Enjoy the TD

Last night, I led a group of 25 budding designers as they created materials to market their businesses.

It was an evening filled with ideas and inspiration. Best of all, everyone left the event with dynamic materials to start the marketing process.

The person in charge of the event was armed with a camera. She snapped pictures of the designers as they moved through each step.

What will she do with those photographs?

Place them on her facility’s “Wall of success” to show visitors, sponsors, and prospective benefactors the program’s results.

Send several photos, electronically, to area newspapers, in hopes that they will consider publishing it in the local section.

Add it onto the facility’s Web site to encourage aspiring designers to enroll.

Photographs are also as important in your marketing plan. Take pictures with clients, or designate another person to snap photos of you while you’re on stage.

I know some marketers who hire photographers for several hours as they conduct business while traveling. They either find a photographer through their network or place an advertisement on Craigslist.

When speaking at an event, I often ask my host or an attendee to snap some pictures. If it’s the latter, I always give the person a set of CDs I’ve brought for sale along with my thanks and a handshake.

One look at these candid and action-oriented photographs on your print literature or online space convinces prospective clients that you’re the one to hire. It’s an easy marketing method that works.

How does photography fit into your marketing plan?

Yesterday, I attended an early morning meeting hosted by my financial adviser. She’s part of one of the big companies whose name, if I mention it, has instant recognition.

Like the portfolio of many investors, including yours whether managed by you or an adviser, my money has taken a huge hit due to the financial meltdown.

My adviser could have ignored all of her clients, leaving us to wonder if pulling our money out of the market is the best decision. But she went in another, more positive direction.

She decided to connect with us in a series of mini meetings to explain the crisis, the firm’s position, our individual financial strategy, and how to proceed in the short and long term.

It was a calm atmosphere electrified with great conversation and a delicious breakfast assortment. At the end, I was very satisfied with the answers I’d received and ideas on how to turn this crisis into a big windfall in the years ahead.

It’s wonderful to talk with clients in good times, but a savvy, confident, and caring marketer is one that extends a hand to clients when times aren’t so great.

There’s no doubt that some customers will defect. However, being accessible during down times ensures that you not only build better relationships with most customers, it also builds your referral funnel so that your business grows through recommendations from satisfied buyers.

Make sure you reach out to customers now if your industry is currently hit by hard times. They want to hear from you before, during, and after a crisis.

If you heard the last two months to the means, to leave them to think that it would not give a reason, a bed in the morning, since generally condemned all we is. Let us everything with insight take, hay eat and the sticks out spit. Some business is real in the trouble. If central banks fail are and Hauptkorporationen in the container are, it will give something Nebenschaden. I think that the thing, which disturbs me at most, which is constant recommendation, which forms, the means to the large depression. There are large differences relative, what happens now and which happened in the large depression. Most analysts forecast this slowing down to swing toward to growth the center of 2009 back at the earliest. All the same which goes on „out “, it is still up to the business owners to maintain to the thinking direction you made possible to go to hold. A plan have, hearing on your customers and to regard your operational surrounding field. The national economy can experience a slowing down, but which over the local economy? Receive its chin, its attitude, those are positive and your eyes, forward look upright.

I had the pleasure of a EPI (emerging specialists in Colombia) event this week to worry itself with Hemingways in Colombia. If you to Hemingways were not still - go! It is attractive and the food is really good. Usually at a space event I terminate a few new people above meet, which are introduced to me by others, those, I already white. But to Tuesday, I let one point expire of my way and introduce themselves. It is not really like that fear SAM! I enjoyed meeting Dr. Kyle Lisenby of the Piazza zahnmedizinischen group, Gina Mauller - director of the MBA career services in MU, Phil tea-polarizes - a civil engineer for the city of Colombia and of Erika Collins - director of sales for Staybridge Suiten. I had somewhat very pleasant discussions and learning really enjoyed over their business. „Network connection “can be an intimidating word for some. To a stranger go above seems for what reason like a hard thing to also always do. But, as soon as I received over the initial approach, I stated that each straight was so eager to speak with me since I should form the introduction. Next time if you over „a network connection “event, think you hear of it instead of, like hello to a few new people simply, saying. It is really many simpler, than we bends to think, and more you do, it simpler keeps!

