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| | The Un-Marketing Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Your most profitable marketing efforts? | Views: 1475 | | Feb 13, 2007 10:05 pm | | Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Betty Lynch, My Country Kitchen | | I am working on my marketing plan and need creative ideas.
Please share your most profitable marketing strategy.
Thank you,
Betty
http://www.bettylynch.biz/ Back to the Table with My Country Kitchen
http://www.mycountrykitchen.com - Newsletter, Cookbooks, Tips, Recipes & More
http://www.bettyl.lbrionline.com - Aloe Vera Based Skincare
Private Reply to Betty Lynch, My Country Kitchen | | Feb 14, 2007 7:57 pm | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Kurt Schweitzer | | Betty,
Your most profitable marketing occurs when you identify WHO your target market is. What characteristics distinguish your targets from everyone else? Where do they live? How do they get their information (what magazines, newspapers, etc. do they read)? What do they really, really like? What do they hate?
What problems do your targets have that you can solve? What is their greatest fear? What do they want most - fame, comfort, recognition, love, success, etc.?
What resources do they have? Can they pay cash? How about credit cards? Do they need you to provide financing?
What are their families like? Will they be buying in bulk, or do you need to provide single serving sizes? Might their spouses, children, or pets influence their decisions?
I am asking all these questions for the simple reason that getting inside the heads of your target market is the most effective marketing strategy you can have. The more you know them, the better you can appeal to them.
If you don't know your targets, marketing is simply throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Mar 09, 2007 7:04 pm | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Deepak Morris | | My most profitable marketing strategy is "Walk, Talk, Show and Tell".
I'll admit, it's not something I came up with. I saw it on TV, in fact. But it works.
Walk:
Go to the customer.
This may mean telecalls, advertising, whatever gets ME to the customer, not the other way around.
Talk:
Shyness may be a desired quality in a bride but outside of that, it's of no practical use.
I TALK about what I do to whoever I meet, wherever I meet them.
Show:
People need evidence. It reassures them. I have a body of evidence that I can produce, no matter what my target audience. It's easy. If a website developer needs an article writer, I have an article. If a publisher needs an author, I have an article. Single outputs can have multiple uses.
Tell:
I used the word because it falls easier on the ear, what with Show & Tell being so common.
The fact is, I don't tell, I yell.
I'm not afraid to make a mistake. I just bull in. It's worked for me. May not work for you. But you did ask for individual profitable marketing efforts.
DeepakPrivate Reply to Deepak Morris | | Mar 13, 2007 7:07 pm | | Betty: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Biana Babinsky | | Betty,
My most profitable marketing efforts have come from clearly identifying my target market and then using online marketing techniques to drive this target market to my web site. Here are some techniques I recommend using:
- Business Blogging. Start a blog for your business and update it on a regular basis. A business blog is an excellent tool to toot your own horn, let the world know about your new products, and tell your target customers why they should do business with you, rather than your competitor.
- Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). SEO is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your web site since over 70% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them.
- Article Writing and Publishing. This is another great way to drive traffic to your web site. When you write and publish your articles, other web site owners pick them up and publish them on their web sites, while giving you a link back to your web site.
- Newsletter Publishing. Keep in touch with your clients and potential clients by sending out a newsletter on a regular basis. Every time you send out a newsletter, don't forget to invite the subscribers to visit your web site.
There are more techniques that I recommend using, and I discuss them in detail in my free special report, Top Strategies To Get More Clients Online.
Biana Babinsky
FREE Special Report, Top Strategies To Get More Clients Online
http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/free_report.html
Private Reply to Biana Babinsky | | Mar 13, 2007 9:56 pm | | re: Betty: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Angelo Cerase | | Biana hit the nail on the head with her first sentence.
Once you determine who your target market is, or who your ideal client is, then you've narrowed down your marketing plan considerably.
If I determine that my ideal clients are hermits who live in caves and are technophobes, then creating a Myspace page, and sponsoring video game tournaments would be a waste of time.
Likewise, if I determine my target market consists of 18-24 year olds, then advertising in the local paper would be an expensive waste of time as well.
I used to work with an older agent who used to be in the office from 7:30am to noon, and then spent his afternoons at various country clubs. Why? His target market were afluent over 50-year-olds. He used to joke that he met most of his clients in the sauna, of all places.
Sounds silly? Sure, but that's what caused his success. By narrowing his focus to his target market he has been ranked in the top 5% of all insurance agents in the world for the past 30 years.
Betty, if your target market is mothers with children aged 2-12 for your "My Country Kitchen", then find out what those mothers like, and where to find them. Perhaps even narrowing your focus even more, like afluent mothers or stay-at-home moms, etc etc.
Find out if many of them use Ryze. If they do, then post on numerous message boards by adding to the conversations and NOT by blatant advertising. Perhaps many read Martha Stewart Living magazine, or something similar. Perhaps finding a Martha Stewart-like magazine and contributing articles to it. Or even better, find a parenting magazine and contribute articles to that.
