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In This Issue
Do Businesses Know Their History?
Building Customer Relationships without Direct Sales
How Service Providers Can Reach Customers "Where They Live"
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Do Businesses Know Their History and Why Should They Care?
Parker House Hotel, Boston
Contact us to do a "history audit" of your business and come up with your own, personalized plan to attract customers, their loyalty
and referrals
 
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Connections
Greetings!

With this edition of Connections, we are extending a special invitation to you!
 
We hope you will connect with us on our free conference call taking place on Thursday, July 8, 2010 from 4 to 5 pm EST - that's this Thursday!
 
The purpose of the call is to provide some answers to the question, How can you use history to market your business?
 
The answer is, You can, but this requires some explanation and specific examples of what we're talking about. We will also answer your questions!
 
So please sign up for the call.Live is best, but it will be recorded and made available through our website.

Meanwhile, you can read about some of our history marketing ideas in the articles we've provided here -- like the one about using history to attract customers and avoid direct sales. Imagine! In the next article, we look specifically at how service providers can really connect with people around local history.

These ideas are targeted to businesses, but they are filled with information historical nonprofits can use. It's time for all of us to think and act differently about history!
Building Customer Relationships
without "Direct Sales"
No to direct sales!by Bonnie Hurd Smith
You've probably noticed that the effectiveness of traditional direct sales techniques has been steadily declining with the rise of people's access to the Internet and a general distrust of "salespeople." Why should anyone trust what you say in your ad or commercial when they can go online and find out the truth?

My business partner, Thea Grace Morgan, recently told me about an American Marketing Association survey that showed some startling results. In 2001, 40% of consumers polled admitted that advertising played a role in their purchasing decisions. In 2004, the number dropped to 14%. Where is that number today? Maybe 5%?
Read the article....
 
How Service Providers can Reach Customers
"Where they Live" Emotionally by Helping to
Preserve Where they Live Physically?
Historic houses in Salem, MAAny marketing professional will tell you that achieving an "emotional connection" with customers is the key to customer loyalty, referrals, and steady business. You want people to love doing business with you. You want to reach them "where they live" emotionally, as the saying goes. What do they need? What do they care about?

Especially for banks, credit unions, financial advisers, and attorneys, you are already working with people "where they live" emotionally because you are helping them solve very serious problems. Thousands of people are in a state of high stress today, and it's more important than ever to have financial and legal service providers they can really, really trust. Read the article...
Please visit our website for more articles on using history as a powerful marketing tool. Better still, contact us directly and let us put together a plan just for your business!
 
This stuff works, and you will really stand out from the crowd.

Wishing you every success!
 
Bonnie Hurd Smith and Thea Grace Morgan
History Smiths
History Smiths helps service-oriented businesses, especially those located in historical communities, achieve customer loyalty, traffic, and high status by incorporating history - their own and their community's -  into their branding, marketing, and community outreach.