Marketing smarter instead of more expensively

Your prospects - the people who are still spending money - see thousands of advertising messages every single day. I read somewhere that we see more now in a week than our great-grandparents saw in a lifetime. And I don't doubt it - Just the junk e-mail puts a hundred or so in front of most of us every day. Add the newspaper, TV, radio, direct postal mail, Billboards - and it's astounding.

So... how can you stand out from all this noise?

I think you need to start with the customers you have - Give them a good incentive to give you their email addresses, and then mail to them regularly. But not just with an ad.

I believe you need to send them something interesting enough that they might pass it on to friends. Then include a weekly special that's for your email list only. In other words, let them feel special, and let them invite their friends to feel special too.

What's interesting enough to read regularly, and send on? Articles about your field of expertise are one good idea. But you could also send a weekly quote, a good joke, or even a puzzle. If you get alerts about viruses, send those as a courtesy. If there's a special event coming up in your community you could give updates about it. If you're supporting a local charity you could talk about it.

Just make sure you:
1) Send something in addition to a sales message.
2) Include a call to action in the form of something special for your customer

They call it viral marketing, and if you do it correctly, you can begin to reach more and more people who are actually interested in what you offer - and spend a fraction of what it would cost to run ads in newspapers and magazines.

If you offer a "once in a while service," such as real estate sales - use this method to maintain top of mind awareness - and perhaps even to bring your customers super special (exclusively from you) deals from other businesses. (You could even sell ad space in your email - but do be sure you believe in the other person's product or service before you do!)

Spend less - benefit more! And if you can't figure out how to write those letters, write me! Copywriting to add to your income is what I do.

Yours for prosperity,
Marte

Marte Cliff
writer@marte-cliff.com