10 ways to weave a little marketing magic into everyday activities
“Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees”
‘Business-as-usual’ is the term that we all use for the things we do every day while doing our job, or running our businesses. With some clear thinking and a little bit of planning, these things can be transformed into effective marketing vehicles:
1. BUSINESS CARDS: These are mini advertisements for your company. They deliver more than just your contact details – they represent your brand, personality and values (long after you have left the room). Use them to communicate your key messages, USP, or an offer. With digital print being so affordable these days, how about a double-sided option, or more than one design, with tailored messages for distinct audiences? Customers might enjoy trying to collect the set and show them to others. When Bryony and I worked at Mason Zimbler, the business cards were a real talking point – we each had our own photo that characterised us, and on the reverse was an image in which you had to find the letter M and Z. Great to break the ice when networking. Take a look at Moo.com for some affordable options.
2. INVOICES: Here’s a ready-made vessel for marketing messages. You’re sending it anyway, so why not include some information that your customers might find useful. Think about redesigning your invoice template to announce a special offer, or to request confirmation of contact details. Or, include a printed insert (or message on your email, if you email it) talking about your latest products and services. Think about how your bank does it, they’re pretty sophisticated on this one, they’ll give you some great ideas.
3. AUTO-RESPONSES: Are there processes that trigger automated emails from your company? Use your auto-response messages to also include a marketing message, or perhaps a hyperlink to something interesting on your website. This is even better if it is relevant to the action they’ve just taken, like a link to an appropriate ‘How-To’ article or related presentation you’ve posted online.
4. EMAIL SIGNATURES: As with auto-responses, a well considered email signature is yet another message delivery opportunity. Most email clients allow you to edit your signature block and, like we do, you can add hyperlinks to blogs or web articles. We change ours weekly and draw people’s attention to it, so that they start looking out for new content. If you’re really smart, you can make custom links for this, so you can track the traffic it generates.
5. WEBSITE/LOG-IN PAGES: If you invest in a simple Content Management System (CMS) for your website, you can easily keep your home page (and portal/log-in pages) up-to-the-minute with news and announcements. If not, think about getting a developer to add an editable box for a relevant message at log-in or log-out pages at the very least. Regular visitors to your site will appreciate the variety, and new ones will be reassured that you’re current and topical. Think ahead too, about how to keep your ‘How-Tos’, news and case studies current.
6. TELEPHONE SERVICE: If you have the ability, try recording a friendly marketing message instead of ‘on hold’ music. It might even be as simple as directing people to your website, but it is even better if it a bit more targeted. For example, if it is a support line, it might be helpful to direct them to help articles on your site, or ways of contacting you by email. Consider something similar for your personal answer phone message on your mobile too. No harm in pointing people at other ways to get hold of you, or content that they might find interesting.
7. SOCIAL MEDIA: Updating your status on Linked in, FaceBook, or any other social media site is quick, easy and normally free (just your time required). Get into the habit of doing it every Monday morning before your week begins and it’s job done! Point people at blogs, news articles or case studies and keep re-cycling the content. If you have a SmartPhone, this can be done en route to work. A job ticked off on the bus or train always feels good.
8. WORD OF MOUTH: Keep talking. To customers, suppliers, staff and family. If you’ve got something new make sure all your team also knows about it, so that they can drop it in to conversations they have with customers, prospects, or suppliers. A Monday morning team huddle might be just the thing to make sure everyone knows what’s new. If it is a campaign, you might set people targets for the number of people they tell, and give them ‘cut and paste’ copy to go in an email to people they think might be interested. Along with Social Media, building awareness through word-of-mouth enforces your reputation and ensures you are front of mind. And it’s free.
9. FREE LISTINGS: Spend a little time researching sites where your company can be listed. Even if people don’t directly find you this way, it is really helpful for SEO purposes to build good quality links to your site. Remember to keep a record in order to check them regularly to ensure that your entry is up to date. There’s nothing worse than a visitor finding you by this method and the information is stale. BT Tradespace might be a good starting point. Here are our pages on there. With the content readily to hand, this took us an hour or so to set-up, and we get about 10 visitors a week to it.
10. NETWORKING: Just like word-of-mouth, networking is essential to keep you front-of-mind and up-to-date with what is happening in your industry. A lot of events are free, but many are by subscription. Choose your events wisely and set aside time each month to attend and follow-up. Do you add people to LinkedIn when you back to your desk? Do you drop them an opt-in request to your marketing emails? How you follow-up can significantly improve the results you get from networking. Make a list of business-as-usual follow-up activities you undertake after any networking meeting.
Marketing doesn’t need to be hard. A bit of clear thinking and a personal resolve to add it into the things you do everyday can work wonders. If you’re doing it anyway, just make it work a bit harder for you. If you would like more advice on how to make the things you do every day go a little further, or indeed become a part of your marketing mix, talk to a Clear Thinker.
By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | @cherylcrichton | www.clear-thought.co.uk
Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this by planning and delivering 12-month marketing transformation programmes – supporting a small business through a step-by-step process to making marketing pay. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.
Published on 15 January 2010
