Blog

Effective marketing and successful gardening work the same way.

A cactus and a fern are both plants, but if you plant your cactus in the shade and water it as much as you water your fern, it will die. Similarly, if you plant your fern in scorching full sun and water it once a month, you've got yourself a dead fern.

Wouldn't it be great if you could make a sale after just one well-done sales presentation?  

Typically, your salesperson puts all their energy into doing a great job of the initial sales presentation and then follows up with one phone call or email. That's it. The prospect doesn't buy, and your salesperson believes they are not interested in your product or service and gives up on them. That's how most businesses lose money.

Would you be surprised if I told you direct mail gives you a higher return on your investment (ROI) than digital ads? You might be thinking – are you kidding?! That's as outdated and old school as playing music on a cassette player or using an overhead projector for a business presentation!

When you started your business, a simple spreadsheet was enough to keep track of your customer information. Then you brought more staff on board. Your receptionist might have had an excellent memory and liked to store some data in her head, other information in her email files, and keep a few paper files. Your sales representative may have kept a spreadsheet. Maybe your accountant kept a stack of invoices in a file folder.

Advertising is evolving so fast! Marketing moved from traditional mediums to almost exclusively online interactions. Soon, press and print will fade into obscurity. Okay, I'm just joking. As a person who uses online advertising daily alongside thousands of marketing professionals all over the world, 

Nowadays it is important to have a strong online presence to be able to sell your products and services. Now the question you probably have is  “How do I get noticed?” in all the noise and clutter?

Let’s face it, we are completely bombarded with marketing every day. Everywhere we go, anytime we watch TV, every time we look something up online – there are ads. So, as an advertiser or marketer, it can be very challenging to stand out from the crowd and make people look at your ad. Welcome to the world of shock advertising!

The world of marketing can be a creative place where you can play with new or unique ideas to advertise a product or service. The downside is that some companies and marketing teams can get a little…carried away. Having a good reality check once in a while can be a very good thing to prevent some of the worst faux pas and marketing mistakes. I have some great examples to share with you on this!

Marketing is the craft of collecting people’s attention and holding it as long as possible. Most of the marketing managers totally miss the last part of the definition and concentrate on grabbing the customer’s attention for a short time. Building brand loyalty, interacting with customers over a long time, collecting relevant data – successful completion of these tasks separates an amateur marketing professional and the real pros.

Client Relationships Management (CRM) software is a great tool for interacting with your clientele and analyzing their buying/interaction patterns. To the inexperienced eye, a CRM might look intimidating, but it is an absolute blessing for an experienced marketer like me. CRMs are ideal for automating your sales process, keeping customers and prospects in the content loop and often dealing with the day to day tasks in your company.