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What are your prospects looking for online?

What Are Your Prospects Looking for Online?

by Cidnee Stephen on May 13, 2011

What are your prospects looking for online?
I had to laugh at my 18 year old son the other day when he couldn’t connect with a friend because his cell phone was down and he wasn’t on Facebook. This friend might as well not exist, in my son’s world. I suggested he look up the family phone number in the phonebook which my son thought was absolute “genius,” (a rare complement as many of you with kids this age know). I went to grab the phonebook for him, because I knew he had no idea where this book lives, but alas he had already found it online.

Think about the last time you purchased a product or service. Just like my son with seeking a phone number, you naturally follow a buying pattern probably without realizing you are doing so. And, if you are like over 90% of the population, a lot of that buying pattern is done online.

Understand your prospects buying pattern and give them what they need at every stage and you will ALWAYS attract and convert more sales.
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Marketing Success

Creating Your Marketing Routine

by Cidnee Stephen on May 5, 2011

Think about the last time you made a big change in the way you run your business or perhaps even in your personal life. It’s hard to adjust your day to day habits. Sometimes we are even at a loss where to start. The same tends to happen with our marketing. Perhaps you have worked with a strategist like us to help you build the right marketing system for your business, but don’t know how to actually implement all these changes going forward. There seems to be so much ongoing content, “tweets” and updates to the website. It can all be overwhelming unless you can make certain elements part of your day to day routine. Here is a roadmap to your marketing routine

  • Make the time. Let’s face it if you had a hot prospect that was looking at spending a considerable amount of money with you, you wouldn’t ignore them to go get toner for your printer. Yet when it comes to marketing – by far our biggest prospect for earning a considerable amount of money for the company, it always remains low on the priority list. So start treating it like a hot prospect.

Action: Book a recurring appointment with your marketing in your work calendar every day for at least 30 minutes and then once or twice a week for 1.5 hours each.

  • Create your tasks. I love my Tasks feature in Outlook. It allows me add a task, make it recurring and prioritize it. I can even share it or allocate it with others. You can’t just expect, after all, to sit down to do your marketing and then wonder what the heck it is you’re going to actually do.

Action: Using a task program (or a spreadsheet) start by listing what you want to accomplish this quarter. Then back this up into monthly tasks, weekly tasks and possibly even daily tasks.

  • Do your tasks. Now this might seem obvious, but if you have ever created a to-do list before, you probably have found that a few of those “to-do’s” just don’t get done. There is one reason for this. Simply, you don’t want to do it right now.

Marketing SuccessNo matter how you try it’s just not your forte, you don’t want to learn it, you can’t find the time or it just is against your personality. It would be like choosing swimming as part of your new fitness regime, when you can’t even swim and have no time or desire to learn. In the case of marketing then you have 3 options. If a task element is still on your list a month or two after it’s due:

Delay it – Move it to the next quarter if the reason it hasn’t been done is you have ran out time or it’s not as big of a priority as you thought.

Delegate it – If you don’t have the forte or don’t have the desire to learn it, delegate it to someone else with experience in this area to get it done for you. After all, a successful person is one who has learned to spend money to save time instead of spending time to save money!

Delete it – if this just doesn’t fit with who you are and you can’t delay it or delegate it. Delete it as part of your marketing system. Don’t be surprised when you go to actually delete it if you have a change of heart and find you can’t really let it go! This is good news because it means you have now chosen to either do it, delay it, or delegate it!

So what might a marketing routine look like? Here’s one created by one of my peers, Kelly Weppler Hernandez of WH and Associates.

Daily

  • Facebook and Twitter daily update first thing in the morning, and maybe a posting later in the day

Weekly

  • LinkedIn update at least once a week.
  • Hand-written Notes – every Thursday. Send at least 2 handwritten notes to colleagues, past clients, strategic partners etc.
  • Blogging – anything that’s related to your industry. Blogging might be written, video or audio.
  • Update content on your website

Monthly

  • Newsletter – email corporate newsletter at least once per month. Pick a target date like the 15th.
  • Run a monthly promotional campaign

Quarterly

  • Speaking Event – set a goal to do a speaking event once per quarter.

