​Your marketing strategy should not only be about your product. If you learn anything about marketing from Marketing Perfected, it needs to be that marketing is the building and maintaining of relationships. Connecting to your customers creates a bond that goes far beyond the average customer who buys from you once in a while.

There are many ways to engage your community and spread the word about your brand. Every community is different; evaluate yours and determine some new and fresh ideas that would appeal to its members. To get you started, we've listed 3 ways to engage your community today.

1. Customer Spotlight. People love to be noticed and recognized. Your customers have already decided that you are a valuable asset to their lives. They buy from you and value your brand. What better way to show appreciation than by highlighting a special customer each week, month or quarter for various reasons? This is a great way to get to know your customers and show appreciation for their patronage. Your Customer Spotlight campaign could recognize a customer for community involvement or a simple "Get To Know Our Customers" campaign that offers basic information about someone. Whichever path you take, your customers will appreciate the thought and effort. 

2. Partnerships with Surrounding Businesses. If you're a small business, you are likely surrounded by other businesses in your area. Each company around you serves as an opportunity for partnership. Sometimes it takes a bit of creativity to evaluate how to connect your brand with another, but it can be done. For example, if you own a car wash business, consider partnering with the nearest tune-up shop to offer discounts. One discount could be 25% off a car wash with a receipt from an oil change. The offer should be relevant to each business and promote sales at both. Partnerships also promote convenience for your customers. When two of their needs are so close to each other, they will take advantage of a good deal!

3. Contests. The basic purpose of a contest is to attract people to your brand. Contests also provide beneficial data about your customers. Lured by a prize, people are more willing to offer information about their lives, their friends, etc. Contests also provide free marketing, as people will share with their friends and family if they are hoping to win the prize. Especially on social media, your customers will share instantly with the click of a button. 

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​Let's start with a simple exercise: Close your eyes and think of a brand that you truly enjoy. It can be for any reason, whether it's their products and services; their marketing campaigns; or the tone of the company. You can likely think of at least one brand. Now, answer these questions: Would you refer your friends and family to this company? Would you write a positive review about the company? Would you post on social media about an exceptional experience? If you answered yes, you are a brand ambassador.

Brand ambassadors are sometimes hired by large companies to help build awareness about the brand and represent the company in a positive light. However, in our modern business atmosphere of social media and word-of-mouth advertising, brand ambassadors are everywhere – representing companies for free! With something as quick and simple as a tweet about exceptional service or a picture of great packaging with a handwritten note, brand ambassadors love sharing experiences with their friends, family and social communities.

Once someone has a very large social following, their opinions become highly valued by companies. Brands seek these people out and send free products in return for an honest review. These ambassadors are now called influencers. Because they have such a high reach on the social channels, they influence peoples' buying decisions. Companies spend millions of dollars on influencers to establish a relationship and increase their reach.

Consider your own purchase decisions: Are you more likely to take recommendations from friends or buy from a brand you don't know? Most people want personal recommendations and firsthand accounts from influencers, ambassadors or from their close group of friends. In fact, according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from family and friends over all forms of advertising. Many times, a friend may not even be in the market for a certain item, but when they hear about the experience and quality, they will likely become interested.

Now you might be thinking: "What does this have to do with my small business?" Well, that's an easy answer. This is relevant for ALL businesses. Every brand should treat each customer as if they're going to tell 10 people about their experience. Every customer is an opportunity to reach even more prospects. View every client as not just one person, but also 3 or 4 additional people; include their friends and family members that could hear about your product or service.

Everything you do is a marketing opportunity; don't miss the chance to leave a great impression.

Marketing Perfected can help with your marketing details. Contact us to take your marketing strategy to the next level and begin creating your own brand ambassadors.

