Marketing: Networking for Customer loyalty and Sales

Results oriented, value building marketing, Delivering the right products and services to the right clients at the right price.

"The Difference between spending on marketing and investing is like the difference between burning wood to keep warm for the night and building a shelter to keep you warm for years. " Richard Marti Jr.

When thinking about starting a marketing campaign with an existing business, the most natural place to begin is with the existing customer base. During economic times like these there are two main reasons. The first is increasing customer loyalty and second, our current and past customers can be our best salespeople.

In a business your shelter is the relationships you have with your customers. Most successful companies know that retaining repeat customers is more cost effective than searching for and developing new relationships, networking through existing customers for referrals is a close second. This has never been more important than during these uncertain economic times. Building customer loyalty and trust is critical to survive and be in a position to grow when things turn around. The keys to retaining existing clients and networking through those to reach new ones are:

1. To become Customer Centric and build deep value for the customer and to demonstrate that value through every encounter.
2. To build that value we must listen intently to the customers changing needs.
3. To differentiate your customers experience with you from the competition on items other than price.

It is important to know that it is just as bad to the bottom line to overshoot and spend to much, as it is to leave the customers needs unsatisfied. The goal should be to meet their expectations, retain their trust, provide what the customer perceives as good value.

Now is a good time to open the dialog with existing and past clients, to search through them for needs, to network through them for new leads. You can do this through every communication channel you have including:

1. Telephone- Call your clients talk to them ask them to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Email them tell then what you are doing, follow up with new products or website ask them if they have any needs and ask them to sign up for your newsletter.
3. Set up a sign up form on your Website and your blog so visitors can sign up for your newsletter.
4. Develop a referral program and publish it on your website and your blog.
5. Set up a blog and start writing about what is new at your company, who has been hired, what is new in the industry.

What is a Blog? A blog is a special kind of website. Blogs are set up like chronological journals with three important aspects.

1. They are content rich and that content is ( if your are dedicated to them ) current, natural and search-able. Search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated and they are less and less reliant the old tricks of loading up keywords.
2. They allow other people to comment on what you write providing you with feedback.
3. They are easy to set up and maintain. Once they are set up, you can "post" to them by logging in directly or by simply sending an email to them. ( If you have any doubt about setting one up, a local web person can do it in less that 20 minutes or so.

There are many free blogs available from:

• Google ( called Blogger at http://www.blogger.com/ )
• Microsoft "10 tips for using your blog as a marketing tool."
• Wordpress http://wordpress.org/

If you need help anytime, you can email us. We will be happy to answer any questions.

In our next article we will talk about E-mail marketing and how to set it up.