Marketing Muse from Silver Square

Seven tips to boost business during the holidays

This list provides seven ideas to boosting your business during the holidays. While there are many, many ideas you could come up with given a solid hour of time to actually think, there is a rule of seven when it comes to sticking stuff in our head. This is why our phone numbers are seven digits…. So enjoy these seven tips. After reading this your brain capacity will be full.

Tip One – Plan
Start now before the rush hits and put some thoughts on paper. Ask yourself what would be your goal to boosting sales during the 2007 holiday season and begin there. If you’re already advertising or sending out direct mail, consider shifting your message to a more spirited approach to coincide with the holidays.

Tip Two – Get your website in order
If you don’t plan to drive traffic to your site during the holidays, then use this time to spiff it up and get ready for Q1 promotion. Really, you should probably always tend to your website. This isn’t as easily done as said, I know, but to truly keep your customers coming back, give them a reason to come back.

Tip Three – E-mail campaign
Tell your story or create a mini promotional campaign via e-mail. You can shoot them back to your site, have them “pick up” their holiday gift on another site or announce a special offering to reward your clients for their year of support. Every two weeks of messaging should be sufficient. Don’t go overboard.

Tip Four – Give thanks
If you have been reading my blog, you’ll know I believe a thank you should be only that – a thank you. So giving thanks this holiday season should also be as much – a way to say thanks. The holidays are an important and expected time to show your appreciation to customers or clients. Don’t miss out.

Tip Five – 2008 Budget and goals
Setting yourself up for success is never a bad thing. Take some significant time now to look at how much you’re spending and what you want those marketing dollars to do for you in the coming year. Likewise, set some goals. Goals are powerful little critters. BUT, don’t just write them and leave them sitting in a nice folder in your file cabinet. Be sincere about your goals and look at them daily. You cannot reach your goals if you cannot remember what they are.

Tip Six – Clean up your database
You’re probably already going through your database for your holiday and gift list, so why not clean it up while you’re at it? One of my clients looked through his database recently and realized there are about 100 contacts he could follow up with. I would say that should garner a sale or two just by reconnecting and then staying in touch.

Tip Seven – Get organized
There is SO much value in getting organized but people don’t see it for all the pain they go through to get to the point of organization. There is also a rule of the universe than once you clean up you’ll be more open to receiving. Give it a try. Could it really HURT sales to get organized? Read this article on the four steps to getting organized.

Seeing progress

I had a follow up meeting with one of my clients today on their marketing progress. We wrote a plan for them about a month ago and identified priority areas and off they went. Literally. I am so proud of them. Just look at what they accomplished through our marketing plan process and through the last month of being "on their own":

1. identified a key message for their business
2. identified a key target market
3. surveyed their current clients
4. developed a program to get more out of their current clients
5. created client testimonials
6. created a direct mail campaign and list
7. announced a huge promotional show
8. updated the content on their website to be more relevant to target market with key message
9. created an executive briefing for prospects
10. cleaned up their database
11. implemented an e-mail campaign

Whew. Anyone else exhausted? They are kicking a!

Now for you to do the same, just take a look at their eleven item list. Do you have all that going on? If not, take inspiration from their lead and get started. My advice would make sure you have item one and item two, though. Without those, your money is not well spent and your 'big wheels will keep on turning' until you figure that out.

Here come the invitations

This time of year always shows itself in the form of an invitation. I'm not sure how many we get a week, let's say two. Some of them I really want to attend it's just not going to work out. Some there is no way I want to attend but know I should. What's the tip here, you ask... go. Go with an open mind.

Each time I have attended an event I was unsure about attending, for whatever reason, I ended up meeting someone really spectacular or connecting with someone I hadn't seen for awhile. As for those invitations where you know you'll probably not be familiar with most of the guests - definitely attend those! This is your chance to break in to another circle.

One of my friends, Pete the Planner, is up for Indy's Best and Brightest along with me for this week's event of the week. I have reviewed the list and only know about eight finalists. I plan to make myself meet each person in my category. Pete will probably meet half the room. I'll let you know what comes of all this meeting and greeting. Until then, wish us luck.

Google docs

Here is a great new program from Google to help you manage all those doc sharing projects such as newsletters, proposals and presentations.

Google Documents allows you to post your document on the Internet and store it in one place. Then, you can invite your team to either review or collaborate on the document in one central place. Everyone can post their comments or make their changes right on the document. Google will save all these revisions and then when everyone has posted their information, you are done and have your final document.

Why is this good? Well, consider how you are working today. Let's say I send you an e-mail with a presentation you asked me to create. You need to get that same presentation reviewed and approved from your three partners, so you send each of them an e-mail with the presentation. All three of them reply back with their comments, which you then have to go in to the document to change, all the while managing at least four e-mails about one document. See how this new program is making your life easier?

Give it a try and see what you think. If you're working on a doc that needs reviewed but that will eventually get publised to a website or blog, you can set up your account to "publish" the doc straight away, so it's all very streamlined. Post a comment and let me know if you have used this software and how it worked for you.

Give 1, Get 1 Campaign

An article in the Times today about a new marketing campaign to push computers to less fortunate kids in other countries will be interesting to watch. The campign, Give 1, Get 1, centers around the concept that if you buy one of these laptops for a kid, we'll send you one too.

Let's keep an eye on this cause marketing campaign and see where it goes. In the meantime, feel free to purchase a computer for a kid. :)

An annual affair

I look forward to this time of year each year. It gets me every time. I just love it. From today through the next couple months I will be in love with the weather, watching the leaves fall one by one. I especially like it when I'm driving my car through a wooded area, windows down, seeing and hearing the leaves dance.

