We’re almost into 2012 and if you haven’t created an official marketing plan, you’ve at least been thinking about what marketing activities you’re going to invest in for the next year.

Choosing among the myriad strategies and tools to implement them can be a real challenge.  And not every company has a mission or purpose that lend themselves to easy adaptation to your marketing strategies — so what do you do?

How to create a commitment

Commitments are tricky little things.  There are things we SAY that we are committed to (like our family or truth) but our actions may say otherwise.  And then there are things we are really committed to (like golfing or friends or football) that are consistent with where we spend out money and our time.

Think about where you spend your time, effort and resources inside of your business?

1. Make a list of things you say or want to be committed to.  You know this list — I’m committed to customer service, on-time deliveries, delighting customers These are things that we share with other people and talk about doing, but may or may not have put the time or effort into.  Or when circumstances present themselves, we find ourselves, whining, complaining or just not doing it.
2. Make a list of “secret” commitments i.e. I’m committed to playing golf with customers or I’m committed to getting a promotion or going to California in January.  These are those tiny commitments that drive your actions but aren’t cool or politically correct.
3. Make a list or keep track of your time just to see where you put your energy throughout the day, the week, the month or the year.
4. Bring in your team and choose your commitments.  Share those hidden agendas and see if you can pair them up with the commitments you’re making to your business.

Once you’re clear on what it is that you are committed to as a  business, your marketing strategies will suddenly become more obvious and easy.  In fact, you’ll be able to quickly prioritize where to put your money and your time.  The beauty of bringing your commitments to the forefront of your marketing strategy is that it will allow you to take control of your marketing activities instead of them controlling you.

Here is a list of some possible commitments you can make in your marketing strategy and how those commitments would drive your actions:

Making it easy for customers to buy from us

This is often an unspoken commitment that drives every marketing strategy.  In being unspoken, however, it gets lost int he mire.   When you have this commitment you’ll want to look at all the possible areas where you customer or prospect has choices and see what opportunities you give them to choose you.

• Get a list of all the common directories where your customers might search for you
• Get optimized for search engines – are you listed on Google Places?  Is your web site optimized for the common keywords that your customer may use?  Do you need or have landing pages that clearly state your offer and any other information that your customer may need to make the decision to buy from you
• Evaluate and improve your proposals
• Take a look at your selling cycle.  How long is it, what are the obstacles your customers have in making the decision to buy from you?  What additional information do they need that would make choosing you OBVIOUS?

It takes more than setting up a website to find success online these days.  A company website is certainly the foundation of any internet marketing strategy, but it’s more about the overall online presence of the company.  A target audience member should be able to interact with a company or brand via many different touchpoints online.  In order to build a robust online presence a company needs to be involved in inbound marketing tactics like SEO, blogging, social media networking, and opt-in email newsletter distribution.  Each of these tools can help to build a positive reputation online and lead to an increase in sales and conversions.  Each of these strategies work over the long term, therefore it’s necessary to be consistent.

The following are 4 inbound marketing strategies in which consistency is important:

SEO

Search engine optimization is the practice of making changes to your website and your online presence in order for the search engines to find and deliver targeted visitors to your website.  It’s not a quick fix or a onetime strategy.  SEO works over time.  Once targeted keywords have been chosen and the on-site SEO component has been completed, the second phase of SEO begins, which is link building.  Link building is an ongoing campaign to increase your website and brand visibility in the search engines and online in general.  Since it’s assumed that as a website grows over time that it will have more links pointing to it from outside sources, the links need to be developed over time at a consistent rate that seems natural.  If links build too quickly that can raise a red flag with the search engines.  Links that build steadily over time build trust.

Blogging

Blogs are a great way to share your knowledge and establish yourself as an expert and thought leader in a given industry.  In order to find blogging success, it’s important to post on a regular basis.  Blogs gain loyal followers over time and the worst thing that you can do is abandon them.  Stick to a routine.  In addition to being viewed favorably by your readers, new blog content provides an opportunity to be viewed favorably by the search engines.  The search engine spiders love new content and will come back to crawl and index the website every time that something new is posted.