Annually

  • Client Appreciation Event – pick a month that works within your calendar and work with a few strategic partners to host a client appreciation event.

Remember the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Create your own marketing routine and make appointments and tasks in your calendar to get it done!

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5 Ways To Lose a Prospect

by Cidnee Stephen on March 23, 2011

If you’ve been around long enough, you may recall an old song called “50 Ways to a Lose a Lover”. Well here are 5 guaranteed ways to lose a prospect.

1) SPAM them – Entering their information into an automated drip campaign or calling them relentlessly. Today that might even include SMS and automated calls. No one likes to be stalked! Make sure you are providing frequent, high quality communication – not insane amounts of junk!

Photo via Flickr user Emilio Labrador

2) Sell to them instead of engaging them – Sure some people will be ready to buy from you quicker than others, but introducing yourself or product in person or via your ads and promotions and then giving them ONLY the option to sell, will only work if your product or service is inexpensive and/or an impulse purchase. Typically, you need to allow your prospect to date you. Let them get to know you and get a taste for what you can offer. Offer trial products, free resources, surveys and quizzes to engage them.

3) Don’t listen to them – You know what happens when you ASSUME. One of the first questions I like to ask a business owner is: “Who is your ideal client?” Typically, the response I get is a “demographic dump” of age, sex, income level or job position, industry type and revenues. What does your prospect value? There are reasons (yes, multiple) that they are looking for your product or service, there are key motivators to help them choose a provider, there are special times or events that will trigger them to buy. You need to ask them and listen to their answers (i.e. survey them) to fully understand their buying process.

4) Bad follow up – as small business owners, it’s common for us to let calls go to voicemail and let emails go to a general inbox. Your prospects have been trained to receive responses instantaneously, so make sure you have the systems in place to respond in a timely fashion.

5) Mislead them – The fastest way you can lose a prospect is to mislead them. Advertising the biggest best has gone by the wayside. Today, prospects trust their peers more than an ad. Transparency is the key. Be honest and humanize your company. This is the mantra of social media, and cannot be ignored. In other words “Keep it real”!

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Is Your Small Business Annoying Your Customers?

by Carolyn Higgins on February 1, 2011

Article by Carolyn Higgins
When I’m giving speeches to groups of small business owners or working with them to build their own marketing systems, I tell them everything we do in business is marketing; from how we answer our phones, to our billing, to how we treat future and existing customers. Marketing is about more than attracting new customers to do business with us – it s about keeping, nurturing, and “wowing” the ones we have so they buy from us again and again and rant and rave about our company to everyone they know.

I had some customer experiences lately that I thought I’d share and see what you all think….

I recently moved into a new apartment. It’s one of those large apartment communities with an onsite office and a team of people to assist tenants and run the property. Here’s what my experience has been like in my short stay here so far:

I just want clean jeans!

We have onsite laundry facilities, which is nice. Before I moved in they told me the machines take cards which you can pre-load with cash to save you the trouble of having to scrape and buy quarters! “This is convenient”, I thought.

Well what they didn’t tell me is that you have to actually purchase the card for $5 and you can’t just go to the laundry room and use your ATM card to load this laundry card, no, you can only load it at the office during office hours and you can only use fives or twenties; no ones, no tens, no change. – Oh and the office does not provide change – I walked in with a ten dollar bill my first time and was told I’d have to walk a block to 7-11 (and buy something) to get change.

Frustrated, I thought “the heck with it, I have enough quarters lying around, I’ll just use my quarters to do my laundry today”. So I go back to my apartment, gather up my laundry and a handful of quarters and head to my new laundry room for the first time. Well didn’t I feel like quite the fool, the coin operated machines DON’T TAKE COINS! So they got me – I HAVE to purchase their little card and I HAVE to play by their rules if I want clean clothes. So this is how it’s going to be, huh?

