Simple Holiday Marketing
Topics: marketing, advertising, public relations, copywriting, small business success, profits
Tis the season for parties, gift giving AND marketing. While many small business owners think December is a time to put marketing on the back burner, we think otherwise.
Holiday gatherings can be a good time for small business owners to market. Why? A key Guerrilla Marketing tactic is networking, and networking is a natural during the holiday season. You’ll see old friends and colleagues, discuss how the year went and share goals for the upcoming year. Your holiday networking is a time to lay the groundwork for future business opportunities.
The key is to adopt a marketing mindset. Your marketing goal is to increase sales. Networking is the ticket to make that happen. When you establish a deep connection with customers and prospects and
“touch” others so that they know, like and trust you, you’ll set the stage for establishing a relationship and converting more sales. Customers typically want to buy from those they trust. Networking is a key Guerrilla Marketing tactic to build relationships and trust.
And it’s easy.
Simply caring about your prospect will establish trust. The following tips will help you connect with prospects and customers, develop rapport and close more sales, even during the rush of the holidays.
1. Be prepared. Before attending a holiday event, find out who will be there and how they are connected to the host(s). Mentally prepare some questions that you can rely on to create an interactive conversation.
2. Greet others warmly and sincerely, using eye contact. Don’t come on too strong. Allow the other person some time to to talk so you know what is important to him/her.
3. Skip the elevator pitch and hand out business cards only when requested. Keep in mind that holiday gatherings are different from business networking meetings. While a guest may be from a firm you’ve been wanting to work with, pitching him or her in the midst of a holiday gathering may not be in your best interest.
4. Spend more time asking questions and listening than talking. This is a key Guerrilla Marketing tactic. Learn something about the person to whom you are speaking. Maybe you’ll strike up a conversation with, “How has business been going? What kinds of clients are you looking for these days? What’s up for the New Year?” You want to make your prospect feel unique, cared for and heard. If it’s a good potential relationship, this will be easy to achieve.
5. Be prepared with your own reply to “What’s new?”– something concise but intriguing, such as “I just heard back from my graphic designer about a project I’ve been working on.” If the person’s eyes glaze over, move on to another topic. But if they ask questions, continue the conversation with short bits of information, keeping it a give-and-take exchange.
6. Even though you are selling, don’t think of yourself as a salesperson but rather as a partner to your prospect. Realize that while this is a holiday gathering, you still have the opportunity to educate your prospects. As soon as possible, learn what it is that they want to succeed at in the New Year, then show him/her how you can help them achieve that goal.
7. Develop a strategy to stay in touch after the holidays. Maybe you’ll meet for lunch. Maybe you’ll have a formal meeting. When appropriate, get their contact information so that you can follow up. If it’s truly someone you’d like to stay in contact with, say, “I’m doing a new monthly newsletter with red hot marketing tips for small business owners. If you’d like, give me your card and I’ll put you on my list.”
8. Be friendly, outgoing and curious. But, most important, be yourself.
9. Take advantage of automation to remain top of mind. Easy, effective systems are readily available to make follow up a snap.
10. Have fun! If you’re in the right place at the right time, you’ll not only enjoy the company and conversation. You could make some very profitable business connections for the New Year.
Happy Marketing!
Certified Marketing Spitfire Leslie Hamp is creator of the ‘Fast Track to Marketing Mastery’ program. To learn more about the step-by-step program, and to sign up for your*FREE* Marketing Mastery Success Kit, visit www.boostyourbottomline.com
Previous Articles Highlighter:
How To Write A Good Resource Box For Your Articles That People Can't Resist Clicking (1)
This is an excellent way to collect backlinks from various sites that will help to increase your search engine rankings. The key to a good resource box is to write it to entice people to go to the site you want to promote to get more information on the subject of the article.
How To Set Up A Simple Affiliate Program? (2)
When they see this they are. Jaison Jacob is a father of three started his on line business 2 years ago. You can see a variety of workathome income opportunities at www.workathome-income-opportunities.com
The Three Se"C"rets Of Successful Video Communication (3)
This offer is available for the next ten minutes only!" Of course, it's not always appropriate to have a pushy salesman approach for your video, but it does prove that if you want results, you have to ask for it.
