Quick, Inexpensive, Last Minute Holiday Season Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

It is that time of year again, the Holiday Season is upon us and it would appear that businesses everywhere are pulling out all the stops and utilizing various techniques to attract customers. However, as a small business you face different challenges than your larger competitors and perhaps none more so than the limitation of a big marketing budget.  With a little creativity though, some hard work, and resourcefulness there are still a number of holiday marketing tactics that you can implement quickly that will not break the bank.

Give a Free Gift with Purchase

Everybody loves free stuff so why not entice your customers by offering a free gift with a purchase. When implementing this tactic though, it is important to keep your customers in mind and provide them with something of value/need/use. Or provide them with a gift that they could perhaps give to someone else to use. This has an added bonus of brand marketing to another potential customer.

Price Leaders

Take a page out of the Automotive industry and mark-down one or a couple of products/services to draw in customers. Send them a quick email highlighting the promotion and “tease” them by letting them know that there are other items and deals. Everybody loves a deal or value purchase, plus, it allows you the opportunity to showcase, and up-sell, other items at different price levels. It is important to keep in mind that everyone’s budget is different and by providing a wide array of products/services at various price points gives you a greater opportunity to convert a customer.

Coupons

Send out some coupons. Coupons and shopping go hand-in-hand, especially during the holiday season. It’s all psychological. People are more likely to purchase a product/service if they feel like they are getting more value for their purchase and saving money. It incentives them to buy when the perhaps might not. Again though, keep in mind your customers and present them with a coupon of some value which they could use. And make it easy to redeem. Nothing is more annoying than having to jump through hoops in order to redeem a coupon.

Friends and Family Coupons

Why not go a step further with a coupon idea and provide your customers with “Friends and Family” coupons as well. What’s better than being able to market to additional people and potentially new customers for FREE!? Plus, since there is already an established relationship between the parties, you have already gained some credibility and trust. This is a perfect recipe for new business marketing.

These tips obviously assume you are/have been capturing your customers’ information, and hopefully you’ve been communicating with them on a more consistent basis. If you haven’t done so, well not too worry as we at instantbusinesslist.com can help you reach your target audience quickly and inexpensively with one of our business mailing lists or business email lists. Simply give us a call at 888-474-6021 and a knowledgeable customer service representative will assist you.

Choosing the right business marketing list can mean the difference between a failed (and costly) endeavor and a successful direct marketing campaign that delivers a good ROI. Obviously there are other mitigating factors that contribute to the outcome, but the driving force or engine that makes this ‘car’ run is the business list. In this article, I wanted to speak to a couple of reasons why choosing the right business list is very important.

First, and I believe most important, is selecting a targeted marketing list or target audience who is more likely to purchase your product/service. Thus ensuring that you are not wasting your time or money with more ‘no’s’, bad phone numbers and the like. The fact is you want your sales people focusing on the best prospects, those who when contacted have a higher likelihood of saying ‘yes’ or at least be interested in learning more about your product/service. (Note: a “sale” might not always come out of the first contact with a prospective buyer) Although a “sale” might not come from the first contact, whether by mail, email or phone call (albeit it would be great), you would like to know that you are at least calling upon a person/company that could potentially have interest in your product/service. This is more than half the battle, which is why it is important to know your audience and choose the ‘right’ targeted business marketing list.

Secondarily, and not to be taken too lightly, is the fact that your Brand should be important to you and you don’t want your company to have a negative association, if you will. Therefore be careful when not only selecting your target audience, but also the source for which you are purchasing the business list. Utilizing free services or purchasing from unconfirmed companies with little to no customer support should be avoided. We are probably all aware that people who have a negative interaction will tell 10 people whereas a positive experience will yield telling only 2. Being known as a ‘spammer’ is something your company cannot afford. Once obtaining this negative label, your Brand (company name, product/service, etc.) suffer tremendously and all your investments in marketing and sales materials/campaigns are rendered useless or will be ineffective. I’m not saying inexpensive items or lists are a bad thing, because in this day and age technology has leveled the playing field. However, do you due diligence and ask questions. Remember, nothing is free.

