Tip for February 1, 2008

Line extensions-when firms add a new product or service to existing offerings-can be very tricky. Unless there is a logical connection between the original products and services and the new one, the new offering is likely to fail. Bausch & Lomb, for example, known for precision eyeglass lenses, are now offering vitamins for eyesight restoration. Chances of success? Pretty slim. Bausch is known for lenses, not pharmaceuticals. But, Gateway Computer's recent promotion of digital cameras and accessories makes perfect sense. Because Gateway makes computers, and digital photography is a growing part of today's computer experience. Computer users are increasingly replacing their film cameras with digital cameras....and upgrading their computers to deliver the necessary processing power.

Tip for February 2, 2008

All too many web sites waste the potential power of the first words at the top of their home pages by welcoming visitors with a vapid, "Welcome to our site." A welcoming statement contains no "real" message. It neither offers or promises visitors a benefit for reading on. It's just "empty" words. Plus, how many times do you go to a web site and be told you're "not welcome"?

Tip for February 3, 2008

Sales Incentives #1: Discount A reduced price is one of the most effective sales incentives you can offer. Discounts should be used with restraint, however, because a steady diet of discounts, educates your clients and prospects to expect a discount, erodes your profits, and fails to differentiate your firm from your competition. Discounts can be combined with other incentives and work best when there is a close and strictly enforced deadline.

Tip for February 4, 2008

Q: How can companies on a tight budget with their Internet marketing budgets really go about understanding their target market and implementing a successful marketing campaign? A: By asking questions of these people. The main thing that is really so important is trying to let people know what they're about and then gaining their consent to receive more marketing materials. You can save money if you do that because you're only marketing to people who have given their consent. I think the companies that are cash strapped should try first to gain consent and then market to those people who have given it. That reduces advertising costs like crazy. And it gives you a much bigger payoff for the investment you do make because you’re talking to people who really want to hear about what you have to say.

Tip for February 5, 2008

Multiple sigs for multiple uses When is the last time you updated your online signature? Smart Guerrillas use different sigs for maximum marketing effect in various situations. If you have several product lines, you should have a sig for each. If you're planning to do an online conference, create a sig that promotes the conference date and time and use that sig on messages you post to that forum in the weeks preceding your appearance. Similarly, if you're promoting a new feature on your Web site, plug that in to your sig for a period of time. You might also want to have a casual sig to use with friends and longtime customers. The best mail programs will allow you to store an unlimited number of sigs and then choose the preferred one from a menu as you create each message. In case your mail program doesn't support multiple sigs, just create the sigs in an e-mail message, save the message in your outbox, and then copy the appropriate sig from it each time you create a new message.

Tip for February 6, 2008

No time to write a book? Are you sure? Yesterday, I attended a book signing with Robert Parker. Robert (no relation) is the author of the best-selling Spenser for Hire series. He generally publishes three new books a year. Someone asked him: "How much do you write?" His answer: "fI write 5 pages in the morning, and 5 pages in the afternoon." "Every day?" "Nope! Just Monday through Friday. I like my weekends off." Parker's words reinforced other authors who don't attempt to write books at one sitting, but, instead, concentrate on consistent daily output. If you have just 45 minutes a day, you can become a published author. At worst, just get up a little earlier, or go to bed a little later each day.

Tip for February 7, 2008

Southwest Airlines sped up its turnaround time not by studying other airlines but by studying pit crews at the Indianapolis 500. The main idea: learn from the real experts and those experts may not be your competitors.

Tip for February 8, 2008

A sales tool you should always carry with you. Solicit and use customer testimonial letters on every sales interview. If you're not using testimonials from satisfied customers, begin today. Ask your customers or have your service staff ask customers for testimonial letters attesting to the attitudes, competencies and overall satisfaction with your service or a particularly temporary employee. Place the letters in a loose-leaf binder and show them to prospects in this manner: "Ms. Prospect, instead of me telling you how we can satisfy your needs, please take a moment to review the comments of our customers that you find in this book." Hand the opened book of testimonial letters to the prospect and don't say another word until the prospect speaks. Testimonials can close the sale!

Tip for February 9, 2008

Marketing to older Americans: Most older Americans do not think of themselves as being old. They do not respond well to offerings identified with age. Make your appeal to health and vitality.

Tip for February 10, 2008

Once a year, for as long as you're in business, ask your customers for the names of three, four or five people who might gain by becoming your customers. Because of your guerrilla follow-up, expect a healthy response.

Tip for February 11, 2008

It was once believed that websites had to be long to be valuable, but the increased awareness of the precious nature of time is causing online marketers to rethink this concept. Websites narrowly targeted to specific groups are brief and valuable. Guerrillas know the value of being concise.

Tip for February 12, 2008

Links equal locations Since visibility is in such short supply in cyberspace, it pays to locate your business in as many places as possible. Big companies have separate storefronts on various online services as well as on private bulletin board systems and the web. Guerrillas usually can't afford to maintain all these locations, but they can do the next best thing by seeking links to their web sites from as many related locations as possible. For example: * Check with forum administrators on online services about adding a link to your web site from within their forum. * Seek links on related but non-competing web sites. * Post articles on related web sites, and make sure the article includes a link to your store.

Tip for February 13, 2008

Ninety-Minute Hour Countdown: List # 2 The second list you need to make in order to achieve the productivity of a Ninety-Minute Hour is to make a list of the chores that require your full attention and only yours. What are the tasks that you, and only you, can do? Which tasks are so involving that you must concentrate your full attention on them, not doing anything else while working on them

Tip for February 14, 2008

Respond to those complaints A full 95% of complainers will do business with you again if they feel you've resolved their complaint quickly.

