All too often the “shoemaker’s kids have no shoes” effect takes place in businesses. Many business owners get so wrapped up in the day-to-day struggles of staying afloat that they forget to step back and look at the bigger picture as often as they should.

Whether you are a small, independent business or not, you should have a marketing strategy that ensures your company is properly equipped and focused to move in the right direction.

Sit down with a pencil, and write out your objectives; your long-term goals and vision; your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; and what you can do now to ensure success down the road. Don’t assume you are too small to have a strategy or that busyness now will ensure continued success in the future. There is nothing more embarrassing than being a shoemaker whose kids have no shoes!

All the elements of the marketing process (objectives, segmentation, targeting, positioning and product, price, place, promotion) need to be considered. Everything should be measured based on your objectives and continually adjusted as necessary. Above all, you should be able to immediately answer the question: Why should someone use you over your competitor? Are you more “strategy”-focused? Do you offer a more competitive per diem? Do you have 24/7 availability? Do you have 30 years of experience in your field? What makes you worth buying from? If you can’t explain it to yourself, how are you going to communicate it effectively to your customer?

Curry Printing | 314 N. Charles St | Baltimore | MD | 21201 | 410.685.2679

You can also … connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter!

Recently, I ran across an interesting experiment put together by Gary Hayes, a web programmer and blogger. Using Flash, Gary created a social media “counter” that tracks, among other things, how many Facebook postings, tweets, and YouTube uploads are taking place in “real time,” based on the most recent growth rate data available for social media.

The application itself is pretty remarkable, and so are the numbers Gary uses to run his calculations. For example, every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. Every day, 50 million tweets are sent via Twitter. An incredible 900,000 blog posts are created daily. And 2.5 billion photos are added to Facebook every month. See more at http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/.

Curry Printing | 314 N. Charles St | Baltimore | MD | 21201 | 410.685.2679

You can also … connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter!

Customers need to be touched. They will come back to you if they are thinking about you. They are thinking about you if you are thinking about them!

Here are a few ideas to keep your business on a solid foundation:

Ask your existing clients what you are doing right…and what you can do better. The best way to get a new client is to impress an old one. There are a lot of ways to measure the happiness of your existing clients. A customer satisfaction survey is a simple way to find out how people are thinking and to measure the ROI of your marketing. Check out Survey Advantage – that’s who we use.

Ask those same existing customers for more business. Yes, it’s hard to ask for more business from current customers. It’s a lot easier to ask for new business from a prospect…but it is rarely more profitable. Keep in touch with your current customers with personalized direct mail, satisfaction surveys, e-mails, and personal visits. Don’t assume your current clients already know everything you can do for them. Reach out and remind them.

Curry Printing | 314 N. Charles St | Baltimore | MD | 21201 | 410.685.2679

You can also … connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter!

Tough times call for real action and positive change. Salespeople know that better than anyone. Aggressively waiting for the phone to ring doesn’t work. Neither does doing the same things with double the energy. But there are things you can do in times like this.

Here are two tips that you can put into place this week with only a little effort:

1.) Distribute an insider sheet to your prospects. When your salesperson is absolutely unable to get someone engaged, have them hand your customer a small “insider sheet,” which could feature a blurb about a particular product, a customer, a salesperson, or an unadvertised promo item. But keep it brief, and make sure it looks professional. (That’s what professional printers are for.) Even if you aren’t a retail shop, it is useful to have something on hand that lists extra services you offer. The lawyer who offers notary services, the daycare that offers after school programs, and so on. What do you do that you need to tell people about?

2.) Meet with past clients for lunch. Not to sell more services, but to touch base and see how their business is coming along. Build a long-lasting relationship. Even when you know future sales will not be possible, meet with them anyway. Word of mouth from happy former clients goes farther than almost any advertising. Whether veterinarian to house painter, you have customers you haven’t seen in a while. Find out why.

Curry Printing | 314 N. Charles St | Baltimore | MD | 21201 | 410.685.2679

You can also … connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter!