Today’s economic climate has small business owners stretched thin trying to find new customers and retain current customers at the same time. Customer service has become a full-time job for most small business owners. How do I reach new customers? What social media tactics should I be using in my business? How do I keep my current customers from going somewhere else? How do I get my current customers to refer my business to others?

We all have customer loyalty or reward cards in our wallets, whether is it CVS, Best Buy or some other retailer, but how can a service provider create a customer loyalty program?

3 Simple Ideas to Creating a Customer Loyalty Program for Service Providers:

• Use your email provider: Instead of having customer sign up for monthly newsletter, have prospects sign up for a customer loyalty program though your email provider.

Send out email offering free reports, webinars, podcasts, articles, discounts and other promotions available only to subscribers.

• Use a Membership Widget on Your Blog or Website Add a membership area to your blog where only members will have access to premium content.

Add special webinars, teleseminars, ecourses, seminar events, discounts, articles, ebooks, and other promotional items. 

• Facebook Fan Pages: Create a facebook fan page for your company and offer members content that is not available on your blog or website.

You can offer events to attend, videos, articles, promotions, discounts, information on seminars, ecourses, webinars, podcasts and much more.

How can Service Providers put Customer Loyalty Programs to Work for Their Businesses?

Let’s take a look at a few ways that professional service providers can use loyalty programs:

Professional Coaches: You run a professional coaching business and decide to set up a free customer loyalty program. You begin by creating a landing page explaining the loyalty program to prospects and a sign up form. You tell them all the benefits of signing up for the loyalty program which could include such benefits as free coaching sessions, discounted coaching sessions, free ebooks and workbooks,free worksheets, articles, webinars, and discounts on books, ebooks, and special reports. You send members an email monthly with links to the specials that you are offering and not available to general readers of your blog or visitors to your website.

Financial Planners: You decide to set up a membership site on your website or blog. Prospects sign up to become members to receive special member benefits. You offer members access to site by logging into the restricted area for members only where they read industry reports, company research, worksheets, educational information and forums. You then notify members though email that new products are available at the membership site.

Author: You decide to set up a facebook fan page for your books. You are about to release a new book and you want to promote your book and get others to promote you book. You can add sample chapters, podcasts of you reading from your books, post book signing events, hold a contest to win a free book, and hold a contest to people to name characters in your next new book. The possibilities are endless, you could create an online novel where once a week you add a new chapter or create a novel where you begin the novel and have people submit the next chapter every month. You could post the winner’s chapter or you could also have members vote on the chapter that they like the most and post the chapter with the post votes as the winning chapter and ask members to post the next chapter.

Why set up a Loyalty Program?

Loyalty programs allow you to market to prospects to show definite interest in your business and are more likely to become clients of your business. These are the people who are more casually interested in what you have to offer, but may not be ready to become customers.

Loyalty programs offer your business these benefits:

• Targeting: Loyalty programs offer professional service providers the opportunity to target people are willing to become active participants in your marketing programs and helps moves the prospects through the sales funnel into becoming clients.
• Engagement: Loyalty programs allow businesses to engage members and learn what they are interested in learning and buying. Engagement allows business owners to target prospects with offers that will appeal to them because they have creating an ongoing community involvement with the prospect. Engagement helps the build trust and loyalty among members.
• Conversion: Loyalty programs that build trust and loyalty among members leads to increased sales conversion among members. The members already know and trust your products and are more willing to purchase your products.

All you have to do now is decide on what type of loyalty program you want to create. What you want to accomplish and how you will implement the loyalty program.

Do you currently have a loyalty program for your business?

Do you have any other suggestions that would work for service providers?

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5. How Marketing with Content can Draw Prospects to Your Business According to Junta42 research, 59% of businesses will be increasing their content marketing budgets in 2010. With the increasing use of the internet and businesses competing in the global marketplace, many businesses are replacing traditional marketing with online marketing. The common consensus is that to reach the global marketplace focus...

The top five areas where businesses will be increasing their budget in 2010 are:

1. 72% increase in Social Media usage
2. 63% increase in eNewsletters usage
3. 63% increase in Blogs usage
4. 48% increase in White Papers usage
5. 48% increase in Article Marketing usage

How can content marketing help your business?

