Creating Goodwill and Customer Satisfation When Communicating With Clients

When communicating with customers it is very important for them to know that you appreciate their business. Make them feel like they are getting more than just your product or service. There are a couple ways to achieve this.

1) Building Goodwill: This will increase the likelihood of your writing being successful in getting through to the customer.How exactly do you build goodwill?

• Thank the reader.
• Acknowledge the readers role in the exchange.
• Acknowledge any obstacles .

2) Customer Satisfaction: This is a very significant part of any business. You must emphasize the customers importance in your writing. Let them know what is going on in the transaction and let them know what all their options are. Let them know where they stand and stress that their satisfaction is a priority.

All these things build help build a good relationship with clients, creating a loyal customer base.

The Marketing Saga: Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjNDE2fMjI

As discussed in the previous blog, the marketing team of the Twilight Saga knew exactly what they were doing when they played to their consumer, and came prepared knowing their consumers wants. But choosing the right consumer is the most important step in your marketing career. Think about it. If the multi-million dollar fictional love story had been directed at middle-aged men, would it have been a success? No.

The ever growing demographic of children and young adults has been a powerhouse in the consumer's world. Not only that, but if your 12 year old daughter came home one day talking about the romance between vampires, you would feel the need to approve the story for yourself, to ensure that nothing inappropriate is in the context. After watching the trailer, it might still seem a little iffy, and you would ask other parents what they thought about the acceptability of the film and book series (creating word of mouth, promoting your client). You would also go see the movie for yourself (improving revenue and statistics). When you target young consumers, you also directly involve their parents, who have the majority of the purchasing power.

Sales!

This cartoon depicts how easily sold most people can be. In these tough times people flock to sales, and one of the easiest way to attract people to a product is to put it on promotion. It takes time to research what will work, because each product is different. So get ready to create a plan, and start marking down! Listed below are some additional sites that may help you creat some sort of promotional plan.

http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/advertising/a/promos.htm

http://www.writerswrite.com/bookpromotion/keyelements.htm

Keeping Your Company in The Spotlight During Tough Times

When it comes down to marketing, their is only one way to forsee the future potenial of a products' market share; that is to look at the elasticity of demand. After a firm decides what to produce and whom it will serve, accuratly estimating demand is extremly important to the scheduling of and intial enterance for the product.

Once a marketer can accuractly identify the market segment that the product must be sold to; then the process of identifying the elsaticity of demand for a product can begin.

How ToDetermine Elasticity of Demand:

- Estimate the number of consumers in the market

- Average number of product bought by the consumer annually

- Total annual market demand

- Company's predicted market share

-Annual, monthly, and weekly company demand.

The final and ultimate goal in this process is to take the information from above and use it to create a congruent price elasticity of demand.

Let The NUMBERS do The Talking

These days with the global economy in its current state, everyone is looking at the numbers. The numbers on their bank account, their bills, and in their wallets. Everyone seems to be in a struggle, trying to make ends meet. This is the time for companies to market the right goods, to the right customers, at the right prices.

Take a look at the picture for a typified example. Subway is well know pizza company that is now baking subs. Not only do these subs beat subway in taste 2:1, but also have matched the "five dollar foot-long" price. To add insult to injury theirs sells for $4.99.

All of these corporations use numbers to communicate a message to their customers. 5 dollars for a good meal begs at people and their wallets. Using statistics and numbers to communicate exactly what is going on is a successful marketing tool. You need to show your boss, co-workers and customers the numbers.

Be Creative

Take a step out of the box with your ideas. Look at how Apple has been so successful with its Ipod ads. They are different and catchy, and that's what the customer will ultimately remember. Same with Budweiser their Superbowl commercials are ones that people talk about for weeks if they are funny. So remember to think outside the norm, and if a idea comes to your brain tell someone! It could be the start of a great marketing campaign.

The Marketing Saga: Part I

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, I'm sure you have been wondering what the heck "Twilight" is, and all about this Edward Cullen character that seems to be on everyone's minds...and shirts. A book series about young love and the legends of vampires has utterly captivated pop culture like no story has been able to do since the "Harry Potter" saga. But how was a simple novel able to become a such a multi-million dollar empire, box office number one, and an everyday reference that seems inescapable? Two simple ways. The first is by remembering the very most powerful marketing connoisseur to ever live: the consumer. (The second way will be found in next weeks blog).

Play to your consumer:
-If you were trying to market denture cream, would you go to Toys-r-Us? No. You would market your product at drug stores and advertise through retirement corporations. It is vital that at all times you remember who your client is, and what they expect in the areas of sales. You cannot achieve these high sales if you remain safe and generic, marketing to the general public. Targeting is essential. When "Twilight" first stepped on to the scene, it made a splash in bookstores by being placed on center tables in the Teenage Fiction isle, which was exactly Stephenie Meyer's target audience (for reasons to be discussed in next weeks blog). An eye catching cover and impossible to miss placing grabbed readers attention enough for Stephenie Meyer's writing to do the rest. This is exactly your job as a marketing professional: placing the product right into the path of consumers enough for it to do it's job. Never forget the power you have to begin the next phenomenon as a marketer.

