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Mind Capture

By Tony Rubleski
President & Author,
Mind Capture Group
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I meet lots of small business owners and non-profit leaders while on the road speaking and sharing ideas. The number one complaint I often hear from many of them, besides a shortage or marketing dollars, is the issue of finding time to make marketing a daily priority. To help address this common problem, I’d like to share with you a few simple, yet effective, ways to help remedy this issue.

Here are three smart strategies to help you keep your marketing pump primed to effectively spread your message and increase sales.

1) Focus more marketing dollars and attention on existing clients. Beside referrals, here’s a quick reminder list of low or no cost strategies you can do to stay in touch with clients and key referral partners:*

• Use a monthly newsletter or eletter to keep people updated
• Send a press release to your local media monthly or at least once a quarter
• Update your website with great content to educate and serve clients and prospects
• Host a client appreciation event with key business partners
• Send your top clients a thank-you card or note of appreciation for their business
• Partner with a nonprofit in your community that needs funding and positive PR
• Have a sale or special event exclusively for your best clients
• Sponsor a chamber of commerce event and invite key clients and prospects to attend as your guest

2) Resist the temptation to cut back on your marketing efforts. Too many businesses let their CPA or the competition scare them into cutting off the oxygen, marketing, within their business. I’m a big advocate for continuously tracking and monitoring what’s working and what’s not in your marketing and making adjustments. I have several clients who are actually doing more marketing now and finding great deals on media.
Having sold advertising for many years I can tell you that most media reps will negotiate great deals and discounts when the economy tightens up. It’s much better to have some revenue versus zero. Remnant space is your friend. Be on the lookout for opportunities when close minded competitors have cut back or are in a play it safe mode.
Another overlooked strategy is to joint venture and share resources with other businesses to lower costs and share customer lists. Too many businesses try to carry the load by themselves and miss out on simple, low-cost ways to leverage their time and marketing dollars with fellow business owners who are seeking to get the word out and add more value to their existing clients.

3) Go on the offense and guard your mindset. I was speaking recently to a group of business owners in Indiana and found that many of them were actually GROWING their businesses. Were they lying, delusional, pulling my leg? No, many of them stated that this is the best time to grow as many competitors are taking a wait-and-see approach to winning new business. Amen. Far too many businesses and sales people are still stuck in the “woe is me” mode and have bought into inaction, fear and retreat with their mindset and marketing efforts. This is what I mean when speaking with clients or groups when I mention that hope is not a marketing strategy. Hope, without taking action via solid marketing, is what’s still choking the life, growth and increased profits out of far too many organizations.

Lessons from the best investor in the world
Why does one of the world’s greatest investors, Warren Buffet, go on buying binges when everyone is selling stocks? Simple. He knows that this is often the best time to buy, get great deals and go on the offense.

This logic is a great lesson for any business to model as it relates to growing their customer base and standing out from the competition. While many people still continue to complain, retreat or “play it safe,” the savvy, well-positioned marketer seeks to grow and improve their products or service offerings while the rest of the market place is often stuck in the grips of fear.

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