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4 Top Online Marketing Tools…”Brick & Mortar” Marketers Should Be Using

Jim Newell — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:50:51 +0000

By: Jim Newell

There’s an old saying that goes like this, “necessity is the mother of invention”, perhaps you’ve heard it. Let’s look at an example of it being used. Online marketing of products or information was in its infancy 10 years ago, and it had a huge disadvantage to overcome. How to attract, hold and sell to a market that you never met and your only tool was a computer screen. Take a look at online marketing today, how have they done? Actually very well, the tools that have evolved are very effective, they can be quite useful and cost effective for “brick& mortar” businesses as well.

Website – Try to imagine an advertising platform that can be changed and/or updated any time you want. Your company website can be changed or added to any time you want and at very little or even no cost. Your website can be used to provide information to your existing customer base, as well as new customers. Things such as store hours, maps, specials or even an e-newsletter subscription form. Directing people to your website may even save some phone time.
Blog – Is a blog the same thing as a website, well it could be, however the typical blog platform is really good as a content management and reader communication platform. If your customers have questions about your services or products they can post their questions online. Some Blog platforms are easy to update, which makes them ideal for a small website.
eMail – email marketing is the main tool online marketers use to keep in contact with their customers. Why would a “brick & mortar” business want to use email marketing? Think direct mail at no cost! Think putting your message directly on your customers/prospects computer! The only costs associated with email marketing, if done on a smaller scale are possible costs to prepare your message. Your email lists can usually be managed with your basic email program. For larger scale email marketing campaigns there are services available that will do everything except gather the email address. If you are a “brick & mortar” business owner, you should be asking every customer you come in contact with for their email address. To stay in compliance with “anti-spam” legislation be sure to ask permission to email them and have them sign a form authorizing the same. Most people will give you their email address, if you assure them that you will not give it to anyone else, and if you tell them what you are going to send them and how often.
Auto-responder – Automation of your email marketing messages or newsletters makes your campaign more consistent and much easier to manage. So what does an auto-responder do? It sends your pre entered messages to all of your customers on the schedule you set up. Imagine you send a monthly newsletter, you can write as many issues as you need, enter them into your auto-responder and they will be mailed automatically as scheduled. You can email a special message to all of your list members any time between scheduled messages, without upsetting your schedule. Auto-responder software can be had at no cost and can be installed on your computer, or for time savings you can use an auto-responder service, usually for a monthly charge.

Check this website for a example of an customer information site, http://www.SecureYourStuff.com, just copy and paste the url into your browser address bar.

Finish Strong

5 Ways to apply the Pareto Principle in Common Sense Marketing

Jim Newell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:17:08 +0000

By: Jim Newell

There has to be a reason that some part of a business does better than other parts, why some employees are more productive than others, why some sports team dominate their sports etc. There really is a logical explanation, and once you understand what it is and how it works, your business in fact your life will never be the same.

The Pareto Principle, or sometimes referred to as the 80-20 rule, applies to almost every facet of business operation, every management function, in fact it is applied to and holds pretty much true to almost anything in life.

The rule was developed from observations made in the early 1900′s by Vilfredo Pareto who had an engineering degree, was an economics lecturer and philosopher in Italy and Switzerland. His 1906 observation was that 80 percent of the property and wealth in Italy were held and controlled by only 20 percent of the population. He also observed that 20 percent of the pea pods in his garden produced 80 percent of the crop. The names Pareto Principle or 80-20 rule were not coined by Pareto but actually credited to him by noted management expert Joseph M. Juran and others who became familiar with Pareto’s work and observations and determined that they could be applied to almost any problem or procedure and seem to always work out to the 80/20 ratio.

80 percent of your profits will come from 20 percent of your products or services. The key is to identify which of those products and services are in the top 20 percent. Those are the products you never want to be out of, those are the services you want to continually improve on or expand. These services and products are the ones you want to advertise the most heavily. You will want to be sure which of the remaining 80 percent of your products and services are really needed and that they support the top 20 percent.
80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. After you have identified which of those customers are in the top 20 percent, they are the ones you want to be sure are always catered to, they are always made aware of specials and new products, that they are always given to opportunity to become repeat customers. These are the ones you want to solicit testimonials from.
80 percent of complaints will be generated by about the same 20 percent of problems. Tracking your complaints will allow you to see and focus on the specific problems and areas that generate the most complaints. Finding those specific problems will allow you to identify and fix them. Of course you should never stop tracking complaints, because as soon as you fix one another will take its place.
80 percent of your successful campaigns will come from only 20 percent of your advertising. Identify your successful campaigns and duplicate or build on them. Use similar delivery methods for your message; some will work better than others with a particular audience. Knowing which methods and campaigns actually work will save o lot of money in your advertising budget.
20 percent of your sales force will produce 80 percent of your sales. Nurture, grow and reward that top 20 percent, they are the superstars who will make your business successful. One of the attributes you will find in this group is that they will be the self starters who will always find a way to get the business. This will allow you to put more resources into developing the other 80 percent.