Social Media

Social media is certainly not a fad.  Millions of people use social media on a daily basis to share and connect.  In addition, “social signals” are now a search engine ranking factor.  It’s important to have a social media presence.  While it seems obvious, many brands forget that social media is about being social.  It’s about establishing relationships with your fans, followers, and connections and providing them with content that is valuable to them.  To use social media correctly, it’s important to be active daily.  A social media profile that remains stagnant is missing the point and won’t improve the bottom line.

Opt-In Email Newsletters

Contrary to what some may believe opt-in email newsletters are still an extremely effective way to market.  The recipients have opted-in because they want to receive messages from you.  It’s a captive audience.  In order to stay top of mind it’s important to send messages on a regular basis.  While you want to avoid being too pushy or annoying, consistent messaging keeps the brand top of mind.

About the Author: Nick Stamoulis is a Boston SEO consultant and the President and Founder of Brick Marketing, a search engine marketing and SEO services company.

Related articles

• 10 On-page SEO Tactics for 2011 (kaiserthesage.com)
• “Likes” Rival Links as Google Takes Page From Facebook (mpdailyfix.com)
• Small Business News: SEO for Small Business (smallbiztrends.com)
• The Future of Search and Social Media: SEO and Social Media Integration (thesearchagents.com)

It’s the middle of the year and by this time you’ve been running a series of marketing strategies.  Some have worked and some didn’t.  This is a good time to stop and debrief about what worked in your marketing plan and why – and what didn’t work and why.  Use this handy checklist to see where and how you can tweak your strategies to get the desired results.

1. Focus on your strength – the best strategy for inexpensive and effortless marketing is to build it around your natural strengths. I call them signature strengths( tm).  A marketing strategy that comes from a conversation that you are excited about has so much more attraction power than a message that’s structured around something that “should” work because someone else has done it.  To identify your strength, just think back to a customer you gained and look at exactly what it is about that relationship that is so successful.  What is it about YOU that is so appealing to them?  It could be your energy or the fact that you deliver quickly.  Whatever it is — build your natural ability into a competitive strength.
2. Turn your strength into a success- process — know what you need to be successful and be rigorous in defending it.  Don’t take on any customers that don’t fit your formula for success.
3. Identify your ideal customer. Just because a company has a well-known name and is giving you money doesn’t make them an ideal customer.  An ideal customer is FIRST a profitable customer.  That means that the business system that you’ve created meets their needs and provides enough value that they are happy to pay the price.  The third element is, of course, that there is a mutual like of doing business together.
4. Find out what’s important to your ideal customer.  It’s not uncommon to have a customer you like that likes you back, and an offer that they are willing to pay for, but if there’s something that’s important to them that isn’t covered, a dream customer will turn into a nightmare.
5. Know your competitive advantage.  Take the time to do a thorough exploration and analysis of what sets you apart from other alternatives your customers are considering.  Embrace your advantage.  Be sure that your competitive advantages address potential objections that your customers might have
6. Create a compelling brand story – and tell it often.  The way to really make marketing easy, effortless and inexpensive is to leverage your brand story.  What is it that drives your business?  Why did you start your business?  What is it that you believe or value?  Is there a dirty little secret in your industry that you reveal?  Create a story that’s centered on the value that you discover and bring to your ideal customer.
7. Use a keyword rich catch-phrase. Dr. Phil is known for his phrase “How’s that workin’ for ‘ya”.  It’s something he says often and it goes with his in-your-face style.  What is it that you find yourself saying often?  Become known for a phrase or two in your business and you’ll have a wonderful branding and marketing tool that you can really leverage.
8. Fish in your ideal customer pond.  Once you’ve identified your ideal customer – be where they are.  It’s that simple.  Think about attending the trade shows that your customers attend and exhibiting there.  Don’t just go to industry shows where your competition is – go to the shows where your customers are.  If you can’t exhibit there, create an educational or informational topic your customers will appreciate and present it.
9. Reject customers and projects that don’t fit your ideal. If you’re going to focus on your ideal customer, you’d think it was logical to reject anyone who doesn’t fit that profile, but, most businesses don’t.  Create a sales process that weeds through the wrong customers to get to the right ones.  Any prospect that doesn’t fit your ideal profile has a high probability of becoming a dissatisfied, disgruntled customer that will make your life and your bottom line a living hell.
10. Connect with influencers and help them build THEIR brand.  Become laser focused on those people and organizations that are connected to large groups of your ideal customers.  Take the time to choose those centers of influence with whom you can create a win-win scenario and help them build their brand.  In return, you will see your influence and brand grow as well.  Back to the Oprah examples of Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and the rest of her discovered talent.  They served Oprah well and in return, she grew their brand beyond anything they could have done themselves.
11. Run a referral strategy.  Referrals are not a surprise or a gift or a happy accident.  They can be a function of a referral, word-of-mouth process that you work as diligently as any promotional communications strategy that you come up with.  Create a referral guideline to educate your centers of influence and help them refer you.  Make sure you have at least five referral conversations each day where you get to tell your brand story.  And be consistent and persistent with this process.  You’ll notice a steady stream of ideal customers come your way in no time.

