What if there was a system that could help you develop a continuous stream of solid referrals and all you had to do is set it up one time, add contacts as you receive them and few clicks of the mouse start your referral building process?
Continue Reading Add comment October 30th, 2008
On Thursday Oct 30 12:00 Eastern Diane Walker, Senior Executive with SendOutCards will be hosting a webinar on how to use the SendOutCards system to create residual income as well as how stay in touch with clients and customers – high touch marketing in a high tech world.
In addition to this event, on Friday November 7th at 11 AM Eastern you are also invited to attend, ”How to Create a Follow-up System to Save You Time AND Grow Your Business” featuring Heidi Caswell and Heidi Richards Mooney (The Follow-Up Divas).
In this teleseminar, the Follow-Up Divas will talk about the importance of staying in touch with your clients, and how to effectively stay in touch with them without spending a lot of money. They will talk about a variety of stay in touch mechanisms such as email, telephone and greeting/postcard and other direct marketing ideas. You will learn new strategies for following up with leads that can save you time and money and create loyal customers and clients for life.
Note: everyone who attends both events will receive a special gift in the mail!
To RSVP, email heidi@successandthensome.com with SOC Webinar in the subject line to receive webinar links and info to attend the teleseminar.
Add comment October 28th, 2008
Staying in touch with your clients and customers should be an integral part of your marketing plan. In fact, it should be one most important activities that you do. In fact, there are several ways you can touch your customers from phone calls, to emails to snail mail campaigns.
Here are the ways we stay in touch with our retail floral customers:
1. We use postcards for those we have not heard from in 6 months or more.
2. We call those we have not heard from in a year.
3. We send bi weekly emails with specials.
4. We have a quarterly newsletter - Ramblin’ Rose which we send with specials, tips, flowers trivia and more.
5. And we send flowers to those customers who are the most frequent purchasers.
6. We also have a “weekly drawing” of our customer database and send them flowers to say HI.
7. Once a year we send a holiday CD filled with our specials (late November).
8. And I randomly go through our list and send thank you notes for our customers’ business once a month.
Here’s what we do to stay in touch with the members of the Women’s eCommerce Association:
1. We host monthly events which are both educational, informational events that our members attend. At the same time, have the opportunity to stick around after the sessions and chat among themselves and very often with the guests we invite to share their success stories.
2. We publish and distribute a bi-weekly ezine called eMonday News.
3. We also publish a digital magazine ~ WE Magazine for Women - for the Total Woman - filled with excellent articles about wealth, travel, business, women, balance and relationships… and much more.
4. We have a network on LinkedIn that we just started where our members can post questions, answer questions, share expertise, and get to know one another.
5. We also host bi-annual summits on a variety of topics which is a great way to reach out to our members – the most recent was “How to Grow a Million Dollar Business” Summit.
How do you stay in touch? Feel free to leave your comments and share your story.
1 comment October 14th, 2008
October is….
Diversity Awareness Month – if you don’t have the opportunity to travel to far off lands, get involved in a community organization where the participants are ethnically or spiritually different from you. Join an organization such as sister cities and get to know about our world.
National Book Month - Host a book fair, invite a local author to do a book signing, collect books for a local school or library. Read a good book in your industry and write about it in your newsletter. Have a recommended reading section of your newsletter and on your website and announce your picks for the latest books. Or you can do what my friend Susan does and be a volunteer reader for a book critic for a local newspaper. You get to write a brief summary of what the book is about and rate it.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Volunteer with the American Cancer Society (ACS) or Gilda’s Club (or other similar organization whose purpose it to raise awareness of and to help women with breast cancer). How does this help you market your company? Well, I have been a volunteer with ACS for 17+ years now and started out in fundraising, moved on to programs and services and then began teaching their “triple touch” program to women in my community. I am now a “Triple Touch Training Instructor” and teach the teachers. Although it is not meant to be a marketing ploy - by being involved in a community organization that appeals to many, not only do we make lifelong friends - people learn about my company and quite often become my customers.