So this “convenience” turned out to be an inconvenient money-making opportunity for the management company… not a great start.

Rip me off – please!

Next, I left my keys in the lock of the front door after walking my dog Capone one day and they were stolen right out of out of the door…( I heard the “perp” take them…ok, too many detective shows! ) In a panic I called the office, which is about 100 yards away from my front door. I told them the story and asked if they could change my locks right away. “Sure”, they said, “just come to the office and give us a check for $95- you have to pay up front.”

Me: “Umm, but someone has the key to my apartment, I don’t want to leave…”

Them: “Well, we can’t change your locks until we have a check – and it has to be a check from the bank account on file; no cash, no money orders and no cashier’s check.”

Me: “Umm… but someone has the key to my apartment…”

Them: “Well you have to pay up front or we can’t change your locks”

So this is what I heard: “Our $95 is more important than your safety and this is your problem, figure it out”.

They wouldn’t change the locks first – or offer to come and get the check, or even have the maintenance guy get the check from me before he did the work. NO, they insisted I leave my apartment, to which a stranger had a key and hand deliver them payment… I’m not sure which part of “a stranger has a key to my apartment” they didn’t understand.

Alternate scenarios

I’m not writing this to complain or vent about less-than-great customer service (OK, maybe I am a little), I’m writing this because these are perfect examples of the little things businesses do – or don’t do – that influence customer experience. These are 2 great examples of where a company could have “wowed” me but instead made me feel like a mere cog in their gigantic cash-wheel.

Imagine how delighted I’d have been if upon move-in they handed me a laundry card loaded with $10 and said, “Here is your free laundry card to get you started” (you could even bury the cost in the security deposit, if you must!). Instead of feeling nickel and dimed, inconvenienced, and sorry that I’m living in a place run by a huge faceless, uncaring, inhuman corporation that only cares about the bottom line, I’d have been happy and thankful.

Or what if one of the three women who work in the office had offered to walk the 100 yards to my apartment to pick up my check for the lock change fee so that I didn’t have to worry that I might be walking into an ambush when I came back to my apartment? Imagine how I’d have felt if they put my safety ahead of their lousy $95 and “corporate policy”. Do you think that would have made me a raging fan? I probably would have been writing a very different blog!

A lesson for all business owners

So I challenge you to reflect: what do you do in your business to make your customers feel special? To make them feel taken care of? And, what do you do to make them feel put out and inconvenienced? It may be the little things you never even considered. I advise business owners all the time to think of ways they can ‘wow” their customers every day – it isn’t easy and you need to step outside of your business and look at it with a fresh set of eyes (customer surveys are a great tool to do this). But I guarantee, if you can achieve that your business will thrive!

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Converting Online Leads to Offline Sales

by Cidnee Stephen on January 10, 2011

If you were to look at the biggest marketing trend in 2010, most would say it was the year of “Social Media.” Small and mid-sized businesses were joining the ranks of large corporations on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, trying desperately to figure out how to use these tools to market their products and services.

Websites are no longer an option, they’re mandatory. Additionally, social media is no longer its own entity. These sites are simply another place for you to claim your online real estate. For the first time ever, website visits are going down as people rely more on sites like Facebook and blogs to build relationships and check out companies. Additionally, recent trends show that 92% of consumers do their research online for new products and services.

So as we enter 2011, it makes sense that online marketing will play even a larger role for SME’s to attract more qualified leads. But this is also the year that we are going to see an emergence of old and new techniques to convert these online contacts into offline sales.

Here are some techniques to consider:
a)    TRACK – You need to really get to know your prospects and the best way to do this is to track activity. If you aren’t tracking where your leads come from and what they are responding to, it becomes increasingly difficult to tailor the information and stay efficient with your marketing.

