Be a Marketing Pal…

Marketing is every businesses challenge… how about trying to be a “Marketing Pal” with a complimentary company/product/service provider.

By combining your marketing efforts AND cross promoting to both databases will increase your (and their) visibility. By combining your marketing efforts you will also share the costs! Connect with a company/product producer/service provider that is not your competitor but has something that will compliment what you have to offer…. When each company shares the same message you all are exposed over and over again!!

Marketing plans can be one or even better several ways of reaching out to the community – print ads, flyers, direct mailers, greeting cards, post cards and so on…

Some examples might be – A Promotional Products Company connecting with a sign/banner company, maybe a florist connecting with different “facilities” or of course event planners. How about a clothing store connecting with a salon offering a whole new look! Reach out and experiment – see what works for you both. Be sure to get a solid strategy that works for both of you, put the plan and agreement in writing but most important DO IT.

SPAM and I Am Not Talking Canned Meat!

Today I want to talk a little about SPAM – “Self Promotional Advertising Message” – we have all been affected by SPAM and SPAMMERS! If you have not been inundated in your inbox (and mailboxes) with “Viagra” , “work from home”, “You Won” mailings YOU ARE LUCKY! But in reality most of us have and do deal with this on a daily basis…. Because of people that send out unsolicited mass mailings to people “emailing laws” have gotten a lot stricter! This has not affected EVERY MARKETER out there…
In 1999 Washing State started the ball rolling on regulations making it illegal if the following existed:
• Has a misleading subject line
• Has false routing information
• Sends an unsolicited having a third party domain name without their permission

Later other states came onboard with the “rules”. George Bush signed the CAN-SPAM act into law – and violators can be fined up to $16,000 and also be convicted of other criminal charges! It has not stopped the “con artists” or “hackers” too much from scamming people or overloading our email systems BUT what it has done is made it extremely difficult for “authentic” marketers to reach their target market – double opt ins, spam check messages, servers blocking delivery from certain mail companies, and the list goes on! We all know the story – “One Bad Seed Ruined It for the Apple”!

My advice to you is as you build your “list” make sure you keep records of the people wanting to be on your list – like biz cards noted where you met them and date if you ever go under a “List Review” from an email broadcast company you will need to prove those ARE your contacts.

Client Retention…Do You Have It?

Making a sale once or handling a client’s account once is better than not having either, right? But will they come back to you if they need your product or services again in the future… that is the question.

Client retention is so important. You want to create a customer “loyalty” to you, your services and your products. You want to create a “community” within your business! You want them to refer you!

Here are a couple tips on bettering your Client Retention…

• Take time out of your day to check in with a couple (2) existing customers/clients – ask them about THEM and what they might need or want or for feedback on their last visit with you.

• If you do a monthly newsletter or article – highlight one of your “champion” clients in the community. Maybe something special is happening in their business you can share.

• Provide something for your clients & customers – a freebie like a car wash, give-aways or even a client appreciation day at your place of business (remember to take pictures!)

Personal touches are so important – remember we are building “relationships” with our clients! If you would like to hear about what I consider to be the BEST client retention tool for ANY business owner, contact me!

The Power of the Unsubscribe Button! {advice from a bystander}

Do you find yourself getting too many email newsletters, updates and blasts from people out there? Do you sit wondering “why did I sign up for this?” or “Oh this is not what I thought it was?” or even “I did not give this person the right to email me!” ? With so many business out there focusing on internet marketing and building lists it s no wonder that you end up a a few of them.

It is likely some are very valuable to you and some are not. Some you just joined the “list” to get the free offer that was available, he he he.

The question is what do you do now with all of these coming into your email account? First of all STOP using your main email account to sign up for promotions – create a free Gmail account or Yahoo account to accept those. I prefer Gmail because of all of the filters and automatic actions you can have it do ~ if you would like more specific strategy information on using a dummy account contact me and I can give you more…

BUT what I want to focus on are emails that you feel “you get too many from this certain person”, you “feel they are too focused on just selling their products and not contributing” or you “feel you never asked to be on their list”. It is very easy to report them as spammers yes, and for some that fall into these three categories it might be warranted but when you think about it they are just trying to make it. By reporting someone as a spammer you really mess them up… their email management account can be shut down and worse yet they can loose their entire database. Is it worth doing that to someone just because they are bugging you? I say no.. it is just as easy to push the unsubscribe button! Some people will email back “Please Remove Me” but understand if the one in control of that account does not remove you correctly you can be imported again and back to getting emails.

As someone who manages several client’s email management accounts on several different platforms it is much appreciated when you just choose to unsubscribe. You might think, well they can see my name and that I unsubscribed – Yes They Can, oh well – they have to understand you do not want their information any longer, it is your choice. In reality if you are just trashing their blasts any ways you are not a true customer and their count is not accurate. Also if you take control and push the unsubscribe button you are blocking them from just importing your name in later down the road – you would have to personally sign up again to get their info!

Unsubscribing can be helpful to the marketer or the leader that is doing the blasting…when you unsubscribe use the comments area to let them know why you are unsubscribing. If you think they are pushing for a sale too much, sending out nonsense, you no longer belong/participate with that organization company or if you have a suggestion to make their marketing better don’t you think they would want to know? I would!

So when you are bothered by your overloaded inbox – think of cleaning out your “subscriptions” and unsubscribing to a few things, but be proactive and helpful at the same time!

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