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Issue 7 2008 - Growing in Tough Times: Marketing Activities that Work

To stay viable, all businesses and organizations must grow, and that means continually attracting and retaining new customers. This is especially important in difficult economic times when core customers may be working with smaller budgets or implementing cutbacks. Rather than being overcome by a downturn in customer buying patterns, in lean times experienced marketers put forth more effort to stay in touch with existing customers and prospects for new ones.

For most small and medium-sized businesses and organizations, marketing means engaging in activities that provide significant value for customers, promote customer satisfaction, and result in customer retention. Seen this way, marketing is much more of an operational than strategic function and is centered on the customer and his needs rather than the company and its products or services.

Marketing Activity #1: Leverage Customer Good Will

Satisfied customers have an important role to play in attracting new business. As a group, they provide a demographic profile that can be used to identify prospects. As individuals, they represent a source of leads and word-of-mouth advertising.

Part of creating satisfied customers is to stay in touch and check in periodically. During a check-in, ask about their business and encourage them to talk about their challenges and opportunities. At a minimum you'll be building a relationship, and you might discover an unknown need that your company's product or services can meet.

Another marketing activity during a check-in is to ask for referrals. Be prepared with a form or checklist so you can get all the necessary contact information and background. If your customer is willing to phone or e-mail in advance of your contacting the referral, so much the better. But don't wait for your customer to act before you do. Promptly contact the referral, and let your customer know you've made the contact.

PrinTips and Tricks - Presentation Tips

Sometimes you may find yourself giving a presentation or speaking in public as a way to promote your business or organization. Here are a few tips for making the presentation effective:

Be yourself. Let your personality be a part of the presentation and establish a connection with the audience. Share something about yourself as part of the presentation, or use a delivery style that is professional but distinctive. When you become one with the audience, you will increase their understanding and comprehension.

PrinTips Idea - Convenience

Convenience. It is such an important part of the sales process. Make it convenient for your customers to do business with you, and they will. Here are a few ideas to help make things convenient for customers.

Idea 1: Make it easy for customers to use the means they like best to reach you. How will you know what mode the customer prefers? You'll have to ask! As part of the initial contact, determine whether your customer prefers personal visits, phone, FAX or e-mail as the usual means of contact. Then make sure the customer has your phone, FAX and e-mail information.

PrinTips Q and A - How is Customer Profiling Done?

I've heard that it is important to profile my top customers. How is that done?

The benefit of profiling your best customers is to help you understand where your customers are coming from. Profiling will determine their common characteristics such as geographic location, sales volume, number of employees, years in business or age, income, gender, ethnicity, household income, etc.