| The
Challenge:
Advertising
& Marketing often get confused as meaning the
same thing - they don't. Both are needed to
realize your potential in the marketplace.
Here's an easy way to distinguish
the two: If marketing was a pie, advertising would be one slice of that pie. Other
slices might include market research, media planning &
result analysis, public relations,
customer feedback & communications, and new sale &
product strategies. In short, marketing is a strategic process
while advertising is a specific activity.
For
the small business owner, marketing typically defines the overall "strategies"
they use to maximize the value of each new customer
brought forth by their advertising and networking
efforts... from defining
the best possible prospect (in order to steer the
advertising) to follow up after the sale (in order to build
relationship, strengthen loyalty, improve customer
satisfaction, spur repeat sales and encourage more word-of-mouth referrals (free
advertising)). Without a marketing strategy, advertising is
just hit or miss.
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.
Many companies and organizations invest a great deal of resources to attract a new client,
customer, or member but then fail to MAXIMIZE the return on that
investment by making little or no contact after the first sale. The
reason for this is simple: the first step, Advertising, is relatively
easy (albeit expensive);
Radio & Television Stations, Magazines, Newspapers, Billboards, Yellow Pages, etc. all
have internal design teams in place to help you get an advertising campaign off the ground. In
fact, the
process is usually so refined that it can be virtually "hands off" for
a business owner. And once an advertising campaign
is launched, very little changes, so little (if any) ongoing effort is required
to maintain it.
But the second part, Marketing, is a bigger challenge (and
usually much less expensive). Once you've
identified and attracted
that new prospect, client, customer, patient, or member, you should have a way
to stay in
touch with them to encourage a long-term relationship and achieve maximum (mutual)
benefit. You should have a system in place for soliciting user feedback on your
products and services, for promoting additional and repeat sales, and to
encourage frequent word-of-mouth referrals.
"Out of sight, out of mind" will come into play if you
don't make regular contact; yet you can't simply send people the same brochure over
and over again. Each contact you make needs to be unique and well-received in order to
pique interest and maximize your results. So what's the solution? Do you
personally call or visit every single person on your list?
Impossible. Send newsletters? Email? Postcards? Hmmm.
A newsletter makes sense for many businesses and organizations. But
the challenge is how to consistently produce an interesting
and effective newsletter that your readers will enjoy and look forward to. After all, each issue has to be different.
So who's going to design it, assemble useful and entertaining content for each
issue, collect and manage the database, deal with printing, labeling and the increasingly
complicated bulk-mail postal regulations? Unless you have an experienced, in-house person dedicated to handling all of these
details, the only solution is to outsource it, right? But to whom?
Client Contacts!
We make Advertising & Marketing EASY!
Our special niche is that we can help provide you with content as well as facilitate the final design,
printing, and delivery of ALL your bulk communications. With ClientContacts,
you won't need
to lift a finger! Yet you'll always have the chance to preview each
message that is sent out. Simply let us know if any changes are called for
(such as adding any special news, a personal message, coupons, etc.), and we'll do the rest.
We will work directly with your design team or, we can supply you
with ideas that you can simply pick and choose from. And whether you want
to make your contacts by direct mail, by email, or web based, we offer a
wide variety of options. Each one customized for your industry, your
business and your
needs.
.
Drop us a note on our FREE
Samples Page to receive more information on our programs.
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