Marketing: The Good The Bad & The Ugly

Marketing is a valuable tool for any company, but it's also valuable to everyday people. Marketers are valuable to society in that they help shape long and short term trends, or at least they try. In many ways people are at the mercy of marketers; there is a certain trust people place with marketing professionals to sell them safe and quality products that perform up to par. Businesses often place tremendous pressure on marketers to get the word out about products so that sales and profit margins will be at or above the notorious break-even point. An aftermath of this pressure is often unethical business practices. We have observed this most recently with the downfall of the energy giant Enron and who could forget about the Bernie Madoff scandal. One way that marketing professionals can avoid falling suspect to such practices is by re-enforcing ethical practices and social responsibility in the workplace.

Marketing can lead to good and bad consequences in society. Good results of marketing are that of campaigns and sales designed to help raise money for cancer research or D.A.R.E products. These sales often promote uplifting messages that are spread to and well used by everyday people. Anti-drug and alcohol commercials are another example of how marketing professionals can play a role in positively influencing society. Bad consequences of marketing are rarely seen but almost always felt. Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on such campaigns which typically involve promoting the sale of tobacco and alcohol. Sometimes these campaigns are even designed to target addicts and the youthful population. The marketing of products that are detrimental to society should be handled carefully and with the consumer's livelihood in mind.

The Value of The Customer

Customers, are the single most sytemically important input for creating and buidling the value of a company. Without the consumer their is no way for a company to be profitable. All successful firms recognize this principle which is known in the marketing world as customer relationship management. This term refers to the special attention that all marketers need to give to the market segment which their company focuses most on for growing profit margins.

Customer relationship management is a way for marketing professionals to build long term relations with the consumer. This philosophy follows that the profitablity of a company will be much greater when the consumer is kept satisfied. It is important to be consistent in creating and communicating value to the customer. There are several way that marketing pros can develope customer relationships.

- Identification of who the customer is
- Personalization, get to know as much about them as possible
- Observation about customer preferences through time
- Interaction with costomers
- Customization of certain aspects of the good or service

In order to stay focused on developing customer relationship, it is important to keep the focus clear. Try coming up with focus questions like, how can I make a positive difference to a single customer? It can be very crucial for marketers to not look at the customer as merely dallor signs; but rather to see them as family, someone you want to see happy with the product or service. Even taking the time to tailor the good or service so that the customer is happy is sometimes necessary.

Goals just aren't for soccer teams.

Everyone dreams of being number one in their trade, climbing to corporate ladder, and surpassing expectations to a new and ground-breaking career choice. Every marketer with that goal can do it. But sometimes knowing where to start is so overwhelmingly impossible that you just can't seem to make your dreams a tangible reality. Here are some ways to set your plan in motion for success

-Write out exactly what your goal is, and what it will entail. Such as: you will soon be working on a project for Company X, and would like to take point on the campaign. This means that your hours will change, and you will be responsible for it's success. This will entail arranging meetings, heading discussions, and dealing with Company X personally.

-Place your bid: Shoot an email to your boss, and state firm reasons why you should be considered for the position. Include how much you have accomplished while working for the company, and some of the ideas you have to work with Company X. Reiterate why you are the ideal candidate to lead this project. Sell yourself, do not allow him to overlook you as just a worker. Be THE worker.

-Be ready! Lots of hard work will be coming your way shortly, and this is your chance to be considered for more opportunities that you would like. If you appear frazzled and disorganized, this may very well be your last opportunity to take lead on a campaign. Have an outline of where to begin, how to create your team, and what should be expected of them. Have a memo ready hand out at your first meeting which will explain all of your expectations, as well as Company X's. Also, prepare yourself mentally to now be a leader instead of a follower.


Remember that unless you set your goals, you will not accomplish anything. You cannot move until you have a destination and a road map to get there. In no time, you will be your bosses new "go-too-guy."

Using Multi-Media to get your Message Across.

In this new age of technological explosion, we see more and more multi-media in our daily lives. There is everything from pop-up advertisements on your p.c to video billboards on the side of highways. In the field of marketing there are many new, innovative and easier ways of communicating with your customers/clients or with your co-workers. Here are a few:

Video

Video can be used anywhere from a well produced clip for your clients to a short video to a co-worker made with a simple web-cam.






Power Points

Excellent for communicating withing the workplace, especially when presenting information.









Images

Getting your message across is the most important thing, weather it be visual, verbal or written.