Notice that the biggest investment that each of these items requires is thinking time.   The items on this list would belong in Covey’s “Sharpen the Saw” chapter.  If you’re like me (and many other folks) you’ll want to dive right into action.  But the power of this checklist comes in the quality of thinking and analysis more than in the implementation.

Do you have a daily ritual?

Most people have them.

They get up.
Take a shower.
Get dressed.
Make coffee.
Etc.

You know the drill.

But when it comes to marketing, most business owners don’t have daily ritual for their marketing.

The one thing I ask my clients religiously is…

“What have you done to market your business today?”

When we start most respond with a “huh?”

You need to develop a habit of doing just one thing each and every day that will help market your business. They don’t have to be big things. Just simple things. Here’s a few things that you can do in 30 minutes that will help you get going.

• Write a blog post
• Write an article to publish in the local newspaper
• Follow up with last week’s prospects
• Send a thank you card to a client
• Email a promotion of one of your products
• Follow up with the people you met last week networking

These are just a few things you can do and all of them can be done in under 30 minutes.

I like to write and do a lot of blogging on my own sites and on other sites as a guest blogger. I also like to batch it all up and block off 2 hours to write all the blogs I want to submit for the week. Since, one I get in the creative writing flow it’s just easier that way, it works well.

But you don’t have to block off 2 hours. Just 30 minutes.

Make this your “30 Marketing Minutes”

As you may have heard, it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. Once you do this, you’ll be more likely to keep up with it and have a lot more success with doing it daily.

Start today!

Block off 30 minutes to dedicate to marketing. Turn of off the phone, close Facebook and don’t read any new email.

Just block that time to be as effective as possible dedicated to marketing your business.

So many business owners don’t take the time and don’t schedule time to really do the marketing they need to for their business. They get stuck in the rat race and putting out fires all day. They tend to think of marketing only when they don’t have enough business and are in desperate mode.

The best thing you can do is schedule your daily marketing time first thing in the morning. Do it before you get sucked in to the day to day stuff. This way you are ahead of the game and get it done first.

For those of you that really don’t like marketing much, (and I don’t know how you couldn’t), this way you get it done first. As Brian Tracy says “Eat That Frog”.

It will amaze you how much of a difference you will have made by just taking that “30 Marketing Minutes” and adding it to your daily ritual.

You see, marketing is something you need to do on a daily basis. You can have a great product but without marketing, you’ll be out of business.

By just taking a few steps each and every day you will set yourself up for success.

The first holiday ad always sends a minor shock down our spines.  Is it really that time again? You may not be in the holiday spirit yet, but it ‘tis the season to get working on your 2011 strategic plan!

