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Better Marketing Through Modern Mind-Control
There are two kinds of marketing: Direct Marketing and Brand Marketing. Direct marketing targets wallets. Branding is about hearts and minds. DIFFERENT BY DESIGN Ads designed for branding are cool. They don't plead and beg and cajole, they...
Ethics In Marketing
I received the following question last week... With all scams and unethical behaviour found online, what are some of the most effective ways to generate trust as a marketer? Annette Andkjaer Vacations For Fun And Profit I'll Teach You How To...
Internet Marketing Tools - Zip/Unzip Basics
If you're doing business on the Internet, sooner or later you will encounter a Zip file. A Zip file is simply an "archive" of one or more files compressed into one file for easy distribution. Zip files are used to compress and transport file...
The Secret To Marketing Your FSBO Home For Sale
You’re ready to put your home or land (house, townhouse, condo, apartment, farm, ranch, finished lot, raw land, etc.) on the market as a FSBO (for sale by owner). You’ve priced your property appropriately and gotten it ready to show. How are you...
Why Marketing In Magazines Is a Great Bang For Your Buck
Finding a great way to market that is surely going to bring in some profits from new customers is tough predicament. That's where marketing in magazines comes into play. Advertising in well known magazines has a lot of advantages. First, if people...
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Consistency Counts: How to Get Better Marketing Results in No Time
It's almost a given that when I speak to a new client, she tells me how much she's always hated marketing herself. "I'm no good at it" and "No matter what I try, it doesn't work" are common complaints.
Worse, many small shops hate marketing so much that they literally avoid it entirely, or do marketing using the "dribs and drabs" method -- you know, a drib here, a drab there.
In order to gain the trust of your prospects, you have to make contact with prospects enough (and make contact with enough prospects) to show them that you're the solution to their problems.
Are you marketing your business enough? It's high time you found out!
1) Outline your current marketing activities. Which techniques work? Which ones are a waste of time? Measure the quantity of new business that each method achieves, as well as the quality of business sent to you by each technique. If something proves to be a dud, think about either optimizing the process or dropping it to free up time for other marketing activities.
2) How often do you contact your current clients? Do you stay in touch with paying customers regularly and reward them for their continued relationship with your business? If not, why not? Is there a good reason for people not to return, or are you losing your most valuable asset -- a bird in the hand, so to speak -- after one-time sales? If your business is a legitimate one-time deal (such as a wedding vendor), is there a way of getting current customers to refer others to you?
3) Do you have an ezine or other marketing tool that allows you to stay in regular contact with your prospects and current client base? People will tend to forget about you if they're not reminded of what you have to offer. Once a month is about the longest amount of time you should wait between contacts, which makes an ezine one of the best ways to get the word out.
4) Do you regularly seek out new prospects? If not, what could you do to expand your marketing horizons? Would a quarterly postcard campaign help? Would participation on online forums send more customers your way?
5) How many contacts do you ordinarily have to make
before you close a deal? If the odds of finding a new customer are 30 to 1 and you need 6 new clients a month to grow your business at the rate you desire, are you contacting 180 prospects every month? If not, it's time to start.
6) Is there something you can implement every month that forces you to do the marketing work? As I have already mentioned, an ezine is a good method to ensure that you stay in touch regularly. When there's no one egging you on to get your marketing done, it's hard to be disciplined about it. In my case, my ezine forces me to think about my marketing on a regular basis.
But an ezine is only one of many, many ways to create a marketing schedule for yourself. You could also implement monthly specials, a once-a-month teleseminar series related to your field or set up a blog. Setting aside time on a regular basis turns a chore into a habit that will be a major boost to your business!
7) List the 3 major reasons why you don't take the time to market as often as you should. What can you change to be able to accommodate more time for marketing? Is there work that you could outsource in order to be able to market yourself more regularly? Anything nonessential that you could outsource would allow you more time to bring in more business; conversely, hiring a small business marketing professional can take some of the burden off of you. Changing just 1 habit will make a big difference.
8) Assess your marketing results once a month. What works? What doesn't? What can you do better next time? Learning from your mistakes is the best addition to your marketing mix of all.
If you make marketing a part of your regular routine, you will gain confidence in your ability to generate new business -- and even better, you'll see your business start to grow!
About the Author
Want more marketing tips like these? Published by Jennifer McCay, the free Avenues to Marketing Success Newsletter helps small business owners like you find more clients more easily without selling their souls. Sign up today at http://AvenueEast.com or read Jennifer's Small Business Marketing Blog at http://AvenueEast.com/blog/blog.html
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KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
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Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
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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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Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
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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 |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing 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. |
www.gmarketing.com |
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Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
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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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