You Gotta Have FriendsWritten by John Colanzi
There are so many marketers asking:* Where should I advertise? * How Can I draw traffic to my site? * What should I sell? These are all important questions, but after stumbling around web for years, making a sale here and a sale there, I've found my business has been helped most by friends I've made. They have fancy names for it. Networking, Joint Ventures and many more names I don't even remember. The funny thing is I didn't do it for business. I started out doing this as a hobby. It was a distraction from my brick and mortar business. I guess I was lucky. I could break even and enjoy myself. As time went by I was accumulating a lot of friends. It wasn't a concerted effort, it just happened on it's own. Now if I have a question, or one of my valued newsletter readers has a question, I can always find a friend that has answer. When I first started writing articles, I first submitted them to my friends. If I have a new program I'm promoting, my friends are usually there to help.
| | Marketing's Greatest Enemy Written by Jay Conrad Levinson
You work like crazy trying to attract attention and business, operating from a marketing calendar, committing to your strategy and doing everything right, resulting in an influx of customers -- but you lose them. They never come back. You did your marketing so well and marketed so wisely that you're almost in a state of shock at how your customers ignore you. You treated them well while you were making your business transactions. You gave them a fair price, knew that quality you put into your offering matched quality they got out of it. You assured them that service is your middle name. You smiled and used their name when you said good-bye, thanking them for sale. And then, after all that caring attention on your part, they completely ignored you, never set foot in your business again. Do you want to know why they ignored you, why it was so easy for them to put you out of their minds? It's because you ignored them. It's because you made sale and then made grave but all-too-common error of thinking that your marketing job was over. That was a terrible error. But at least you've got a lot of company making same terrible error. Nearly 70 percent of business lost in America is lost due to apathy after sale. Apathy is deadliest enemy of marketing. A "love 'em and leave 'em" attitude is usually fatal to profitability. The opposite of apathy is follow-up. Guerrillas have a "love 'em and love 'em" attitude, marketing to prospects like crazy till sale is made, then continuing to market like crazy to them after sale. Apathy never sets in. Customers never feel ignored. Guerrillas do all in their power to intensify relationship with caring follow-up and loving attention. They know that once they have established a relationship, their product or service is no longer thought of as a commodity. Businesses that offer commodities often lose customers due to competitors offering lower prices. Businesses that form warm relationships transcend being thought of as a commodity and maintain their customer relationships with service and constant contact. No wonder they don't lose business so readily. People want relationships, want businesses they patronize to stay in contact, want to feel cared for and not ignored. All guerrillas know that their customer relationships are their most precious assets. They know that if customers purchased from them one time and had an enjoyable purchase experience, they are very likely to buy from them again. And again and again. And to provide many referrals over time.
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