The Promotion Advisor

Popularity: 21% [?]

Get Better Leads ASAP

Popularity: 10% [?]

The worst thing you can do in a recession is…stop advertising. I’ve noticed that some of my prospects have decided to “cut back” on advertising. That’s a fatal mistake you don’t want to make. Consider the following scenario.

Joe Blow decides to open a sandwich shop downtown. He picks a spot near the courthouse and a sprawling office complex full of busy attorneys and their support teams. Joe’s sandwiches are an instant hit with the local businesspeople. Things are looking up for Joe’s business and he does a steady stream of it for about three months until the inevitable happens.

Another smart entrepreneur decides to open his own sandwich shop across the street from Joe. Suddenly, Joe’s competition is staring him in the face. What will Joe do now? Joe reasons that his loyal customers already know, like and trust him so he’s got nothing to worry about. Joe decides to do nothing.

Over the next few weeks, Joe notices that a lively crowd is starting to gather over at the new shop. He sends one of his employees over to spy on the competition. The employee comes back with an earful. It seems like the new business owner ran a slick marketing campaign complete with email marketing, a little direct mail, and promotional products.

Joe is furious and can’t believe the new guy had the audacity to try and steal his customers! Even harder to believe, though, is the fact that his customers were so easily led astray. What happened?

Well, Joe stopped advertising. He forgot that even regular customers like to be treated special every once in a while. Good advertising never goes out of style. Be creative and find different ways to stay in touch with your clients. Get to know them on a personal level. Send them news articles they might find interesting. You’d be surprised at what a simple little postcard advertising can do for your business.

Will your business survive the recession? It depends on how much advertising you do. Of course, good customer service is necessary, too. Continue to market your products and services and you will successfully recession proof your business.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Silicone wristbands make an excellent choice for building your brand. This is especially true when you want your brand to be associated with a noble cause like breast cancer awareness. Cause marketing is an intelligent way to strengthen community ties and keep your company name top of mind. Read on for more reasons to order silicone wristbands for your next promotion.

Need a practical fundraising idea? Choose silicone wristbands! Here’s why this plan works:

Usefulness: People really do use the wristbands and tend to hold on to them after the fundraiser is over. This could mean further donations when the wearers remember what motivated them to purchase the promotional item in the first place.

Cost Effective: You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to advertise your company. In fact, the larger your order the greater your discount.

Versatility: Campaign works equally well for churches, schools, military and cause awareness organizations.

Sports teams can use silicone wristbands to promote team spirit and to attract more loyal fans.

Still wondering if you should order silicone wristbands for your next promotion? Visit our online store.  Don’t see what you are looking for? Talk to the promotion advisor today at 877.667.7642. This is a toll-free call in the United States.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Many companies today seemed to have forgotten the reason for going into business: to provide products and services to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers. In fact, the customers are kings and queens. Unless you know how to attract and keep satisfied customers who think they are getting their money’s worth, then your business is lost.

Attending to customers’ needs is a business strategy that is synonymous to revenue and profit, because good service to customers means success. Without the customers there would be no sales, and no income. As the sign in a store shop says, customers are perishable. This means it is easy to lose a customer and to give him to the competition.

The following are the three pointers to attract and keep the customers.

1. Serve your customers well. Poor quality service is always the cause why buyers and potential customers turn away from patronizing your business. It is only the quality of service that can give you an edge over your competitors. Customers always consider service, attention and support than product quality. So, respond to your customers’ needs as soon as they arise.

2. Always offer quality products and services to your customers. The reason why customers buy from you and not from your competitors is because they believe that your products have quality and provide tangible value and benefits to meet their needs. Do not sacrifice quality over quantity. Also, do not exchange short term gain to long term profitability.

3. Keep the customers first. Develop good relationships with the customers, always keeping in mind their needs and how you can satisfy those needs. Have personalized contacts, open feedback mechanisms and attend promptly to their complaints and suggestions. Satisfied customers can become your captured market, and in the face of competition, their loyalty can spell the difference between profit and losses for your business.

A successful strategy is one that treats the customers as your business’ reason for existence. This strategy can be implemented by using the tactic of always providing the customers with products and services that are responsive to their needs and expectations, coupled with fast, personalized and efficient service.

In the last analysis, good customers’ service will always result to a lasting relationship, which translates to your business survival, growth and profitability.