• Reach a targeted audience receptive to your message
• Improve the ranking if your website or blog
• Improve conversion rates of online sales
• Establish you and your company as experts in your industry
• Attract better qualified prospects to your website or blog
• Repeat visitation to your website or blog from prospects and clients
• Keep in touch with current clients and promoting referrals
• Help to establish likeability, trust and credibility

What are the different types of content marketing available for use by your business?

Social Media – Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites help promote your business, showcase talents, engage prospects and help spread the word about your business.

ENewsletters – Inform, educate and entertain readers on a consistent and timely basis, helps promote your business, are shared with others, increases reputation, recognition, trust and loyalty among readers, and increases sales.

Blogs – Educate, entertain and inform readers about your topics, encourage return visits to your blogs with frequent updating, engages readers to share comments and share the information with others.

White Papers – Showcases your industry knowledge, provides the opportunity to be a thought leader, informs and educates the readers and can be shared with others.

Articles – Educate, entertain and inform readers about your topics, showcase your knowledge and lead readers to action.

Case Studies – Educates readers on your businesses pass success and tell how your business will help them achieve the same success.

Online Video – Educate, entertain, informs watchers, helps increase your likeability, trust, recognition and reputation among watchers.

eBooks – Establishes you and your business as experts in your industry, increases reputation, recognition and draws traffic to your website or blog.

Podcasts – Educates listeners, helps increase your likeability, trust and reputation.

Online Courses – Educate participants, showcases your knowledge, increases reputation and sales.

Workbooks – Educates readers, helps readers solve problems, increases reputation, trust and loyalty from readers.

Seminars – Webinars and teleseminars help educate participants, showcase your knowledge, increase reputation and recognition.

Businesses use a combination of the above content marketing tactics to create a content marketing strategy. While this is list is not comprehensive it is a good starting point to begin thinking about using content marketing in your business and what tactics are available. Content marketing allows small businesses and solopreneurs to level the playing field when competing against larger businesses.

How are you currently using content to draw prospects to your business?

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Here are a few great posts that I read over the past week. I hope that you enjoy them.

Make Sure It’s Original: Prevent Plagiarism at Idea Launch -This is a great post about developing web content and avoiding plagiarism. It also tell why working with a professional and paying a fair rate for content is a great idea. Also check out his post on tips for hiring writers.

The Mr. Rogers Guide to Blogging from the Heart at Copyblogger – This is a great article about the important of making readers feel special.

Do You Know Your Customers Enough to be a Social Media Hit? at Convince and Convert Blog: Where Social Media and Email Collide – This post talks about the importance of knowing your customers and gives a great example of how knowing your customer is the foundation to turning your business into social media hit.

Planning and Doing as a Small Business Leader at Word Sell – This post gives small business owners five tips for planning and doing.

Cold Calling Tips from the Queen of Cold Calling at Wendy Weiss ~ The Queen of Cold Calling – The name says it all, Wendy gives great tips on cold calling.

Editorial Calendars Help Small Business Public Relations at Understanding Marketing – This is a great post on understanding editorial calendars and how to use them to use them for public relations in your business.

What great business posts have you read over the last week?

Please share them with us.

Image Credit: Flickr Freely Licensed

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The mind naturally relates to stories and great storytelling allows the readers to step into the story and envision what they are reading. Using storytelling in marketing your business helps your readers envision the future you are forecasting, their problems solved and the satisfaction they will feel from successfully solving their current problem. Great storytelling engages the reader helping to build trust and credibility in your business. When prospects trust your stories, it helps to move the reader from prospect to client.

8 Steps to Creating your Marketing Story:

Step 1: Selecting a topic or problem

The topic or problem that you select when writing your story should be a topic that is of importance to reader. Do not choose a topic that you think is important but a topic that is currently worrying your prospective reader and needs solving immediately.

Step 2: Choose your audience

Decide exactly whom you are addressing with your story. By deciding whom you are addressing and narrowing your focus towards that reader you can choose words that are relevant to that reader and have the greatest impact upon the reader.

Step 3: Choose your angle

The angle is how you will present the information to the reader that showcases your expertise. This allows you to build trust, credibility, reputation and engagement with your readers.

Step 4: Decide on the problem, solution and benefits of the solution

In this part of the article you are going to tell the reader the problem, the impact of the problem, the process of coming up with a solution, the solution that was decided upon, the implementation of the solution, the results and benefits of the solution. Remember to address a problem that your reader is currently facing.

Step 5: Help your reader imagine a better future

Structure your story so that the reader can see himself as the main character of the story you are telling. Involve the client in the story by helping him to envision the outcome applying to his business and the success he will achieve.

