Get 'em while they're young

Marketing, over the past few years, has become more and more personal.  The trend is to build relationships with your prospects so that when they become clients there is already a "stickiness" built in.   They feel like they already know you and have known you for years.  As many of us have seen this is an automatic by product of the fact that sales cycles have gone from weeks to months to years.

                How can we build more relationships like that with more prospects?

                Get 'em while they're young!

In May and June 100's of thousands of people will parade into an auditorium, concert hall or even a sports arena to accept a piece of paper signifying 4 (or more) years of hard work. (Ok I guess there are reputable places of higher education that offer accelerated/3 year degrees as well, but anyway)  After the pomp and circumstance comes the question "What now?".Well the obvious is to get a job.

These 100's of thousands of people coming into the workforce and in many instances starting their own companies, are still going to need some direction and advice.  Who better to offer this assistance and mentoring than people who have real business experience.  Many colleges, as part of their commencement activities, will ask alumni for their advice for the graduating class of 2011.

What better way to begin building a relationship than to offer advice, what to do, what not to do etc.  to the graduating class of your Alma mater and/or local community college.  This could be in the form of an open letter to graduates that could be posted on the website of the college / university.  Find the college's / university's Facebook page / linked in profile and post your advice.  Post it on your company's blog, as I am sure "advice to graduates" or "advice for graduating class of 2011" might become a popular search term and you would show up.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=advice+for+graduates&ei=utf-8&fr=b2ie7

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=advice+for+class+of+2011&ei=utf-8&fr=b2ie7

So begins building a relationship with people who may work for potential prospects you would never imagine to market to.  So, begins building a relationship with your alma mater and their administration.  You will stand out and your response will be appreciated.  So begins building the all important reputation as an "expert" which is an essential piece in growing your brand.

In 5 or so years of providing advice to the graduating class, a graduate, or someone in their family, or someone in a potential enrollments family will look at your advice and then want to investigate more about who you are and what you do.

Who knows, in 5 years or so you might be asked to address the graduating class and people will already know who you are.

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