Tip for August 1, 2007

Don't forget the follow-up The difference between a single sale and repeat business is ongoing contact, a program of follow-up notices via e-mail that offer the customer more information and keep your company name fresh in her mind. Here are some methods for forging a lasting relationship: - Follow-up a product sale with an e-mail note offering care suggestions. Attach a list of products introduced subsequent to the original purchase. - Within two weeks of a service order, send a thank-you note via e-mail. Then follow-up again a few months later to ask how things are going. - Consider publishing a bimonthly or quarterly tip sheet or news update related to your products or services and e-mailing it to your previous customers. If it contains more useful information than obvious advertising, your correspondents will appreciate it. - Plan your follow-up campaign before you begin your marketing attack and record your orders or contacts by date. Track the person's last contact date, name and address; the status of your relationship and the nature of the contact (for example, "sent second follow-up letter.") Each week, select the contact whose dates are appropriate for follow-up and then do a quick mailing.

Tip for August 2, 2007

Everyone likes to buy stuff. Some like to sell, but nobody likes to be sold. Stop selling. Don't forget that your job, as a professional (read guerrilla) salesperson, is to uncover a pain that your product alleviates. Find out how your service will make your customer look better. Selling is very much like the practice of medicine; your job is to find the ailment and cure it.

Tip for August 3, 2007

Networking tips: While you're at a networking event, walk that fine line between working and enjoying yourself. You can make an impression while working a room by having a lot of fun yourself. Stop working so hard and start spreading the fun. It's contagious.

Tip for August 4, 2007

Speedy delivery builds trust The quicker your customers can receive an order, the more they'll trust you. Build on the success of mail-order companies who offer next-day delivery for a few dollars more than their regular service. Explore the overnight delivery options available to you as well as the various international destinations where you might have to ship merchandise. If you ship small items, you should be able to offer one- or two-day delivery to most destinations at a cost that will please your customers and still maintain your profit margin.

Tip for August 5, 2007

Customer Advocacy Guerrilla Nicole Baker of Millennium Marketing Solutions suggests becoming an advocate for your customers. Anyone can manipulate a customer into buying something they don't really need or want.Baker found objectivity and honesty to be more efficient than a hard sell techniques. Even if you don't make as many initial sales, you will inspire customer loyalty. If you're honest with them, customers will see you as the ONLY person to ask when they need advice or additional products or services.

Tip for August 6, 2007

Does advertising work? Yes. However, what is advertised is not as important as how often it is advertised. Sales increase several months after an advertising campaign is launched. And as ad frequency increases, so do sales.

Tip for August 7, 2007

How are they going to pay for this? You need to cater to the customers' payment preferences. Most Net merchants have a Visa/MasterCard merchant account with their bank. Some customers prefer to pay by check and overseas customers may have a variety of credit cards that will be more difficult for you to accept. If you're selling to businesses, you should accept purchase orders. There is also software that lets you accept and verify checks or debit cards on the Net. If you're doing a lot of business in Japan, you may want to add JCB cards to the list of credit cards you'll accept. As you add new payment options, be sure to get the word out. Each new payment option you offer should lead to a headline or banner announcement on your storefront.

Tip for August 8, 2007

A Great Guerrilla phrase: "That sounds important. Do you mind if I take a few notes?" This is an excellent way to accomplish three critical guerrilla pillars at the same time. In taking notes, you not only appear interested and professional, but you also imply a contractual relationship regarding the terms of your offering, price, and terms. Always take written notes.

Tip for August 9, 2007

Win with targeted media The big winners in the marketing games these days are targeted radio stations, specialized cable networks, new kinds of in-store advertisers, and old-fashioned weekly newspapers with a specifically defined readership, and direct marketers of all descriptions.

