Today we’re looking at the ‘How’ reel from the Client Magnet Marketing software. When you take 3D approach to marketing your business, it’s important to look at how you’re going to attract new clients as well as Who they are and What you’re going to offer them. Have you tried these tactics out?
Database Lists
Where Can I Find Database Lists?
- Type “database lists” into any search engine and it will bring up many list brokers who specialise in selling targeted database lists of potential customers (both consumers and business-2-business lists).
- Many will work with you to design your direct mail or email campaign, personalise letters, provide printing and mailing services, or broadcast your email campaign.
What Can I Get?
You can choose a list selected by a multitude of criteria such as:
- Students
- Home improvers
- Young married
- Affluent homeowners
- Architects
- Doctors
- Property investors;
- Solicitors
- Executives in a variety of industries
- – almost any criteria you can think of.
What Will It Cost Me?
- As an example, one website offers contact details of 3500 decision makers in the construction industry for £479 – under 14p per contact.
- Another offers consumer mailing contact details, in a selected target group, for £130 per 1000 (£230 per 1000 to include telephone numbers).
Lead Generation Boxes
What are Lead Generation Boxes?
- Quite simply, a way of gathering valuable information to generate business.
- Lead generation boxes are cardboard or plastic boxes, decorated with your promotional material, which you place in a prominent position, to catch the eye of potential customers.
- Offer an incentive, such as “Sign up for our mailing list to get a free money-off voucher”.
- Collect the names and contact details of interested potential customers and you have a ready-made mailing list.
- Add a pocket to display your brochures or business cards for customers to take, containing your contact details.
- Add a short survey on the entry form, to glean suggestions on improving your business.
Where Should I Put the Box?
- Place it in a prominent position in your own premises.
- Do a deal with a neighbouring business to place a box in their premises in exchange for a free product or service from yours.
For the full list of over 130 marketing ideas, the brainstorming software and interview CDs go here for Client Magnet Marketing.
Filed under Free Marketing Tips by on Oct 30th, 2010. 1 Comment. 
Okay, kicking off with my Marketing Ideas lessons and today we are working from the ‘Who’ reel of the cool Client Magnet brainstorming software. Who are you looking to target? How about retailers and your most loyal clients can’t be forgotten!
Retailers
This includes both physical stores and online retailers.
How Will I Find Them?
- Find physical shops and stores which sell products or services similar to yours by using Yellow Pages (or Yell.com, the online equivalent); trade directories; and specialist magazine advertisements.
- Find online retailers of products or services like yours by using Google or other Internet search engines.
- Search an online comparison site (like Kelkoo or Amazon), using a product similar to yours, to locate suitable online (and physical) retailers.
Will They Buy From Me?
- Retailers like to have a variety of products, to provide choice to their customers.
- If they already stock items like yours, point out the differences, benefits and USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) of yours.
- Check out suggestions on the next two wheels to help you market to retailers.
Most loyal clients
Clients or customers who are already loyal to you and buy regularly from you are the easiest to sell to again. They are the ones who will help you to build your business if you offer them continued excellent service.
- If you treat your customers well, in ways which they will value, there is a better chance that they will come back to your business again and again.
- Consider ways to encourage them to buy more.
- Reward them for introducing new customers to your business.
- Incentivise them to act as ambassadors for your business (e.g. by providing positive recommendations and quotes that you can use on your website or marketing material).
- Enrol them in a real or online “Club”” with membership benefits.
- Send them a regular newsletter (by email or post) to keep them informed of events at your business, new products or services.
The next two wheels will help you come up with many ways to do this.
If you’d like the entire Client Magnet ebook and brainstorm software and two bonus expert interview CDs go to www.clientmagnetmarketing.com. It’s pretty kewl!
Filed under Free Marketing Tips, Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses by on Oct 27th, 2010. Comment.
Marketing ideas are available from many sources, but where can you find specific marketing ideas for beauty salons? Look no further, this article sets out 10 great ideas: some you may have heard of, some may be new to you, but all are tried and tested, and will help to give your beauty salon the edge over the competition.