Step 6: Describe the challenges and obstacles that the reader incurs

Every good story has challenges and obstacles that need overcoming. We enjoy novels because they present a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that the main character needs to overcome and tell how the character overcame the obstacle; do this with your storytelling.

Step 7: Describe the difficulty in overcoming the challenges and obstacles

Be honest in telling your readers that it will not be easy, but achievable. Show them how overcoming the obstacle will lead them to greater business success and happiness.

Step 8: Write your story

Write the story and get it out to your readers. Keep the story relatively short, less than 1,000 words.

Great storytelling in your marketing will help create a vision of the future that your reader will desire to achieve. The stories tell of the harrowingly obstacles faced, the creative process of finding a solution, the dedication to implementing the solution, the success achieved from implementing the solution and the satisfaction of a job well done. Write your story showing satisfaction and happiness is achievable with your help.

Do you use storytelling in your marketing?

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There is lots of talk about inbound and outbound marketing these days. Many businesses are moving their marketing practices towards Inbound Marketing and away from Outbound Marketing in order to reach, potential customers more cost effectively. However, what is the difference between inbound and Outbound Marketing?

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing (also called content marketing and pull marketing) is the process of bringing potential customers to your business by going where your potential customers and customers hang out, engaging in conversations with them and drawing them to your website, blog or brick and mortar store.

Inbound Marketing is about providing content that is interesting to people who want to learn about the subject you are addressing. It is about sharing your knowledge and message in a variety of forms to readers and engaging them in conversations.

Inbound Marketing tactics used by businesses to reach potential customers and current customers include blogs, articles, newsletters, twitter, facebook, webinars, podcasts, videos, social networking sites, and websites just to name a few. The key to Inbound Marketing is integrating a variety of methods to reach readers.

Pros of Inbound Marketing:
• Inexpensive
• Can be handled by one person
• Effective for all size businesses
• Levels the playing field
• Reaches targeted buyers
• Build credibility and loyalty
• You know that prospects are interested because they have engaged in conversations with you

Cons of Inbound Marketing:
• Time consuming
• Can be overwhelming
• Can be slow to produce results
• Learning curve can be long and confusing
• Can be difficult to measure results

What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound Marketing (also called interruption marketing and push marketing) is the process of pushing potential customers toward your business by interrupting potential customers and customers with your message in places where they hang out. Outbound marketing is about telling listeners about your product or service and pushing them toward your website, blog or brick and mortar store.

Outbound Marketing is about telling the people who are listening what you think is important about your product or service. Outbound Marketing is about reaching the masses and telling talking to them, interrupting as many people as possible in order to find potential customers.

Outbound Marketing tactics used by businesses to reach potential customers and current customers include cold-calling, commercials, post-cards, direct mail, radio spots, trade shows, just to name a few. The key to Outbound Marketing is reaching as many people as possible to attract enough people to purchase your product or service.

Pros of Outbound Marketing:
• Reaches the masses
• Effectiveness can be measured
• Offers tried and true results
• Potential customers are familiar with Outbound Marketing methods

Cons of Outbound Marketing:
• Expensive
• Conversions rates are very low, usually 1-3%
• Harder to get prospects to listen to messages
• Prospects are turned off by interruption messages
• Prospects are less trustful of outbound messages
• Does not engage prospects

Should you choose one method over the other?

The answer to this question depends on the type of business you operate, your objectives and budget. A good marketing plan will encompass a combination of inbound and outbound marketing to reach prospects and current customers.

What are your thoughts?

In what ways are you using Inbound and Outbound Marketing effectively?

Photo Credits: Flickr Freely Licensed

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Heres a checklist of questions to ask yourself to determine if you have the best chance of being successful with your sales lead programs:

Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

Prospects have their own agenda and timeline, not yours or your firms. So, you need to be efficient and strike while you have the opportunity. Timing of your inquiry handling processes are of paramount importance. Your firm needs to respond to all inquiries quicklythe faster, the better.

Here are some questions to keep in mind:

* Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries?

* Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your Web site?

* Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them?

* Do you have the people, systems and processes in place to get the requested
information out the door quickly?

Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts?

To avoid having any of the golden sales opportunities represented by your inquiries fall through the cracks, you need to capture all of your inquiries in a database so you can properly manage their fulfillment, nurturing, qualification and distribution. With this in mind:

* Do you have the database ready to go?