In summary, and as I illustrated above with only two simple points, obtaining the ‘right’, targeted business list is absolutely important. Not only for generating a good return on investment, but also for maintaining a positive brand image. There are plenty of reputable marketing list companies both online and offline. Prices are becoming more and more affordable as technology levels the playing field. So although important to purchase from a reputable company, and perhaps not use a ‘free’ list, you also don’t have to break the bank. For a relatively small cost you will be able to purchase a list that will enable you to better target your audience and start generating positive returns on your investment.

For more questions regarding which targeted business list is right for you, contact one of our list specialist at   888-474-6021  888-474-6021   888-474-6021 or visit us at www.instantbusinesslist.com

There are various types of business lists to choose and a plethora of business list companies/brokers or “online Paypal sites” (buyer beware) ready and willing to sell you one.  We receive lots of questions regarding business lists. One of which is about the difference between a Specialty or Professional Business List vs. what I will call a general or “Primary Contact” US Business List.  In this post, I wanted to quickly and as simplistically as I can break-down the difference between a specialty business list and a general or primary contact business list.

Basically, a general or primary contact US Business List typically covers most businesses within the US, (approximately 13 million at this point) and provides the primary contact, often times they are the main decision maker, within that firm. Depending on the size of the business/industry the primary contact could be the owner, president, VP, general manager, office manager, etc.

A specialty or professional business list dives deeper and broader within a particular industry/profession and/or company for that matter. Although some of the contacts within this type of business list might be from the same company, each person is essentially a “decision maker”, but specifically for themselves. They will evaluate and purchase specific items/products/services that will benefit and/or help them personally/professionally.

Okay, how about some real world examples. Say you have a product or service that is for the general use of a particular company/industry such as signage, credit card processing, insurance, advertising, website design, etc. than a primary contact business list is a very viable and useful resource. In these examples you may only need to “speak” to the person who makes the decisions for that company. If nothing else, this “primary contact” could direct you to the right person within the company in charge of making those types of decisions.

However, if you have a specific product or service that could be used by many professionals or people within that particular industry or company than perhaps a specialty business list or professional business list is more suitable. Take for example a Real Estate company, Accounting firm and/or Law firm. A Law firm may have any given number of attorneys practicing within that particular company but only one primary decision maker. So if you are promoting a continuing education product/service for attorneys than you probably want to speak with as many attorneys as possible rather than just the primary contact that is in charge of making larger scale decisions.

As always understanding your target audience is “The Key” to determining which Business List might be right for your company’s marketing and sales campaign. For more questions regarding which targeted business list is right for you, contact one of our list specialist at 888-474-6021.

We can all agree that sales leads are critical to any business. Buying a Business List or some call it a Sales Leads List is a fast way to prospect for the most qualified leads. How to choose the right business list is the first step and perhaps the easier of the two. However, how to use it effectively to generate sales leads may be a little more complicated especially if you are not experienced. Below I compiled a few things you should know about Business Lists or Sales Leads Lists, how to buy them, how to use them and finally how to get the most out of them.

How to buy a business list or sales leads list. Lists are typically categorized a couple of ways; by industry or geography such as; nationwide, state, city, etc. The most common lists contain names, addresses, phone numbers, business categorization and where available sales and employee figures.

The number one thing I can tell you is NO list is perfect so I wouldn’t get too caught up with finding the “perfect list” and spending thousands of dollars on it. Businesses are changing numbers and people frequently as well as addresses so it is impossible for any list company to keep it up to date 100% of the time.  So rather than spending thousands on a so called “perfect list” that isn’t so perfect, I would suggest finding a more affordable list that is still big enough to generate solid leads even if the failure rate or bounce rate is 30-40%. However, I would suggest at least choosing a business list that is updating their information regularly against the NCOA (the USPS National Change of Address), which will help to minimize costly mailing list delivery failures that can add up. In the end, marketing or sales prospecting is all about the bottom line. Remember that if you are emailing, faxing and/or phone broadcasting it generally doesn’t cost you much for failed attempts. Keep the bigger picture in mind, which is a great segue way into the next topic.

How to get the most out of your business list and/or sales leads lists. Although I will not get into too much detail and discuss in-depth the best approaches, I will quickly hit upon a few pointers, if you will. One great way to prospect for sales leads is to purchase business list leads for a given geography or for specific business categories and then communicate with them quickly and cheaply using electronic means. By leveraging these large lists with cheap communication and a great offer you can quickly and cost effectively bring in solid sales leads, people or companies that are actually interested in your products or services.

