| Recession Marketing |
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Don't Back Down
In a tough economy, your first instinct might be to cut back on your marketing budget to try to cut costs. But experts agree that in a down economy you should keep marketing, but do it smarter.
There is a good chance that during this recession your competitors may make the mistake of cutting back on their marketing. If you keep a market presence you may succeed in:
- Gaining your competitor's market share
- Instilling confidence in your customers that you are still up and running
- Being better poised to move forward when the economy bounces back
- Continuing to grow your customer base
Recapture Lapsed Customers
Keep in contact with your customers. Letting them know more about your business, more about you as a person, can get the attention of lapsed customers and bring them back through your doors. Find ways to remind them gently that you are there.
Attract New Customers
Even during a recession there are customers out there, especially with your competitors going out of business or absenting themselves from the marketplace. Find ways of reaching out to them via your website and its "Sign up for my newsletter" feature. Your e-marketing efforts to existing customers will spread ripples to new readers as people refer you and forward your emails on to colleagues. Additionally, you can store an archive of past issues of your newsletter on your website for browsers to read.
Connect with Your Existing Customers
Engage with your customers. Speak directly to them, rather than through generic ads in newspapers directed to anyone who happens to see it. In longer documents you can tailor your message directly to your target market.
FYI: Readership of newspapers is down so the bang for your advertising buck is not as loud as it once was, but the cost remains high.
By showing your customers, through dynamic and regular communications that you care about them and can help them with their needs, you will strengthen your relationship and build loyalty, attract positive word-of-mouth and retain lapsed customers.
e -marketing with e-mail flyers, newsletters, seasonal e-greeting cards and invitations to special events is an extremely affordable marketing tool. Its effectiveness is remarkable. The effect is more personal and direct and allows you to feature more aspects, products or services offered by your business than a traditional ad could. This can help you reduce your marketing costs but still be engaging with your customers and maintaining a strong presence in the marketplace.
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| Signing Up with Constant Contact? |
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If you are planning on signing up with Constant Contact to have me do your newsletters, or to do them yourself, will you kindly sign up under my business name so that I get credit for referring you? I get a little bit of money for it, and it costs you nothing. Thanks!
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| Note to Self |
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| About Me |
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Laurel Ennis |
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Contact:
604.536.4702
I am a professional writer, copywriter (person who writes advertising copy) and e-marketing specialist with a B.A. degree and a post-graduate diploma in design.
I own Le Newsletter Services and LE copywriter. If you can't see the letters in the logo, stare at the colour blocks a moment and the LE comes out. It's an optical illusion, much like graphic arts.
I work with Constant Contact which is the industry leader in e-marketing. Their reputation online gets your marketing material past spam filters. Their database set-up prevents duplicate e-mails and reports back on how your e-mails did. How many opened it? How many clicked on the link to your website?
I design, create and send out e-mail marketing campaigns for my clients and report back on how they did. My clients have a better than average open rate (% of recipients who open an e-mail marketing piece) due to my writing/design savvy. I do database management so my clients don't have to worry about that.
What I do is oversee every aspect of my client's e-marketing campaigns. I can write the articles and I can create the graphics. Writers don't generally do graphics and graphics artists aren't writers. I am the one-stop-shop for e-mail marketing and I do it at an affordable rate suitable for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
e-Newsletters
are my niche
in the marketplace.
It's a niche
I know.
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| Word of the Month |
As a reader and a writer, I am a word enthusiast. Here's one you may not know.
Xanthippe (zan-THIP-ee)
The name of Socrates' wife. A prototype of a shrewish, nagging, quarrelsome, scolding wife.
"Don't be Xanthippidic, dear." he said to his wife just moments before, he realized later, their divorce began.
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TIP-Online Surveys |
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Surveys are an excellent way to gather customer feedback.
If you are using Constant Contact, doing surveys is easy. Just pop a survey onto your website then put a link in your e-mail. Getting on-going feedback from your customers will keep you attuned to their needs.
Online Survey or Polls
Cost: from $15/month
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