The Great Direct Marketing ConundrumWritten by Daegan Smith
Many a home business owner has spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to turn his venture into a higher profit-making unit and build it to be his primary source of income. This is never easy for a home business because most start-ups face initial lack of money and cash flows. A small cash strapped business would also find it a little uphill to get outside funding. The best way, anybody will tell you, is to Advertise…. all big companies do it, and get good returns. Undoubtedly, advertising, even PR, has a great impact on sales, but for a home business owner these may be cost prohibitive in beginning. The trick is in getting a little creative and using low cost – high impact strategies. Go through help sites on Internet and you’d be spoiled for choices. We suggest putting direct marketing on top of your list. Why? There are several reasons:-It is more cost effective than mass media strategies like Advertising -There is lesser “spill – over” than mass media like advertising and public relations -You can “measure” effects of direct marketing Solving direct marketing riddle By definition direct marketing is a sales and promotion technique in which promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means. Direct marketing is one of most effective marketing tools a home business owner can employ to expand his business and make it more profitable. It can help you create visibility for your company and educate targeted audience about products and/or services you sell. www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/starting/glossary.html Direct marketing is not a complicated, puzzling marketing option that will leave you frustrated and down with a few thousand dollars. If executed with proper planning, focus and some creativity, these tools can do wonders for your home business. Some of most popular and time-tested direct marketing tools are: - Brochures: A brochure is your sales person in paper. It gives your potential client all information he needs on your company; an opportunity to evaluate your products, services, your expertise and a platform to get in touch with you for more information. A brochure created with serious forethought and meticulous detailing can do all of this and more for you. A few tips:
- Direct mailing: Direct mailing involves sending out sales letters, fliers, reply cards and other promotional literature through snail mail, to a pre-decided mailing list of potential customers. If targeted to a precise audience, it can get you faster responses and does not have to cost much. The most important part of direct mailing is building a robust mailing list with right names. You could either develop this list yourself through your own records or buy lists from a List Broker. You could also try and take help from SBDC (Small Business Development Center), a government program sponsored by SBA that provides expertise to small and home business owners and has access to targeted mailing lists, which it can offer you as an SBDC client. Take a look at www.sba.gov/sbdc http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,317818,00.html
| | Improving Customer Relationships: Beyond the BuzzWritten by Hank Brigman
Customers are always a hot topic. But lately discussions on customer relationships, including retention, satisfaction, and loyalty, have intensified. What is basis for these discussions, and more importantly, what are leading organizations actually doing to improve customer relationships?Savvy organizations have begun to realize that customer relationships are not domain of an individual, team, or department. If accuracy of invoices, or professionalism of installers or cleanliness of your store or office is lacking, then relationship can suffer no matter how well salesperson or “owner” of relationship performs. Savvy organizations know that they can best enhance relationships with customers by improving customer interactions – or “touchpoints” – across entire enterprise. Touchpoints are all of communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organization. Whether an ad, Web site, sales person, store or office, touchpoints are important because customers form their perceptions of your organization and brand based on their cumulative touchpoint experiences. To help improve customer relationships, there is an innovative new movement called Customer Touchpoint Management, or CTM. CTM reflects an organization’s concerted efforts to improve customer relationships through management or optimization of customer touchpoints. Touchpoint optimization can include filling identified gaps with new touchpoints, modifying under performing touchpoints, or eliminating redundant touchpoints. This process can include optimizing individual touchpoints, or groups of related touchpoints, such as those that make up a process. However, it is not easy to get your hands around myriad ways in which your organization “touches” its customers. To understand and improve your touchpoints, process of “Touchpoint Mapping(TM)” can be used to inventory and map your organization’s touchpoints along seven stages of Customer Relationship Lifecycle, and then identify your customer’s needs in each stage. This process delivers insights into your current touchpoint performance, and helps with identifying how your performance can be improved. An important component of CTM efforts to improve consistency of touchpoint performance is to establish touchpoint standards, and manage to these standards.
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