Every year I receive a few of those pocket-sized calendars from firms that make them.

It’s sent to me in hopes that I’ll order some for my clients.

I haven’t used these pint-sized schedulers in years, but since my Palm T3 decided to retire itself, I’m starting to wonder if such a calendar is still a handy tool.

It’s certainly a product that continues to market small and large firms, or it would not be promoted as vigorously as it is each year (at least it seems to be a low-cost, yet effective marketing tool).

You’re familiar with this calendar, right? It markets your business through printing its name, slogan, and telephone number on the front cover so that whoever possesses it is always reminded of who provided them with this convenient date minder.

Will you invest in these calendars this year, handing them out to clients as a Christmas or New Year’s gift?

One of my solo business friends is writing a book for customers who need home ownership solutions.

She hunkered down in a hotel for five days and methodically wrote each chapter.

Before leaving the office for this writing marathon, she created a Web site to sell the book, and she also advertised its availability in U.S. newspapers.

My friend returned to her office the next week, excited that the book’s contents were ready for editing, formatting, and printing. But there was one problem she hoped would not occur.

Just one response arrived to her book’s offer, and that response was from a salesperson wanting some of her advertising dollars.

The newspaper source had been very successful for previous ads promoting her other services. Why didn’t it work this time? Could be:

Timing - the media is drowning everyone with fear.
Market - like many industries, the one my friend is targeting is going through major problems.
Eyeballs - is her target turning to the Internet more than reading newspapers?

She mentioned the events to me during our weekly brainstorming session. My first words were, “Good! It’s wonderful that you tried this method and found that it’s not the way to advertise. Now you can move forward and explore other options you would not have considered if this one worked.”

My friend agreed. Thankfully, there wasn’t a big cash outlay for this national advertising source, so she still has plenty of funds to explore other avenues while the book is being printed.

When your first option doesn’t work, sometimes you feel very let down, especially when working alone and you have time to stew over disappointing results. Your mind goes round and round, thinking about wasted money.

Finally, you wake up out of the funk and start going through files, looking at results from other campaigns and recalling where promising referrals were uncovered. Then, after crafting plans B and C, you move forward to find your audience.

It truly is great to bomb the first time. It doesn’t seem so when it’s happening because it’s more efficient to duplicate the same methods. But in this economy, change is the only thing you can count on.

As you create campaigns, be sure to craft several options to get your message across. If the first plan doesn’t work, you’ll smoothly move to the next, and the next, until you find your market.

I bought so this weekend for a birthday map for my Mamma, and I did not read, who began, „everyone divide a special connection with their Mamma… “it in was a nice map and I regarded her during one moment, but selected on the other hand different something. When I arrived out at the way of the examination, I noted that the young woman before me bought the same map, which I had regarded, and I thought, thought-lost, „am many people apparent there, believed this connection with their Mamma! “It was a humorous moment, but it showed truth about the advertisement. Since humans are there certain life experiences all, which we found and therefore, all can refer to. Whether it believes a special connection with your Mamma, sitting in the area of a doctor control room, that-separately to the discussion near you hears or in the express way, is frustrated behind the inconsiderate Boor stands, that has ignores the delimitation with 10 individual parts, all divide we these general occurrences. In your advertisement if you in the position are to knock into these public you with the customer in the language of the customer will then speak. They break effectively by the disorder and win their attention. And your report swings probably as something also, which is meaningful to them.  Consider, what means your business or service to the average customer in a daily world of the material life, and speak it with them simply about it. Their Mamma praises it relatability!

As I collected files yesterday on Elance.com for two new logos just created by a terrific designer, I saw a link to the article, 20 Ways Writers Can Help Your Business.

I encourage you to review it, specifically because you work alone and often need support from talented individuals who will take some of the work off your shoulders for a nominal fee.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drained the day trying to start a project when all of a sudden, a light bulb goes on over my head as I realize, “I can outsource this!” If the same happens to you, it’s time to think “outsource” so you can concentrate on thriving.

