Marketing your business or organization

When most people think of Marketing they think of sales, but sales is only part of the story.

My first excursion into marketing was to take a failing non-profit organization and increase their membership by ten times.  That was 20 years BI, before internet.  I used direct mail and bought mailing lists from magaizines that catered to people interested in Hawaii.  Some lists were better than others which just proves the importance of testing each ad.

Now we have the internet and we can reach people all over the world.

First, every organization needs a website.  But a website is like a super market in the desert.  People have to find it.  You have to attract visitors to your site.  When they visit, you have to get contact information and then you have to stay in touch.

Second, the key to successful interest marketing is creating a relationship with your visitors.  They have to know, like and trust you before they will do business with you. Provide them information they want and need and they will keep coming back to your web site.   Do not bombard your customers with typical advertising.  Just let them know you are think of them and they are important to you.  Limit your sales pitch to less than 20% of you blog or your website.  1 in 5 contacts can be a sales message.

Third, use direct mail. Send birthday cards, anniversary cards and cards for special occasions.  Remember, appreciation wins over self promotion every time.  Throughout history successful people have written note cards to their friends.  The more cards, the more friends.  Now the internet makes sending a personalized greeting card easy.  Create the card with your message and your pictures with your computer and have SendOutCards print it and mail it for you.  Direct mail, properly focused, is an important part of your marketing plan.

How do you get visitors to your site?  That will be the subject of my next post, but like all good serials I leave you with some hints.

• an opt-in list is vital.  The money is in the list.
• an autoresponder makes it easy to feed information to your visitors and to do email blasts with special information.
• A conference room where your friends, custormers or members can hold virtual meetings helps you get your message out and is a place where people can get acquainted and build relationships.
• Video is king.  Video holds people on your site and search engines respond to the length of visits.
• Blogging helps people get to know you.