* Do you have the data entry people or outside services lined up to get the inquirers into the database?

Do you have a program in place to qualify sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

If your business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management need to share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, then deliver leads that meet that definition, your sales team will be able to effectively and efficiently follow up and close more sales.

* Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified?

* Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to?

* Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads?

Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

Sales leads are worthless unless they are quickly handed off to the right sales contact for follow up. Your lead distribution process has to be well defined and ready to goin advanceso as to prevent delays or misdirection when leads are qualified and ready for sales attention. It also has to be easy for your salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors to access the qualified sales leads and manage their lead follow up.

* Is your sales leads program designed to get the leads into salespeoples hands without delay?

* Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use?

* Can they access leads over the Internet?

* Does it integrate with their existing contact management or email systems?

Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads?

Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads who are ready to buy soon. However, research shows that three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales. As these longer-term leads represent the lions share of the potentional sales, your sales lead management program must be designed to help nurture the longer-term leads until they are qualified as being sales-ready opportunities.

* Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects, using email, fax, mail and phone contacts, until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention?

* Do you know what messages to send as part of your prospect relationship management program?

* Do you know how often to contact prospects with these messages?

* Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready for sales?

Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales-lead generation, cultivation and sales follow-up programs?

A marketer I know recently reported to her management on the results of the companys lead generation programs: Awareness of their company and its products among targeted prospects more than doubled; the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent; 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing; and 48 percent of the sales closed; and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads.

The result? She got a bigger B2B marketing budget and senior management no longer doubts marketing’s contribution to the company’s success. Can you answer these questions and show your management how your lead generation programs are contributing to your companys success?

* Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale?

* Do you know which lead programs generate the highest return on investment?

* Do you know which nurturing techniques worked and which didnt?

* Can you prove to management that your lead generation programs are paying off in increased sales and market share?

Refer to this checklist of questions to guide the development or improvement of your companys sales lead management programs and processes and youll have the best chance of being successful.

Author: Mac McIntosh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Mobile device news

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When readers sign up for your newsletter they are expecting content that is useful, informative, entertaining and actionable. They have already shown that they are interested in what you have to say now it is your job to keep them interested.

Here are seven tips to consider when creating your email newsletters:

Content – Develop content that your reading will find interesting and will look forward to reading every time your newsletter shows up in there inbox. Good content consists of informative articles, case studies, customer profiles, employee profiles, interviews, success stories, industry news, company news, contests, question and answer sections and much more. Look at the email newsletters that you are currently reading and ask, “Why do I enjoy reading this newsletter?” Figure out what works and apply the same to your company newsletter. Also, ask your readers what type of content they enjoy reading.

Consistent – Stick to a consistent publishing schedule, whether monthly, bi-monthly or weekly so that readers will know when to expect your newsletter and look forward to receiving the newsletter. Also, remain consistent in the tone and look of your newsletter. In the beginning, you may need to experiment some to find out what works, but try to make these decisions quickly and maintain a consistent schedule, look and tone for your newsletter.

Intimate – Email newsletters give you to opportunity for readers to get to know you and your business. They allow you to connect with readers on a personal level; you know they want to hear from you because they signed up to receive your newsletter. Newsletters allow you to talk to readers as if you are talking to them one-on-one helping to build a strong relationship and bond with the reader. Your newsletter should help you grow a connection to your readers and help to build trust among them.

Engaging – Your newsletters should engage your readers, captivating them from beginning to end. Use storytelling techniques to captivate and engage readers. The stories that you tell should involve your reader’s senses and emotions. When the reader is finished reading your newsletter they should feel a sense of satisfaction and look forward to your next issue.

Interactive – Your newsletter should cause the reader to take some type of action. Send for more information, answer survey questions, purchase a product, forward to a friend or enter into a contest. You want the reader to become involved with the newsletter. Invite customers to send in stories, ask questions, share photos, or review products. There should be some kind of call to action from the subscriber. What do you want the reader to do besides read the newsletter?

Readable – Make sure that your newsletter is easy on the eyes. Do not use competing or harsh colors. Make sure the font size is readable and the formatting is correct. Send yourself a test copy to make sure that your newsletter is readable before sending it out to your readers.

Professional – Make sure that your newsletter looks professional. Make sure that the spelling and grammar is correct. Make sure that your images show up, links work and in the correct places.