Tip for August 10, 2007

Improve your advertising plan To arrive at a good advertising plan, consider these three factors: 1) Audience: Choose the places where your target group is likely to view your ad. For example, a sponsorship notice on a tightly focused mailing list discussion may be more effective at reaching your audience than a Web page buried inside an online shopping mall. 2) Reach: To reach a fairly broad group of prospects, you'll want to cast your net as wide as possible. Look for directory listings, links on other Web sites, classified ads, and cooperative marketing arrangement with other companies. 3) Cost: Diversify. Choose a handful of different ad locations and compare the results. When you find which ones work best you can weed out the nonperforming ad locations and focus on the successful ones.

Tip for August 11, 2007

The Guerrilla wants to find out what the client heard him say on the phone when he got the appointment, not what the guerrilla thinks was said or understood. So, he ask something like, "So I can be more effective with your time, will you please tell me what you heard me say that made you want to see me today?" This may appear a bit long and somewhat convoluted, but it is a very powerful first question. It will get you big results. Memorize it and use it today.

Tip for August 12, 2007

Are you using spot color? Spot color means using two or three colors in printing. It attracts the eye to certain area of the document for emphasis while making the piece more pleasant to read. Use it for reports, presentations, posters, exhibits, brochures, graphs, diagrams and charts.

Tip for August 13, 2007

Go to the mall If you are seriously considering buying space in a Web mall, use search engines to locate all the different malls. Many of them now specialize in a particular business or industry such as real estate or mutual fund investments, and a properly placed ad is far more likely to be seen and responded to than an ad in a general-interest mall.

Tip for August 14, 2007

Guerrilla Greetings Troubled by the high cost of keeping in touch with your customers? Guerrilla Ron Foster keeps in touch with his customers year round using simple and inexpensive fax greetings. Ron sends a fax greeting just before holidays, special events and personal events. His customers really appreciate the faxes and even call him back when the greeting is particularly creative. Either way, they enjoy the effort and remember him year round.

Tip for August 15, 2007

Packaging tips: Guerrillas know that the packaging must sell the product, clearly communicate what the product is, and reach the right consumers. Packaging should be updated every five to seven years to keep current with design and color trends.

Tip for August 16, 2007

Print Advertising is an online tool Except of the most fanatical cyber-junkies, people do most of their reading off-line. Use print advertising to promote your online business by adding your electronic contact information to an existing ad and by running new ads that specifically promote your online business.

Tip for August 17, 2007

The importance of headlines: If you have ten hours to spend creating an ad, spend nine of them on the headline. For ads, brochures, signs, direct mail, and a multitude of other marketing weapons, your headline--which dictates your positioning in the mind of your prospect--is the most important thing you say.

Tip for August 18, 2007

Promoting with an existing ad Many print ads now include an e-mail address or URL of the company's Web site along with a physical address and telephone number. You need to induce people to visit your Web site. To do this, clarify the advantages of reaching you online. Tell them what you offer. You may want to offer a special incentive like discounts or free items. A tricky but effective method is to refer to information that is only available on your Web site. If you aren't sure that most of your prospects are online, you may want to include some off-line contact information.

Tip for August 19, 2007

Guerrilla Greetings Troubled by the high cost of keeping in touch with your customers? Guerrilla Ron Foster keeps in touch with his customers year round using simple and inexpensive fax greetings. Ron sends a fax greeting just before holidays, special events and personal events. His customers really appreciate the faxes and even call him back when the greeting is particularly creative. Either way, they enjoy the effort and remember him year round.

Tip for August 20, 2007

Guerrillas never complain about politics, the weather, the traffic, or the rough day they're having. Stay positive and enthusiastic! Few things are less motivating than getting negative news or negative commentary from a sales person. Most of us don't like and distrust sales people in the first place. To have this person telling us how lousy things are really sets the stage for failure. Stay 100% positive, but don't over do it!

Tip for August 21, 2007

More on on-hold messages: Emphasize the benefit of doing business with you. Announce news of upcoming sales or promotions, new product introductions or expanded services. The ease on-hold frustration with relaxing music.

