Expand Your Reach – Part V – Value on the Table?

Looking for a low hanging fruit for your business?

Go no further than your current customers and pool of prospects.

Are you maximizing their potential?

Where do you start?

Retain your current customers. Grow your relationships with them. Expand your engagement.

1. Convert your existing pool of prospects.
2. Develop a database with all your contacts.

As Seth Godin explained in his book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers, such a database is the most important asset a business can have. Implement a system to follow through and track your contacts.

How can you achieve that?

Think about how you can add value for your contacts. Educate them and establish your leadership and credibility. Cultivate interactivity.

Does this sound like a lot to do? It doesn’t have to be – if you organize your business and use the right technology and tools. When done right, this actually can cut down your marketing budget and free up resources that you can leverage for other business initiatives.

Email marketing

Email marketing is the most effective and the least expensive marketing tool, when used in the right way.

How can it help?

As a channel to introduce new ideas. Test new products and concepts.

1. As a guide for your customers and prospects with answers to frequently asked questions. This will cut down your support costs, as well.
2. In creating synergies with other marketing channels such as trade shows, promotions, social media channels, and other off-line marketing channels.

Social media channels

Social media channels help create synergies and cultivate interactive relationships.

How?

1. They provide cost-effective, automated channels to distribute information that can go viral. They help pull prospects to you – and also convert them.
2. They bring down customer support costs while using the same content and channels to build branding and credibility.
3. By interacting with your customers and prospects directly. You can use their experiences and feedback for business insights.

Some of the channels you can use right away include YouTube, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare, and Squidoo.

Maximize returns from other marketing channels.

Create opportunities for synergies among your ongoing marketing initiatives. Get more out of them. The internet and social media provide unique opportunities for that. Stay tuned for more on this in another post in this series.

Measure, test and learn

With web analytics and testing, you have a system to understand what works and what doesn’t in your customer service, marketing, and business development. It shows you ways to delight your customers and improve the way you sell.

Use that information to refine your business strategy and get more from the investment.

Nurture your nature.

You have so much going with your current customers. You are working hard to get leads for your business.

Why leave the value from this effort on the table? Capture it.

 

1. Expand Your Reach – Part I – Who is Eating my Pie?
2. Expand Your Reach – Part II – Where is my Target Market?
3. Expand Your Reach – Part III – Target Market Niches
4. Expand Your Reach – Part IV – Use Your Website
5. Expand Your Reach – Part V – Value on the Table?

 

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