As stated earlier, the Pareto Principle or 80-20 rules works almost anyplace you apply it, the percentages will not always add up to 100 percent, however the ratio will be very close. The 80-20 rule works with online as well as “brick & mortar” businesses. This is truly a Common Sense Marketing tool that you should make part of your decision making and evaluating arsenal.

What It Takes to Be Number 1

Three Vital Direct Mail Tips for the Small Business Owner

Jim Newell — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:24:46 +0000

By: Corte Swearingen

Direct mail can be a very profitable marketing channel for the small business owner. With much emphasis on website and search engine marketing, many companies have forgotten the power of a strong direct mail package to pull in quality leads and convert prospects into customers. This article outlines four tips for ensuring direct mail success.

Strategy #1: Match Your List to your Target

There are basically two types of direct mail lists; rentals lists and house lists. The reason you rent a list is to bring new prospects into your business. A list rental, when purged of any existing prospects or customers, is a list of suspects. A suspect is someone you think might be interested in your products or services, but you aren’t sure.

Your goal for any suspect mailing is not to sell – it’s to convert them into a viable prospect by building up their trust and confidence. If you immediately put on the hard sell for a suspect, chances are good that you’ll be ignored. Good suspect mailings will give away a free report, product sample or service trial in exchange for contact information like an email or address.

A house list is simply your current list of prospects, first time buyers and repeat buyers. You should split your house list into these three areas and come up with the most compelling offer for each group. Your house prospects have shown an interest in your products and services but haven’t made that all important first purchase. Make them a deal they can’t refuse. For your buyers, concentrate on upselling and cross selling complementary products.

Strategy #2: Track Your Results

If you can t track it, don t do it. Make sure your direct mail piece contains a way to track whether the customer took action. If you don t do this, you will never know if your mailing had an impact.

Here are three suggestions for tracking your direct mail promotions.

Mail a postcard that contains a promo code that must be brought into your retail store.
If your business is web based, use a unique promotion code that must be entered at your website when redeeming the offer.
If you are referring people back to your website, send them to a special page your regular web visitors can t access.

Remember, the more you can track and measure, the more you can adjust in order to create a more effective mailing the next time.

Strategy #3: Have a Compelling Offer

What exactly is your call to action? Make it clear to your customer what it is you want them to do and make sure your offer is clear and compelling. Below are some ideas to get you going.

Free product trial
Discount on product or service for limited time
Free consultation
Free report for download at your website

Make sure you capture everyone s contact information so you can add it to your database. On your website, this can be as simple as having them fill out a contact form before redeeming the direct mail offer.

Direct mail is a great way to supplement a strong ecommerce marketing program. In addition, using your website to capture new suspect contact info is a great way to combine direct mail and web communication channels.

Author Resource:-> Corte Swearingen is the creator of the Integral Marketing System and founder of http://www.small-biz-marketing-tips.com. He holds a degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Article From My Article Vault

A Website for Your “Brick and Mortar” Business…Why You Should Have One.

Jim Newell — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:05:48 +0000

You are losing business and money for every day that you are not present on the World Wide Web!

Your customers expect you to have a website.

How many times have you entered a business name into a search window to see if they had a website, to check hours, phone numbers, what they did, or just plain curiosity? Well your customers and prospects are doing the same thing every day, and if they don’t find your business, they are finding your competitors.

My AH…HAA moment.

In 1996, I had just signed up with my first ISP, 1996 was the old days and all you had to choose from were a few dial up ISP’s, they were very slow and charged you by the minutes you spent online.

One day very soon after, I was working on some reports for work and needed a phone number for a customer in a major city, I knew that I had a phone book for that city in the basement, I yelled at my son, who was then a junior in high school to get me the phone book, he asked what I needed, went on the Internet and found the information I wanted quicker that he could have gone to the basement.

The point is that even at that time, when the Internet was in the infancy of what it is becoming today, the young people in our society were already using the World Wide Web to find information. These are the people who are now becoming your customers, they are working with computers everyday, and they can, and do, access the Internet from their cell phones.

Here’s a newsflash, we all assume that young people are the fastest growing segment gaining access to and using the Internet…Wrong! The fastest growing segment is the mature adult 55 and up, and guess who has most of the money!

What should my business website be?

Online Brochure – This is the minimum you should do.
- Who you are – brief bio’s of principles.
- Company history – How you started, where you are going.
- What you do – products or services you offer.
- Where you are - locations.
- Contact info – phone, fax, email, websites.
- What certifications you have.
Information Center – To busy to describe a product or service over the phone? Direct them to your website for complete information.
- PDF files for products or services, your customers should be able to download.
- Slide show of your products or services.
- Video files for installations or how to use, or assemble products.
- Audio files for almost any message.

Online Store – Becomes a 24/7 profit center, you will be making money while you sleep!

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