curious people. If you can get them to come to your web site, they will probably poke around and spend a few minutes there, learning about your business and your capabilities. If your web site is any good, this should make...
Massage Marketing Made Easy : Marketing Plan for Therapists and Bodyworkers
Marketing is actually very simple. It involves telling people what you do….over and over and over. The key to successfully marketing your massage therapy business is consistency. So, first, let’s take a look at the difference between marketing a...
Niche Marketing : The Power Of Articles
If you haven't considered the power of articles as part of your niche marketing strategy, then you should. Articles are a great way to drive targeted traffic to your web site, no matter what your niche market may be. When you provide good...
Six Marketing Tips for Trade Show Success
A trade show is an ideal way of showcasing your products and services to a large number of prospects all at the one location and at the same time. Thoroughly planned marketing is the key to success at your next industry related exhibition.
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What Is Niche Marketing, and Do I Need It?
In ecology, a niche refers to the place or position occupied by
an organism or a population within an ecological community
called the ecosystem. It is the term which defines the role the
organism or the population plays in the general scheme...
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Business Marketing Strategy
The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s take the mystery out of it so you can devise and implement your own business marketing strategy that fits in to your small business plan. Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning “to be a general”. Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called tactics. You can have tactical plans which help you achieve your strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing strategy. That’s simple enough, isn’t it? A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to accomplish a specific goal for your company. Start with a goal: $2 million in sales this year; expand into new premises by a certain date; double the size of the company in 2 years… whatever the goal may be. Something realistic but challenging. That's the "war" you want to win. Guess who the general is.
Then work out a simple, overall plan of the major marketing steps needed to accomplish that (for example): 1.Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and mail out quarterly.
2.Work out 4 special offers in the year and promote them to all our customers. 3.Set up on-line shopping and expand the web site.
4.Direct mail campaign promoting the web site to all customers.
5.Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of 3 mailings of postcards to them and follow up on and close all leads.
6.Etc. You get the idea. Don’t rush this. Do your homework. What worked in the past? Read up on successful marketing campaigns.
Your business marketing strategy needs to be laid out in the right sequence and you should have some idea of budget when you write it. “Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the Superbowl” might sound like a good thing to do but can you afford it? On the other hand, when you build your business marketing strategy you mustn’t try and cut corners. If you don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, no one will know about it and you will go broke. What really works when it comes to marketing?
Many business owners don't have a good enough answer to this important question. I learned by a combination of study and trial and error. From my own hard won experienceI have discovered that a real marketing campaign will take into consideration at least the seven points which are outlined below:
1. Target Your Market
Your marketing will produce the best results for the lowest cost when you target prospects with the greatest need for what you offer. Identify the best people to send your postcards to. Design your postcards to appeal to their greatest need.
If you are able to break down your target market into sub markets you can then write postcards that specifically speak to the needs of those people (an example is breaking down your own customer list into customers who buy most often, customers who spend the most money with you, customers who have been your customers the longest and then making them special offers based on the category they fit into).
2. Create A USP For Your Business
USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition".
It is a statement of what is different about your company and its products. Your USP gives the reason people should do business with
you. It amplifies the benefit of doing business with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING EXPERTS. Create your own USP and put it on all your promotional materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.
Use your USP to communicate the benefit of doing business with you and why you are better than any of your competitors. 3. Always Make an Offer
Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to do something when they receive your postcard. By offering them something you know they are likely to want and giving them a smooth path to respond on, you are making it easy and desirable for them to respond.
4. Create and Maintain a Database of The Customer Information You Collect From The Responses To Your Mailings
Most people who receive a postcard from you won't contact you the first time they receive one. But once they contact you, you must create and maintain a database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with offers to respond to. Fifty percent or more of many businesses' sales come as a result of following up with people who were previously contacted, but didn't buy right away. No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings can get response, but are bound to leave sales on the table. Those sales can be picked up with repeated mailings.
5. Take Away the Fear of Loss
People don't want to be fooled, plain and simple. Unfortunately trust does not run high today between customers and businesses in general. People have been disappointed too many times by being sold one thing and getting another. A guarantee or warranty is a good way to reduce or eliminate the customers’ risk of getting something other than what they bargained for. Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by reducing customer risk. 6. Expand Your Product Line
Getting new customers is more expensive than selling to existing ones. By regularly developing new products and services to sell to your customers and offering these new products and services to them, you can expand your business efficiently and easily. 7. Test Your Postcard Promotions Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. How many people responded to your mailing? What dollar amount of sales resulted from those responses? Is the money you are spending to attract new business giving you a good return? What can you do to make your marketing more effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of your offer. When you do track the results and improve your response. These are the points to follow when designing your own marketing strategy. When you are done, you will have laid out the steps needed to accomplish your goal using existing resources to achieve a great marketing ROI (return on investment). After that, you simply have to get those steps executed and that might require further planning but it is all in the context of your main business marketing strategy.
About the Author
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 www.postcardmania.com.
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KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
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Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
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Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic |
Find the latest Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news from Brand Republic, the online resource for up to the minute advertising and marketing news and ... |
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Online Behavioral Contextual Advertising and Marketing. |
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Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
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The Chartered Institute of Marketing |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world's largest international marketing professional body and helps with career support and information ... |
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Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
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Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
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Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site |
Guerrilla Marketing Online is anonline magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds. |
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Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
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All About Marketing |
Adapted from Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation ... Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out: ... |
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Pages tagged with "marketing" on del.icio.us |
USA Network Announces a NASHVILLE STAR Marketing Partnership With ... - Yahoo! ... Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing ... |
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ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
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Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing |
Trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields, offering seminars and resources, and lobbying for ... |
www.the-dma.org |
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