Most companies know they should develop a strategic plan, and 70% actually write them.  The problem is that only 10% implement their plan.  (Sounds a lot like most New Year’s resolutions, doesn’t it?)

Well shake the lump of coal out of your stocking and start decking the halls because you’re closer to greatness than you think.  That’s because the difference between excellent and average comes down to deliberate commitment to planning and execution.

Heck, we can all be occasionally great, but if you want to be consistently great, consider the example of professional golfers.  In 2009, the difference between the #3 player (Phil Mickelson) and the #100 player (Tom Purdy) was Phil shot 1 less stroke every 120 holes.  Not a big gap in play, but a huge difference in prize money: Phil made $5,300,000 to Tom’s $835,000!

You, too, should shoot for PAR.  That’s because there’s a new definition of PAR for the business world.  And it will help you and your organization dramatically improve your odds of success in the planning and execution of your strategic plan:

Prioritize – Focus on what matters most.

Adapt – See change as an opportunity.

be Responsible – Take ownership of the outcome.

Together these three ideas are easily remembered by the acronym PAR.  Just like par is the standard of excellence on a golf course, so too is PAR the key to excellence in business.

You may be wondering why all the golf references.  The PAR concepts came from our belief that there is great commonality between success in golf and success in business.  The closer we looked, the clearer the connections become.

Whether you are in business or playing a round of golf, you are going to face challenges and get stuck in difficult situations.  No matter where you are when it happens, PAR is your roadmap to digging out and getting the right things done.

The first PAR concept is Prioritize – Focus on what matters most.

It almost goes without saying that getting the most important things done is critical to the success of any organization, but the truth is that it’s a lot harder to keep that focus amid all the distractions.  And in today’s difficult economic climate, that has never been truer.  The difference between success and failure often comes down to whether leadership can focus the entire organization’s attention on the things that are really most important.

Consider the following questions to help identify your highest priorities:

• What are the top three goals we want to accomplish?
• What are the most significant trends that will impact our markets?
• Are we properly positioned to attract, retain, and motivate our number one competitive advantage – our employees?
• What emerging markets offer significant growth opportunities and leverage our  strengths?
• What are we doing to develop competitive advantages?
• Is our corporate vision statement engrained in our culture, and does it send us in the right direction?

Prioritizing is also important on a smaller scale.  The hourly question of what should I do next? should always be answered by thinking first what is my highest priority? A great way to do this is to break down your top two to three strategic initiatives into detailed action steps with due dates and metrics.

The second PAR concept is Adapt – See change as an opportunity.

The business world is changing at a blistering pace.  There’s unrelenting pressure to do things faster, better, cheaper.

To compete and win in business, companies need to make sure they keep looking a few years down the road.  To do that the best firms foster an environment that encourages innovation, regardless of how small the change.  Once this spirit of innovation is engrained in your culture, you will move faster, build loyalty among your employees, and discover new ways to stay ahead of competition.

Why is adapting to change so important?  Because top performing companies are better at anticipating and managing change than average companies.

Business leaders need to paint the picture for employees to help overcome the natural resistance to change.  How?  Communicate, share your vision, and most importantly, let them know that change means taking chances.

The final component of PAR is be Responsible – Take ownership of the outcome.

Responsibility starts at the top of your company and flows down to the front line workers.  Companies that take responsibility for caring about their customers, their employees, and their communities will do better in the long run.

Businesses need to earn a profit, but the days are gone when they can ignore their impact on the environment, safety of their products, and the well-being of their employees.  These are non-negotiable issues, and any organization that refuses to accept them will deal with the painful consequences.

More importantly, responsibility in business is a personal thing.  Every employee has to take ownership for their work.  This means making sure the project that is due on Friday gets done by Friday…no matter what it takes.  Only when every player on your team takes their individual responsibility personally will the entire organization thrive.

True responsibility also means not just talking about what you’re going to do but taking action on it and being accountable for the results.  Definitive action plans and progress metrics need to be established to ensure progress is on track.  It’s here that “owners” hold themselves and each other accountable.