As I alluded to above, I would suggest using various communication channels such as mailing, cold calling, emailing and faxing as they can all be effective. Set up a solid communications campaign that utilizes or piggy-backs each other such as sending a letter or fax and following up with a phone call.  Just don’t send one message, not hear back and assume they are not interested. Instead send a constant flow of messages over time. Any good marketer will tell you that on average you will need to communicate with a prospective customer 7x before getting he/she to respond.

Also, tailor your messages. Sending the same message and only changing the communication method may not be enough. By tailoring it to each individual, even as simple as inserting the customer’s name or mentioning the company’s name or location, the greater the likelihood you develop a “conversation” and not fail into the proverbial “spam” category.

Lastly, and this is very important, you must be sure to check local laws on such forms of communication to ensure you do not break any laws.

Whether you are an established business, or an entrepreneur starting a company ready to reach for your dreams, the journey is sometimes more difficult and demanding than you could anticipate and success can be more elusive than you can imagine. More times than not resulting in a failed business. The ideas, strategies and research compiled are all wasted because these companies miss an important element in their planning; yes, a Business List. No business owner should overlook such a key ingredient to success because they can provide more leads than all the other strategies combined.

A good business list can help make it all come together enabling a business to focus their best efforts and marketing strategies into a database of highly targeted individuals who are more likely to purchase your product/service. So many businesses focus their efforts into their marketing strategy making sure their mailing pieces are bright and bold, their message and branding are clearly stated Their website is well designed and thought out with their customer in mind, subliminally directing them to what they should be doing/seeing. So much work is invested into understanding their target audience. Sales pitches and marketing copy are created with all this in mind, tweaked and rehearsed a thousand times over based on tireless market research. Until a full bodied marketing strategy and web presence is finalized and put in place.

Thus with all the work poured into these elements most would expect that success is right around the corner, but sadly this isn’t always the case. Yes, perhaps the product is flawlessly designed and packaged; and yes, perhaps the sales speech is perfectly rehearsed and website optimized for the best consumer experience. However, all of this is wasted if you are not speaking to the right audience/consumer. If the people you are speaking to have no interest or will never have any interest in purchasing your product or service it wouldn’t matter if you were giving it away.

This is where a Business List that is highly targeted comes into play. Where all the aforementioned work that went into the product, branding, marketing and sales pitches can be effectively utilized. Once a business begins speaking to more qualified consumers, consumers who are more likely to purchase your product/service, leads start to be transformed into sales. Yes, the almighty sales; the gasoline for the business engine. Speaking to someone who is more inclined to need/want your product or service obviously provides a greater chance of having the individual “buy” right away or perhaps keep you in mind when they are ready to buy in the future, which in the end could mean the difference between success or failure.

The dilemma of many companies these days is whether to invest more on developing new customers or in building stronger relationships with existing clients. Both are critical to the success of any business but what should be your emphasis? The answer is not that simple as the question is nearly impossible to answer but let’s quickly explore the topic on a top-line basis.

Retention is obviously critical to the success of any business. Historically, businesses that have a “churn and burn” mentality will not last long, but it does beg the question: what should be your focus? If your focus is on stronger profits and you have a large customer base than it would make sense to invest in building better customer relationships. And if targeting customers or businesses where there is an established relationship, direct marketing tools are well positioned to be utilized and successful in this endeavor. Results tend to be significantly greater, and profits higher, when customers are better targeted. Even former purchasers or users will respond better than individuals who have no experience with your organization.

However, even if your company’s focus is on creating better profits and retaining customers, developing new customers is also critical to the viability and growth for any company. Attrition is inevitable and even the most established businesses need new prospects to replenish their customer base. The most successful customer retention programs don’t keep 100% of their customer base. Maintaining a balance between customer retention and prospect marketing efforts is one of the keys to becoming a successful business.

