Tip of the week:Integrated marketing – are you doing it?

Areyou going all the way with your clients, or stopping at second base?

Relationship marketing is an important part of your business plan. You should be making every effort to get to know your past, present and potential customers by name, address, income, family background, purchase history, preferences, dispositions and more. Then devise ways to create, maintain and sustain a long-term relationship with them.

Strategy: You might have a client base of 5,000, but how many of these have you contacted in the past few years? How many have received any communication from you? What do you know about them? How much business are they giving you? Why have you lost clients?

Action: Think about what your clients would find of value. Research and ask a sample. Think about what you need to know to target them more effectively and build more business with them. For example, in the initial planning meeting, you would know if they have a home loan. What if you plugged into your database when their mortgage should be paid up in full? Then you could prompt for a meeting and allocate those now ‘unused funds’.

Start communicating on a regular basis. If you don't have the resources, outsource or put together a group of similar or complementary businesses to yours and produce one together.

Tip supplied by DebbieMayo-Smith of SuccessfulInternet Strategies