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72% of adults prefer communication via email. Email marketing creates an avenue for your target market to learn about your brand, establish a connection, and allows you a chance to learn more about your target audience. While you have likely been told you need email marketing, you may not know exactly why. It's important to understand why certain marketing efforts are done so you can track and learn as you go. There are many reasons and endless data to explain why email marketing is an important aspect of business. We have listed 3 reasons to help you get started:

1. Engagement. Many businesses send email campaigns from a "no reply" email address. As a small business starting to increase a customer base, it makes more sense to use an email address that your prospects can reply to. Engaging with your audience builds a relationship and increases trust in your brand. Once you've sent emails to those who have expresses interest in your business, give them an opportunity to turn the email into a 2-way street of engagement. One-on-one communication is the key to building and maintaining a true connection with your customers.

2. Mobility. Remember when you had to sit down and fire up your computer to read all your emails from the day? Those days are over. Emails are received 24 hours a day, nonstop, no matter where you are. The same is true for your customers. Data showed that 66% of all Gmail messages are opened on a mobile device. Also, 23% of people that open an email on a mobile device open it again later. The chances of your prospects seeing your email and opening it are so much higher than ever before. Why not take advantage of this? Saturate your options and get in front of everyone you can.

3. ROI. Any business owner wants to see where their money is going and what they are getting in return. Email marketing provides data and analytics that would satisfy any small business owner. In fact, according to DMA, email marketing has an ROI of 3800%. Here is a simple calculator you can use to calculate your email marketing ROI. Email marketing allows you to track many KPIs that will paint an accurate picture of how your target responds to your efforts. Depending on what your overall email marketing goals are, make a list of KPIs to start tracking. Conversion Rate, Clickthrough Rate, and List Growth Rate are a few basic metrics to track.

With so many potential customers (more than 92% of online adults use email) on their mobile devices and in their inboxes, email marketing is a no brainer. You will not only be seen by people who are already interested in your business, but you'll be set up perfectly to track ROI and establish a 2-way relationship with your customers. If you need help getting started with email marketing, contact Marketing Perfected.

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Seeding and Feeding is the process for gaining new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, it's all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer.

Unfortunately, plants don't need to trust you to accept food; customers do.

The 5th step in The Seeding Process is Results.

Imagine the process of growing a plant. It takes more than just planting a seed. To nourish the plant in hopes of a healthy, fruitful bush, you must feed and water it. You will water the soil, creating a mud for the plant to live in. Plant food can easily reach the roots through the wet mud. Sunlight penetrates the leaves and stems. All the while, the plant accepts all of this. These are all aspects essential to plant growth. These are all welcomed by the plant.

Now think of your potential customers. How can you gain their trust and get them to accept and welcome you into their lives? After step 4 in the Seeding Process, which is Bait, the customer will likely begin to accept you. They've seen your name a few times; they've received some sort of special offer. The seed has been planted. It's now time to encourage them to share contact information.

Information can be collected in the form of an email address, phone number or, through the #1 way, sales. A few other avenues for information:

• Facebook Like
• Twitter Follow
• LinkedIn Connection
• Newsfeed Subscribe
• Browser Cookies

Your #1 goal is to gain permissible communication. You don't want to alienate anyone. After they've shown interest, begin communicating and allowing them to increase their curiosity.

When someone intentionally likes your Facebook page or connects on LinkedIn, they're welcoming you into their lives. Take advantage of this by posting relevant content, your clients' benefits of doing business with you, about your success story, client testimonial, killer offer, and anything else you deem important for your fans.

To learn more about the Results step in the Feeding Process, contact Marketing Perfected.

The 1st step in The Seeding Process is calculating the Lifetime Value of a Customer.

Seeding and Feeding is the process for gaining new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, it's all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer.You cannot begin to feed until you seed.

Understanding the value each customer brings to your business will help set the tone for your future marketing efforts.