There are some very powerful tools on the market that make tracking a no brainer. Google Analytics is free and very easy to integrate into your site in order to track where people are going, where they came from and how much time they are spending. “Knowing how a customer acts within your site is vital”, says Shmuli Goldberg, director of marketing and communications for online-analytics provider ClickTale. For instance, you can use analytics to find out where users click most on your site, or what grabs their attention and holds it. You can glean how prospects react to your online forms, right down to what they won’t fill out. Once you know where you are losing visitors, you can make changes to your site that eliminate superfluous information and allow for a more user-friendly browsing experience.

Another great tracking tool that incorporates your offline marketing initiatives is My Next Customer.

b)    ATTRACT & QUALIFY – Make sure you are including a call to action in your online promotional activities, and really spend some time ensuring this call to action will attract qualified leads. In a recent study of 130 ads, companies simply sent visitors to their home page, leaving it up to the prospect to navigate themselves around the information. It is much more effective if you send them directly to a page with targeted information.

c)    ENGAGE – It’s one thing to read interesting and relevant information. But it’s even better if you can engage the prospect and in doing so, learn more about their needs. For example, can they complete a survey to learn more about their situation or needs? Can they watch a video and answer skill testing questions? Never underestimate the “fun” factor in building relationships.

d)    RESPOND – If you are going to ask prospects to submit information or request information online, make sure you are set up to respond quickly – preferably within seconds with an automated email response. There are also services that can do phone follow up for you like LeadQual who will respond to requests for as little as $5 lead. Remember, the faster you respond to the information the better the results.

e)    MIX MEDIUMS – It’s never good to assume that all people like to be contacted in the same way. Some people rarely answer their phones, others will ignore your emails and others adore old fashioned mail or face to face meetings. Therefore, consider mixing mediums with your prospects. If they have signed up for your newsletter, perhaps send them an offer like a free CD that would require them to fill in their mailing address. Now, you can mail other information or even Christmas Cards from time to time. Consider asking them to fill out their phone number as a mandatory field which would allow you to survey subscribers about your ezine and their challenges with respect to your types of products and services. Invite them to live events, via email, phone, and/or email. The more you mix mediums the more likely you are to get the attention of prospects and convert them to sales.

f)   KEEP RESPONDING – Don’t lose heart if leads aren’t converting after your initial effort. Leads360, a provider of lead-management, found that making a second phone call increased the chance of making a sale by 87%. Further, the magical number of calls it took to change as many prospects as possible into clients was six. Jeff Solomon, founder and Senior Vice President of Leads360, says the six-call follow-up should take place within the first month of initially hearing from the prospect. If you want to do something other than phone calls, consider “nurture emails or drip campaigns” that contain additional information, such as guides, online calculators and other tools that can help prospects better understand your interest in landing their business. Be patient.

Remember, once a prospect knows, likes and trusts you enough, they WILL buy from you when the timing is right.

About the Author…
ducttapemarketingbadgeCidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget minded small businesses and professional services.  She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success.  Cidnee is also a sought after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations. Subscribe for Free to her bi-weekly marketing tips for small businesses and also receive a special report on the 7 Steps of Marketing Success.

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Facts about Using Yelp for Small Business

by Carolyn Higgins on January 4, 2011

Article by Carolyn Higgins

With more than 75% of adults turning to the internet to make LOCAL buying decisions, social networking sites like YELP are more popular than ever. In June of this year, 33 million consumers visited Yelp to learn about local / small businesses.

Whether you know it or not, your small business may already have a presence on Yelp. The question is – are you in control of it? Yelp is a social networking site that allSocial Media Marketing small businessows consumers to learn about – and rate – their favorite (and not-so-favorite) places to eat, shop, play, and spend their hard-earned dollars.

Ignoring social sites like Yelp isn’t going to make them go away or prevent negative reviews. Remember the golden rule of Social Media Marketing? SOCIAL MEDIA IS AT LEAST 51% LISTENING. And if you haven’t set up your listening station to be notified when people are talking about you (using Google Alerts, for example) on the web, you are missing a huge opportunity – and you could be responsible for sabotaging your own business.

