INDEX

LOW COST MARKETING
If in the good old days – about 3 months ago – you had to contact a handful of people to get a new client, these days you probably need to contact at least 30 or even 40 people. It can be depressing but you have to remind yourself it's a numbers game; just that the numbers have changed—considerably. Now you have to reach more people with a tighter budget but you can do it by using what you already have to greater effect. <click for more>

HOW MUCH DOES A BROCHURE COST?
(Or, the importance of a thorough brief) <click for more>

WHO'S CHECKING YOU OUT?
E-news tools track your hot prospects. It's addictive and I know I am not the only one who has been hooked. This is not about eating chocolate or shopping for Manolo Blahnik shoes, but about the tracking tools on my e-news software. <click for more>

PLEASE HOUSE-SIT MY CAT
The business of keeping in touch. If you want somebody to do you a favour—let's say house-sit your cat while you spend a week in Bali—you wouldn't call up an old school friend you'd been ignoring on FaceBook for the last year. You know you'd get a disbelieving "no" as an answer — and that's before they saw the cat in question. <click for more>

LOW COST MARKETING
If in the good old days – about 3 months ago – you had to contact a handful of people to get a new client, these days you probably need to contact at least 30 or even 40 people. It can be depressing but you have to remind yourself it's a numbers game; just that the numbers have changed—considerably. Now you have to reach more people with a with a smaller budget, but you can do it by using what you already have to greater effect.

Use your client base
Remind your clients you are there: They are busy and don’t mean to be fickle but if your name isn’t the first to be recalled, unfortunately it’ll be someone else getting the call.

If you don’t know who your clients are then start collecting their names NOW! Send a letter, e-letter, newsletter or catalogue. Tell them of offers (see below), new products or hot tips. Just communicate.

Repeat business: Wellcome can do it and so can you. Encourage clients to come back for more with a loyalty programme. It doesn’t have to be fancy and the incentive can be as simple as a bottle of champagne on reaching a certain level of business, or a discount if they reach a “VIP” status.

Refer a friend: Save yourself having to explain how good your product/service is when you can encourage your happy client base to do it for you. Set up a programme where your clients receive a discount or other incentive for recommending one or more new clients to you.

And because what goes round, comes round —as grannies like to say—freely recommend your suppliers and even your own customers on to people you know. And make sure they know about your good acts.

Use your head
Once you’ve set all the above in motion you can start thinking about telling customers-to-be about your product/services. But where and who are these people? Here’s where you have to use your head.

Strategic relationships: It’s back to bartering except in this case we are bartering our client base. Speak to businesses with a similar client profile but a different product, or businesses in your building, or businesses with a complementary product —and cross market. Reciprocate web links and brochure distribution, promote each other on your web or in your newsletters, or engage in joint marketing projects where costs are shared.

Which leads onto sponsorship: Your sponsorship needn’t be cash but can be the sponsorship of a prize for an event.

“But my company doesn’t produce anything I could give as a prize,” you say. Remember, you can buy something to give as a prize — perhaps a gift voucher from one of your strategic partners? If you are a donor, you can usually hand out brochures or have your logo placed on all the promotional material. Choose your events wisely.

Communicate with the media: Journalists are very busy people but good journalists have a good contact list they use when they need information fast. In a helpful, clear and concise way, politely let journalists know what you do and what kind of information you can help them with. Ask them to keep this information on file. Suggest story ideas with which you can help provide content. If you have photos all the better. Keep in touch, perhaps with a new story idea or if you have news that will genuinely be of interest to their readers, let the journalists know.

You can of course always create news or events. Use your imagination to dream up an event – free haircuts for orphans, celebrate a national day in a novel day and so on.

Your web site: This should be a dynamic portal drawing customers in by the dozen but too often, once the website it built, it is usually left to sit and gather dust.

First, check that you have keywords on your website so that the search engines can find you. Find 'Page Info' — usually a simple right click on your home page (in the non Flash bit if you have Flash). Also right click on photos to check that your photos have a text description as this is something search engines like too. Check the browser bar to see whether each page has an descriptive title. This web page has the title "Marketing Resources & Tips". If you don’t see the correct information, speak to your web designer and get that updated right away. While you are at it, check your competition’s website for their keywords/page descriptions/photo descriptions.

Update your website regularly as the activity raises your profile with the search engines. Perhaps talk to your web designer about linking a company Blog into your main site. Blogs are easy for an end-user to keep updated with offers, news and tips.

Use an e-newsletter, Google ads, promotions and reciprocal links to drive visitors to your website.

And you can advertise: There are some excellent advertising vehicles but be prepared to spend money on a good design and change the message so that the advert doesn’t just become wallpaper. It takes a while to build awareness so be prepared to commit. Generally, smaller adverts placed repeatedly is a better strategy than blowing your budget with big adverts placed only once or twice. In this environment you should be able to get a better deal so remember to ask for one.