If you haven’t already, please sign up for the Wordzopolis Newsletter.

What tips do you have for creating a newsletter?

In what ways have newsletter been successful for your company?

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This post was written by Mac McIntosh.

The best PR (Public Relations) events are the ones which yield warm leads. PR includes a wide range of things, from communications to a champagne toast. Some public relations are directed at reaping warm prospects and can take on big importance in a marketing-for-leads program. Publications outreach is the most widely-used lead generating public relations method, and the goal is to receive a mention of your business, services, or staff members in spots published in a magazine – or have something written by one of your managers published.

This type of press placement can have an important influence on the amount and type of leads generated. However true that this coverage is inexpensive compared to paid ads, still editorial coverage takes committed time and effort in order to develop rapport with influential press people in your field. A complete press campaign is preferable to divided and disparate efforts to attain publication. A public relations campaign is best when utilizing the following:

- release with email and other advisory activity

- kit with background, biographies, photos of products, press release and reprinted article content

- relationships with editorial staff

- features ghost-written for or by management staff

- media coverage of management staff as expert industry insiders

- success testimonials from customers

Research and compile publications and read them. Remember the readership when making this list – is this your audience? If the answer is ‘no,’ the magazine may not be the right one to concentrate on. Think about the info that the magazine is publishing; does it hone in on industry product news? If so, your one sheet to introduce the new Chief Executive Officer may not really be appropriate.

Converse with editorial staff after reading the magazine and visiting the website. Next, decide who is the right person to speak with. Phone the editor to inquire about their guidelines and what they prefer to publish. Look for an editorial calendar which shows the articles and stories which are running each month – this is often located in the ad section at the back page or at the company website. Once checking out the calender, it’s time to determine just what story you will offer, and which months to enter expert-written articles for publication.

With persistence you can develop a rapport and begin to speak with editorial staff on the telephone or face-to-face. By mentioning relevant development to the publication’s editors, you may be supplying just the sort of info that staff remembers upon receiving an assignment. Do you have an idea to pitch? Call your editor. Tell them how your story is relevant to the editorial calendar, and offer to supply an outline and synopsis immediately upon request, remembering that editorial deadlines are most often separate from the ad deadlines. Often, it is preferable to have your article written by a pro ghost writer. These writers are familiar with working with magazine and are able to sculpt the article so that it doesn’t appear overtly promotional. By hiring a third-party writer who takes responsibility to complete the article on time, the time of your tech or management staff is freed, allowing them to work within their specialties.

Press Release

Be certain that your press releases actually announce news. An editor seeks info that the readership would like to know, often about products and services which solve business problems in an innovative or efficient new way. Address the topic from the reader’s viewpoint when announcing your news-worthy info.

A good release answers some key questions:

- what’s the unsolved problem?

- what does it accomplish?

- what’s the benefit?

- is the solution a product or a service, and how does it work?

- how is it able to do this?

- what will cause the readership to take interest in your service?

- what’s the cost?

- what are the top features?

- what capabilities are provided?

- when is the product available?

- what are the most important features?

Avoid praising oneself or one’s company. Remove over-used words such as ‘revolutionary,’ ‘the best,’ and ‘unique.’ Editorial staff people prefer customer testimonials rather than self-praise from an employee. Don’t use lingo that a layperson would not understand. Is it accessible to the readership? Keep in mind that even the editorial staff don’t really have a deep understanding of your products and services. Write in a clear and simple style. Remember to put contact info at the top or bottom of your submission, including company name, the titles of relevant employees, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Include photos if the magazine prints them, and inquire about the file format preferred. Digital photos are preferred by most – use literal descriptions in the file names so editorial staff can easily identify and find them. It is best to send your release to a list of individual editors; however some mass distribution press services are found on the ‘net. These services distribute your releases to editors for you, for a fee. You may consider prnewswire.com, prweb.com, and send2press.com, among others.

Public relations can also be used for better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaigns. Wire services are excellent ways to attain better SEO results. Once sent, the release will be findable by search engine news wire services such as Googlenews, news syndicates and traditional publications, all of which will have the ability to visit your website via a link. The link network is key for Search Engine Optimization as the number of links directing to your website improves your rank and puts your company nearer to the top of the list in search results for certain words. By sending your release in to wire services you may help writers locate info about you and your services. A recent Middleburg/Ross survey indicated that almost all journalists access the web on a daily basis – almost three quarters of them search for press releases. For a free news wire about your field, visit: google.com/alerts and subscribe for free. For more about marketing for lead generation, see: ‘Business-to-Business Lead Generation Tactics : A Recipe for Success.’