You may think marketing is expensive, and in the present economic climate that is the last thing you need, but this article will show you ideas you can implement on a shoe-string. You don’t just need people through your salon door (though that is a start!) you also need them to come back time after time, to use you as their regular salon, and to recommend you to their friends. Here are 10 ideas to help you achieve that.
- Local Events and Activities: If there is a community event in your town, make sure you are there to publicise your salon – maybe you can get small samples of a beauty product from the manufacturer to give away, or a print a voucher for a discounted treatment at your salon. If there is a local charity event, take part yourself or sponsor someone to do so carrying/wearing your salon name.
- Give Away Your Knowledge – Demonstrations or Talks: Approach local women’s groups, colleges, or even major employers and see if you can set up a demonstration of your services for them, or give a talk to the members/employees about beauty issues.
- Local Media: Your local newspaper or free-sheet will be looking for stories with a local interest to fill their pages – offer to write an article, or give an interview on a topical beauty issue, and you will get publicity for your salon without having to pay a penny! The same applies to local radio stations.
- Swap Publicity: Make contact with other local businesses, which are not in competition with you, and offer to swap flyers with them – you display their flyer or leaflets if they will display yours.
- Find Good Locations For Posters/Flyers: Think about where your target customers go and try to arrange to display leaflets or posters there – it might be the local supermarket, the library, the gym, or the “mother and toddler” group and so on.
- Display Your Name: Put an eye-catching sandwich board on the pavement outside your salon. You might not want to have the name of your salon painted on the side of your car, but why not have a poster in the rear side windows (where it won’t block your view while driving) or customise a window blind that you can pull down when the car is parked. Also make use of all your stationery – make sure any letter, bill, or email you send carries full details of your salon (services, opening hours, contact details etc.)
- Run a Competition: Choose an exciting prize (maybe a full day make-over at your salon) which will not cost you a great deal but will be very appealing to your potential customers. Send a press release about it to the local press and radio and make sure people have to call at your salon in order to enter – which gives you a chance to promote your services to them in person. Invite the local press to be present when the prize is awarded, to get some more free publicity for the salon.
- Offer Incentives: Offer your customers a small reward for introducing their friends, or for a certain number of visits. Consider a discount for customers who spend over a certain amount in a set period.
- Use the Internet: Set up a professional looking website for your salon and even an online “club”. Collect the email addresses of all your customers and send out a regular email newsletter to keep them advised of events at the salon, new product lines and new services.
- Super Customer Service: The cheapest and perhaps the best way to promote your salon is to offer really first class customer service. That means not just good beauty treatments, but ensuring the phone is always answered promptly and professionally; that you never cancel an appointment except in the direst circumstances (and then give the customer as much notice as possible); that your salon is always spotlessly clean and tidy and that you and your employees are always smartly dressed and greet your clients by name and with a smile.
Had you thought of all of those? Probably not, and these have been just a few ideas to help you get started – why not try brainstorming some more? If you are short of ideas yourself, try brainstorming with your employees, or your friends and family. The best marketing ideas for beauty salons may be those you think of yourself. Don’t forget to use the great brainstorming tool at www.clientmagnetmarketing.com for more ideas for marketing your beauty salon.
Filed under Free Marketing Tips by on Apr 21st, 2010. Comment.
In the present economic climate, you need all the help you can get to keep your pub open and viable. This article suggests some specific marketing ideas for pubs to help you. Some you may have heard of, some may be new to you, but all are tried and tested ideas which will help you to give your pub the edge over the competition
You don’t just need people through the pub doors (though that is a start!) you also need them to come back time after time, to bring their friends and colleagues, to bring the family to eat with you, and to recommend you to others. You want to give them value, so they generate value for you.
Nowadays, you are likely to get your largest profit margin from food rather than just drinks, but you can boost your takings in both areas:
- Drinks
- Are You Making the Most of Non-Alcoholic Drinks? With today’s strict drink drive laws, more and more of your customers will be looking for interesting and unusual non-alcoholic drinks. Consider “inventing” some alcohol-free cocktails to appeal to the adult drinker and promoting them with a “menu” and posters. There are all the staples (e.g. Virgin Mary – a Bloody Mary without the vodka), but you can experiment with mixtures of fruit juices, cordials and sparkling minerals. Search the Internet for inspiring ideas, and name the cocktails after local places or people.