Tip for August 22, 2007

Promoting with an online specific ad An ad that exclusively promotes your business can be short and sweet (as well as cost-effective). Here are some general tips for designing an online specific ad. - Use an attractive design: Make sure that your headline grabs readers' attention and clearly explains the benefits of contacting you or your storefront online. - Be consistent: Design an effective ad and then run it for a few months. It may take several weeks before you get any benefit from it, so changing it or discontinuing it too soon will ruin your entire effect. - Use several small ads instead of a few large ones: Buy small ads in various publications and run them for several weeks, rather than purchasing a large one-time ad.

Tip for August 23, 2007

Before taking a seat, always adjust the position of the chair slightly, whether it is needed or not. Adjusting the chair puts you, in the minds of all present, subconsciously in control of the environment. As a guerrilla you'll be turning the controls over to the buyer as soon as you get started. It's a good idea to do this from the platform of one who is in control. Re-arranging the furniture, even one piece, does this.

Tip for August 24, 2007

Event sponsorship Daunted by the high cost of advertising and the shrinking network audiences, more and more companies are using event sponsorship to get their names before the public. Even smaller companies can do it on a smaller basis.

Tip for August 25, 2007

Electronic brochure tips Since your electronic brochure is an item that people have requested, make sure it is full of useful information. Stick with one version so that conflicting copies aren't floating through cyberspace. Avoid fancy formatting. Your message may get scrambled when transferred into ASCII text. Follow up the initial mailing.

Tip for August 26, 2007

The non-guerrilla salesperson rarely analyzes objections and often gives long, argumentative responses to them. Instead of clarifying the prospects' concerns, these sales people will try to overwhelm the prospect with facts, arguments, and personal pressure. Better to listen. When you listen they'll tell you how to close them. They'll tell you their pain. They'll tell you how your product will make them look better. Stop winning arguments and losing sales.

Tip for August 27, 2007

Tips on using focus groups: 1) Don't assume outcomes. 2) Remember that groups measure nothing; they provide direction. 3) Always use a professional moderator 4) Don't limit yourself to only one group as a second group may yield very different results. 5) Eavesdrop on participants as they leave the room because they say very important things at that time. 6) If your findings disappoint you, examine the difference between your findings and your expectations.

Tip for August 28, 2007

Online catalog clues Your online catalog should be brief and to the point, organized logically and attractively. It should also be contained on as few screens as possible Don't make viewers scroll several times to read a windy description. If your catalog is lengthy, offer a search function. Ideally, a customer should be able to type in or click on a keyword and see a list of pertinent items. Find a software package that facilitates creation of online catalogs for bulletin boards or the Web. Many Internet mall operators offer one of these software packages as an incentive to prospective customers. You'll save time and money and make ordering much easier for your customers. A package with a "shopping cart" system allows users to add items by clicking on a nearby checkbox. When the order is sent, the number, description, and price of the item is added to the total order.

Tip for August 29, 2007

Fishing for Leads Are you always looking for local leads? Guerrilla Cyndi Stout goes "fishing" for free leads all over town and you can too! Many stores and restaurants have a glass bowl for business cards and they give away some kind of prize return for the cards people drop in. Cyndi simply asks these business if she can have the cards in exchange for something. Sometimes they give them to her for free and other times she pays for the incentive prize in exchange for the leads. You could even offer to type up the names and give them to the store in text and database form. So far nobody has turned down her request to share leads!

Tip for August 30, 2007

Cause related marketing This trend is going strong. Companies that devote a portion of their profits to a popular cause such as the environment or education are finding that they are able to attract more people who spend more money.

Tip for August 31, 2007

Does your publicity plan have a key message? Think about how you would like your company presented in the media. Refer to your mission statement or business identity phrases and list some of the qualities or advantages you want reflected in media stories about your company. Think in terms of competing with other firms; cast your key messages in terms of your adversaries, such as "Better color selection than Acme Widgets." Your key messages will become the real items you're selling to the media - your goal is to have them reflected in any news story about your business.

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