Author: Mac McIntosh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Benefits of electric pressure cooker

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.The end of the year is upon us once again and time to reflect on the past year. Have things gone as planned? What are you going to do to shake things up a bit next year?

I am not just talking about shaking things up in your business life but also in your personal life. Sometimes we need to shake things up a bit to get life moving again. This has been a year for many people to become very cautious about life. The thing about becoming cautious it can lead us into being in rut and causing us to stop enjoying life. It is time for us to shake things up, everyone.

Dare to do something different next year. Try some new marketing and sales strategies. Offer some new services. Venture into new markets. Attend a new church. Take up singing, dancing, playing the piano. Enter into a creative writing contest, audition for a television show, take up glassblowing. Try something different.

What are some of the things that you have always wanted to do? Better yet, try something that you said you would never do. Go parasailing, deep-sea diving, take flying lessons, stand up to your mother, stop loaning money. Life is about living not just existing

Next year is the year of Jennifer. I have spent the last seven years raising my two nephews and putting my life on hold. My kids are almost grown now and it is time for us to step out into the world and shake things up a bit. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I want my life to operate and one thing for sure I am tired of sitting on the sideline of my life. I am ready to get out there, play in the game, and enjoy the hell out of myself. I am ready to learn, explore and have a damn good time in life. I want to show my children that life if for the living so that when they leave the nest they go out into the world ready for the adventures that life has to offer. In order to show them this, it must begin with me. I am ready, are you?

What will you do to shake things up next year?

I would love to hear, maybe you have an idea that I can borrow.

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Your boss wants to see evidence that the money and resources invested in the company’s business-to-business marketing activities are really paying off. You start to sweat.

Relax. It is surprisingly easy to prove that B2B marketing is contributing to your company’s bottom line. Here’s how.

Show the relationship between your marketing and your revenue

Start by looking for sales and revenue that can be linked to marketing activities. Simply compare lists of new customers or invoices to companies or prospects in your marketing database and look for matches. You don’t have to find every sale that resulted from your marketing activities. Sometimes all it takes is one big sale to justify a campaign.

If sales haven’t closed yet, count the number of qualified leads and use estimated conversion rates and average sales size to quickly determine the sales potential of those leads. Or look at the forecasted sales in the company’s CRM system and compare them to the database of prospects, inquiries or qualified leads.

You can also send “Did you buy?” surveys to inquirers and qualified leads, using their answers to show that the prospects being targeted by your marketing are buying from you or the competition. Ask if they bought, and if so, from whom. Ask why and how much they spent. If your sample size is large enough, you can also use the answers you receive to estimate the number of sales and the amount of revenue that are represented by all the inquiries and leads you’ve generated.

Show how much you saved the company

Just give it some thought and you’ll probably come up with a list of things you’ve done to save your company money or time. For example:

- Printing and postage savings after cleaning the mailing list or delivering the company newsletter by e-mail.

- Savings accomplished by offering electronic versions of literature.

- The money you saved by eliminating non-productive marketing activities

- Time and money saved by automating the capture of Web forms and eliminating some manual data entry.

Show other ways your marketing is more effective

This can range from showing how many more prospects you reached with your marketing messages to indicating the improvements that have been made in cost per impression, cost per inquiry, cost per attendee or cost per qualified lead.

List all the marketing projects your marketing team completed

Marketers often don’t think about their own productivity when justifying the money the company invests in marketing. Unfortunately, people quickly forget what happened last month or last quarter. Or they simply have no idea what’s involved in creating a mailing or designing a new Web site.

Pointing out the number of marketing projects completed, and all the work steps involved, can be a real eye-opener to others who are completely unaware.

Always be ready to make your case

I recommend that you block out a couple of hours to create your business-to-business marketing accountability reports every month so you’ll always have up-to-date results at your fingertips. If you’re pressed for time, use an intern or temp to do it for you.

Your results may vary, but consider this …

A marketer I know recently reported to her management that awareness of their company and products among target prospects more than doubled, the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent, 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing, and 48 percent of the sales closed and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads.

The result? She received a bigger marketing budget and senior management executives no longer doubt marketing’s contribution to the company’s success.

Author: Mac McIntosh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

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