Sound/Voice Clip

Not only is this useful through telephone messages but also through the internet or e-mail.

Word of Mouth

Remember the little movie Slumdog Millionaire? That little indie film with a minuscule budget that ended up winning almost every award this year, ring a bell? Well how did it become so popular if it had no money to advertise its self? It succeeded because it was good, and everybody told their friends it was good. Something called word of mouth.

Word of mouth marketing is described by Wikipedia as "the passing of information from person to person." Word of mouth usually costs very little, because it is just people talking to other people, and usually starts off with a great product and good marketing campaign. It is a Marketers dream to have people talk to each other about your product, and with the help of the Internet it is easier than ever before to spread the joyful news of satisfied customers.

Sites that are of particular interest include Craigslist, Facebook, and eBay. They facilitate mingling between people, and allow word of mouth marketing to spread to various groups of persons.

Some tips to create a succesful word of mouth campaign.

• Use social networking sites to their full extent. Craigslist estimates that it receives over 9 billion page hits a month which means that there is a lot of potential exposure on these sites.
• Try to look for Trend setters or people who specialize in your products specific topic. Go for people that have lots of networking capabilities. Begin a working relationship with them, and use there established network to spread the word.
• Make your product exclusive. People love being part of something, and if you limit the number of people eligible for it some will run at the chance to be part of this special "club." dangle special limited discounts in front of the customers and they will go crazy.
• Let people be part of the the campaign. Some companies flourish with viral and word of mouth campaigns by letting customers go online and create there own product. It is completely customized, and people really love to share their own creations.
• Focus on a certain group of people, and be successful with them. If they are happy they will spread the word.

Once you unleash your product, and people start talking about it there is no turning back. So do it once and do it right. If so then people will talk. In a good way of course.

The Power of Viral Marketing

I found a great video clip on the power of viral marketing and how it can establish value for you and your company. Viral media is anything that gets passed around on social network such as facebook.com, myspce.com, or even just through email. I made a simple outline of how it works to refresh the steps in your mind after watching the video.

Click on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuo5S1m6Xe4

How Viral Video Marketing Works

Ø Viewer sees the image of the video and Title that appeals to them.
Ø They click on the image to play the video and are even more compelled by the content.
Ø At the end of the video, there is a short ad for a company. In this case, Sonnyradio.com captures a lot of attention and brands the company with this extraordinary media.
Ø After viewing the compelling video, they see the name attached to the video which can be directed to your fan page or homepage. This creates more exposure and attaches specific morals and values personally to you and your business.

This online marketing strategy will create value, helping others to drive traffic to you and your own business as well. I thought this was really cool and will keep this in mind the next time someone sends me an email with a compelling movie. My father will send me movies from his work email which I see have been sent to his coworkers. I thought how interesting it was that my own father uses viral marketing to market himself as the professional he is to his coworkers, friends, and family. He establishes values, which I envision would ascertain himself as a moral-driven employee that his superiors might more so consider for advancement in a situation above other employees that don’t market such compelling media. It might sound unbelievable, but the power of viral marketing works astonishingly fast and usually gets passed on far behind your social network.

So remember, keep your marketing work compelling with value so more people will pass it around!

Video: Marketing Tips: Be Remarkable

This week I have an informational video. Please follow this link to YouTube.
This video states the importance of using new and different mediums to communicate to you customers.

Mediums such as:

• Online Videos
• Websites
• Blogs
• Social Networks
• HTML E-Mails

It also stresses the importance of infusing your companies personality into your message. Try things that other companies may not me using.

Click Here!

Marketing Plan Tips

To often many of us think that we have to outshine others to be noticed right? Wrong. Trying to make sure that you are doing something better than your neighbor will only lead to stressful working, intense weekends, and probably a lost friendship ( they probably won't ever forgive you for that time you shredded up their Marketing plan before the big presentation.) So instead of focusing on what they are doing, why not just make sure you are doing the very best that YOU can do.

Work hard and the rewards will come they say. Be proud of what you put out, and never settle for less than what you know you can do. So what tips can I offer? Lets talk about the Marketing plan, something so very basic, but essentail to the Marketer. These days compitition is fierce, so to make your work stand out here are some basic tips to make sure your marketing plan is good and ready for the boss.

• Be focused. But before you start thinking about ideas, think about your goals. What do you want to get out of this plan? Are you trying to sell something new? reinvent something old? Make tons of sales? Know what your goal is how you will achieve it.
• Choose your audience. Don't think that just because you are youthful and clever means that you will be able to market Shoulder pads to everyone. (There not coming back, get over it). Focus on who will buy this, and spend all your energy with that target audience.
• Try out several different options. The only way to know which is the best is to offer several options and see how the audience responds to them
• Embrace technology and all the differnet mediums to market to people. Don't just settle for a single way of reaching people, learn how to integrate your campaign to optimize your plan.

