Systemize Your Marketing For A Bigger Slice Of The Cheese.
Any chance there’s room in your bottom line to add another $20,000? If so, and you want to save time in the process, you might be interested to know that systemizing and automating your marketing can bring in LOTS more cash. With some initial effort, you’ll be making money even in your sleep.
The really great part? You can implement every one of the tips below with customer relationship management software (CRM). While CRM can be as simple as Microsoft® Outlook, other programs will integrate your business and marketing systems and actually DO a lot of the marketing for you.
Here’s a few tips:
Get your lists together – If you’re like a lot of people, you have more than one list of prospects, even if you think you don’t. What about those business cards stuck together in the back of your wallet or the Christmas card list which has names that have never made it to your REAL database? Combining your lists can be a huge timesaver, but what makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside is the extra money you bring in by marketing to EVERYONE, not just those who made it willy nilly onto your list.
Track your marketing – Test different sales letters and other marketing pieces by using different response codes. Use your CRM to track sales pieces in every medium (email, snail mail, etc.). And you get to know not only who responded to which direct response letter, but who converted thereafter.
Gotcha! Don’t let those prospects get away! – Capture as much information as you can from the people who visit your web site, call you on the phone or speak to you in person. Marketing guru Bob Bly even suggests that you pitch your business card and instead ask for theirs. The trick is to be less demanding and more generous – the more you ask for, the less you get. Conversely, the more you give, the more you’re going to get. Offer free reports for those who sign up for your email newsletter (you have one, right?) and make sure your CRM can pull the names and emails straight from your Internet database into your list. On the thank you page, get the double “gotcha!” and offer to snail mail an additional gift. If they go for it, you have every bit of your prospect’s contact information, for the price of a stamp.
Figure out the steps of the marketing dance and learn them cold – If you think marketing is solely a meet-the-prospect-and-follow-up-once polka, you’re going to be in trouble. Rather, it’s more like an elegant tango with lots of steps that takes a little time and skill to master, but once you know the steps, you can work some serious magic with little effort. Expect to contact your prospect five times in the first month and then at least once per month thereafter with helpful information and special offers. Again, do yourself a favor, and save time and effort by using your CRM to make this happen.
Get everyone on the same page – In agencies where more than one person is responsible for marketing, it’s tough to know who’s done what and whether it’s been effective. Instead of flying blind, find a web-based CRM for small businesses that gives everyone in the company access to live information about which leads have converted, when to get them back in the pipeline, and who’s going to get the “Salesperson of the Month” award.
Clate Mask is president of Infusion Software which produces ManagePro CRM – a Web-based customer relationship software package that helps entrepreneurs and small business owners double or triple their sales by automating and improving their marketing, sales and client management. For more information or to take a test drive, please visit ManageProCRM.com/go/see
Please Rate this Article
Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Marketing Articles Via RSS!
