Should You be on Facebook? Special Event February 18, 2009!

I get a lot of questions from my clients about social media.  The most common questions are about being on  facebook and LinkedIn. For the types of companies I typically work with, the answer is, “Absolutely.”

Social networking is revolutionizing the internet and how a lot of people are doing business.  What social media delivers that was lacking in the earlier days of the internet is the creation of communities of “Friends.” We like to do business with people we trust, people like us.  We love to buy but hate to be sold. We also prefer to buy from friends or friends of friends (those we trust).

Getting involved in social media is actually quite simple and there are a lot of tips and “secrets”  to building a social media presence.  Making money involves more than simply building a “presence.” You want to approach it strategically. How do you do that?

Learn from someone who has been successful, follow their model and implement their system.  When it comes to social media marketing, there are few people who can match the expertise of Brian Campbell,  a friend I met on facebook.  Few people have had the success Brian has had. Those of you who have been following me for any length of time know I am stingy with my endorsements but I have one for you today that you have to follow!

You have the chance to learn Brian Campbell’s Social Media Marketing System.

I strongly recommend you rush over to www.socialmediasource.com and start learning from the master!

I hop you will be there with me when Brian launches
Social Media Mania on
Wednesday, February 18 at 8:00 am.

A Twenty-Four hour event I know I will not miss!

Small Business Marketing Guide to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy

Let’s continue with profit-boosting ideas that will increase your profits without exhausting your marketing budget (I’m assuming that you are budgeting for marketing and not just hoping dollars will become available). I’m going to focus on two keywords and they are two words that can dramatically change the way you look at your business – Leverage and Systematize.

Think leverage – If there is a client in your business and they are buying from you, what can you do to leverage this contact? Here are some ideas:

• Cross-sell or up-sell to increase the value of the transaction
• Get their name, address, email address and record their buying preferences so you can continue marketing to them with coupons, newsletters and other tactics that encourage additional purchases.
• Ask them for referrals (learn how to ask for referrals!)

Give them coded coupons to hand out to their friends. When they are redeemed, send the client a thank you gift.

• Ask what business they are in and see if there are products or services you offer that the business could use.
• Start a platinum membership club for your key clients. Sell memberships that entitle them to special offers and privileges.
• Find out what other businesses they frequent and ask for an introduction to the business owner to explore joint ventures and strategic alliances with them.
• Send them a thank you note for their purchase and include a coupon for a discount on their next purchase if they return within the next month.

Pretty much every item listed is leveraging a relationship with a client. Do the same with your prospects and suppliers. You want to leverage every contact to see not only what additional profit you can gain but what additional service or benefit you can bring to your clients.

Up your profits in a down economy – How to open a cash windfall

Have you ever “mined” your client list? If you have a list of satisfied clients, an email list, a list of vendors and a personal network, you are probably sitting on a gold mine from which you can “extract” a cash windfall.

In my previous couple of posts, I referenced the importance of regularly “touching” your clients. If you’ve been doing that (or even if you haven’t done so regularly), you’ve been building and cultivating a relationship with them since they have been buying from you. You can leverage this relationship for immediate cash.

How do you go about doing this? Sit down in front of your computer and write a letter to your best clients and tell them about your situation, that you need to raise cash to help build and improve your company. In return for their support, you will give them special treatment, special discounts and bonuses just for them.

This is a very powerful technique that leverages one of your most important Hidden Marketing Assets, the relationships you have cultivated over the years. Will it work for you? Only testing will tell but the odds are in your favor because your clients trust you and people enjoy helping people they trust and have given them good service

Now, if you really want to leverage this concept, start thinking about whom you can create a joint venture with and make a special offer to their client and prospect list. I’m not talking about the BS internet joint ventures where a guru gets other gurus to promote their latest and greatest products, without seeing it or having any idea of what it does. You know what I mean. You get the same email from twenty people saying their “good friend” has the most amazing money making system in the world

I’m talking about a genuine relationship with a business owner you know and trust. Somebody who has the same beliefs about quality and service that you do. I’ll go more into structuring joint ventures in another post but start thinking of how you can approach clients and prospects with a very special offer.

