Hi all -
It's been a while since I posted here, because I moved my blog to my website. I intended to take this one down, but then my son talked me out of it. Bossy kid.
Anyway, I don't have enough hours in the day to write on both blogs, so I'll give you a hint about the content, and ask you to please follow me, and Read today's post...
It's a new look at competition - and why maybe it isn't competition at all! Please join me for an idea that just might give your business a boost!
Marte
Showing posts with label sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sales. Show all posts
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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
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
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Use the holidays to spark your marketing creativity
Did you do a promotion for St. Patrick's Day? I'll have to admit that I did not do any promotion for my copywriting business - but I think we all should be looking at each of the holidays that come along as a good reason to make contact with our client lists, and even reach out to new prospects.
The bars and some restaurants do a good job - after all, this is the only time of year you can buy green beer. Not that I want green beer - that actually sounds kind of awful - but who doesn't love a reason to celebrate?
Hmmm... what do I drink that's green? Green tea perhaps, or lime flavored soft drinks. For whatever reason, the only things that seem like they should be green are veggies. But color and marketing is a subject for another day.
What could you have done? Some kind of promotion dealing with luck? Could you have hidden a "pot of gold" in your store or on your website and offered a discount to customers who found it?
It's too late now to do something for St. Patrick's, and if you're using print media it's probably too late to do Easter, so what's next?
April Fool's day seems like a good time to do a fun promotion, and if you act quickly, there's time to get something in the mail or the local newspaper. And of course there's time to tweak your website a bit.
Today, take out the calendar and look at the events coming up. Then write them all down and let your imagination run wild with ideas about how to tie them to your promotions. Be silly, be outrageous, be creative - and something really spectacular will come of it. In fact, get some friends and family to sit down with you and toss out ideas. Sometimes the best ones come from something that sounded ridiculous at first.
Just do it - and remember to laugh a lot!
Marte
The bars and some restaurants do a good job - after all, this is the only time of year you can buy green beer. Not that I want green beer - that actually sounds kind of awful - but who doesn't love a reason to celebrate?
Hmmm... what do I drink that's green? Green tea perhaps, or lime flavored soft drinks. For whatever reason, the only things that seem like they should be green are veggies. But color and marketing is a subject for another day.
What could you have done? Some kind of promotion dealing with luck? Could you have hidden a "pot of gold" in your store or on your website and offered a discount to customers who found it?
It's too late now to do something for St. Patrick's, and if you're using print media it's probably too late to do Easter, so what's next?
April Fool's day seems like a good time to do a fun promotion, and if you act quickly, there's time to get something in the mail or the local newspaper. And of course there's time to tweak your website a bit.
Today, take out the calendar and look at the events coming up. Then write them all down and let your imagination run wild with ideas about how to tie them to your promotions. Be silly, be outrageous, be creative - and something really spectacular will come of it. In fact, get some friends and family to sit down with you and toss out ideas. Sometimes the best ones come from something that sounded ridiculous at first.
Just do it - and remember to laugh a lot!
Marte
Monday, September 24, 2007
Should you ever turn away business?
You market diligently to get new business - should you take all that comes your way?
I don't think so. But maybe that's because I turned down what might have been an extensive and lucrative copywriting project just recently. The clients wanted me to write a letter promoting someone I think is a monster. I thought long and hard about it and then said no.
Now that kind of thing doesn't happen all the time. There aren't that many monsters who have support systems like that. But a writer can be asked to promote a product that is inferior or even harmful.
A building contractor can be asked to cut corners to make a spec house cost less, a garage owner can be asked to rewind an odometer - and a real estate agent can be asked to list a home under circumstances that just aren't right.
For instance, some owners ask their Realtors to withhold information about a property that would cause buyers to turn away. It could be the presence of a sex offender next door, or the fact that the roof leaks - but it is something that buyers clearly should know.
But there's another reason to turn down business. That is your own happiness. My belief is that you should not deliberately do business with a person who makes you uncomfortable and unhappy every time you see them or hear their voice on the phone - and there are people like that. They're arrogant or just difficult at every turn.
I say, if you see them coming, run the other way. The time, energy, and stress you'll expend on them could be much better spent working with people who are pleasant and cooperative. Plus, often the transactions you try to put together with those people fall apart at the last minute - leaving you nothing but a headache for your effort.
We all need to work - but we can choose to work at a job we love with people we appreciate.
I don't think so. But maybe that's because I turned down what might have been an extensive and lucrative copywriting project just recently. The clients wanted me to write a letter promoting someone I think is a monster. I thought long and hard about it and then said no.
Now that kind of thing doesn't happen all the time. There aren't that many monsters who have support systems like that. But a writer can be asked to promote a product that is inferior or even harmful.
A building contractor can be asked to cut corners to make a spec house cost less, a garage owner can be asked to rewind an odometer - and a real estate agent can be asked to list a home under circumstances that just aren't right.
For instance, some owners ask their Realtors to withhold information about a property that would cause buyers to turn away. It could be the presence of a sex offender next door, or the fact that the roof leaks - but it is something that buyers clearly should know.
But there's another reason to turn down business. That is your own happiness. My belief is that you should not deliberately do business with a person who makes you uncomfortable and unhappy every time you see them or hear their voice on the phone - and there are people like that. They're arrogant or just difficult at every turn.
I say, if you see them coming, run the other way. The time, energy, and stress you'll expend on them could be much better spent working with people who are pleasant and cooperative. Plus, often the transactions you try to put together with those people fall apart at the last minute - leaving you nothing but a headache for your effort.
We all need to work - but we can choose to work at a job we love with people we appreciate.
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