Making the Sale

Survival in the post-mortgage meltdown world will depend on the marketing that your business does today. However, we all must realize such marketing efforts need to be accomplished in an era of tighter budgets.But according to some marketing experts, it can be done. Joanne Rigby, managing director, Asia Pacific for Premiere Global Services Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of applied communication technologies, said many businesses are turning to cost-effective strategies like e-mail marketing, which can measurable and return-on-investment-driven results.But, when it comes to doing an e-mail campaign, marketers must "identify and implement the right processes, procedures and measurements so that a successful campaign can be established."Her steps towards accomplishing this:1. Establish your objectives. "Take the time to invest in understanding your target's background and key characteristics to ensure there's a clear focus on your offerings and messages that you want to communicate across."2. Define your target audience. "It is essential that you know, and understand who your target audience is and look at the world from their point of view. Gain further insight into your customers' segments and what's most relevant to them by collating demographic and psychographic data. Once that's done, break your audience into smaller groups and then target your messages accordingly to each group based on their commonalities."3. Build your message. "If you want your e-mail messages to be read, you need to relay your message in a clear and straightforward manner. Make a point to develop a message that is interesting, personal, easy to read, and relevant to the recipient's interests. Be sure to add value with each e-mail that you send - by doing this, your e-mail becomes relevant and interesting to your readers. Always remember to write in a friendly, approachable tone and encourage quick response with click-through to your company's Web site and eye-catching visuals."4. Determine your offer. "Lead generation offers such as free samples, free gifts, white papers, sweepstakes/contests, and free webinars, have all proven effective."5. Test and measure. "In a tough economy, it doesn't make sense for businesses to waste money and effort on executing marketing campaigns that doesn't yield results they need. Testing and measuring is an important strategy in e-mail marketing as it helps businesses find out what works best and is most effective in generating good results for their efforts in 24 to 72 hours."Ms. Rigby continued, "During the current gloom, companies need to think of creative, innovative and out-of-the-box ideas in order to remain competitive. It is the ability to make significant changes to your marketing efforts and strategies without incurring significant business risk that provides marketers with a fantastic platform to improve business performance."Companies need not necessarily increase spending, but analyze results and choose activities that are more likely to reap rewards and in the long run, help them emerge from the current economic slump. By taking these actions now, marketers will be able to survive and eventually ride out the storm and more importantly, be well positioned to build and strengthen its market share when market conditions start to improve."Patricia Fripp, a sales presentation trainer, has teamed up with business copywriter David Garfinkel to offer their "five sure cures for marketing woes."Their first cure is an obvious one, going through your database and reconnecting with past customers. A suggestion is to use a "welcome back" gift such as a discount or a bonus when they resume doing business with you.Next is to offer prospective customers "a free sample." This sample doesn't have to be something physical. Ms. Fripp offers potential clients a complementary coaching conversation. A suggestion from Karen Deis has been to make a free report offer with your marketing efforts.The third cure is to make better use of your "best sales person," your website. "Look at your site, and make sure it is easy to navigate, content-rich and full of the keywords that get attention. Ms. Fripp and Mr. Garfinkel also suggested Googling yourself and your competition and writing a blog.The fourth tip is another one that Ms. Deis has recommended: past customer testimonials and referrals.Finally, they suggest speaking to local service clubs such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions.For more information about Ms. Rigby, visit http://www.premiereinboxseries.com; Ms. Fripp, visit http://www.fripp.com; and Mr. Garfinkel, http://www.davidgarfinkel.com.