For example, the Whirlpool washing machine company publishes a podcast called the American Family, all about family stuff, etc etc, nothing about washing machines. It gets the Whirlpool name in family's heads, so when it comes time to replace the washer, Whirlpool is the name they trust. Same thing that Cheerios does with a podcast full of tips for raising children.
Determine your target market. Narrow it down. Narrow it down some more. Then go where those people are.
AngeloPrivate Reply to Angelo Cerase | | Mar 20, 2007 4:00 am | | re: re: Betty: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Betty,
You have been given some great ideas here - walk, talk, show and tell; blogging, SEO, article writing, etc. However, the question should be asked, "Do you have time to do all this yourself?" Probably not. It is very difficult - if not impossible - to go down two different roads at the same time. Marketing to your target market requires different skills than servicing customers.
If you have to make a choice between marketing to your target market and servicing customers, I hope you will choose servicing customers and outsource your marketing needs. That is really the most cost-effective and efficient way to proceed. This is not just my opinion because I happen to be in the outsource marketing business, but the firm stand taken by the Sirolli Institute, which promotes economic development around the world by helping small business entrepreneurs build successful businesses. There may be a Sirolli Institute enterprise facilitator in your area. If there is, I highly recommend you get together with him. These enterprise facilitators will work with you for free. His fee is actually paid by a local board of directors. Advice from a skilled third party - an enterprise facilitator - may be just what you need.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Aug 13, 2007 3:31 am | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Maria Marsala | | My best has been speaking. However, I spoke way too much in the beginning for free to any group that asked w/o asking for "my fee" in advertising, membership and services.
Now I'm a heck of a lot more specific when I speak for free. I actually have a proposal that I send them, with things they can do to "pay me". And I turn down free speaking engagements where the group isn't able to provide me with at least 25 biz owners or exec, do PR locally, or who won't let me sell things on a table.;) Because if they won't let me do those things, they just won't have clients who appreciate all I can help them with. I just run from all the freebie seekers out there.
It's speaking for a few reasons.
1) I teach classes I enjoy teaching for little pay in return for my bio, website and picture in their publication that reaches 100K people. And people have come up to me at meetings or events "knowing me" because they read my bio or saw me in their catalog. Additionally, I am able to attend any class they offer, for free. Since I'm a lifelong learner, they don't make much off of me ;)
2) I teach when I speak, I give participants a template to complete or assessment AND a good take away with my information. I also invite them to email me for additional templates. I've learned that they save them for years.
3) When I speak for free or paid, I request that I'm able to do a soft sell for 5 minutes or so at the end of the event, usually 1/2 price on my CDs and a deal on a service. I get clients, short term or long term that way and ezine subscribers. (besides referrals, this is, to me the quickest way to gain new clients, because unlike on the web, these folks have met me and really have a good idea of how I operate)
4) Since mid-year 2006, I've been paid to speak at companies, retreats, conferences. Just came back from Las Vegas where I taught an all day business and marketing plan class. Expenses paid.
And whenever I speak for free at a virtual seminar, (with one recent exception, as I'm doing a speaking gig for the Business and Professional Women/USA in September, I am provided with email addresses and names of particpants for me to send an invitation to join my ezine. (For this event, I'll be able to do a soft sell and send them to my website. I'll also have a link from their site to mine.)
Hopes that helps!
Maria Marsala
Business Operations Therapist
http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com Private Reply to Maria Marsala | | Aug 16, 2007 7:07 pm | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Brad Kent | | By far it is neighborhood marketing . Look up Tom Feltenstein's book 10 minute marketer. He was Ray Kroc's right hand man.
Then visit SmartleadsUSA.com to fulfill these hard to execute eighborhood marketing programs. YOu need a birthday program, New resident program and Business 2 Business to round out the mix.
Brad KentPrivate Reply to Brad Kent | | Aug 18, 2007 4:25 am | | re: re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Brad,
You are the president of SmartLeads USA. Why is it that some direct-mail marketing fails while other efforts succeed?
Permit me to give you a real-life example. I live in a gated bedroom community. The majority of the folks who live here work outside the county because that is where the jobs are that enable them to afford the real estate here. However, because they work outside the county and spend both the majority of their money and time where they work as opposed to where they live, this hurts many of the local merchants. We have businesses coming and going around here all the time.
In fact, the area has been trying to get a town hall started for 26 years! You see weekly front-page articles in the local weekly newspaper about the town hall activities. But, does the attendance at the meetings increase due to the constant front-page exposure? No. Even direct-mail flyers and a canvas banner in the center of town do not seem to matter.