Up your profits in a down economy – Increase profit per transaction

One of the simplest tactics for increasing your profits is to pay attention to the client who is directly in front of you. It doesn’t matter if you have the person on the phone, in your store, in your restaurant or on your web page, it is fairly simple to get the client to buy more.

Most businesses leave an absolute fortune on the table because they simply ring up the sale that is in front of them and make absolutely no effort to add to the transaction. To put things in perspective, think of the additional profits McDonald’s makes every year because they ask the question, “Would you like fries and a Coke with your meal?” Most of us could easily retire if we had that money!

The easiest person to sell to is an existing client. What you need to do is to train yourself and your staff to ask/recommend to the client to buy more. Too many people feel they are being pushy but that’s not the case. Imagine yourself in a clothing store. If a salesperson suggests a nice shirt to go along with the slacks you just bought, do you feel they are being pushy? What about the waitress who encourages you to get dessert? Do you think she is being pushy? I doubt it!

The bottom line is that it comes down to selling skills and having an attitude of serving your customer. If you have a good product or service, offering it to your client is a way to serve them.

Have you ever read any sales books or bought any sales programs? It is one of the strongest recommendations I have for you. It’s made a major difference in my income over the years and can do the same for you. Spend some time in the bookstore, online or in the library. Buy several programs and develop your own style around the proven strategies and tactics of the sales masters.

Click on the resources tab at the top of the blog and see who I recommend. Become a student of sales and apply what you learn.

Unique Selling Proposition Part 3

In this video, I continue to discuss the Unique Selling Proposition and get into the details of how to use the information you’ve gathered in the previous steps and begin writing and refining your million dollar USP!

How to write your Unique Selling Proposition

Once you’ve completed the research on your Unique Selling Proposition, you need to craft your initial USP. Don’t try to create a slogan or be cute. Write between 60 and 100 words that capture the essence of your uniqueness.

Once you have that and believe it fits the bill, start to wordsmith it down to fewer words. Read it into a recorder and play it back to see how it sounds to you. Improve it and then set it down for a day or so and read it again. Does it sound compelling? Is it filled with benefits for the client? Will it make a prospect say, “Really, tell me more?”

This video goes more into depth about actually writing your USP and gives some great tips and pointers about creating a powerful USP for your company.

Increase your profits in a down economy- Part 2

Where do you want to spend your marketing dollars in a “down economy?”  In my last post, I wrote about how the media plays a big role in the perception of the economy.  If you believe them, the entire world is now broke and living in boxes underneath highway overpasses.

Business owners start to believe that there are no longer clients willing to buy from them and they enter a hibernation mode, hoping they will make enough sales to survive.

Have you been to a department or grocery store lately?  If so, you may have seen what I have been seen.  People are buying things.  Have you been to a restaurant lately?  Did you notice that people were buying meals? Have you noticed a dramatic decrease in rush-hour traffic because nobody has a job any more?

Hey, I believe there are some serious problems with the economy but the fact of the matter is that people are still making and spending money. The wise business is not retreating. Instead, they’re spending marketing dollars wisely. They are throwing useless “brand/image” advertising out the door. They are demanding accountability from agencies and others selling them media.

The way I look at it, if your marketing isn’t delivering a measurable return, either get rid of it or figure out how to measure it. There are companies out there that do detailed ROI projections for capital investments but often spend the same amount of money on marketing with no strategy to measure return.

The bottom line is that this is the worst time to cut back on your marketing. Your competition is probably doing it so why not take advantage of the situation to strengthen your presence? When things turn around, there will be a lot of your competitors who may be great buyout targets.

You also need to spend some serious time strengthening your relationships with your clients. Be sure you are maximizing revenue from each transaction. Be sure your sales reps are well-trained in selling skills and product knowledge. Be sure your service staff knows how to up-sell and cross-sell.

Finally, quit listening to the media and chart your own future.

Are you making friends on facebook?