How To Build A Search Engine Friendly Web Site (4)
They are:- 1. Use as much text as possible in the form of HTML - Search engines love plain text. They are not able to read images, video files, audio files or flash, so try to not use too much of these in your site design.
Why Should You Use VBScript? (5)
This tells the web browser that that code contained within the script tag is VBScript and not ordinary HTML. You can place VBScript programming code in either the head section or the body section of your webpage.
What Is Javascript Used For? (6)
However, HTML does not actually do anything. It is a static programming language. It does not process information or make your site interactive, it just sits there and tells the web browser how the site should be displayed.
Autoresponders Make Money (7)
Subsequent to their submission, the autoresponder, which you will need to install on your website with the help of a programmer, immediately sends out an email that provides some information and then offers a product or service related to the information, such as software or any sort of product that relates to the subject of the email.
Explode Your Sales With An Affiliate Program (8)
All those websites will be representing you, sort of like a commissioned salesperson. Just make sure you hire a competent web designer to do the programming work, because if there are any difficulties with tracking sales to your individual affiliates, you will have a huge mess on your hands.
XML Is Transforming The Internet (9)
As a result, someone using a cell phone to access a certain web site may not be able to view the data on that website properly because the browser running on that cell phone might not be able to properly display the HTML.
A Small Overview Of Online Marketing (10)
The banner ad has returned in a somewhat more acceptable form as online marketing experts have started creating banner ads that are less obtrusive, have less annoying flashing and animation, and mesh better with the design of the site.
Solutions For Online Payment Processing (11)
Offering online check payment processing will help you convert more sales. If you do not want to use an outside company to process your payments for you, then you will need to open your own merchant account.
Does Pay-Per-Click Work? (12)
They are all reliable, and they will all deliver traffic to your website. The most important part of PPC advertising is knowing what keywords or phrases to bid on.
You Do Not Have To Go To Night School To Learn Web Site Search Engine Optimization (13)
But do you really have to take a postgraduate course to learn search engine optimization seo? Not necessarily. There are some basic tweaks that you can make right now to your web pages that have the potential to increase your search engine rank.
Online Payment Processing Solutions (14)
We will outline each of the avenues available to you so you can select one that is right for your particular business. If you own a store and are simply setting up a website to give your customers the ability to purchase your products online, then you probably already have a merchant account that you use to process credit card transactions.
I Despise Pay-Per-Click (15)
You need to have a lot of cash to burn in order to compete with the bigger businesses who are spending thousands of dollars per month for their clicks. If you are operating a small business, you need to diversify your internet marketing efforts by optimizing your website and increasing your link popularity so you can climb to the top of the search engines without having to pay for every click you receive.
Why I Hate Pay-Per-Click (16)
Once their daily budget has been exhausted, the clicks stop until more money is added to the account. Google is not the only search engine that has a PPC service available.
6 Awesome Tips To How To Sell Websites, Graphics And Scripts (17)
Flexibility and openness are keys to expanding your business and increasing your income. Just make sure that what you are attempting has a proven track record of making money in the marketplace.
Use Search Queries As A Basis To Derive New Keywords And Negatives (18)
Again, you're going to target the right audience and, most importantly, you're not going to pay for clicks that have no chance to convert into a sale. You are helping to protect and optimize your advertising investment.
Cascading Style Sheets Make Web Design Easy (19)
The web browser itself was supposed to take care of the style of the web page itself. However, as the HTML language became more and more complex, and evolved from the original HTML into HTML 4.0 and even more complicated versions of the language such as XHTML, the web browser no longer took care of style by itself.
An Introduction To Javascript (20)
Topics: Javascript If you are creating a web site for the first time, then you probably have some knowledge of the HTML programming language. HTML is a fairly simple language to learn, and most beginning web designers are usually self-taught when it comes to using HTML to create a simple site.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Career In Web Site Design Development (1)
So, begin developing your knowledge in designing now. You can start by browsing the net and search for web site development tutorial and then go to develop your own.
Discover The Amazing Profit Pulling Power Of Marketing With Audio (2)
And since you, in effect, are the one who taught them, you become the expert. You can use audio to present your client testimonials. You can have a full CD of client testimonials, or you can include audio testimonials on your web site.