Some Yelp Basics:

  1. You don’t have to claim your page or set up an account for people to be able to post reviews- That’s right- anyone can add your business and review it. You may already be there and not even know it. This could be extremely damaging to your business.
  2. Claim/unlock your business page- go to yelp.com to claim your business page and unlock all the tools that are available to business owners. Like tracking number of visitors, demographic info of reviewers so you can learn more about your target market and how they found you, you can post hours, specials, photos, or anything else you want your potential customers to know about your business – and of course the ability to respond to reviews.
  3. Respond to negative reviews – either publicly or privately – what a great way to turn a negative into a positive! We all make mistakes and most consumers will forgive a mistake if it’s handled appropriately.

How to handle a negative review:

Respond privately: If someone leaves a bad review you now have the option of communicating with them privately to work it out. I recommend doing so – immediately. Do what you can to resolve the issue- this is an awesome opportunity to create goodwill, save a customer, and perhaps generate awesome word-of-mouth marketing.

Once the customer is happy ask them, “Have we satisfactorily resolved your complaint?” “Would you recommend us to a friend?” If the answer is yes, ask them if they would either revise or amend their Yelp review to let people know how your resolved the issue. If the customer doesn’t do it- you can then go to a public response – see below.

Respond publicly: You can also respond publicly and I’ve seen this done extremely well. You can tactfully state your case. Did you try unsuccessfully to resolve the issue? Tell people! Did you go out of your way to try to make it right? Tell people! Did you respond to the customer privately and rectify the situation? Talk about it! Also keep in mind – there will always be complainers- and the Yelp community can spot one a mile away (anyone can access all of a person’s reviews and if they’re chronic complainers their opinion will most likely be ignored by potential customers).

ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.
For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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Photo via Flickr user Emilio Labrador

Sell Benefits not Features

by Marketing Masters on December 28, 2010

A friend that works at a car dealership was recently discussing a sales technique with me. “We’re not allowed to let customers leave until they take a test drive,” she said. “If they take a test drive, the chances that they’ll buy really improve.”

Photo via Flickr user Emilio Labrador

That does this have to do with today’s topic? The car dealership’s policy clearly illustrates the difference between selling features and selling benefits.

So what’s the difference?

A feature could be the structure, physical description, or attributes of your product or service. When you talk about features, you are simply describing what it does, how it’s designed, what it looks like and how it works. It’s rational, makes perfect sense, and is really, really interesting—but mostly to the person who designed or sells the product.

Unfortunately, describing features is not a great way to actually convince anyone to buy.

A benefit on the other hand is the emotional reasons or connections your prospect makes with your product or service. Research shows that every single buying decision people make is based first on their emotional response. People use features to back up a decision they’ve already made emotionally.

Think about the largest purchase most of us will every make—buying a house. Real estate professionals know that if people fall in love with the house, they usually end up buying in less than thirty seconds! (If you watch those shows on TV about how to fix up your home to sell it, you’ll know what we’re talking about.) It’s only after they’ve found “the house for us” that buyers look at the features in detail to reaffirm their decision to buy.

At a car dealership, putting the consumer in the driver’s seat changes the way they view the vehicle. No longer are they looking at the “features” of the car, they are experiencing the benefits. (Hence the increase in sales.)

So what can you do to make sure your message is speaking to your prospect’s heart and not their head? Ask yourself a series of questions:

  • How will their life be better, easier, or more fun with my product or service?
  • Why will they want to tell their friends about my company?
  • Without my product or service, what will the prospect be missing?
  • How will the prospect justify this purchase to themselves or their spouse?

By answering these questions, you will discover the benefits that will attract your prospects. No matter how tempted you may be to point out the incredible “features” of your product, sell with the prospect in mind.

When you constantly put the prospects emotions first, you will create marketing messages that drive sales like you’ve never seen before.

ducttapemarketingbadgeKen Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

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Marketing is NOT Advertising, Emails and Postcards!

by Carolyn Higgins on December 1, 2010

Article by Carolyn Higgins

If I were to ask 100 people to define “Marketing” I’d probably get 100 different answers. The problem is “Marketing” has become a nice little euphemism for dirty words like “advertising”, “sales”, and “diSimple Marketing Ideasrect mail”.