Here are three of the 20 ways that I appreciate.

Website Owners, No. 3 - Blogs

I have no problem populating this space and the others I maintain (GiftBasketBusiness.com, AskTheGiftBasketExpert.com and MoneyCashIncome.com).

Perhaps it’s because I’m an author and rarely have writer’s block. But that may not be true for you. Someone with expertise can help you take a new blog project from simple to snazzy.

Marketers, No. 3 - Ebooks

Some Ebooks are already written thanks to content you created on stage, on a blog, or are storing in a personal library. So why waste time formatting and uploading this content when another person can easily take care of it?

Product & Service Managers, No. 1 - User Guides & Manuals

How many customers ask you for more information or instructions regarding your products and services?

If the data is available in a frequently-asked questions (FAQ) area of your site, the work is done. If it’s not, quick notes will turn your writing into a formal, yet friendly manual for distribution as a bonus, gift, incentive, etc.

I happen to use Elance.com, but perhaps another firm is beneficial for you. Take advantage of the possibilities that expand your business, wherever and whomever it is.

Flags? A dead expenditure? Receive the BEEF! The part of each on-line marketer arsenal of the income of scenes producing are quality user relations. But, as does, produce the positive
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Holiday time is nigh, which has business owners and marketers everywhere scratching their heads, trying to decide how to extract the maximum cash from their holiday marketing efforts this season.

The key is to begin early and develop a sound plan with easy-to-follow steps you can carry out when holiday-mania kicks in.

Most marketers wait, end up under the gun and then get lazy and sloppy and promote an offering to their entire list with a single shotgun blast, devoid of any planning or forethought. This can result in a message to market mismatch, leading to lackluster response that can potentially endanger your relationship with your existing customers.

This year, the answer is database marketing - meaning a sophisticated analysis of your database considering buying history, demographics and sometimes even buying prediction models. But it can be costly, time consuming and very confusing. Many businesses lack the time or expertise to do this effectively and smaller databases often lack the data required to make the effort worthwhile.

But database marketing still offers tremendous opportunity for most marketers. For those who think there’s not enough time to get it done for this holiday season, here’s a simple and easy solution that can boost your results this season. We call it, “database marketing for non-database marketers.”

A basic premise of standard database marketing is something called an RFM analysis, which takes into consideration the r ecency , frequency and monetary value of customer transactions. Typically, each factor is broken into several categories. For instance, recency = 90 days, 80 days or 365+ days or frequency = 1 time, 2 times, etc.

If each attribute has 3 categories, 27 (3 x 3 x 3) possible combinations exist. Some RFM models can wind up with hundreds or even thousands of combinations. Each of these combinations represents a customer profile and each may receive a different kind of promotion or a different number of marketing messages or a different offer altogether.

Now, let’s simplify it. This low-tech holiday RFM model has only four possible combinations and is much easier to create and use for the non-database marketers in the room.

Here’s how it works. There are the same three attributes: recency, frequency, and monetary value. But each only has two possible categories, as follows.

• Recency: Has the customer done business with you in the past 90 days? Yes equals 1, no equals 0.
• Frequency: Did the customer buy something from you during the last holiday season? Yes equals 1, no equals 0.
• Monetary: Has the customer spent more than the average customer has spent with you? Yes equals 1, no equals 0.

Of course, you’ll want to vary the criteria based on your own business; if 90 days is too short for your repeat sales cycle, change it to be more appropriate.

Now, add up the total of the three attributes, which will be 3, 2, 1 or 0, with 3 representing the best prospects and 0 representing the worst prospects. You’ll want to spend the most money and effort marketing to the 3s and the 2s and less money and effort marketing to the 1s and 0s.

Is it simple? Yes. Is it rudimentary? Yes. Will it be criticized by sophisticated database marketers? We hope so. But it’s more than most marketers are doing and it is enough to help you get an edge in your marketing efforts this holiday season and squeeze more sales from your promotions.