Can a direct-mail campaign change the mindset of a community? If it can, what specifically needs to be done? How do you make the people who live in an area start caring about its future? I know this may sound a bit odd, but that is the way things are where I live. Folks do not seem to care about the community where they live. It's really amazing to me. Why bother to spend money to advertise to folks who history demonstrates just don't care?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Aug 20, 2007 5:21 pm | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # | 
Kris Tomb | | Share valuable information with the masses through blogs, forums, groups and other information sharing entities like FreeIQ and Squidoo. Private Reply to Kris Tomb | | Oct 04, 2007 5:56 am | | re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Betty,
You might give consideration to using some Web 2.0 online resources in tandem to spread better your message. Make what you are doing a campaign - not simply a series of advertisements. A lot of times people get the idea that just placing a display ad in the local newspaper will garner results. For some strange reason, some folks think that because they paid for a nice display ad in the local newspaper the public is going to pay attention. And, if the public does not pay attention, well the solution is to simply do more of the same. Eventually, folks should pay attention. This is the same mindset that says if you go to the casino enough times you will eventually come out a winner.
Whatever the message is that you need to get out, it just makes good sense to get that message out via numerous venues. It also makes good sense to have those venues connected in some fashion and be able to track your level of success.
Here is what I did to successfully promote a business mixer. First, I created a Squidoo lens. Then, I linked a Evite invitation to the Squidoo lens. Then, I created "pass out" cards leading folks to the Squidoo lens. Then, I wrote stories about the upcoming mixer which got carried in local newspapers and online which included a web address to the Squidoo lens. All these online resources cost me zero dollars, but yielded me a nice turnout for the mixer.
Would you like to see how this works? Visit Middletown Area Business Association Online Lens and use the "Click Here" link. If you use that link you can actually play audio clips of endorsements for that mixer from around the world. All those endorsements come from Ryze members. Those endorsements were made possible by Odeo Studio, a Web 2.0 innovator.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Oct 07, 2007 10:17 am | | re: re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | 'Tis the seasonal business season. A week ago the ads started appearing for Halloween businesses - a costume/decoration store, a couple of "scare" businesses, a "haunted hayride", etc.
All of these businesses cease on November 1.
The approach they're all taking is a media blitz - TV, radio, and print ads every day for a month.
They will all have thousands of customers, and then shut down immediately after Halloween. The hayride is the only "real" business (it's put on by a local orchard), the rest rent locations for only a couple months.
They sound a lot like Lamar's mixer - an event with no long-term impact.
Is the marketing approach used to promote events the same as you should use to develop a long-term business?
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village Scooters
Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Oct 10, 2007 7:46 am | | re: re: re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Kurt,
You are correct. My business mixers do not have a long-term impact. Each one is unique in and of itself. Like it or not, a mixer is not really "continued next month." It is really new EVERY MONTH. That is not really the way I want it to be. But, that seems to be the way it is turning out.
However, the local business association plans to offer a something new that may change forever the way our mixers are perceived. We are actually going to start a breakfast where we teach people HOW to better "target their market." Small business people are actually going to learn HOW to do their business better and work with member businesses through such things as coop advertising to actually MAKE that happen.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Oct 10, 2007 10:28 pm | | re: re: re: Your most profitable marketing efforts? | # |
Angelo Cerase | | Kurt,
Seasonal businesses are not that bad. Like all businesses, these business owners saw an opportunity and jumped on it.
So what if these businesses are no longer profitable after Nov. 1? If you believe the newsmedia, then many retailers are not profitable until "Black Friday" after the US Thanksgiving. It sounds like those Halloween stores are in better shape than other stores in the mall.
Sure, ideally entrepreneurs would grow an industry from the ground up, with a ton of hardwork in the early years, and then sell the business and retire years later. But sometimes seizing a short-term opportunity works too, especially for people who are more interested in multiple short term gains instead of a large longterm one.
Or, like myself, many are interested in a combination of those. My chosen career is being an independent financial planner. You starve for the first few years, then if you play your cards right your longterm prospects are great. But this past August I saw what could be a great seasonal opportunity to make a very nice sum of money in a completely different and unrelated field.
So, from now until Aug/08 I will be building the foundation for that seasonal business, while still working fulltime as a financial advisor. Then in Aug and early Sept I plan in spending about 60hrs per week on that seasonal business and hopefully make some decent money in a short amount of time.
Will that work? Who knows! Can I make that seasonal business into a year-round one? Yes, but I don't think it's worth it - the benefit/time spent ratio is nowhere near as good as in the back-to-school season. The potential (at least in my mind) is great during Aug/Sep, but not that much year round.
But to answer your question, no the marketing efforts used by longterm businesses should not be the limited to the "flash-in-the-pan" marketing used by seasonal businesses.
Sure longterm businesses can and do use the seasonal approach - toy stores bombard the airwaves in Nov and Dec, department stores do the same during Aug and Sept for back to school sales. But if you combine that with longterm efforts that create clients that search your business out instead of you having to drag them in (Un-Marketing???), then you'll be head and shoulders above your seasonal and year-round peers.
Angelo Private Reply to Angelo Cerase | | |
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