The phone book is passé. That’s the first thing you need to know. No One uses it anymore. It’s gone… extinct… poof.
To be successful in today’s business, it is important to make sales and offer great service. It is essential to offer great service, do as you say, and deliver what you promise.
It is also imperative to always hone your skills, as a marketer and salesperson. You can make a great income with your offline business and it’s easy to do.
Marrying Offline and Offline Marketing Strategies
Any business today that needs sales to survive needs the power of the internet; they need to understand that a local storefront and or just paper and radio or TV is just not enough to survive in this technical world. The internet and online has taken over.
Consumerism at its finest, it is fast and easily accessible. People today search for information on something they want to purchase, a newspaper is not going to tell them enough. A phone book is certainly not an answer for information.
Sure, the customer could call only during business hours that is and hope to get a qualified person to answer their question about a particular item, or they could get the dreaded endless options of push 1 for this or 2 for that.
Or you could show them how to get 24/7/365 information to people who want to buy your stuff and buy it now if they can.
I know me, as a consumer, prefer the later. The business owner also needs to realize for each new customer they acquire that may lead to more sales per customer.
If they buy from you once, they may buy from you many many times over. And, without the internet you may have never had that customer. That customer easily could go to your competitor who did have a website.
The three golden rules of sales and profits
– Acquire more customers
– Get those customers to be repeat buyers
– Increase the amount of money they spend with you each time.
Many business owners spend most of their time and money just doing step one.
They could be spending less money, time and effort on steps 2 and 3. When you use the ideas we suggest, you will be utilizing step 2 and 3 and seeing a huge increase in your profits.
Let me explain more about online marketing for you.
The 4 Key Fundamentals of Marketing Online andOffline
– Acquiring the customer or the lead to the customer.
– Getting your product or service in front of a customer is most important to getting a first sale.
Your sales process teaches your customer why they should purchase and or do business with you, and why they should do it over and over again. If you want to keep that customer and have them return again and again you must keep in contact with that customer and educate them on the product they bought, and others they may be interested in.
Create good follow up and your prospects will return over and over again.
When you over deliver you get to earn more sales from that client. They are happy to see you and do business with you. When they use the internet people can spread your information to their friends, family, and so on.
How often has your friend sent you an ad for something in the mail? But I bet someone has forwarded an email to you about something significance. Let your customers forward your sales emails to their friends; now you have a bigger audience than you once had. Then you have created referrals for your product or service. You have now employed viral marketing, i.e. word of mouth.
Your Local Brick and Mortar Businesses MostValuable Asset-That Most Don’t Know About And Most Don’t Utilize. It Should Be a Crime
The one thing I will never understand, and to this day just floors me, is that business owners of brick and mortar businesses don’t follow up with their customers.
It costs a business owner a lot of money to obtain a customer in advertising, or prime real estate to coax them to come in to your place of business. Yet, the business owner doesn’t use the cheapest way possible to retain that customer.
Now that I am in this business it really tears my heart out to see and hear how businesses are struggling to even make payroll. To an extent, it’s not their fault they don’t know about the “new technology” that keeps them in touch with their prospects or sales customers.
Almost every day I will go into a B&M business because it’s what I do and I’ll look around and observe. I may hang back and watch a customer make a purchase then just walk out.
As I watch the transaction I see no information being exchanged. I almost want to take the owner and shake him and say, “Hey what are you doing? Why did you let them leave, you got no information. What’s wrong with you?”
They just lost the chance to contact that person EVER AGAIN, are they nuts?What were they thinking? Did they not want to ever sell to that person again was his money not green enough?
Hello is anyone home?
How much did it cost to get that customer? On slow days or weeks or months if you wanted that customer and maybe many more to flock to your store or website, how could you do it?
The owner’s reactions might fall along the lines of, “Huh?” accompanied with a dumb look. Followed by, “I don’t know. I may have his address or number from sometime ago.”
Are you going to call him during dinner or play phone tag and annoy him to death?
Or are you going to spend .09 cents on a flier .42 to mail it and hope he doesn’t throw it away.
Goodness that’s a lot of work. Oh and maybe you never got any info at all. He just walked out, and you may never see him again.
