What Links Dell, Your Business, Blogs and Newsletters?
Dell has launched a content-rich website called Digital Nomads. It’s aimed at people who, thanks to technology, can work and play wherever they like – people who aren’t tied to an office location. Here’s why Dell is being so smart. Dell is creating a community based upon a common passion. It’s serving that community on…
Be Gently in their Face
I wasn’t going to write today, but I was inspired by Seth Godin’s post, “My tooth doesn’t hurt.” It’s about how a marketer can build a solid business, even when they think their target market doesn’t need them right now (like a dentist who is badly needed when a person has a toothache, but easily…
Why Customer Service Beats Low Prices
If you wanted any more evidence that now – despite the rough economy – is not the time to go cutting price, look at the results of the latest poll published by Marketing Sherpa (see chart at end of this post). It shows that while vendors believe price is the most important factor in customer…
Printed Newsletters and the Internet: Friends or Foes?
The other day I heard someone say, “Printed newsletters? That’s so 90s.” Let’s face it, when you compare them to email and blogs, printed newsletters do have – shall we say – a vintage feel. Dead trees and ink are hardly sexy in green-tinged, e-everything 2008. But this is the thing (actually, several things): 1) …
Shock: Some Good News about US Real Estate
If you watch enough CNN, you’ll be convinced that the American housing market – and the entire economy – is doomed. No hope. Just give up and wait. I’m not saying that things aren’t bad – that a lot of people are suffering, losing their homes and their jobs. The economy has changed and got…
Use Coupons to Boost Your Company Newsletter Response
A subscriber to my newsletter for mortgage brokers sent me her version of the newsletter today. She’d customized it to include a coupon that gives $100 off closing costs to any clients that conclude financing with her. Great idea. Not only do coupons make it more likely your client will keep the newsletter but they…
How to Use Customer Newsletters to Nurture the People Who Really Matter
Seth wrote an interesting post today about targeted traffic to websites versus untargeted traffic: it’s the focused traffic you want to capture; the rest you don’t care about. Quite right. And it’s useful to show how customer newsletters can achieve the same goal: bringing targeted buyers into your business. Let’s face it, although newsletters are…
Calling all Printers: Are You a Commodity?
One of the subscribers to my general customer newsletter is a commercial printer. He says his customers love getting the newsletter he sends out. Now, the printing industry is in danger of becoming – if it hasn’t already – a commodity. People shop for printers by price, for the most part. And as we know,…
Building a Stalagmite
Something I’ve learned since I started this blog – and also since I started my real estate newsletters business – is that building trust takes time. But taking the time to build that trust has enormous rewards. As Seth says today, in his post Drip, drip, drip goes the Twit: “Publishing your ideas… in books,…
How to Cut Through the Noise and Connect with Customers
If you send out a newsletter, take a good look at the content. What are the themes of your articles? Who is the focus of your articles? What are you trying to achieve with your articles? Are you providing value in your articles that will improve your subscribers’ lives? That final question is the most…
Seth’s Advice to Realtors
As a lot of readers of this blog are real estate agents, I thought I’d pass along the advice of marketing guru Seth Godin. (I reviewed his excellent book The Dip here, and recommend all his work.) He gives two bits of advice. The first is kinda harsh. But the second is spot on. He…
The golden oldies
Drew McLellan summarizes as well as anyone I’ve seen the reasons why it’s smart to focus on your existing customers as well as going out looking for new ones. See his post, Concentrate on the old this week. Here are the advantages he mentions: They know who you are and trust/like you enough that they’ve…
Too little, too late
You already know I’m a big fan of keeping in regular touch with clients and prospects. With clients, keeping in regular touch increases the likelihood they will stay as clients and that they will buy even more from you. With prospects, it gives them multiple chances to buy from you and increases the chances they…
On your existing customers and real estate ‘heart and soul’
Here are a couple of great posts by other bloggers over the past few days. All are worth reading and all have relevance to anyone using printed newsletters as a marketing tool. Becky Carroll wonders why so many companies give their best offers to new customers only while neglecting their existing ones. She gives some…
Why smart marketers don’t fear the postal rate increase
Many marketers are gnashing their teeth this week after the US Postal Service hiked postal rates. Here’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of this price rise. If you monitor Return on Investment (and you should) you’ll know exactly the effect of the price rise. You’ll know that it costs x dollars to send out your…
How to use the postal rate increase to your advantage
Postal rates in the US went up this week, hurting the budget of anyone who markets by mail. Here’s one way to use the postal rate increase to your advantage and turn it into a marketing opportunity. How about you send your best propects and clients stamps to the value of 2 cents, with a…
We appreciate your patience, please continue to hold
This is a story about turning one lost customer into 10 lost customers. I’m writing this entry while on hold with Vonage, the VOIP telephone company. You see, I want to cancel my account (wasn’t using it — quality too bad) and Vonage is trying to stop me canceling. It’s like a war of wills.…
Don’t forget to recycle your newsletter content
If you’ve written articles for your newsletter, don’t waste them. You can use them again in a variety of formats. Then you’ll get much more mileage out of everything you write. Try using them… On your website: you’ll add several search-engine friendly pages to your website that will attract more viewers and keep them sticking…
Your front-line marketing staff
Just back from a week of traveling, I thought I’d relay to you a couple of experiences. They both share a theme: that your front-line staff — the people who face your customers — are among your most important marketing tools. Airline KLM was hit by the stormy weather in western Europe the other week.…
A remarkable store
One way to go upscale and charge premium prices for a premium product. In Toronto there’s a great butcher’s store called Cumbrae’s. Sometimes I visit for a little ‘meat tourism’. (Vegetarians can look away now, but you’ll miss some useful marketing lessons.) I’ve no doubt this store (actually, there are three of them) is enormously…