Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Getting Through This Mess...While Spending Less, Part 2


With the economy doing its best to discourage efforts to promote and market ourselves, there are still ways to make your presence known...without necessarily having to spend on big ticket media such as TV, radio, and traditional print advertising.

Welcome to another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management, your Official Marketing E-zine of the Recession of 2009.

Last month we began by looking at "10 Ways to Market Yourself Without Using Ads, TV, Radio...or Even Brochures." In no particular order, we touched on the first five. Here’s the remaining handful. These are suggestions, ideas, approaches that everyone -- from accountants to wedding planners -- can use to their advantage. And break through to your markets…without breaking the bank along the way.

Mailings

* “The most successful people write personal notes regularly” -- Tom Peters

* Send out Holiday Cards…other than at Christmas.

* Always send a follow-up note after a meeting.

*Acknowledge a client/prospect with a note re. their having appeared or been quoted in the paper or magazine.

* Add a message to your mailed invoices or estimates, offering other services

Positioning

* Create a niche for yourself – be the “one and only” professional serving a particular industry or local group.

* Play up an ability in a memorable way: “I’ll get back to you within 65 minutes.”

* Change your phone message to incorporate a marketing or service message of some sort.

* Offer additional services (through the silent…or public… partnership of networking colleagues).

* Be memorable: be the only one who always brings Krispy Kremes to clients.

Service

* Recognize a client or referral group colleague who’s given you the most referrals, with a “certificate” or through publicity.

* Take at least one client out for coffee or lunch per month (and for special occasions, take them out to dinner!).

* Serve on a civic committee or board.

* Focus on better service to fewer clients; build stronger relationships toward more sustained revenue.

* Visit your clients at their office more often.

Guerrilla Strategies

* Send an inexpensive throwaway camera to a valued client or high-chance prospect with the message “Picture us together…”

* Put a compelling flyer in the newspaper boxes of an exclusive neighborhood (trite, but can be effective).

* Arrange to have your business card sitting on the retail counter of an affinity-based business, i.e. website developer at Mail Boxes, etc.

* Send something gimmicky to a prospect, i.e. a plastic foot prop wearing a shoe (“Now that I’ve got my foot in the door…”).

* Barter…which can lead to added client base. (More on that in another issue..)

Networking

* Join your clients’ groups/associations.

* Send newspaper clippings of news relevant to clients’ businesses.

* Host an event or office party; create the “reason” for it – i.e. St. Bart’s Independence Day; National Office Cubicle Day.

* Volunteer for a favorite cause or charity.

* Create your own networking group specific to your industry; share prospecting based on mutual…or individual…strengths.

We certainly haven’t covered the waterfront. But if these ideas have at least inspired you to get out on the dock and try casting a net or two out there, we’ve done our public service for the month.

Until the first Tuesday of next month when we come roaring out of the gate – NCAA Champs UNC Tar Heels-style – with another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips, have a blessed Easter or Passover.

And regardless of which holiday you celebrate, enjoy The Ten Commandments for the nine zillionth time.

Joel Kweskin
http://www.jdkmarketing.biz/

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