So whether it is to promote a new venture, product, service, and/or to simply thrive in the growth stage of a business, an organization still needs to prospect for new customers. A business mailing list is the most effective means to reach this goal. It allows companies to broaden their reach and help with the prospecting/acquisition of new customers, patients, members, etc. Business mailing lists allows companies to broaden their reach but also to target their audience better, sell a product or service, generate a lead, drive traffic sell subscriptions or memberships, etc. Direct marketing being a proven medium, many organizations rely upon direct mail for their main marketing tool or as a support mechanism for their prospecting efforts. In short, simply talking to your current or in-active customers will not suffice. Businesses need to continue to broaden their reach for new prospects. Therefore a key to success will likely hinge on the use a mailing list to supplement your own in-house list. Now how to go about purchasing a business list is whole other topic entirely. A quick consultation with the folks here at Instant Business List may be the beginning to the continued success of your business.

An acquaintance of mine, who actually purchased data from Instant Business List, asked me the other day “who actually uses or buys business lists; people who don’t know who their target audience is?” After a good laugh, I first pointed out that not only is he a member, but also based upon his access records he uses both databases quite a bit so I’m not sure how to take his remark/question. Perhaps he is just insecure. In any event, I decided to engage him in a more serious manner discussing not only the benefits of purchasing a business mailing list or business email list, but more specifically what types of businesses might use it and why. In short, the potential benefactors of buying a business list and using it to market their product/service is too large to simply list off in this forum but suffice to say it is vast and wide in terms of industries. Think about it quickly and I’m sure you can begin to formulate some ideas very easily as it doesn’t take a rocket scientist.…Almost any B-to-B company can benefit from supplementing their own customer list with a larger business mailing list or business email list…some industries off the top of my head are as follows: business brokers; billing service companies or bookkeepers, advertising agencies, web developers, sign manufactures, financial planners, cleaning companies, business or membership associations, promotional marketing companies, underwriters and on and on and on. In the end, perhaps it’s better to ask not who should use or buy a business list, but more importantly how should they use it and who should they buy it from. For help with answering these questions and more, please contact one of the knowledgeable account executives at Instant Business List at 888-474-6021.

People always are wondering how a business list can help their company. Well, whether you are a fortune 500 or a start-up, 1000 employees or a sole proprietor, there are so many ways a company can utilize a business list to help their organization, and in ways perhaps not readily top of mind. Business lists are widely used to increase revenue by finding new sales and marketing leads or more succinctly to acquire new customers, patients or members. It allows an organization to market its product or service rather than to simply advertise it. However, although a business list most common use is to increase revenues and open up new sales opportunities, it can also be used to create sales territories, find local or affiliate partners, recruit new employees, test different markets and ad campaigns…and so much more. For questions regarding a business list and how it can be used for your organization, give us a call at  88….  

Ever hear the saying “penny wise, pound foolish” and “time is money”?  I know. They’ve become tired clichés, albeit, at times very appropriate ones. Too often organizations spend more time and energy developing business lists than working the leads themselves. Buying a Business List can save the time you once spent building business lists on actually getting business done and generating more revenue.

I for one used to spend countless hours searching the internet for new sources of information, leads, etc. At times when I found some great nuggets of information I thought the time spent was productive and justified, however, often time I spent hours with little to show for it. The end simply didn’t justify the means so I decided to analyze it a little more closely. I came up with simple metric system to perform a cost benefit analysis which included my time, what it’s worth, target revenue numbers, conversion rates, price points, etc. In summary I found that it was costing way too much to reach and convert a customer. Although I had a good product/service and an average conversion rate, I didn’t have the pure number of sales leads or businesses it took with my conversion percentage to hit my revenue goals, which lead me to the conclusion that not only I alone couldn’t “find” the number of businesses or sales leads required to hit my revenue goals, but that it was a waste of money searching for this information myself. There’s just not enough time in the day and I didn’t have the infrastructure to support it. I finally came to grips with the reality that I was wasting my time as it was better focused on selling rather than researching. So I began to seek out alternative solutions to reaching more businesses: buying business lists. The story has many twists and turns as it isn’t as easy as simply buying a business list and you will start to generate instant business. First, buying a business list can be tricky as there are numerous variables to consider and many companies out there to choose.  Plus, you will still need to get the attention of you target audience and give them a compelling offer/reason to take action. However, in the end buying a business list was a smart investment.  The time I saved searching for businesses/leads was transformed into talking too and converting more customers. In the ending generating my company more revenue. I understand in this tough economy businesses are trying to save money and cut back on expenses. However, it makes sense to look at the numbers more closely and perform a simple cost benefit analysis as buying a business list can save lots of time and be money well spent.

