The Marketing Secret Weapon You Can't Afford to Ignore

By Lisa Almeida

Amazon is bursting with books that claim to hold the secret formula for success in business. Broken down to its most basic elements, this formula is the same for every business:

1. Know what you are selling
2. Get in front of the people who will buy it and tell them about you and your product/service.
3. Take in more money in sales than you spend on number two.

Too simple, you say. Try this - for the next 48 hours pay attention to every business, product, service, gadget or widget that you encounter in any advertisement, promotion, marketing campaign, sweepstakes, or special offer that crosses your path.

You will begin to see a pattern. Regardless of the type of product or service or the method of communication, all marketing is designed to do one of two things: either tell you something about a product or service and why you should spend your money on it or tell you about the company that sells/produces it and why you should engage with them - or both.

Billions of dollars are spent on this each year. And while it is necessary to tell your target market about you and why they should choose to do business with you, it does not need to cost billions, millions or even thousands in many cases.

By far the single most economical and effective way to execute the previously outlined success formula is via email marketing.

• It is free (for now) and you can't get more economical than that.
• You might not be able to get someone into your "store" or website everyday but people check their email everyday and they read things that are of interest to them. The key is to make sure you don't look or act like junk mail.

If you are not using email marketing in your business you are missing the marketing boat. But don't panic, you are about to learn how to build the dingy that can get you on board!

1. Start to collect email addresses. Every time you interact with someone who falls into any of the following categories, ask for their email address and permission to add them to your mailing list.

o A current customer
o A past customer
o A potential customer
o A colleague (not a competitor) who may be a referral source
o Someone who already knows you and likes you

2. Do not add email addresses without permission. Resist the urge to build a huge list quickly by cruising the events at your local Giganta-Plex Convention Center. You may walk away with a wheelbarrow full of business cards but for the most part they will be useless because...

o Without a relationship, people will not read anything you send

o Your communications will most likely be marked as spam

o If you become tagged as a spammer, your email efforts completely backfire and you can be
blocked by many programs, even when you want to send non-marketing communication

3. Use a recognized bulk mail service - like Constant Contact. You still need permission but by using the service you greatly increase your chances that your communications reach the inbox and not the spam folder of your recipient.

4. Send useful information on a regular basis. Touch this community no less than once each month but be careful not to inundate. You don't want to become an annoyance and have people un-subscribing after you've worked so hard to get permission to contact them.

You now have the makings of a sea-worthy email marketing dingy. Paddle with steady determination and as your list grows and the useful communication flows, you'll soon find yourself aboard the mother ship enjoying the financial rewards of inexpensive relationship marketing.

Lisa Almeida is a small business Results Technician and owner of Planit Production. She helps small business owners get from where they are, to where they want to be. If you are in the market for strategies that can deliver the profit you need to get the results you want then visit http://www.YouHaveToPlanit.com today. Because success doesn't just happen, you have to planit! Are you ready to planit?

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