Eli A. Gatanela is a practising lawyer, management consultant and licensed real estate broker based in Bacolod City, Philippines. Mr. Gatanela has been involved in business and management consulting for the past twenty years, and in the private practice of law, specializing in commercial law for the last 8 years. He was formerly professor of Economics and Business Management and holds Economics, MBA and Law degrees from the University of St. La Salle, one of the leading universities in the Philippines belonging to the De La Salle Brothers of the Christian Schools worldwide. Mr. Gatanela heads his law and consulting firm Gatanela & Associates based in Bacolod City, Philippines. His website is: http://businessphereconsulting.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eli_Gatanela

Popularity: 3% [?]

You’ve probably heard the proverb, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” It sounds easy. But when you’ve got a myriad of potential marketing messages swirling around your mind, it’s anything but easy. You know your business like no one else does. You know what services you offer, what benefits you provide-most likely there are many. You know what your mission is, what your goals are, what you’re proud of. You may want to mention them all, or at least a few of them.

But studies show that mentioning more than one main idea is actually counterproductive. When it comes to marketing, you want to make the main thing the main thing. Not that you can’t have sub-messages that are part of the main message, but you need to have one core idea that you emphasize and flesh out in your marketing pieces. One key concept that you are known for.

For example, Southwest Airlines. What are they known for? Low fares. Are they a quality company? Yes. Do they offer good service? Yes. But if they had tried to emphasize all of these things, they would have diluted their message. What they want to be known for is low fares. People come to them for low fares, and they get the quality and service as a bonus.

So how do you figure out what your Main Thing is? Follow this brainstorm session to get you started:

* Consider all the ways you benefit your customers.
* What main benefit are you providing them that you do better than your competitors?
* What is it that your loyal customers rave about?
* What do you do that speaks most powerfully to your customers’ needs and/or desires?
* If someone asked you why he or she should choose to do business with you rather than with your competitors, what would you say?
* What is your company’s passion? What makes you unique?

Finding and sticking to your Main Thing has two key benefits: it helps people to remember your message and spread it more easily, and it helps you to make good decisions because you won’t get sidetracked by the “good but not best.”

People in today’s world of digital media have short attention spans. According to Entrepreneur.com, they encounter an average of 2000 advertising messages each day. No one is going to remember a complicated message, or a message with multiple emphases. In order for your message to be remembered, it must be simple. And you don’t want people to only remember your message-they key to invaluable word-of-mouth is to make your message easy to pass along. So, make your message a single core idea.

Sticking to your Main Thing also serves as a guide to help you make good decisions. Back to Southwest-at one point, they were approached by a customer who wanted them to serve chicken salad on flights. She was a frequent flyer, and a good customer. Southwest has a policy of listening, so they took her suggestion seriously. Ultimately, guided by their Main Thing of being “The Low-Fare Airline,” they decided against offering chicken salad because offering meals would mean that they would have to raise their fares significantly. If they hadn’t known and stuck to their Main Thing, they could have gotten off on a tangent and lost their unique marketing advantage.

So if you want your message to be remembered and passed along, if you want to be known for your uniqueness, find you Main Thing and stick to it. You’ll find your business growing as a result.

More About Laura

Laura MacPherson (laura@northstarcreative.net) is the creative director at Northstar Creative Web Design, a website design studio located in Greenville, SC. She has an educational background in writing and psychology as well as experience in graphic and web design.

Her company, Northstar Creative Web Design, approaches website development differently than many web companies. Northstar Creative combines the use of marketing psychology with top-notch web development to create truly exceptional custom sites for its clients.

Northstar Creative’s Web Resources

To access more great web resources visit Northstar Creative’s Web Resource Center. To view this article in its original context click on the article’s title – The Main Thing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_MacPherson

Popularity: 5% [?]

Ok, I admit it. I have neglected to post here in a timely fashion so…. to make up for it, I’m including a few marketing videos from my friend, Charlie Page.

No matter what form of marketing you do, Charlie has a few tips to help you refine your marketing plan.

No Money For Advertising? Here Are Five Solutions

Ten Ways To Use Follow Up Email Marketing

Is Follow Up Marketing Right For You?

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you have been following my previous blog posts at blogspot, you know that it has been a while since I last posted there. I was working on migrating that blog to my own server and completing other projects. At last, we are officially a WordPress blog.

I still have a few loose ends to tie up so expect to see guest posts related to marketing as I complete the transition.

Popularity: 2% [?]