This year, I feel like it's Christmas already because I get to share this experience with my son. I get to take him to the orchard and get pumpkins! I get to show him dried up leaves. We can have Dad make piles so we can all jump in. It's going to be so fun!  (yes, I just used my second exclamation point in one para... you KNOW I like it now)

But I have a point here. All this anticipation got me thinking about a party I just held with my accountability partner, Caroline Cinamon from The Curry Team at F.C. Tucker Company, and now I can add that to the beginning of the list of things to look forward to each fall. The party was such a hit we are already planning next year's soiree.

Now to the point:  How can I make sure my clients look forward to this event each fall? Hum? I would have never made this connection had I not taken the time to really absorb the emotion of right now.  A new aspect to add to the evening is to build such anticipation that by July of next summer I will already receive inquiries as to the details of the party.

This is where I really enjoy marketing. From now until September, 2008, I get to think of ways to engage and build that anticipation for a cause. What can you do to build on something your business does that has legs for year round anticipation? It's like building a tradition. It's like branding a tradition. It's like really great stuff. Enjoy this one!

Make sure you connect the dots

I tend to meet with at least one or two  business owners a week - let's call them prospects. When we meet, they usually have visited my website, checked out some of my clients and know my work. This is a great thing - some of my educating/selling is done! Then they meet me. Did their experience match what research they performed?

I tend to have a more casual, direct approach to myself - both in business and life. The two are pretty parallel. I like this and it's easy for me. There isn't a work Raquel and then a home Raquel and yet a volunteer Raquel. I don't do well when I have to be a different Raquel. So, yes, I would say the experience is seamless.

As your marketing tip for today, ask yourself this question:  "Is each touch of my business what I want it to be, and, related to one another?" If you can answer "Yes, definitely" then you're golden. Big, big kudos to you. If you cannot, pull out another question and ask why. Where can you improve? Why should you improve? Is it impacting your bottom line?

I recently visited a business that has a fabulous (seriously fabulous) office experience. Then it stopped. Web presence was a bit lacking, newsletter was an off the shelf template and their direct mail didn't match their "look" at all. Tying these things together can make a huge difference, which translates to a huge pay off in the end.

Connect the dots, la la la la.........

Don't be afraid to go unique

I was working on a brochure for one of my clients and it just wasn't working. It didn't fit them. They are not the brochure type. Let me explain...

You're probably thinking everyone is the brochure type. They are. It's the TYPE of brochure type that I'm struggling with. They cannot pull of a tri-fold and they don't want a coffee table book. There is a huge variety of style to direct the effort, but they are more simple than that. I decided on a mini one fold brochure, more like a business card extension; flat size 12 X 4, folded (how you would hand it out) is 4 X 6. Perfect. It says just enough and leads them to the website, which is where you want them to go.

Sometimes it's hard to be unique and do something very different, but let me tell you three major reasons you SHOULD be unique and do something different:  1) um, it's different! Yes! You're not like your competition and that's a good thing; 2) unique sometimes is a must depending on your business. If you're in to radical principles or creative funding or target a diverse market, make your pieces as such and 3) it may just cost less. There, finally got your attention.

Take a look through your marketing materials. Do they really speak to the experience you want? If not, do something different and be proud to lead the crowd.

"Action makes more fortune than caution"

The headline is worth repeating:  "Action makes more furtune than caution" and is a quote from Luc De Clapiers, 1715-1747, Essayist. This bit of wisdom comes from a client and friend, CJ McClanahan from ReachMore Strategies. I thought his message yesterday connected well with what I have always said about marketing planning - you just have to step in to it and start. So here is a message about doing just that. Enjoy.

In each and every one of our businesses there are a few critical success factors that determine whether or not we will reach our goals.

It might be the number of prospecting calls you make each day, the difficult conversation you need to have with your employee or best customer or that challenging software issue you’ve just got to figure out!

The challenge is that often times these “to-do’s” represent an activity that we absolutely hate to deal with.  As a result, we keep finding other things to do (checking email) to keep us busy so that we don’t have to address this critical success factor.  You (we) all do it!

Are you ready for some brilliant insightful advice?  STOP DOING THIS!!!!

This week, pick that 1 thing that you have kept putting off and do it right away.  You won’t believe how much better you feel.

Catch CJ on Sundays at noon (1430 WXNT) and listen to CJ host "Let's Talk Business"- Indiana's premiere radio program for entreprenuers.

Thank you note tips

When you're writing a thank you note - make sure it just says thanks. Anything else isn't saying thanks, it's saying "let's bring this conversation back to me."

In my seven years of business ownership, I have written many thank you notes. I would even say they are a bit of a signature item for me. I like nice paper, I like to write with Sharpie pens (I mean, who doesn't) and I like to put a little surprise in my cards, such as a window quote or gift card, depending on the kind of thanks I'm giving. I once had a friend truly disappointed I did not follow our breakfast meeting (totally casual) with a thank you note. I had sent him one each time in the past, and not only was it expected, but he liked getting those little window quotes I send. It was then that I started paying attention to this little marketing gem. If he liked it and expected it and he was just a guy I had breakfast with every couple months, what are others thinking?

Turns out they were thinking exactly like he was. Almost everyone I asked mentioned those window cards and how they enjoyed receiving my handwritten notes after meeting.

So I ask... what are you doing that you didn't realize made an impact on your clients? If you cannot think of something, start something. If you have a few items you think may qualify of this type, ask for some feedback on them and narrow down to one signature "thing" from you. You'll connect yourself to something unique to you and become know for something just by you.