The lifetime value (LTV) forecasts the net profit associated with a customer. Before you can begin seeding thoughts to your customers, you must figure out what each customer is worth to you. Keep in mind, not all customers are equal. You will have customers who last a shorter time than others. The basic formula for LTV is as follows:

Lifetime Value (LTV) = Total Customer Revenue – Total Customer Costs

Let's say you have a diaper business. The average customer would purchase diapers for 2 - 2.5 years for 1 child. In addition, a customer would purchase wipes and other products you provide for this specific need. On average, a customer will use 10-14 diapers a day plus wipes. After calculating your costs, a reasonable LTV for this customer could be $1,500-$2,000 per month.

Ok, now what?

Your diaper company has consistent customers - the ones who keep coming back to buy from you. It is essential to understand which marketing campaigns are bringing these customers back to you. There is also a huge difference between customers who purchase only once or twice from you and those who purchase monthly. These customers need to be treated differently because their individual LTVs are exponentially different.

The importance of defining the LTV is arguably more important to a business than its actual inventory. LTV can be used to determine and set new goals. It also provides an accurate picture of company value.

Rather than measuring sales, turnover, or profit, LTV is a valuable asset when defining company objectives. For a more precise amount of economic growth, for example, your diaper company may decide to increase LTV by 10% from $10 million to $11 million.

Further, LTV can evaluate new marketing strategies, predict customer satisfaction, and determine if a customer databank is optimal. When deciding on how much to spend for customer retention efforts, LTV helps measure customer loyalty and helps manage customer relations toward profitability.

Marketing is more than catchy slogans and captivating images. There is a science involved and numbers to measure. Once you master the basics of marketing, your possibilities increase rapidly.

Stay tuned for the next step: Prospect Profiling.

Prospect Profiling is the 2nd step in The Seeding Process.

Seeding and Feeding is the process for reaching and selling new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, this process is all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer. You cannot begin to feed until you seed.

Once you know who your potential customers are, you can effectively communicate to them.

We've all heard the word demographic. We know what it means. But does your business understand its specific demographic? You may have a basic understanding of who your customers are – maybe they're sports fans or coffee drinkers – but there are many more details of their lives that you must know to effectively market to them.

Profiling your prospects takes more than simply knowing what they like. Here are a few additional things to consider when profiling your prospects:

• What is their daily routine?
• What is their average family size?
• What type of car do they drive?
• Do they prefer indoor or outdoor activities?
• What is their passionate area?
• What is their ideal vacation spot?

As you can see, these questions cover more than "What is their age"? The reason to dig a little deeper in their lives is largely based on investigating what sets them apart from other prospects. Marketing to a 25-year-old female is much more difficult than marketing to a 25-year-old female with 2 kids, who enjoys going to soccer games and is passionate about charity work. Your horizons have broadened greatly.

Now, take into account the many activities a potential prospect is interested in. The more you know, the more ways you can reach them.

Let's look at a few ways we can reach "Paul" with all the information we have about him.

"Potential Customer Paul": Lawyer, 38 years old, avid baseball fan, frequently visits the local bar to watch games, married with 3 kids, coaches son's baseball team, also passionate about animals, and daily routine consists of ordering coffee at Starbucks.

We have a lot of information about Paul, which means we have many ways to reach him. Some of the details may be useful and some may not be. That's ok.

If you're a local bar owner, Paul is your ideal prospect: sports fan who drinks socially. As a bar owner, you are hosting a baseball ticket giveaway for a father/son game night. You just hit the jackpot because you know Paul falls into all these categories. If you hadn't done your homework and researched your prospects, you might have missed out on Paul as a candidate.

As you can see, understanding more than just age and gender can benefit you greatly in your business. Profiling your prospects, as well as many other steps in the process, can get you on the right track to marketing your business.

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Stay tuned for the next step in The Seeding Process: Identifying the Right Media.

The 3rd step in The Seeding Process is identifying the right media.

Seeding and Feeding is the process for gaining new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, it's all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer. You cannot begin to feed until you seed.

When communicating with your potential clients, you must understand which media works best.