Remember these tips next time you are pitching a marketing plan, and hopefully they will come in handy for you as much as they did for me.

Down the Marketing Aisle!

When you go shopping, say at the grocery store, you have a very specific idea of what you need to achieve there. You have a list with the essentials. Bread, you know you need. So when walking down the bread aisle, how do you choose which loaf is right for you? Price, quality, and experience determine what will make it in to your shopping cart. Marketing has a very specific "aisle," and people walk in the business world knowing that marketing will somehow be involved on their shopping list. It is vitally important to anticipate your clients needs for what they expect, and how to convince them that your "bread" is exactly the brand that they need.

Building a persuasive proposal including goodwill building and subtle reminders that both the client and you, the marketing professional, need each other. Begin by clearly stating who you are, and what you are capable of. Clarify that your talents at selling a product to distributors are EXACTLY what your client needs, and give specific examples and names of previous clients when you contributed to success. Also, provide knowledge and details that are specific to your client and what they have accomplished over a period of time. Be sure to include mentioning that the two of you together can not only keep those accomplishments coming, but also outshine the competition.

Just like when you walk in a store, and you select one brand over the other, clients need to be convinced to pick you. Be sure to present yourself in a pleasant and firm manner, and you will make it in their shopping cart.

The New Age of Marketing

For the past six months our economy has been in the steepest decline since the Great Depression. We have lost millions of jobs, and many more have lost there American dream. Some say that our days of exuberant spending are over, and the days of marketing overload will be no more. People are now saving their money, spending it more wisely, and the new era of responsible shopping has taken root. As our new president stated "The future of the U.S economy will solely rest on the growth of our young green economy."

So as we go through this tough economic time the future of Marketing hangs in balance. We are in an age where the Internet has connected billions of people across the world instantly. No longer do people need to wait for information, because it is always at their fingertips. So as marketers we must act proactively to keep the consumers attention. We must compete against everyone to get the customers money, and make sure that we are able to establish a consumer bond to ensure a long term relationship.

Marketing in the new year must focus on specific customer needs. Because everyone is experiencing such tough economic hardships everyone is looking to get more bang for the buck, and as the marketer we must make sure that we are able to predict what the consumer wants and make sure we do it better than anyone else. It is a fierce contest that will only get more intense as technology evolves. We must be able to make sure that we are prepared for the future, and brace our self for that battle over the consumer.

In this transition period it is time to realize that while it may be easier than ever to market to the consumer, we are living in one of the hardest economic environments that we have ever encountered. We must be able to combine research, and innovative forecasting with great customer service. Always remember that the customer is right, and whatever he or she wants we must be able to provide. That is the key to marketing.

The Internet:Making Communication Easier for Marking Professionals

Whether it be communicating with you co-workers or customers, using the internet to do so is very quick, reliable, and efficient. These days with people being computer-literate by the time they can walk and talk, we really have come into a new technological age. Everyone seems to own a computer and now days more and more things are being done online, we have really seen the emergence of E-Commerce.

Professionals and everyone alike can use different methods to communicate online. Such as, websites, e-mail, company networks, instant messaging, and blog/message boards. All these and more can be used to communicate with different people. Although hard-copy print is a very popular medium of communication, it is not very fast, cost efficient or friendly for the environment, compared to using the web. These days time is also very valuable in the business environment. Now instead of waiting for trucks and aircraft's to carry mail we can simple send it off through thousands of servers in just seconds by a click of a button.

Accessibility is also another vital issue. On the web, you can simply save your documents online in one country and just seconds later access it in a different country. This is something that professionals have to be able to do daily. Basically if one knows how to use the internet and what exactly to use, then life can be made a lot faster and easier for everyone.

The Value of Marketing

Everyone talks about marketing, but what is it really? Some people think that marketing is when those pushy salespeople at the mall try to stop and sell you something that you don't want. Others would say that Marketing is all those infomercials that run throughout the day. While those ideas are a glimpse of what marketing is all about, the American Marketing Association adopted this definition in 2004:

" Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."

Marketing is essentially about meeting the diverse needs of a group of people. The word stakeholder refers to sellers, buyers, investors and even community residents. It is not always an easy task to satisfy such an array of people. However, the consumer, who is the ultimate user of the good or service, should be looked at as the proverbial "King" or "Queen". Thus stems the saying/policy used by many organizations---THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Without customer service many successful organizations would not be in operation today. The first step to satisfy customer needs, is for marketing professionals to identify them.

While customer service is extremely important for marketing success, it is crucial for marketing professionals not to forget about the fact that the seller has needs too--yielding revenue, staying in production, and taking pride in the sale of the top quality goods and services.

Source: Real people, Real choices 5e. Solomon, Marshall, Stuart.