So how can you translate PAR into success for your company?  There are two free online tools that turn these ideas into actionable processes.  The first is a business assessment that lets each member of your team identify how well they get the right work done and where they are in terms of their ability to prioritize, adapt, and be responsible.  The second is a downloadable scorecard that makes it easy to map out the planning and implementation steps necessary for success.  Both free tools are available at www.PluggedTheBook.com.

Don’t be a humbug.  Start your strategic planning process now.  Hit the ground running in January and you’ll have 12 months to make it happen.  Then get ready for some nice presents under your tree next year.

CLEVELAND – The CEO from a local company decided that getting his face pierced was actually less stressful and painful than figuring out what to do next with his marketing strategy.

Mike Johnson (not his real name) was sitting in his office wondering how he was going to get his existing customers to buy more and find new customers to replace the ones that fled his company after his last marketing strategy actually convinced them that his competitor was a better choice.

After pulling all his hair out and still being no better off, he headed to the local tatoo and piercing parlor and asked to have his face pierced because it was less painful than trying to figure out his next marketing move.

At least now, he really stands apart from his competitors — but not the way he had intended.

Just TOO Many Choices

When asked what took him over the edge Mike replied:

“There were just too many choices out there!  All I wanted was to do some basic market research and find out what my customers wanted.  So I went online and was completely overwhelmed by the choices in online surveys.  Then I thought about doing an online newsletter — again – too many choices!  Why isn’t there something out there that just helps me get the job done?!  No – instead I have to read all this stuff, learn all this stuff.  I don’t want to be a marketing expert — I just want to get and keep more customers!  Can someone help me PLEASE?!”

It’s too bad he didn’t know about DIYMarketers.com.

DIYMarketers.com Provides Marketing Shortcuts and Summaries for Busy CEOs

Ivana Taylor, the publisher of DIYMarketers.com was appalled by this CEOs desperate act.  ”Small Business CEOs should be having fun, making money and working with customers they love who love them back – not PIERCING themselves!  This is nothing short of a tragedy.” she said.

When asked about what other options this now-pierced CEO had, she was quick to admit that the number of marketing resources out there was truly overwhelming, but that there was help for desperate CEOs.  This is the reason she created DIYMarketers.com.  To save CEOs from such painful and permanent damage.

“NO MORE!”, she said.  From this day forward DIYMarketers.com has a new mission.  Not just blogging for blogging sake.  But content with a mission to make it easy for all small business owners to see clearly through the morass of marketing materials.  DIYMarketers will guide you.

• Wondering what survey software to use?  We’ve got choices and options for any budget and expertise level. (My face is QuestionPro)
• Stressing over scheduling meetings with lots of people — there’s a tool for that! (Try Tungle)
• Stuck on creating a killer elevator pitch (check out this template from OneCoach – it’s awesome)
• Want to connect with customers with a newsletter?  Try Constant Contact!

Calling All Marketing Experts – CEOs Need YOU

Join Ivana Taylor’s cause and send in your marketing tips, recommendations, reviews and summaries.  Let’s not let another small business CEO take such desperate measures.

Let DIYMarketers be the filter and repository for the best, easiest and most effective ways that we know to get and keep customers.

• Do you have a template that you use to describe an ideal customer?  Let me know and I’ll feature it!
• What about a killer way to get to a Unique Selling Proposition?  Leave your note, a link and an e-mail so I can pull it into DIY.
• Do you have a process that kicks ass at trade shows – we want to know about it!

The list goes on and on – let’s put our heads together and show CEOs that there is a better, easier way!

Act NOW!

It’s OK. No one is watching you here.  It’s completely safe to say that you’re overwhelmed by social media.  You are not alone.  I’ll be that you sometimes feel like a smoker stranded out in the cold puffing away on your traditional marketing strategy while those hip and trendy marketing folks are laughing it up about the latest Twitter tool.  Now see how you can get in on the scoop in just minutes a day!

