How do your prospects know about you? Are you persistent and consistent with your artillery: touches, message and efforts? There are many tools to keep in front of your prospects; CRM or tickler system, phone calls, follow up emails, personal notes/cards and various other tools including special offerings and promotions. This is the Marketing process; making the prospect aware of who you are and what you sell. They should get right to the edge of being slightly annoyed... the one thing it shows the prospect is that you want their business. 

When you have a client that is upset and/or emotional, this is an opportunity to connect at a much deeper level, and possibly create a very memorable impression. This includes when we may have made a mistake, miscommunication has occurred, or perhaps we cannot deliver something we promised on time. Obviously we do not want to make a habit of it, but problems can also represent important opportunities if we can rise to the occasion and solve them. The key in such cases is clarity, communication and an obvious show of concern, focus and action. When emotions are running high, the pros separate themselves from the pack.

The mail list, the offer and the creative. The rule is 40/40/20. The mail list is responsible for 40% of the success of the campaign, the offer is responsible for 40% and the creative 20%. If you do not have the right audience, your offer is useless. Make sure you are "talking" to prospects that understand the offer and will see value in it. If you do not have the right offer, the audience is not going to matter. Audience and offer are directly dependent on each other. If you are selling lawn maintenance services or invisible fencing, make sure you are talking to people who live in single family homes, and hopefully own them; not apartment renters. The 20% creative is the art; make sure it is attractive, noticeable and easy to understand. 

We all know the most cost efficient way to grow business is through referrals from current clients, friends, family, colleagues. Your circle of influence, especially current clients, should be your extended sales force, whether they know it or not. Remind them that if they are happy with your services, tell others and offer them an incentive: a dinner for two, tickets to an event, etc. Also, ask your clients for business/contacts they think may benefit from your products and/or services.  

Newsletters are a subtle way of staying in front of your clients and prospects. Newsletters should be entertaining and add value to the relationship. Newsletters are not for selling or hand slapping. Some fun features are local events and things to do, activities for children, brain teasers, jokes or recipes. Get your audience involved. Offer a gift certificate or prize for replying with the correct answer to the riddle. Or, ask your prospects to send you their favorite recipe. And, last but not least, highlight a non-profit cause in your neighborhood and challenge folks to make a donation and/or get involved. 

I have heard USP used two ways: unique selling proposition, or unique selling position; I am not sure that it really matters. What really matters is what sets you apart from your competition. Sometimes, this takes some digging and intense shoveling to get to the bottom; the roots and the foundation. This is usually very difficult in a commodity market. Why should your client buy toilet paper from you? You can buy toilet paper anywhere. Is it the price? Price does not make you different; everyone can negotiate price. Is it your free delivery? Everyone offers "free" delivery. Is it your charming personality? Or is it your extra soft, extra absorbent, bio-degradable material that turns into money? 

Brand can encompass logos or symbols, name, slogans or taglines, a musical jingle, a color scheme, packing designs, staff demeanor or uniforms. Brand Identity is important because it connects you to the marketplace, sets you apart from competition and helps consumers make decisions. How do you develop identity? Have a clear and consistent message and make sure you keep your brand in front of your prospects and clients. Brand is the whole enchilada; identity is having it picked out of a line up. 

A successful marketing strategy demands a written plan; well thought over a fixed period of time. You will not receive immediate results; marketing is not magic. (If you receive immediate results, you may want to rethink your offer and/or make sure your business is not drowning.) If you are inconsistent with your message or approach, you are weakening the chance of a positive result. Design a plan that includes multiple ways of staying in front of your prospects and clients that includes a variety of approaches; a phone call, an email, a personal handwritten note, a direct mail piece with a special offer, an invitation to an event, a gift of tickets to a special game or theater production, an article that would interest them, etc... If you are targeting prospects you will not have a lot of personal information, therefore you may want to educate them on who you are and what you do, then the irresistible offer. 

You collect it. It is cumbersome, painful and time consuming, but it will not get done any other way. How do you know what your model client "is" if you do not collect information on all of your buyers? How are you going to target and attract others with similar demographics? Business owners like to guess and they really think they know what their target audience "is" without collecting data. But, you don't know what you don't know. Devise a systematic method of collecting information on your clients: what items they like to purchase, favorite colors, fabrics, how often you see them, their birthday, what is their price point, how they like to pay, favorite brands or exclusive lines, etc...

A study performed by CAP Ventures shows that response rates using variable date improve 38%, response time improves by 40%, and retention improves by 48%. Variable data printing creates marketing materials that have value to the consumer. Even transactional materials such as financial statements are kept and read because they speak directly to their audience. Pay attention to the mail you receive; did they use your name, did they utilize your buying habits and patterns?