Tip for February 15, 2008

Another way to ask for the order Rhetorical question: "You'd like to have the problem of shoddy products vanish, wouldn't you? Once we begin to service your company, many of your concerns will disappear. What orders do you have on your desk right now, that I can work on for you?" Ask for the order and find new ways to ask again!

Tip for February 16, 2008

What do your customers want? The Gartner Group recently reported that 90% of corporations it surveyed anecdotally had created their web sites *without ever asking their customers what they wanted on those sites.*

Tip for February 17, 2008

Sales Incentives # 15 Testing and Certification As products become more complex, there is more to go wrong. You can build confidence in your product as well as add extra value to it by offering a pre- or post-delivery testing and certification of the unit's performance. This guarantees that the buyer will be receive all of the performance they have paid for. (It also eliminates post-sale service calls.) This technique gains value when you normally charge extra for it, but eliminate the surcharges during limited time periods.

Tip for February 18, 2008

Way of Guerrilla # 13: Guerrillas aim for results more than growth Guerrilla Marketing focuses on profitability and balance, vitality and improvement, value and quality, more than size and growth. The goal is steadily increasing profits without sacrificing personal time. Bigness is not necessarily related to excellence. Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997

Tip for February 19, 2008

Quick, now: why a marketing plan? (First of four) A marketing plan provides Guerrillas with a daily calendar of marketing tasks. At a glance, Guerrillas can see what has to be done and why. By making your marketing tasks visible and tangible, you're taking the first step towards ensuring that marketing becomes a part of your daily marketing activities.

Tip for February 20, 2008

Aim for lifetime value -- and that's a summary of the incremental future profit expected from each name on your database. Says the British Institute of Direct Marketing, "It's the net present value of all future contributions to profit and overhead expected from a customer."

Tip for February 21, 2008

Questioning to determine problems. Ask "What problems have you encountered with the firm you have been using?" Anyone who has been ordering services for a few months or even weeks has encountered problems. After all we're not dealing with machines, but with human beings. If a person puts you off by denying any and all problems, respond by saying: "You're quite fortunate. When I ask most people who order help that question, the usual response runs from poorly skilled to poor attendance, turnover on long term assignments, no shows, etc. Have any of these situations ever happened to you?

Tip for February 22, 2008

Learning from the New Yorker, Part 3 The vast majority of the one-column by one-inch advertisers in the New Yorker sell very focused products and services. These firms are tightly positioned in their fields. Examples are sources of custom tablecloths, fancy bow ties, canal tours through France, and firms renting French and Italian villas.

Tip for February 23, 2008

You run a fabulous ad, but people will remember only 2% of it two weeks later. That's why guerrillas don't run one-time ad schedules. Silly business.

Tip for February 24, 2008

The Guerrilla sales presentation is short and direct, relating to the unique wants and needs uncovered. They've learned to ignore everything else. When we say "stop selling" we mean it. And, we certainly mean "stop over-selling." When talking about our products we represent many just can't wait to tell them all about it. They wax eloquent about the features and benefits, and they give reams of data, and facts and figures. (Ever talked to a new parent?) Guerrillas spend most of their time uncovering underlying client needs and only show how the product will solve those needs within the client's budget in the presentation.

Tip for February 25, 2008

Become a Marketing Matchmaker Guerrilla Dana Burke of Mind Your Business, has a terrific idea that can be used by anyone with a box of labels and some ingenuity. Burke maintains a supply of her clients' and associates' business cards in her office and distributes them to likely customers. Using return address labels, she's created a sticker that says "Referred by Mind Your Business." Placed on the back of other people's business cards, the stickers remind the recipient who she is and help them when they call on the prospect. The customer is reminded of her business and her name is the first one the prospect hears. Quite the win-win-win situation.

Tip for February 26, 2008

The Power of a Smile Guerrilla Marketers don't have to be small. In many ways, SouthWest Airlines is an example of a highly successful, Guerrilla Marketing firm. Two weeks ago, I flew them from Manchester, NH, to Las Vegas, NV. My wife and I had to pick up new boarding passes at Kansas City. As the ticket agent was handing us our boarding passes, she distinctly mentioned my wife's first name and my first name as she handed us our boarding passes and told us to "have a nice flight." And she acted like she meant it. Wow! What a nice, personal touch! Her small gesture did more to build brand loyalty than all of the full page ads in USA Today put together.

Tip for February 27, 2008

Common speaking mistakes: agreeing to make a speech before you know about the audience; agreeing to speak in fringe time when the audience may be tired; letting others write your introduction; preparing at the last minute; winging it; trying to be funny; running overtime.

Tip for February 28, 2008

Novelty items work! Try adding novelty items to your direct mailings. Instead of one item, send a collection, one piece per week or one per month. This gives a feeling of continuity to your company. Watch the response rate soar.

Tip for February 29, 2008

Most customer loyalty programs are expensive to set up and manage but Larry Gaynor's simple approach is the Guerrilla solution that turns it into a profit center. Larry sends a Tootsie Roll Pop out with EVERY order and attaches a client survey card. Each week they get back hundreds of customer survey cards raving about the candy and good service. Over 80% respond with some kind of comment. The really positive survey responses get a follow-up letter from the president and a sample issue of their paid newsletter. Over half of these customers go on to order the newsletter at $89US per year!