Bizmore, the Question and Answer site for small business owners has launched their latest feature called “The Small Business (Idiot’s) Guide to Social Media”  I’ve taken a few minutes to go through some of the articles and what I think you’ll really like is that this isn’t a book.  It’s a series of nice, easy to read articles that have strategies and tips that you can literally apply in your business today.

Each article also features some of the best experts in the field that you should pay attention to.  Like DIYMarketers — Bizmore’s Guide to Social Media is a Cliff’s Notes version of everything and everyone that’s worth knowing and the actions worth taking a look at.  Take a peek and tell me what you think.

A Few More Bits of Reading:

• Small Business News: Crazy for Social Media (smallbiztrends.com)
• 3 Things to Search for Before Using Twitter (kylelacy.com)
• Defining the Social Marketing Compass – How Will It Guide Your Marketing? (socialmediatoday.com)
• Developing a social media marketing strategy (b2bemailmarketing.com)
• Social Media for Demand Generation…Is it more of a B2C than a B2B phenomenon? (socialmediatoday.com)
• Small Business Owners Discover How To Twitter Their Way To The Top (prweb.com)
• Facebook Changes Relationship Marketing, Again (socialmediatoday.com)
• Don’t Let Strategy Be An Excuse (ducttapemarketing.com)
• Handy social media planning checklist (e1evation.com)

I’ve been working with some clients recently on trade show and event marketing strategies.  I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve ordered pens and mouse-pads for shows – but I have to think that there HAS to be something better out there than the traditional pens and sticky notes!  Don’t YOU?

Today we’re chatting about how promotional items can build your brand and we’re trying to collect your tips and ideas on how you’ve successfully used a wide variety of promo items.

Our guest guru today is @Bruce Felber, Felber and Felber Marketing.  While they do all kinds of traditional marketing stuff – my FAVORITE way to think of these guys is 3-D marketing!  That means they are brilliant at direct marketing and using 3-dimensional items (promo items) to get their prospects to choose YOU.

Q1.  What’s the difference between a promo item and a premium?

ScottBradley: @DIYMKTchat When I think of schwag I think about the stuff you pick up on the tables at career fairs #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt Promotional items given away w/no strings attached. Premiums require either a purchase or or some form of buy in.

BruceFelber: #diymkt Price of the item is NOT the determining factor.

ScottBradley: @DIYMKTchat When I think of a promo item I think about an “add on” to a specific purchase #DIYMKT

mabynshingleton: Promo items are giveaways to promote a cause, service or business. They are always at trade shows. #diymkt

mabynshingleton: Stuff We All Get (S.W.A.G.) … #diymkt

Q2. What’s your favorite kind of promo item to use and why?

ScottBradley: @DIYMKTchat Pens are always fun, or the squishy stress balls! #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt A good video to explain why promotional items work. http://tinyurl.com/lpjg2u

mabynshingleton: @DIYMKTchat Q2. favorite kind of promo item = useful items…and here it all depends on budget. #DIYMKT

burkonsconsult: Q2 – Cloth carry bags w/logos – esp in today’s green world. #DIYMKT

helpitcrashed: @DIYMKTchat I always go with pens or magnetic business cards that I leave for clients I visit/meet #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt So many items today that are green, But be aware of ‘green washing’ and do it right.

Q3.  What’s your process of figuring out what kind of item you’re going to choose?

BruceFelber: #diymkt See this recent blog entry, Cost effective at many budgets. http://tinyurl.com/kr6dln

BruceFelber: #diymkt Using promotions as part of your direct mail campaign will yield higher results. Permanent advertising works when you can’t.

helpitcrashed: @DIYMKTchat Budget is key for me as I have none, leaving pens in restaurants and bank lobbies always works for local exposure#DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt look at the message you need to get out there; look at how many people you need to reach; then the budget to reach that audience.

BruceFelber: #diymkt Make sure you always have some “call to action” on any piece unless an award or impact campaign.