- Special Event Nights. Most pubs have quiz nights, or live music, but why not try something a bit more “off-the-wall”? A cocktail making demonstration by your bar-man; a talk on a sports-related theme by one of your regulars; in summer, invite the local classic car group to hold their next meeting at the pub and display their cars in your car-park to attract other customers; whatever will appeal to your clientele.
- Host Local Meetings. Where do the local business groups, women’s groups, farmers, accountants, or police hold their meetings – why not with you? What about local big employers – are they looking for somewhere different to hold off-site meetings and team-building events? If you have spare rooms available, there are all sorts of possibilities for making use of them.
- Themed Drinks. Make the most of any special or historic day – a whisky promotion on Burns’ night; a range of Irish beers on St Patrick’s Day; orange coloured drinks for Halloween – the possibilities are endless. To capitalise on these ideas, though, you need to make sure they are well advertised locally.
- Food
- Who Are You Targeting – Does Your Image Match? Whether you are a “pie and a pint” pub or a gastro-pub, make sure your image matches the theme so that you attract the right clientele. If you are aiming upmarket, you will need clean and well printed menus, well-trained waiting staff, sophisticated table settings (not necessarily starched tablecloths, but decent quality cutlery and glassware, perhaps with flowers and candles on the tables), and elegantly presented, good-quality food from an experienced, reliable chef.
- Get free publicity wherever you can. Invite the food writer at the local paper to visit the pub for a drink or a meal. Suggest ideas for stories he might like to write concerning the pub industry. If your pub gets a good review, create a poster that shows off the review in an attractive way, distribute it around the locality and put it up in the pub. Print a mini version of the poster and put it on the back of your menu so that your quality is confirmed to new customers.
- Advertise with Incentives. When advertising in local newspapers, free-sheets, local directories, parish magazines etc. offer a discount on production of the advertisement (say 10% off food – not a large cost to you, but it will be attractive to potential customers). Collect names and email addresses for future marketing.
- Consider joining one of the online booking services, such as Top Table. This will bring you to the attention of travellers from other areas who might not otherwise find you, and you can also offer special deals through the site. This can be a two-edged sword though, as the site will also carry reviews by your diners – but if you offer high-quality service and excellent food, good reviews will boost your reputation
- When you re-decorate or revamp the pub (even if only slightly), hold a “new image” party, inviting local press, radio, community dignitaries, neighbours, and previous customers from your database. Use the party to show off your new premises, promote new drinks, and launch a fresh menu.
These have been just a few ideas to help you get started – why not try brainstorming some more? If you are short of ideas yourself, try brainstorming with your employees, or your family and friends. Probably the best marketing ideas for pubs will be those you think of yourself. Try out the really cool software at www.clientmagnetmarketing.com which is used by a lot of successful pub owners. It also comes with a really big Client Magnet ebook full of over 130 marketing ideas.
Filed under Retail Marketing by on Apr 16th, 2010. Comment.
Hey,
I’ve just been testing out the marketing ideas brainstorm software and thought I might give you one example of what a result would bring up and how it could help your business.
I hit the start button and up popped the following.
So, we’re gong to attract business executives, via your web site and offer them a breakfast club event. How could you tailor your product or service to business executives. Remember, they’ve got a high disposable income, great! Your web site could have a specific area that tailors your product to this target audience and a breakfast club could be an ideal way for them to come together. By offering the breakfast club, you’d also get them networking with other executives which would be a bonus. You could head up the talk on your product or service.
Now I don’t want to get you too excited, but this is just one campaign idea out of 50,000 that the software will offer and that will build month after month. Please use the comment box below to throw around some other ideas on how this could be adapted for your business. Remember, that the software is aimed to get your creativity flowing, so while you may not think that this spin will apply to your business, it would be worth having another brainstorm to really think about it. Delve deeper. It would actually be interesting if you don’t think it will apply to your sector to put it in the comments below and see what others think… I think the forum will be good for that…
Happy brainstorming!
Don’t worry, the official testing will start soon!
Please do join the facebook marketing ideas community here and let your business friends know about what’s around the corner!
Simon
Filed under Marketing Brainstorm Spins by on Apr 13th, 2010. Comment.