In this article I have focused on quantity, but of course an important aspect of marketing it quality. The better designed your marketing material, the fewer hits required to gain a conversion — but that is a subject for another article.

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Q: HOW MUCH DOES A BROCHURE COST?
A: For many people the answer is unfortunately as intangible as the length of a piece of string, but of course the length depends very much on where the string starts.

In my experience all starts should begin with a very good brief. The biggest variable when it comes to time spent and charges made is in the design and copywriting, but with a precise brief the design process should be quick and efficient and charges are consequently kept low. Without a precise brief…

In most cases, clients do not know the issues they should be considering when creating a brief but an experienced agency will have a checklist of questions to ensure that design brief is thorough. Questions will include obvious ones such as: who is the target audience? Or, what is your budget? But another key question is: who are the decision makers?

Unfortunately, in some cases the marketing manager may think they are the decision maker. They may think they know the target audience but suddenly, once the brochure design is presented to their boss, we discover that the boss had something else in mind. He may have 'delegated' to the marketing manager but bosses can also assume that marketing managers read minds.

This is when redesigns happen and charges start going up. This is when agency and client fall out.

How do you prevent this state of affairs? Here are some tips for creating an excellent brief:

• Whether you are a marketing manager or the boss, discuss your brief with all stakeholders before you hand it over to the agency for final action. Stakeholders can include your best friend, you boss or your partner; anyone whose opinion you respect and who you will show the design to for their comments. If you haven’t involved them in the original discussion, then don’t show them anything except the finished product!
• Collect samples of design work you like but more importantly, work you don’t like.  Although the brochure design will be strongly influenced by the preferences of your target audience, there is always more than one way to skin a cat and the designer can work to meet both requirements. After all, you have to be comfortable working with the final product and if you are the business owner, it has to reflect your values to the target audience.
• If you don’t know from personal experience, ask the sales people why people buy your products and services. Also ask them why people don’t buy your products and services.
• See what your competitors are doing.
• Set a budget and tell the agency. A decent agency will give you the best product/service for your budget because they will assume you are getting at least one other estimate. In this way the agency is concentrating their efforts for your benefit rather than hedging their bets because they can’t be told what the budget is (and this does happen). You can always spend more or less once you see what that particular budget buys you.

In the business world, information costs but if you have the information, it won’t be you paying for it. A precise and accurate brief, approved by all stakeholders, will get the best brochure for your budget and that should take a weight of your mind.

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WHO'S CHECKING YOU OUT?
E-news tools track your hot prospects

It's addictive and I know I'm not the only one who has been hooked. This is not about eating chocolate or shopping for Manolo Blahnik shoes, but about the tracking tools on my e-news software.

As soon as I hit send, I can flick to a screen and see who has opened my email. I can see who has clicked on which link and I can see who has forwarded my email to a friend. It is voyeuristic it's true, but it's exciting to see who is interested in your news and exactly what topics interest them.

This information is gold to a business person. It tells you who the hot prospects are and gives you a lead to follow up; perhaps with a phone call, perhaps with a brochure. The contact will be amazed at your intuition but here's an observation; it's probably best you don't burst their bubble and tell them how you came to call. Nobody likes to think they are being spied upon.

There is a down side too, however. You must put your sensitivities aside and swallow the disappointment when your friends appear not to read your 'fascinating' email. They may be using anti-spy software—nothing personal.

If you suspect you have voyeuristic tendacies and would like to learn more about using e-news tools to build your business, please contact me for a free demonstration. Call 9051 2545 or email me by clicking here. You know I'll be watching!

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PLEASE HOUSE-SIT MY CAT

The business of keeping in touch

If you want somebody to do you a favour—let's say house-sit your cat while you spend a week in Bali—your first call wouldn't be an old school friend you'd been ignoring on FaceBook for the last year. You know you'd get a disbelieving "no" as an answer — and that's before they saw the cat in question.

Sales is much the same. You're much more likely to get a "yes" if you're no stranger to the prospect. And since most people hate cold calling anyway, it makes sense to 'soften up' the target first. If you're lucky, they may call you first.

Prospects may get to know you through a monthly newsletter, adverts, direct mailers, seeing your name as the prize sponsor at an event, by visiting your web or even through being handed a well-designed namecard at a cocktail party.

We can help your market get to know you, your values, services and products. And this is not limited to potential clients. Your 'market' may include current clients, staff, the press or even shareholders.

By analysing your business, together we can develop a communications strategy which may include letters, brochures, adverts, newletters, web sites, displays, advertisements, press releases, manuals, guidelines, seminars, launches, standard operating procedures or staff manuals (every business should have one).

Strategies to engage your market may include competitions, must-have free information, offers, loyalty programs, case studies, forums or even the opportunity to share pet photos.Really!

By keeping in touch on a regular basis you won't miss the moment when your prospect wants to act. People don't like to take chances with the unknown so by being the 'friend on the end of the phone', there is every chance that it is you who will get their business. As they say: "Don't be a stranger."

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