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Article Check - Dramatically Improve Your Marketing Results With These 6 Simple Steps
It’s that time of year again.Shopping, parties and long lines everywhere. More vacations, more family commitments, and more stress. These are a few of the challenges we all face during the holiday season. The holidays are a wonderful time of the year, and we will enjoy them more as leaders when we learn how to help our organization revel both in the season and their results.Following are some suggestions to keep the focus and results high as the bells ring louder and the shopping days disappear. Rather than avoiding the challenges or denying the distractions the season offers, ESCAPE the problems by applying the suggestions below.Expect good results. As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to set clear expectations and goals for others. However successful you have been at communicating and gaining understanding on these expectati
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities,
In today's busy world, many people have difficulty managing their time and getting everything done. Some people are very busy, but they never manage to achieve the things they really want. Others never get anything done.Some people are late for everything in their lives and don't know why. Have you ever noticed that people who are late are always late – there is a pattern. The same is true for punctual people – they are nearly always punctual – they too have a patternThere are some basic steps that people can take to improve their chances of getting done what they want and need to get done. Here are 10 steps.1. Stop talking time - talk priorities. Time is finite – everyone has the same amount so there is no point in saying you don't have time – you do. What differs from one person to the next, is their priorities and how they allocate their
(1) Review your past marketing activities and results
Take some time to review all of your marketing activities and try to understand which ones worked best. And when I say “worked best” I mean, which ones resulted in more clients, more customers, more sales, or more growth for your business?
Your goal each year should be to understand which marketing activities bring you more business and which ones do not, so you can concentrate on the activities that work, and delete the ones that do not.
Even if you did not have an organized marketing plan, or marketing activities that you implemented consistently during the past year, if you are still in business today, then there must have been some form of marketing going on.
(2) Broaden your definition of marketing
Marketing isn’t only things like running an advertisement, or sending out a direct mail piece. It's anything you do that puts your business, product or service in front of the prospects you are trying to sell to.
You may be surprised to realize you’ve been marketing more than you know!
Any time you talk to someone about your business, product or service, in person, at an event, over the phone, or through a brochure or some form of media, you are marketing. Any time you send someone an email or a thank you card from your business, you are marketing.
Be aware of any time you are communicating with current customers, or potential customers. Take the opportunity to make them aware of new products or services, special offers or programs, or even milestones or changes in your business.
Do you include your business card every time you mail a letter to a client or prospect? Do you have an email signature that includes your business name, your phone number, your email address, your website address and possibly even your tagline? You should. You are reminding people about your products and services and making it easy for them to find out more if they so choose.
If you truly believe that your products or services can enhance people’s lives, then it should be easy to share the word at every opportunity. After all, if people don’t know about you, they can’t benefit. Put this way, it is almost a disservice to NOT market.
(3) See if you can track your sales to your marketing, either directly or indirectly
Take a look at the marketing you did do, taking into consideration all of the activities mentioned above. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone you gave your business card to, contacted you or made a purchase.
An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a networking event, and someone you gave your business card to, referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made a purchase.
For each marketing activity you did over the past year, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities,
Assuming you are on the lookout for new employment, there are countless resources available for you either online or offline to find a suitable career and various job information. At times it can seems like a lot of work searching and weeding out all the different avenues to find the exact job information that you're looking for. But rest assured that plenty of resources are at your disposal either online or within you own local community to help. The many different websites can be searched through and lots of key job information is available simply by signing up and posting your resume. Once a few choices are made, you can narrow down to the exact position that sparks your interest. Of course, this all depends on your own skill sets and job requirements. Some fine websites for job information are www.careerbuilder.com, www.monster.com or even usajobs.opm
(2) Broaden your definition of marketing
Marketing isn’t only things like running an advertisement, or sending out a direct mail piece. It's anything you do that puts your business, product or service in front of the prospects you are trying to sell to.
You may be surprised to realize you’ve been marketing more than you know!
Any time you talk to someone about your business, product or service, in person, at an event, over the phone, or through a brochure or some form of media, you are marketing. Any time you send someone an email or a thank you card from your business, you are marketing.
Be aware of any time you are communicating with current customers, or potential customers. Take the opportunity to make them aware of new products or services, special offers or programs, or even milestones or changes in your business.
Do you include your business card every time you mail a letter to a client or prospect? Do you have an email signature that includes your business name, your phone number, your email address, your website address and possibly even your tagline? You should. You are reminding people about your products and services and making it easy for them to find out more if they so choose.
If you truly believe that your products or services can enhance people’s lives, then it should be easy to share the word at every opportunity. After all, if people don’t know about you, they can’t benefit. Put this way, it is almost a disservice to NOT market.
(3) See if you can track your sales to your marketing, either directly or indirectly
Take a look at the marketing you did do, taking into consideration all of the activities mentioned above. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone you gave your business card to, contacted you or made a purchase.
An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a networking event, and someone you gave your business card to, referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made a purchase.