As a business owner, it's easy to become overwhelmed when thinking about all the different media out there. There are so many media options to choose from, and if you're a business who identifies as both B2B and B2C, your job just got even harder. Or did it?

The good thing about having so many options is the opportunity for experimenting. We at Marketing Perfected suggest trying media that you are comfortable with, and evaluating the outcomes.

Here are a few:

• Email
• Radio Ads
• Outdoor Ads
• Social Media
• Publics Speaking
• Webinars
• Event Sponsorship
• Banner Ads
• Coupons
• And many, many more!

Deciding which media to use can be tricky. Luckily, there are so many to choose from. First, let's look at how to decide which is best for your business.

For our first example, let's say you sell farming equipment. Your customer profile is a tad unique to our technology fueled marketing world. Here are just a few questions to ask about your demographic:

• Are farmers typically online?
• Do they use Facebook?
• Are they on Twitter?

The answers to these questions are likely "no". So you'll need to explore a less digitally focused campaign.

Most companies just assume they belong online. Facebook is everyone's golden child for marketing, but that's not true for everyone. If you sell farming equipment, you need to understand that this aspect of marketing likely does not apply to you. Your audience is just not online. However, farmers still have similar needs and desire useful information.

However, if your business is B2C and sells makeup to women, social media can be your best friend. The beauty industry is drastically different than the farming industry with its potential customers using social media daily. In this situation, you would realize your audience is likely on:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Blogs

Your media options are very different.

In addition to understanding your potential clients, you'll need to analyze what similar businesses are doing to reach these customers.

For instance, the manufacturing industry, like farming, is not prevalent on social media. So, how does this industry reach their target audience? We recommend investigating how comparable businesses achieve success in marketing.

With this in mind, Marketing Perfected suggests choosing 5 media you are comfortable with and evaluating the outcomes. When one doesn't give you the outcomes you want, move on to a different one. Don't be afraid to branch out and experiment. You might be surprised with the results!

Contact us to learn how to implement these tips and more to your marketing strategy.

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Stay tuned for the next step in The Seeding Process: Touch points.

The Seeding and Feeding Process is a proven formula for gaining new clients.

For an effective marketing strategy, you must plant thoughts into potential clients' minds and then feed and nurture them to gain their business.

A similar formula is just as important, known as the touching formula.

"Touching" your potential customers is simply contacting them, in any form. Once your clients have expressed trust and shared contact information, the touching can begin. The touching formula follows a 70/20/10 rule. This is slightly different from the 80/20 rule mentioned in step 3. The reason for the change is because the potential clients have now shown interest, leaving you confident that contacting them would be accepted.

The breakdown ratio goes like this:

• 70% - What would they like to hear?
  • Sports, cooking, hunting, outdoor activities​
  • Tie in the desired subject area to the message​
  ​
• 20% - Inside your Service/Product​
  • Provide a case study​​
  • Client Testimonial​​
  • Non-profit involvement information​​
  ​
• 10% - Reason they should engage with you​​
  • Special Gift
  • Discount​​​
  • Free Offer​​​
  • Endless options here!​
  ​

The messaging is equally as important to the media you choose. It is essential to use different media and try new ones often. Document what works and what doesn't, similar to tracking KPIs. For example, if you choose email as your media, track which subject lines get higher open rate. Your media options are literally endless.

Think of Chinese restaurants. What is stands out the most to you when you visit these kinds of establishments? Fortune cookies. This is a form of media used by the restaurant owners that works flawlessly. Everyone looks forward to the fortune cookie messaging. Perhaps some people visit Chinese eateries for the fortune cookies alone. Bottom line, they are successful (with more than 3 billion cookies made each year), they are tradition and they are enjoyed by millions of people.

Your media can be as big or small - as small as a simply fortune cookie. Use it, track it, improve it.

To learn more about the touching formula, contact Marketing Perfected.