Women’s Small Business Month - Do what the WECAI Network™ did and host an event in celebration of Women. It was “How to Grow a Million Dollar Business (with pre and post events too). The event features wealth experts in prosperity, million dollar marketing to the affluent, million dollar networking, million dollar publicity and more! You can check it out at WHEREWOMENPROSPER.com. Contact experts you know (or have heard of) and invite them to participate.
2 comments October 4th, 2008
Not long ago on the Real Women, Real Success Forum on RYZE the question was posed: What has been your BEST promotion EVER?
Here’s what I wrote:
To date, GETING OUT OF THE DOGHOUSE has been our best promotion. It is a long story, however it all started when we did a survey of 1000+ men and women asking them who was in the doghouse more (as if we didn’t already know!)
Here’s the headline of the press release with the results of the survey:
“Men Say Buy Her Something…. Women Say Give Him Sex
Survey - reveals talking isn’t the only way to settle disagreements!”
To read it, visit:
http://www.edenflorist.com/doghousepressrelease.asp
Here are some of the things we did to promote it…
We hosted a contest for the best “get out of the doghouse story” http://www.edenflorist.com/doghousecontestweb.asp and http://www.edenflorist.com/doghousestories.asp
I wrote several articles and submitted them to the media (we got in all the local media, several magazines and even some national newspapers). Here’s an article: http://www.edenflorist.com/doghousearticle.asp
We hired a local student to dress up as Scooby Do and went to the local radio and tv stations with cookies in the shape of “dog buscuits” - getting us lots of coverage! A local supermarket made them for us (about 500).
And we created a National Holiday in honor of Getting out of the Doghouse - July is now known as “National Doghouse Repairs Month” and the 3rd Monday in July is “Get out of the Doghouse Day.” We received proclamations from city and county mayors to commemorate the day.
If you have any questions about the contest or what else we did, I am happy to share it with you.
The real trick is to “think big!” Interviewing 1000 people was no small task, but it was do-able. We asked people as they came into our shop, we called our customers and surveyed them on the phone, we emailed them, we even walked around trade shows with clipboards and surveyed folks to reach our numbers. When I was travelling, I would ask the airline personel of Southwest Airlines if they would make an annoucement that a passenger was looking to interview people about getting out of the Doghouse. They were more than happy to ablige (I love Southwest!) and I was the most popular person on most of the flights - it was great fun!
Hope this inspires you to come up with a few great promos of your own.
1 comment September 27th, 2008
This week on HER Mastermind Network http://hermastermind-network.ryze.com/ Leah posed the following questions to the group:
What if all your marketing efforts and intentions were returned to you tenfold this week? What if this week was the next great shift forward in your business?
What would you feel like?
And, what would YOU do next to take action for your business?
HERE IS MY RESPONSE:
If my marketing efforts returned tenfold this week then I would have 11,840 new customers! Whoohooo!
Last week we sent out letters to 37 local restaurants introducing them to my company. In the letter we offered the manager a gift certificate for one dozen roses, we also gave them six certificates for half-dozen roses and included 25 certificates for a free bouquet of flowers.
We invited them to keep the dozen roses for themselves, give the six half-dozens to their best customers and the rest to any customer they choose. We also told them to call us when they ran out of the free bouquets so we could send them more. So 37 restaurants X 32 coupons = 1184 x 10 = 11,840!
I don’t know what the outcome will be because they will just receive them today or tomorrow. Will let you know.
I can tell you we did a similar campaign years ago to less restaurants with excellent results.
Which is why we are doing it again. You see, one of the things I teach my clients is to review their marketing and look for those things that have worked in the past with fair to good results. If the CAMPAIGNS paid for themselves and added to their customer/client base, then look at the campaign to see if it is something they could modify and replicate.
So we took our own advice. Our next action will be to follow up with the managers and listen to their thoughts about the offer. We will undoubtedly pick up some new restaurants and hopefully tap into their customer base as well.
Add comment September 26th, 2008
Looking for ideas to write about in articles, on your blog or in your EZINE?
Use the Calendar!
Here’s one that I use – http://www.brownielocks.com.
I search for news about the day, ask friends, find the flowers, people and uses for…. Or ways to celebrate and the result is an example of a post I did about Wear Purple Day:
Today is Wear Purple Day!