I’ve also noticed that all a sudden everyone is a Marketer: I met a guy the other day who makes signs – he introduced himself as a “Marketer”. Then I met a woman who sells online ads, she also identified as a “Marketer”. Everywhere I go I run into people who at first- glance do what I do, but when I dig a little deeper I learn they’re really selling some marketing tool; not actually engaging in the bigger picture – or the process and planning of Marketing.

I’ve been able to forgive sellers of marketing tools for calling themselves Marketers – I mean, everyone is doing it. But then I read an article by the CEO of a very well-known company that is a provider of Marketing tools (they call themselves “Marketers” too). In his article he addressed the question, “Isn’t Marketing and Advertising the same thing?” His response was, “Well, not really. Let me explain the differences. Advertising includes: commercials, billboards, radio, and newspapers. Marketing includes: emails, letters, postcards, and fax.” WHAT??? (Ok, in all fairness, he wrote Marketing “includes” not marketing “is”, but still, he used this example to answer the question, “how are Marketing and Advertising different?”, which leads me to believe that’s the basis on which he differentiates them.)

OK – clearly there is a lot of confusion out there. Marketing and Advertising are NOT the same. Advertising is NOT Marketing. Post cards are NOT Marketing. Signs are NOT Marketing. Emails are NOT Marketing. These are tools used in the process of Marketing. They are NOT, in of themselves “Marketing”.

So then, what is Marketing?

Wikipedia - Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development.[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.[1]

American Marketing Association (AMA) – Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Notice that neither of these definitions includes the words “email”, “advertising”, or “post cards”? That’s because those things are merely the tools used to create customer interest, engage them and get them to want to buy from us. Take a look at the AMA definition, they state that Marketing is more than the activity of marketing (i.e.: emailing) – it is the set of institutions and the processes for generating interest.

I want you to be aware. We all know we need Marketing, but be smart; learn what that really means and don’t just trust any salesperson who calls themselves a marketer and walks into your shop selling the marketing idea of the week. Marketing is a process – it’s not a one-time deal. Buying an ad or a sign or an email campaign without an overall strategy or plan is simply a waste of time and money. Educate yourself – take the time to learn and invest in your business wisely.

Bottom line: Marketing is strategy. It’s an all-encompassing, planning, scheduling, studying, figuring-stuff-out, researching, testing, and practicing strategy. And I don’t mean a strategy for getting a 20% response rate on an email campaign, 100 coupons from a print ad, or 20 referrals from your referral group. Marketing is bigger than that – much bigger. And when done right it will give you bigger results than you’ve ever imagined!

For more information about marketing strategy and planning, visit http://FortuneMarketingCompany.com.

ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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The Secret of Successful Marketing

by Carolyn Higgins on October 21, 2010

Article by Carolyn Higgins

You’ve been in business a while.  You’ve been buying advertising, tweaking your website, spending a fortune on yellow pages and attending all kinds of networking groups. Yet your pipeline is empty; you don’t know from  where your next job, project or sale is going to come– or even if it will come.  You have no idea how you are going to pay next month’s invoices, salaries and rent.  What do you do? If you’re like most small business owners you do the only thing you know how; you buy more advertising and other marketing tactical stuff and hope this time will be different.

But have you really thought about this “strategy”?  Why would you dump more money  into more advertising,  more website tweaks,  more yellow page ads,  more postcards and  more networking that aren’t working?  Are you hoping this time will be different? Hoping you’ll find the Holy Grail, that Secret Sauce of advertising?

So many small business owners keep spending on the Marketing tactics hoping that one of these days, they’ll “get it right”.  Albert Einstein defined insanity as: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Isn’t it time to stop the insanity?