BruceFelber: #diymkt Here is an example of promotional items as part of a PR campaign. http://tinyurl.com/mdrssr

Q4. Is it better to pick products that are “permanent” or products that disappear (food)

burkonsconsult: For me, the need is generally in the future, so I need products that are permanent or used often. When the need arises, there I am. #DIYMKT

mabynshingleton: I think you have to decide what your objectives are. For the St. Patrick’s Day parade here, we throw green logoed cups to the crowd. #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt Food items are very effective if the message and delivery method is on target. Consider the carrier of the food item.

BruceFelber: #diymkt Ebroidered and screened apparel is 40% of all promotional items today. See http://tinyurl.com/nkufdc

BruceFelber: #diymkt Try this liink on wearing apparel http://tinyurl.com/dj8dwz

BruceFelber: #diymkt Consider family and business reunions, open houses and special events. Wearing apparel can be used to brand an event.

Q5. What’s the benefit of using a promo consultant or firm?

burkonsconsult: Q5 – not having to do it yourself and letting a professional do it. #DIYMKT

Q6. Share a promo item success.  Why did it rock?

BruceFelber: #diymkt I once used apples with an imprint (yes food safe ink) for a Johnny Appleseed promotion.

DIYMKTchat: @BruceFelber I’ve seen people with different colored shirts at family reunions to designate which “child” or which generation – fun #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt another effect use is to put kits or packages together for special events, meetings etc. Education use is highly effective.

BruceFelber: #diymkt This was a very successful campaign using promotional items to open the door. http://tinyurl.com/npddgn

BruceFelber: #diymkt Consider the Co-op campaigsn where several companies share the cost and outcome. See http://tinyurl.com/nret5f

Q7. What’s the one thing we all should do when thinking about promo items?

helpitcrashed: @DIYMKTchat remember that Call to Action!! #DIYMKT

BruceFelber: #diymkt Don’t give up on trade show marketing. Still great way to reach many. http://tinyurl.com/ar9s5j

BruceFelber: #diymkt q7 – consider the recipient and expected outcome. Are we branding, informing, promoting an event, thanking a client or employee?

BruceFelber: RT @helpitcrashed: @DIYMKTchat remember that Call to Action!! #DIYMKT Yes number one. Message, contact info etc.

BruceFelber: #diymkt One more link. http://tinyurl.com/mx3bsh

Related articles by Zemanta

• Building a brand (blogstorm.co.uk)
• Long-Term Strategic Marketing takes Courage (marketing.blogtanker.com)
• 7 Tips for a Winning Trade Show Booth (freelanceswitch.com)
• Alternative Wine Marketing is Now Edging Toward Becoming Traditional (wine-blog.org)

I just ran across an article that outlined the recent results of some studies that again show that more than 85% of our decision-making is EMOTIONAL and not rational. We’ve all known this to be true on a very basic level, but for whatever reason, we still cling to this notion that we need logical arguments to convince people of our point of view.

It’s no different when we are pulling together a sales and marketing strategy.  Even though we know that emotional triggers drive the decision, we continue to sometimes force our logic into the conversation.

Have you ever heard this phrase? “Most businesses sell things so that they can have customers.  We have customers so we can sell them things.” This is one of my favorite quotes (if you know who said it, let me know).  It speaks to the fact that selling more to existing customers is more profitable for your business, and for your customer because it reduces your marketing cost and their supplier complexity.

The best way to sell more to existing customers, is to build a relationship and a history with them.  And the best way to do THAT – is through direct marketing. Direct marketing doesn’t just mean Direct MAIL.  It can include personal visits, events, sales calls, social media as well as direct mail.

In this article I’m going to give you a task list that will get your customer audience started – so you can connect with them on an emotional level.