Why was purple worn by royalty? Mainly because purple dyes were so hard to make. Using lichen, the plant had to react with ammonia (this meant urine in ancient days) and sit out in the air for 2 weeks. Then it was mixed with pot ash to be used as a dye. This was much harder than just boiling berries or leaves for other colors, so purple dye was only for the wealthy. Today, all you have to do is spill some grape kool-aid and everything turns purple.
More about the color purple:
The earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of purple dyes points to the Minoan civilization in Crete, about 1900 B.C. The ancient land of Canaan (its corresponding Greek name was Phoenicia, which means “land of the purple”) was the center of the ancient purple dye industry. Tyrian Purple,” the purple dye of the ancients mentioned in texts dating back to about 1600 B.C., was produced from the mucus of the hypobranchial gland of various species of marine mollusks, notably Murex. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye. Legend credits its discovery to Herakles, or rather to his dog, whose mouth was stained purple from chewing on snails along the Levantine coast. King Phoenix received a purple-dyed robe from Herakles and decreed the rulers of Phoenicia should wear this color as a royal symbol.
According to one article in Paper, Film and Foil Converter Rome, Egypt, and Persia all used purple as the imperial standard. Purple dyes were rare and expensive; only the rich had access to them. The purple colorants used came from different sources, most from the dye extraction from fish or insects.
The imperial purple of Rome was based on mollusk from which purpura comes. Emperor Aurelian refused to let his wife buy a purpura-dyed silk garment, as it cost its weight in gold!
An interesting article on About.com says “Purple is often associated with Royalty and Spirituality: Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality. The opposites of hot red and cool blue combine to create this intriguing color.” … giving purple both cool and warm properties.
Purple is also associated with creativity and imagination. However too much purple can lead to moodiness and disharmony.
Other Purple facts:
Purple has been long associated as the color of mourning for widows in Thailand.
The Purple Heart is given to U.S. Military soldiers wounded in battle.
Oprah Winfrey got an Oscar for her role in the movie “The Color Purple” which was based upon the book of the same title by Alice Walker.
The rock star Prince played the lead in the 1984 movie Purple Rain. The film was very successful earning nearly US$100 million at the box office. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
There’s a book called Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium by Judith Herrin about, three Byzantine empresses–Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora and how they changed history (In the eighth and ninth centuries). Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come.
According to Everything2.com “Contrary to popular opinion, the word “purple” does have rhymes in the English language. In fact, there are two rhyming words, abet words that aren’t used in today’s vernacular. Hirple is a British word, which means “to walk lamely or hobble”. Curple is a word out of Scotland, which refers to the hindquarters of a horse.”
Nature is abundant with purple flowers: In fact, purple flowers are among the most popular with both men and women. Some purple (and shades of purple) flowers include Iris, Roses, Carnations, Dianthus, Violets, Sweet William, Daisies, Allium, Status, Hibiscus, Orchids, Morning Glories, Tulips, Crocus, Hydrangea, Lilac, Peonies, Liatris, Pansies, Wisteria, Stock, Larkspur, Chrysanthemums, Eryngium and Alstromeria to name a few.
In fact, in the past 2.5 years I have designed more purple themed wedding and bridal decorations than at any other time in my 27+ years as a florist.
From this post you may guess that one of my favorite colors is PURPLE! I love the way it makes me feel inside and out. Looking at it makes me smile and wearing it makes me feel special. How about you? Will you be wearing purple today? And what is YOUR favorite color?
For more ideas, get your FREE Copy of the 2008 Edition of Your Marketing Calendar TODAY!
Add comment September 9th, 2008
September is National Coupon Month – Recently a customer called about a coupon he got in the mail. The coupon was for cut flowers and the value was $5. He called to ask if we honored other companies’ coupons. I immediately said yes! Why, you ask? The other company paid good money to advertise his product and the customer called my florist. I was closer geographically and he did not have an allegiance to any shop (up to that point).