What’s the secret to successful marketing? The only way to “get it right” is to stop the insanity; take a step back and do some basic groundwork – develop a Marketing strategy first. Here is what a Marketing strategy can do for you:

  1. Help you figure out who in the world is most likely to buy what you are selling and where to reach them. For example,  as the owner of a high-end hair salon – the lady who loves her $8 mall haircut is NEVER going to come to your salon- so why market to her? Just because she has hair doesn’t mean she deserves for your valuable marketing dollar.
  2. Spend less money and get more qualified leads. If you know who is most likely to buy you can stop wasting money chasing people who will never buy.
  3. Make you stand out in the marketplace. Do you know how you are different from your competitors?  If you say “Service” or “Fair Price” you’re missing the mark. Who doesn’t offer great service and fair prices?  Developing a marketing strategy will help you find out what that difference is – and how to use it to attract the right customers for your business.
  4. Get a greater ROI (Return on Investment) for your Marketing tactics. Imagine doing some of the “stuff” I mentioned above and actually seeing results? A Marketing strategy can do that for you. Knowing a few basics about your business and putting a little strategy behind your Marketing spend will do wonders for your ROI.
  5. Put a system behind your marketing so you can consistently work prospects down the funnel and into your pipeline.  A  Marketing strategy will help you build a process that continuously feeds prospects and leads into your funnel; when business is slow – and even when it’s busy. A Marketing strategy will help you avoid an empty pipeline.

Investing in a Marketing Strategy for your small business is the best investment you will ever make. It could save you thousands in the long run- and make you money too. Really- stop the insanity, try something different.

ducttapemarketingbadge Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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Photo by Sujit kumar

Accountability IS Success!

by Guest Author on October 11, 2010

I don’t know about you but I love Spring.  To me it’s a clean slate; a fresh start.  It’s a chance to make life better and be more successful.  Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others or seem to accomplish more?  I wondered the same thing and this year (as part of my preparation for Spring cleaning) I decided to find an answer.

Photo by Sujit kumar

Photo by Sujit kumar

After doing a little research, I finally stumbled upon what I believe to be the answer.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely more than one factor for success (clear goals, focus, definiteness of purpose, and taking action to name a few ) but it appeared to me that there was one in particular that shone above the rest.

Over the years, I’ve taken all kinds of classes, seminars, workshops, retreats, webinars, teleseminars and made all kinds of resolutions and set all kinds of goals and yes, even committed them to paper.  You name and I’ve done it.  So why were some years more successful than others?  Well, I looked back at some of the things that I had done in my life and dissected them with the idea of finding commonalities and/or differences in how they were executed.  What I found was that the ones where I was to report to someone or had told someone what I wanted to achieve were the ones that I got the best results from.   I realized that I had been accountable to someone other than myself for my results.   It was a huge AHA! moment and one that will definitely be something that makes a significant difference in how I do things this year.

I know most of you are probably thinking that you are already accountable and in lots of way you are.  You are accountable to your customers, suppliers, family, friends, colleagues and the list goes on.  This  list however is usually about getting things done; not making things happen.  So the question remains “are you accountable to someone that will help you grow your business?”  If the answer is “no” or you “don’t know” then you need to do something about it.  I honestly believe that you can be more successful (assuming that is what you want) if you have accountability in your life.

So where do you start?  The first step is to decide that you want to be successful and then choose an accountability factor that suits your style and budget.  Here are just a few ways you can be accountable: join a mastermind group that has your success at heart; take on an accountability partner such as a coach, a mentor or a fellow entrepreneur who will communicate with you on a regular basis and push you to do what you say you are going to do; or sign up for a program that is results-oriented and uses accountability partners as part of their curriculum.  As entrepreneurs, we are on our own a great deal and it can be difficult and having someone in your corner that cares about your business growth makes it a little easier.

Whatever you choose to do this year, choose to be successful by choosing to be accountable.

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Brenda Mahoney is a successful marketing coach with a passion for helping others succeed, personally and professionally. Working in the corporate world as well as being a business owner and marketing consultant for many years, Brenda has a strong track record for success. She’s worked with businesses in many different industries and loves what she does.
http://www.criticaledgemarketing.com/

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