1. Get a list of existing customers.   This may seem obvious because “everyone has a customer list.”  This is a list I want you to start BY HAND.  Don’t just do a data dump.  Pull your team together and literally start listing people and companies that are top of mind for you. This should not be a HUGE list.  You might have 5 or 10 or maybe 50.  But not too many more than that.   This is the list of either great customers or crappy customers.  The great one’s you’ll want to create strategies for.  The crappy ones you’ll want to discuss and see if you want to make them great or refer them out.  Once you’re done with that, you can go to your database and pull down some more customers that might be in the “danger of losing” category.  And see what the deal is with that.  The question you’re asking here is – “Will building a connection with this person/company increase my sales and profitability?”
2. Segment and group these customers according to “benefit segments.”  These would be groupings that might include something like “Customers who like having stuff overnight, Customers who order in small quantities, Customers who use our product outside, etc….” Notice that these groupings are based more on how your customer experience and interact with your product or service and not just their demographics or location.  This kind of grouping or segmentation is KEY to increasing your profit margins and building great relationships and connections.
3. Develop a profile of these customer segments and the decision-makers in each one.  Think of this as literally developing a Facebook or LinkedIn profile for this personified customer.  Is it a man or a woman, what is their name, where do they live, what is their day like.  This is the best way to get into their world.  Start a list of what’s important to them in their personal and professional life.
4. For each group, make a connection between what’s important to them and what you actually provide that solves their problem or challenge.  Use index cards or sticky notes in two colors.  Use one color to list what’s important to these customers, then use the other color to list the offer that you provide that gives them that.

Whew – that was some work wasn’t it.  But it will be worth it when it comes to creating direct marketing campaigns that really connect.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 6 Ways to Increase Your Sales NOW (thecustomercollective.com)
• “7 Common Logical Mistakes People Make.” (talatfakhri.com)

We held out first #DIYMKT tweet chat on Monday March 30, 2009 from 11:30am -12:30pm EST.   I don’t know about the people attending, but I found it an amazing experience.

I was most surprised at the amount of energy that came through cyberspace.  I had this list of questions, but the group had questions of there own – and that was THE BEST part.

My intention for the weekly chat was to give the lone DIYMarketer the opportunity to connect with other savvy, scrappy marketers and share challenges, ideas and resources.

Here is a quick taste of some of the points we discussed (You can look at the full discussion here)

gotocasnet: How do I choose among the multitude of marketing tactics available? #DIYMKT

• stayingintouch: @gotocasnet I would start by focusing on what you are passionate about. From there you can then start becoming more strategic #DIYMKT
• bradfordshimp: I find that in order to better define and identify your market you should seek to better define your company. #diymkt
• burkonsconsult: I chose the mkt based on a grid of potential mkts, then listed characteristics I want in clients, gave ea a rating point, chose mfg. #DIYMKT
• DrKND: “looked at all my primary markets and determined which market” How do you do that? #DIYMKT
• smallbiztrends: Here’s which markets NOT to go with — don’t go with markets that cause you to stray too far from core competencies. #DIYMKT
• robert_brady: If you are finding success with local gov. why not move up to state and federal? #DIYMKT

thegagfactory: hello, what is the most effective way to generate Word of Mouth (aside from being excellent) for your club, event or show? #DIYMKT

• robert_brady: Getting referrals from current, satisfied customers is our #1 marketing strategy. People are extra cautious in this economy #DIYMKT
• stayingintouch: Focusing on retaining existing clients and reaching out to past clients with new offerings is proving to be very effective. #DIYMKT
• DIYMarketers: @thegagfactory I say have a referral program and system that you manage. WOM is not a gift it’s a byproduct of a system #DIYMKT

DIYMarketers: New question – what marketing strategy was most successful for you this year – in this economy (I hate using “this economy”) #DIYMKT

• CatMoore: @DIYMarketers Successful strategy: Using blog to attract best clients and filter out the ones who want a different approach. #DIYMKT
• thegagfactory: @DIYMarketers The Lunchtime Laugh, however it might be 4pm your time! It would have to be GMT!!! #DIYMKT
• CatMoore: @BusinessTherapy I’ve also started offering smaller consulting packages and quarterly instead of annual pricing. Seems to help. #DIYMKT