For each marketing activity you did over the past year, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities,
The role of a nanny is more than a babysitter. Nannies are expected to take part in the social, psychological and cerebral development of their charges. They work with children in areas such as language development, social manners, homework, and more. Often families prefer hiring nannies that stay for a minimum period of one year on the job. This is done to make sure that the children have continuity in their training and childcare. Applicants who do not feel that they can commit to a year might think about other types of childcare work until they are contented with the commitment. Before hiring a nanny, care should be taken to check her references carefully. It is also advisable to have a background check done to obtain further information.Preferably a nanny should be a person who is well known to the family. Nanny background checks should be performed
Do you include your business card every time you mail a letter to a client or prospect? Do you have an email signature that includes your business name, your phone number, your email address, your website address and possibly even your tagline? You should. You are reminding people about your products and services and making it easy for them to find out more if they so choose.
If you truly believe that your products or services can enhance people’s lives, then it should be easy to share the word at every opportunity. After all, if people don’t know about you, they can’t benefit. Put this way, it is almost a disservice to NOT market.
(3) See if you can track your sales to your marketing, either directly or indirectly
Take a look at the marketing you did do, taking into consideration all of the activities mentioned above. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone you gave your business card to, contacted you or made a purchase.
An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a networking event, and someone you gave your business card to, referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made a purchase.
For each marketing activity you did over the past year, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities,
As a child growing up and hanging out at my father's business, I remember that we had a gasoline tank on our property to refuel our delivery vehicles. My dad, his partners and their family members gave themselves the privilege of refueling their personal automobiles at the "company gas pump." We abided by a strict rule, however. Immediately following the refueling process, the family member was to walk directly to a log book and jot down the quantity of gasoline he had just pumped into a personal vehicle.My dad knew that if employees saw owners taking advantage of the system; that is, pumping gasoline in a personal vehicle and failing to pay for it, that employees would feel as they were entitled to the same privilege.Then later in my career, when I was employed by a large corporation, we employed a former FBI agent; his name was Tom Dyer. Dyer wa
(3) See if you can track your sales to your marketing, either directly or indirectly
Take a look at the marketing you did do, taking into consideration all of the activities mentioned above. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone you gave your business card to, contacted you or made a purchase.
An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a networking event, and someone you gave your business card to, referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made a purchase.
For each marketing activity you did over the past year, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities,
Of the dozen or so ways to find a job, which ones do you think are the most successful?Would you be surprised to learn that the ways most people use to find their jobs are actually the least effective? The reason is because they are relying on the old standards: classified ads, job fairs and mailing resumes to employers. While those methods typically result in 5-7% of job candidates finding work, for the rest of the population, something else is going to be required.In order to find a good job, you have to put forth effort. One of the most efficient ways to find meaningful work is to network with people you know (friends, family, neighbors and former co-workers). Networking involves sustaining positive relationships with a variety of people. It takes time and effort, but often pays off when employment situations arise. Sometimes, you have t
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities, consider asking your current customers how they found out about you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and you really don’t know how they found you, pick up the phone and ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities, and the results connected to each one.
(4) Separate those activities that resulted in business from those that did not
Are there any activities on your list that did not result in new or additional business? If you gave these activities a good opportunity to bring you business, then maybe it's time to consider dropping these activities and trying some new ones. After all, there is no sense continuing to spend money on marketing that has not proven to be effective for your business. Even if it has worked for someone else, it may not be a good marketing activity for you and your business.
(5) Use this information to plan your marketing for next year
Plan to spend more time, energy and/or money on those activities that brought you business and sales. These activities have proven themselves to be effective for your business, product or service. So odds are if you commit more to them, they will result in even more sales.
And, if you really don’t have any way to track your sales or new clients, don’t beat yourself up. You are not alone. In fact, one of my biggest challenges as a marketing consultant has been to get my clients to track the effectiveness of their various marketing activities. Just make sure to remedy this now, once and for all. Commit to never implementing a marketing activity again without some way to track how effective it is.
(6) Set up a way to track all future marketing activities
Recognize the importance of tracking and make sure that you have a plan in place to track all of your future marketing activities. The simplest way to track is to simply ask each new customer where or how they found out about you.
You may also want to consider including a code on any flyers or brochures that you distribute, and providing a reason for the customer to bring that flyer in when they come to make a purchase. Reasons to return the flyer could be to take advantage of a special offer, or to get a discount or free bonus gift.
You can also do this by phone or on the Internet if that is how your customers make purchases. Simply ask them to provide you with the code on the brochure or flyer that they are calling or ordering from. Make sure the code is specific to the location or group of people that you distributed the flyer to.
If you are networking or speaking to a group and someone gives you their business card and agrees to receive your free report or e-newsletter, make sure you include a reference in your contact database of the event where you met them.
For every marketing activity you do put a plan in place to help you track all them. Effective tracking is by far one of the easiest ways to improve your marketing effectiveness. And when you zero-in on what marketing activities are most effective for your business, you will be able to focus your efforts on only those activities, and will be able to spend less and get more as a result.
(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa
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