How To Promote Your Computer Repair Business (3)
- Be professional. You will sometime be unable to save their data or their broken motherboard, but you can explain why while keeping it simple. And there are few software problems you cannot solve at all, so do not admit failure unless necessary (repairs that would cost more than the computer's value for example).
How To Choose A Video Production Company (4)
There are many other factors that can determine the overall quality of a video production, but choosing the format is the foundation upon which many other costs are built upon.
Web Site Design Software Advantage (5)
It is also and effective way to have your company advertised. Again, for to be able to enjoy the benefits of website design for your business or for personal usage, consider website design software or hire a professional designer to have it done for you.
Connect Your Offline Sales To Your Online Advertising (6)
Now, the person clicks on your ad, they go to your Web site, and on your Web site, that number, (3378), is embedded somewhere dynamically. When they pick up the phone, they assign the call, and the person takes the order over the phone and gets all the important information from the customer, including, "Who are you?", "What do you want to buy?", and most importantly, "What's your credit card number," then submit this information.
Slashing Your Cost: How To Lower Your Advertising Expenses? (7)
If you get 1000 clicks from that ad, your cost per click is: $45 divided by 1000 = 4.5 cents per click. Whether the cost per click is good or bad depends on your product, how well your sales material works and your profit margins.
The Perfect Communication And Marketing Solution For The IPod Generation (8)
Teleseminars are a great fit to this model. You deliver it once, record it, publish and promote it and it starts working for you. If the content is good enough you will find that word of your teleseminar will start to spread virally.
Traffic Building Is The Road To Success (9)
That is a confusion that many people new to online marketing have, yet a bit of thought should be enough to enable you to tell the difference. List building is the compilation of an email list of people interested in your product or niche.
Finding The Right Professional Website Builder For Your New Business (10)
Wouldn't it be better to have one online, as well? Choose a professional website builder that allows you to create a virtual store on the web. And, if you really want to impress your customers, throw in coupons for additional savings.
Benefits Of Owning A Home Based Internet Business (11)
5. No more wasted time sitting in traffic or struggling with the public transportation systems everyday. You do not have to worry about transportation costs or commuting to the office.
The Importance Of Cookies In Your Affiliate Program (12)
Why Are Cookies Necessary? If a visitor visits an affiliate's website and wants to return later, it is likely that they will bookmark it so they can find it again easily, rather than do a search for it again.
An Effective SEO Strategy To Rank High For A Keyword Of Your Choice (13)
Other pages on your site linking to this one with the keyword as the anchor text (By the way, I am assuming that you have at least a rudimentary knowledge of HTML.
Special Reports For Affiliates (14)
Topics: affiliate program, free reports There are many methods affiliates use to promote their products online. Some might choose to promote through weekly or monthly newsletters. Others run email campaigns.
Why Writing Articles Is One Of The Fastest Ways To Earn On The Internet (15)
As you write more articles and the number of sites linking back increases in number and diversity appearing on article sites, as well as other websites all over the internet.
What Stay At Home Jobs Can Be Done On The Internet? (16)
It takes at least 3 months of consistent blogging to get in with most companies, however, but since you can start with free services in many cases, it's quite affordable.
Methods Of Affiliate Internet Marketing (17)
Affiliate internet marketing methods Some of the methods that are employed in affiliate internet marketing consist of search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, search engine marketing and display advertising. Search Engine Optimization: It is one of the most important methods that are used for affiliate internet marketing.
Increase Credibility: Practice Reverse Marketing (18)
Positive recommendations, by word of mouth, are also free affirmative advertising. Put the customer or client first, and watch the bottom line grow exponentially. Paul Sutherland is an Accelerated Business Growth Coach.
How To Find 100 Prospects Every Week (19)
You can do that the old-fashioned way by creating a manual card file using plain 3 x 5 index cards. Or, you can set up a contact management program on your computer.
Disadvantages Of Owning A Home Based Internet Business (20)
Your family may have a hard time adhering to the boundaries of your chosen working hours. Your two-year old does not understand that each interruption to show you his/her toy puts you further behind schedule.