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Up Close and Personal
By John Joyce, President
Red, Incorporated
Strategic Marketing and Design
The Internet is a great place to market your product or service. However, while it is growing in popularity and effectiveness, just like any of the other marketing media available to the world, it’s only as effective as the message you want to communicate – and the manner in which that message is presented.
With that in mind, here is a common thread that you might consider using in all of your sales and marketing strategies and tactics…keep it personal. Let me explain.
Think of the most powerful and memorable campaign or piece of advertising you have seen or heard. They compel you to buy or act. Why? They go right for your emotional switches. To borrow a phrase from a TV network, they get “up close and personal.”
This is something that you should remember when you or your marketing firm develops your ads, Web pages and other sales and marketing tools.
When you receive a personal “thank you” note from someone for a gift you gave him or her or a service you provided, etc., it makes you feel good. Why? Because the sender took the time to “personally” acknowledge you and your action towards them.
How would you react if you got a personal "thank you" from a business several days after you spent money with them? You'd feel good and probably want to do more business with them. Give that same feeling to your customers. They will reward you with more business - and a flood of referrals.
It’s important to “get personal” with your customer. It is important to your bottom line. A recent marketing survey published by a national research firm (BIGresearch), reported that more than 80 percent of small-business owners ranked word-of-mouth as either "very important" or "important" in influencing their purchasing decisions. And nearly 90 percent responded by saying they sought advice from others before buying "regularly" or "occasionally."
This also emphasizes the importance of B2B marketing programs that effectively build two-way communication with your current customer base as well as ongoing programs designed to help you increase your customer base.
Today, tactics that build personal, word-of-mouth communication, as well as public relations efforts are producing the best results for marketers.
What works best now? While no single tactic is outperforming another one, several studies report positive results from at least three tactics: e-mail and postal mail to in-house lists, public relations, and activities that build word-of-mouth – personal referrals and business.
Just remember – Keep it up close and personal.
