Deceasing, or increasing, your marketing budget may not be the
best solution for problem times. Maybe you should use your current budget
better rather than throwing more money into your efforts. Work smarter not harder. This is
a rule that should apply to everything that you do in business, including your
marketing. Using the correct tools is working smarter, especially when it may
be easier, faster, and make you look better to your clients.
We all need to take an intelligent look at our marketing
budgets and how we are applying those budgets to maximize our return on
investment (ROI). Just as we should maximize the return on investment on all
our expenses, hardware, software, furniture, equipment, every expense that we
have, we need to do the same with our marketing budgets.
So how does Gratitude Marketing apply to marketing budgets
and maximizing our return on investment? Sometimes the simpler methods are the
most reasonably priced and the easier ones to implement and use. Tom Hopkins,
the author of How to Master the Art of
Selling, advocates the art of the thank you. Simply, he encourages everyone
to thank everyone
for whatever they may do.
Everyone includes anyone that you do business with, your
customers, your suppliers, your contacts, businesses that you patronize each
and every day, people that you meet, whether on purpose or by chance. How does
this help improve your customer base? Maybe these people become customers;
maybe they know others that can become customers; maybe they just become your
networking partners.
The list of people to thank can be long. It includes your
daily contacts, no matter the subject of any conversation. It also includes
contacts after a marketing call on your or their part. It includes customers
after their initial purchase, and after a repurchase. Perhaps a customer sends
you a referral who might become your new customer; perhaps they introduce you
to a new supplier who saves you money on their product or service. Maybe the
recipient of your thank you is just someone who has touched you, or someone you
know, in a special way.
Don’t forget to include people who you have not connected
with in some time, and don’t forget to include the contacts that fail to become
customers. They will appreciate your efforts and remember you when someone else
needs your service or product. Have we left anyone out of this list? Everyone
includes everyone
that you know or that you meet or you remember in a moment of reflection.
Isn’t this expensive; doesn’t this cost money, time, and
effort? Yes and no. It might replace a marketing effort that costs a lot more
and brings you nothing in return. It might take less time and effort than you
believe. Look at everything in your marketing plans with the return on
investment question in your mind. Then look at the public perception of you and
your business. What people believe you to be will shape their future business
with you.
People do business with those that they know, trust, and
perhaps like. Maybe you need to use that philosophy in building your client
base, retaining the clients that you have, and obtaining referrals from those
people that you know. It will make a difference in your business life. In
addition it will make a difference in your personal life; the two are more
connected than you think.
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