Buzz Bacon says: Fry, fry and fry again. Persistence and sizzle pay off!

How consistently do you market your services? Do you even have a marketing plan? Or are you like most businesses who rely on a combination of word-of-mouth,  occasional bulk mail and networking when money and time permits? Great marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune. The secret is to get the right message to the right people on a consistent basis. And to do that you need a plan and a process that ensures you are regularly promoting yourself (and your positioning message) to people who will be interested.

Assuming you’ve created a sound marketing strategy (as outlined above), creating an implementation plan is quite easy. All you need is a calendar and about 30 minutes to plan. On your calendar, you want to plan three types of marketing activities:

• Activities to open doors with new clients, bring new faces through the door
  
• Activities to expand relationships with existing clients, schmoozing? Yes! Treat these folks like the special people they are!
  
• Activities to improve your ‘candidate’ relationships – people you want to do business with, but aren’t yet ‘biting’.

On your calendar, (see our other posts about the many benefits of Gmail) you should outline one thing you will do each month for each type of activity. For example, you could:

• Visit businesses around you with samples.  Let them meet you and taste something you’re known for.
  
• Send a card or personal note to build relationships and keep yourself top-of-mind.  When was the last time you received a HAND WRITTEN note card?  – think about the business leaders who visit, the Chief of Police who might need a place to schedule a meeting, your personal banker, the president of a local PTA or private school… think local, think managers.
  
• Follow up on every special event with a phone call.  That 3 minutes is invaluable for future business
  
• Attend a networking event or better yet create your own networking event – have a monthly gathering
  
• Host a dinner, lunch or tasting on a seasonally appropriate item. Have the Chef visit tables to create the rapport
  
• Conduct a survey – Follow-up with those valuable existing customers to verify their satisfaction. Plenty of Internet services do this – perhaps right through your web site
  
• Send Email postcards as a fun and inexpensive way to stay in-touch or promote your specials.  Constant Contact has great templates and an easy way to track your data base.
  
• Create an SHORT e-mail newsletter on your monthly special – include a recipe! Again, Constant Contact allows you to do this in minutes.
  

While this is a very short list of the many possibilities, the focus is on doing just a couple of things monthly – every month whether you’re in the mood or not!  You should not expect to see results from your marketing efforts for at least 6 months…. but the great thing is – nothing I mentioned would cost over $15 a month -  most are just time and effort! So what are you waiting for?

If you’re like most business owners you can think of a million things to do.  Ideas abound! But you can’t find the time to be consistent.  Call us, we can help!