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Seeding and Feeding is the process for gaining new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, it's all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer. You cannot begin to feed until you seed.

The 4th step in The Seeding Process is Baits.

If you're a fisherman, you are aware of the endless styles of bait available; spinner baits, plastic worms, jigs, etc. Unfortunately, there is not one miracle bait that attracts all fish. Each one is carefully designed for each type of fish, their environment, different climates, and different bodies of water.

Similar to fishing, potential customers require unique and personalized baits to get their attention;, once you have their attention, based on their stage in your sales process you can convey your message or do a sale. The bait must appeal to their lifestyle, passion and routines.

In a perfect marketing world, your potential clients would become lifetime customers after the first contact. But people usually need a push or some sort of convincing to give your brand a try. Sometimes that convincing comes in the form of word of mouth advertising from a friend. Sometimes the push comes from bait.

​Bait isn't as tacky as it sounds; it's simply a great offer to market your brand. A few examples are:

• Free Consulting​
• Coupon​
• Discounted Offer​
• Free Car Wash​

There are endless offers available for your customers. You could even customize a "killer deal" that is in line with your brand. While there are many to choose from, it's essential to choose the right ones. When offering your potential customers a deal, keep in mind a few things:

• Lifestyle
  Are your customers stay-at-home moms? A midday television ad or mailers are good option for this group.
• Passions
  Sports fans would see a banner or a coupon in a sporting event program.
• Routine
  Do you need to reach people who commute to work? A radio ad would get to them while they sit in traffic in the morning.

In addition to understanding customers' lifestyle, passions and routines, you must take into account what they want. Take the time to listen to them. A group of football fans that frequent your local bar are telling you they enjoy sports. Do they show up for specific games? Specific teams? Pay attention to the unspoken details of your clients' lives.

Once you are aware of their lives and what they want, look at the businesses around you and think of ways to collaborate. For example, if you're a restaurant owner with a carwash next door, discuss a partnership with the car wash. Perhaps offer a free wash with a $50 meal purchase or more. This is convenient for your customers as the car wash is right next-door and they're already in your establishment for dinner or lunch.

Baits are all around you. Try different things. Document your efforts, whether successful or not. This is a great learning opportunity for you and will help grow your business, getting your closer to The Feeding Process.

To learn how to implement these tips into your marketing strategy, contact us!

The 6th step in The Seeding Process is KPI.

Seeding and Feeding is the process for gaining new customers for your business.

Just like growing plants, it's all about planting thoughts in peoples' minds about your brand and nurturing the relationship to ensure a lifetime customer. You cannot begin to feed until you seed.

While you're busy executing all the steps, you must be tracking your progress.

To reach your goals, whether strategic or operational, you must measure your efforts.

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, provide a clear scorecard for the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. KPIs let you know if your plan is working, and they help focus your employees' attentions on specific aspects of the business.

KPIs are the backbone of your business. They provide all the information you must know to decide if you're successful or not.

Imagine if you never kept track of your salespeople. Do you know how much they sell? Do you know how many leads they're contacting? You wouldn't keep salespeople who are underperforming.

The same goes for marketing campaigns. You have to know if they're working; if your efforts are being wasted; if they're making you any money; or if they're helping to find new customers.

The bottom line is, KPIs are essential.

As a business owner, you must have the discipline to track KPIs. Once KPIs are tracked, review and improve them as needed.

Every marketing campaign should have a clear goal. Once goals are set and clearly defined, you will understand more about what to specifically measure and track.

Remember, if you don't track it, you can't improve it. You can't know how well you're brand is doing if you're not keeping track of your efforts. You could be missing out on thousands of dollars in revenue if you're not keeping track of how many people you're reaching each month, how many people are visiting your store, how many new website visitors, and so many other metrics.

Be diligent in your KPI efforts. It will pay off.

To learn more about tracking and measuring KPIs, contact Marketing Perfected.