By honoring the coupon, not only does my company gain a new customer, we probably gain one for life! And it only cost us $5… not bad. According to marketing experts it costs up to six times to get a new customer as it does to keep the ones you currently have. So when one “falls in your lap” with little effort on your part, it’s a GIFT. After all, if grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail establishments can honor other companies’ coupons, why couldn’t a smaller business do the same? And you don’t have to be retail, if you provide a service and you are looking for new business, what a great way to encourage people to give your service a try. So, if you have a coupon from another florist and you want to redeem it at my shop 
the answer is absolutely, “We’d be delighted to honor it!
Small Businesses can use big business marketing tactics to grow their business and add to their bottom line. What other BIG BUSINESS marketing ideas have you seen that you could adapt to your own small business?
I’d love to hear from you!
1 comment September 6th, 2008
Last week I received a pleasant surprise in the mail. It was from OPEN American Express. Generally speaking, when a credit card company sends you something in the mail it is either a Congratulations, you have qualified for a new Credit Card from (insert name of company here); It is a letter telling you your credit limit has been raised; or It is a letter telling you that you have qualified for a low interest “loan” or balance transfer offer.
American Express did something I found to be much more appealing. They sent a deck of cards (5 to be exact) and on each of them was advice to help you in various aspects of your business.
No selling, just sharing. A great marketing model in this day of in-your-face advertising.
Here’s what they shared:
● QUICK TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE
This card gave an overview of what the other cards were about…. And gave a link to download the Complete Online Marketing Guide from America Express OPEN including expert advice, success stories and online resources at www.openforum.com/onlinemarketing
● GET PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
● THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
This card shared the story of The Zingerman’s Deli owners Ari and Paul and their experience with paid search advertising when they worked with an outside company to create the campaign.
● HOW TO USE SEARCH-ENGINE MARKETING ~ FOR FREE
This card talked about “natural search” marketing with tips on how to optimize your website to appear more frequently in search results including choosing the right keywords and key phrases. OPEN suggests you begin with a broad list of about 50 words that describe your product or service from every angle, be as specific as possible in using words unique to your company, use wordtracker.com to find out the frequency certain keywords and key phrases are searched.
● DESIGN A WEBSITE THAT WORKS
This card talked about website usability, functionality and appeal. Questions asked included: Is your site simple to understand and easy to navigate? Does it load quickly enough to keep the customer’s attention, Is it interesting? Is it easy for customers to contact you?
Each of these cards gave VALUE to the receiver and food for thought and steps to take action. I found the campaign interesting and informative without being boring. Not your typical white paper or special report!
How could you use this type of marketing campaign to GROW YOUR BUSINESS? Are Cards in your future? If so, Redhead Marketing can help you create them. We have created marketing cards for networking events, for incentive packs and for other business and social functions.
We can create marketing card packs, blog sites, websites and other marketing campaigns for your websites.
Contact us at heidi (at) redheadmarketingblog.com or 954… or 877 Wisdom 7 (877…).
1 comment August 11th, 2008
Want your Email Read? Follow These 7 Tips for Successful Communications
Email was designed as a two way communications tool. It is meant for quick, simple communication. First and foremost, Make sure that email is the appropriate method for communicating your message. If you have a sensitive or confidential matter for instance, email may not be the best method of communication. Once you have determined that email is the best form of communication for a particular issue, the following tips will help you get your email read and responded to.
Follow these 7 Tips for email success:
1. Be concise. E-mail is immediate. The reader is more apt to scan a long message than read the entire thing. This can result in miscommunication as well as missing important “action items” which you need responded to. Keep your message to one screen or less.
2. Use short lines (65 characters or less) for the body of your message. Many successful ezines use this strategy with great results. The authors know that longer lines are more difficult for the eye to follow, and in many cases, impossible for your reader’s display to accommodate.
3. Write in bullet points – this makes it easier for the reader to retain the information.
4. Give background information when responding to email. By including text from the original message you let your reader know what message you are referring to. Be sure to only include the parts to which you are referring and edit the parts that are irrelevant or trivial.
5. Use a Headline in the subject line – one that grabs the recipient’s attention and tells her/him what the email is about.
6. Don’t overdo the icons – if your email is a business communication, smiley faces may be seen as unprofessional to the receiver.
7. Use spell check – to be seen as professional, check the spelling of your message before hitting the send button.
Add comment August 9th, 2008
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