Many have been programmed to think that just because it is new, it is then therefore better. And in many cases with respect to technology this is probably true. Well, I’m not necessarily sure that is true when it comes to Business Email Marketing. The Internet has given us so many things;  Ebay, Amazon,  Youtube and something called Email. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Email has opened up virtual worlds in terms of communicating with people for both personal and business matters alike. It seems that everyone is on the internet and also likely to have at least one email account.  However with this explosion of email usage, along came with it the proliferation of email marketing and of course the exploitation, which had both good and bad ripple effects in the business-to-business and consumer marketing world. It’s a great, cheap, fast marketing medium but because it’s new and sleek doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than what we had before in Direct Mail? Thought I would create a little head-to-head battle Royale or something…Old vs. New…I can hear the promoters now…okay maybe not that tantalizing.  But I thought I would toss it around a bit, try to see which business marketing vehicle would survive the challenge to be crowned, well, better.

Yes, e-mail is by far the cheapest method of communicating available…at the moment at least…and the clear advantage over direct mail is that you can send a message/offer to thousands of people with the push of a button. Direct mail is a little more labor intensive, if you will, having to print something, put your marketing materials in envelopes, get them addressed to each and every individual,  and yeah, pay for the cost of mailing them as well.

Rd#1. Business Email Marketing

Business email marketing might be cheaper, and appears to be easier, but there is more to it than meets the eye. First you need to be sure you are emailing the right person or it will end up being be deleted almost immediately. Then you need to be concerned about the “Subject Line”  and what is contained in the body of the email related to the subject line. Ugghhh. Spammers are creative, using various subject lines with little relative subject matter to back it up or a hint of being targeted to the right audience. You don’t want messages from your company ending up on the “Spam List”, never to have another email message read by that person ever again. On the other hand, direct mail doesn’t have such filters so it is not as easy to block as junk email, plus it isn’t automated. It will more than likely get to the person. How it will be received or read is another thing, but still more likely to make to its target audience.

Rd.#2 B-to-B Direct Mail

Not to go on a tangent, but people tend to abuse a good thing which is another reason why people may also respond negatively to email marketing. It is not only because of all the spammers, but also the endless amount of crap that is being sent; from porn to dating to online degrees to life insurance to you name it..in the end people are being inundated with untargeted, garbage…albeit easier on the environment to recycle!  Plus all the fraudulent online schemes we hear about on the nightly news segments. People are starting to develop a negative impression on business email marketing and are starting to just simply delete emails they don’t recognize, if the Firewall doesn’t get to it first, which is a whole different subject. All because of a few bad apples. On the other hand, direct mail is seen with a little more respect and is part of our daily routine.  And people actually enjoy picking through their mail and opening things to see what surprise might be inside. Don’t  you?!

Furthermore, business direct mailing has a more personal feel to it (and it takes time to personalize it which is gotta count for something!) and people tend to enjoy getting mail more. Don’t worry if you didn’t know. Even market researchers have remained puzzled by this phenomenon as to why people tend to have warmer feelings towards direct mail. Plus, an added benefit to b-to-b marketing is that more than one person might see it! 

Rd. #3 B-to-B Direct Mail

However, business email marketing purists might ask about the potential of snail mail getting screened out by gatekeepers such as an Admin before getting to the target audience? Plausible that in the business-to-business marketing world their respective target audience, decision makers, would perhaps have administrative assistants and thus the propensity for their mail to be pre-sorted prior to reaching its intended audience. Therefore, email would be better in this regard as it reaches the target audience directly.

Rd. 4 Business Email Marketing

It would seem we have a split decision. Actually didn’t think it would end up this way at the beginning. Both business-to-business marketing mediums make compelling cases as to which is a better vehicle, generally speaking. Here in lies perhaps the better question which is to ask; for what? Each medium is solid in terms of its overall and general effectiveness although each is particularly good, and better than the other, in certain cases or situations. For example, I might choose direct mail in customer acquisition campaigns and generating sales leads. However I would perhaps choose email as a more effective tool to communicate with customers and those individuals who have provided you with their information looking to receive future communications from the company. Or even simpler, use direct mail to communicate with people who you don’t know but would like to…and email with individuals who already know your business, product or service at least in some capacity.