But you could have established contact for virtually a penny or two. Whenever you want him, you can reach him.
What sounds better to you? Having the option of reaching him opposed to not. Or, spending a bunch of money and time trying to coax him back?
How about you simply offer him a reason to give you his email, and then you have the power to reach him when you want and he has the option of choosing to see what kind of special you have for him this week.
Listen, he’s already been to your place of business and he probably made a purchase, therefore he likes you and your stuff. There’s a chance he may want to know more about your other stuff, especially if you can tell him about it, and maybe offer him a deal. He’s going to love you forever.
All the owner has to do is get the information! That’s it.
One key thing to remember the money is in the list. It gives control you never had before.
Now, you are not throwing away money, you are targeting people that already know you and like you.
Sure you could throw an ad in the paper and hope someone sees it, hope you are even what they are looking for or hope that your offer in the ad is even compelling enough to read it.
Or, you could target in on people that have a need to hear from you for a fraction of any advertising.
Its laser sharp targeting that will get you the repeat sales, nothing else is this effective.
How to get them to give you their information
A crucial mistake some business owners make is not enticing people enough to give them their information. They may have a sign up on their site that says, “Sign up for my newsletter” or “Sign up to be on our newsletter list.”
Well, why would they want to, what are they going to do, sell my information to every spammer known to man? Send me offers from Viagra, offers to lose 30 lbs overnight?
Well, I know I wouldn’t want those emails. I’m not signing up, heck no.
You must insure that they will get quality information on specific product that they are interested in and that’s it. You can send a coupon or a special deal just for them. Make sure they know that only special VIP people get this information.
If they don’t believe it’s a good offer they won’t sign up. Tell them the benefits on being on that list. Also, make sure they know their information is for your eyes only, and you will not share their information with anyone else.
IMPORTANT: never lose that trust by sending them garbage.
Send them information they want and want to hear about.
Send them coupons, discounts, or information about something you just got in that you think they might want to know about. And, I will stress this again; don’t ever sell their information. EVER!
How to bribe them for their information,or incentives I mean… : )
You must offer them a compelling reason to join your list. A great way to do this is by prizes or gifts.
You may offer a report or a specific prize you sell that they are really interested in purchasing. Make it only available to one person within the 30 days.
If you own a restaurant you may give a free dinner away a month. That is an incentive for me. If I see that and I like the restaurant I’ll fill it out every time. I don’t know about you but I like to eat.
Now for your non winners you still have their contact information. Send them an “I’m sorry you didn’t win the free dinner this time but bring in this coupon for $10. Or $20 off your next meal or give them a free dessert.
You may put restrictions on it sure. For example the total bill must be above $50. Or they must use it by a certain date. This insures they come in, and come in quickly. If you are having a slow period send these out, your customers will be in.
A gym trainer or dance teacher could give away one free lesson and then up-sell them on a class.
An auto repair shop could give a discount on a routine service such as an oil change or maintenance check and then up-sell on the needed repairs.
They key is to offer an enticing enough gift of value to them, because you do want that information. That information is VERY VALUABLE TO YOU.
If you are a travel agent you may offer a report that says, “Learn these valuable secrets to travel to a Caribbean island for less than $1,000 for 7 days. Enter to learn how here.”
If you need yet another example; if you sell surfboards offer a chance to win one. Enter here to win this free. You will have tons of people filling that out and getting their contact info for anytime you choose to use it.
Now, for the people that don’t win, you already know they want that product or service or something similar to it, so they are now targeted prospects. Offer the non winners a good discount on that model or a similar one.
Notify them you only have 2 or 3 left and if they hurry they can get it before they are all gone. Notify them you will give them a percentage or a price, just for them only if they come in within a certain amount of days for that specific item. Watch them plow through your door when you want them to.
Offer them a lower priced version that has many of the same features. The most valuable information to relay to customers is that they are important, and the best way to make a sale and reoccurring sales is depended on how valuable you make them seem to you.
The point is, get their information, and then do something with it. If you would like help implementing some of these strategies, download the free Internet Success Guide “Online Marketing Strategies For Offline Business” On our site at LocalInferno.com.
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