Marketing Wizard eZine: Top Marketing Tools to Consider
In This Issue:
Marketing Resources: Tapping Your Hidden Goldmine: Winning Back Lost Clients Teleclass
Feature Article: Top Marketing Tools to Consider
Kevin Recommends: Marketing Automation Tools
Trying to decide which marketing tools to implement? Read this edition of the Marketing Wizard eZine. It's designed to help you do just that.
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Marketing Resources: Tapping Your Hidden Goldmine: Winning Back Lost Clients Teleclass
Your clients are your biggest asset. After all, that's where the revenue comes from. But, everybody loses clients. That's just part of business right?
If you're not trying to recover lost clients, you're leaving a hidden business goldmine untapped. In this power-packed, one-hour TeleClass you'll walk away with:
A keen awareness of what causes most businesses to lose clients (it may not be what you think)
Immediately implementable ideas to hold on to your clients
A renewed sense of why you need to put some focus on winning back lost clients
Some proven action steps for winning back lost clients and tapping your hidden business goldmine!
The TeleClass is scheduled for Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 12:00 Noon Central Time.
You must
sign up
to participate in the teleclass. I look forward to talking to you on August 30th!
Feature Article: Top Marketing Tools to Consider - by Kevin Dervin
What marketing tools should you use to build and grow your small business?
One of the great small business marketing mistakes is not using enough marketing tools. I'm not sure if it's because most small business folks aren't sure which tools to implement, don't know where to start, or are simply too lazy to implement more than just a few tools.
It's not uncommon to hear a small business person say, "I've tried lots of things, but I just can't seem to grow my business." Ask that person how many marketing tools they're using at the moment and you're likely to see some embarrassment. The reply might go something like this, "Uh, well we've done some Yellow Pages advertising and go to some networking events."
It's not that those tools can't be productive, it's just that only implementing one or two is not enough. The more marketing tools you deploy, the more revenue generating activity you'll create for your business. It's as simple as that.
The key however is to use productive and proven marketing tools. You want to put into practice tools that give you a positive return on your marketing investment (ROI).
Remember, your marketing tools have one objective. They need to generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads from your target market. The following is a list with a brief description of what I consider the top marketing tools for you to think about putting in place for your small business.
Top Lead Generation Marketing Tools
Writing/Publishing Articles and Reports - Writing is a powerful way to build your credibility, authority and visibility. Focus your writing on materials designed to inform and educate your prospects and clients.
Speaking Engagements/Seminars - Talking in front of your target audience is even more powerful than writing. Speaking engagements create opportunities for energy, passion, and conviction to come through while you're establishing your visibility and credibility.
Creating a Content-Rich Ezine or Newsletter - The content of your ezines or newsletters should always focus on your prospects and clients. When you focus on their needs, wants and frustrations versus focusing on you and your company, then your target audience will actually read it. Content rich ezines are a great way to stay in front of clients and prospects so they'll think of you when they have a need.
Establishing Endorsement Marketing Relationships - This is a very powerful marketing tool that too many small businesses overlook. Determine what other types of products or services your clients are likely to buy in addition to your service. Explore establishing win-win relationships with these businesses to see if you can help each other grow by endorsing each other's product/service to your customer list.
Direct Response Direct Mail - Direct outreach usually means mailing prospective clients that you target as good potential clients of your service. Direct mail usually has three objectives - to get opened, to get read, and to get the receiver to take some action. Too many small businesses go directly for a sale and miss the boat on direct response. Get more direct response by offering recipients a fr~ee report of something else of perceived high value. Then go to work on moving the lead through your sales funnel.
Press Releases - This is an excellent marketing tool because there is really no expense, they give you greater credibility, and they can help position you as an expert in your field. Again, the key to an effective press release is to keep the focus on your prospects (i.e., the readers, listeners, or viewers) and not about you and your company. Prospects are looking for information of relevance to them and not so much about your five year anniversary in business.
Networking - This is probably the most used small business marketing tool and yet one of the most misunderstood and mistake prone. People simply like to do business with other people that they know and like. One of the best ways to get known is to network. Networking is the process of building relationships with those you meet and creating familiarity and trust in a non-manipulative way. The biggest mistake that most make is spending most of your energy trying to get others to know what you do instead of trying to get to know them and what's important to them.
Referral Marketing - This is certainly one of the most powerful ways for anyone to build a small business or practice. The quality of leads is generally higher and referrals help build trust from the person willing to recommend you to the prospect being introduced. The funny thing about referrals is that although most small businesses claim that this is the way they get most business, very few have deliberate mechanisms in place to proactively create referral business. Referral marketing can work as a key marketing tool for any business willing to implement a systematic approach.
OK, there you have it. That's my list of the top small business marketing tools. Sounds like a lot of work you say? Avoid marketing overwhelm and take it one step at a time. Identify the top three to five things you could be doing right now and take action to implement them one at a time.
Nobody said there wasn't some work involved in growing and building your business. Even a mediocre idea implemented is better than a brilliant idea that never gets acted upon. Don't hesitate to get some marketing coaching or help to put your marketing tools to work for you.
Bonus: My top marketing automation tools are listed in the Kevin Recommends section below. The right technology tools can certainly help you automate marketing processes.
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Want to use this article on your web site or in your ezine? You have my permission as long as you include the following author attribution:
Kevin Dervin is the owner of Proven Small Business Marketing Solutions. If you find this article useful, you’d probably enjoy Kevin’s FREE monthly eZine called Marketing Wizard. To subscribe, just go to: http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com
and follow one of the links to the Freebies page.
Kevin Recommends: Marketing Automation Tools I Highly Recommend
AweberCapture your web site visitors' information so you can stay in touch with them. Provides for unlimited auto-responders to systematically follow-up with contacts. If you're managing an email newsletter subscriber list, look at
Aweber.
In my opinion, they are simply the best on the web. Get a fr~ee 30-day test drive.
Sonic MemoMake your web site come alive. If you want to add exponentially to the effectiveness of your web copy, add your own voice.
Sonic Memo
is an incredibly powerful, but easy to use program.
AudioGenerator.Here's a different option for adding audio to your web site. You simply call a phone number, record your message like a voicemail, and then get the code to put the audio up on your web site. When you get audio testimonials from clients this way, it evens walks them through adding a picture and contact information for you.
Easy Blogs.This is an easy-to-use tool I've used to create my blog. You can create your own look and feel or choose from one of the many included templates. You don't have to be technical to create and publish your own blog to create greater online visibility and credibility.
Blog Lightning.By-the-way, if you're going to create a blog you should consider getting a step-by-step guided tour from John Jantsch. John is one of the early bloggers out there and a true expert on the marketing power of this tool.
Web Site Toolkit.If you don't have a web site or your current site is not producing for you, get some help. The
Web Site Toolkit
from Robert Middleton is a comprehensive program that gives you everything you need to create a web site that works for your business.
***Note***
These links to products & services are being provided for a resource. They are products & services that I use and recommend for the value they provide. It's your responsibility to check them out to see if they make sense for you.
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