4 Simple Low-Cost Ways To Improve Your Outbound Marketing Efforts
By Joseph C Kunz, Jr
Among the basic foundations of a thriving profitable business is an active, ongoing, and professional-looking outbound marketing presence. It does not matter if you are a home-based business, or one-person professional office, or a business with many employees. This list does not change no matter how small or large your company.
Improvement #1. Keep Website Current
Your website is your most essential marketing tool. It will be working for you 24/7/365. It is the first place that everyone will go to learn more about you and your business. You must always make sure that it is working at its peak performance. Every link must be active, and every picture and graphic must appear as it was meant to. Make sure that every pdf is working properly, and that the links inside each pdf are also working. Make sure that all of your dates, statistics, and facts are current and accurate. Be certain that your pages are easy to navigate and find. All of these details are very easy to overlook or forget about. But first impressions are extremely important, so make sure that every detail of your website always looks good and is working properly.
Improvement #2. Make An Emotional Connection
The most powerful and fundamental part of a successful marketing plan is one that can make an emotional connection with your prospects and your customers. Your company's very survival and growth depend on it. The greater this connection, the greater your ability to beat out other companies for the hearts, minds, and dollars of the customers. So few companies, small or large, bother to try to make an emotional connection with prospects and customers. But by showing your customers how much you care about them, and proving to them that you really want to keep them as customers, you can build a base of loyal customers that will not be so quick to leave you for your competition.
Improvement #3. Build Your Lists
By lists I mean email list, direct mail list, and social-media list. Each can play an important role in your marketing plan. Some prospects and customers might prefer one format over the other. This will depend on your type of business, and what your customer demographics are. But whichever format your prospects and customers prefer, you need to constantly be building these lists. For example, your email list might be built up by offering a free pdf download. Your direct mail list might be build up by offering a free sample. Your social-media list might be built up on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Although each list has its benefits, limits, and demographics, all can and should play an important role in your marketing plan.
Improvement #4. Shake It Up
Don't be afraid to try something new or different. For example, if you are always the one that is creating and designing your own marketing materials, don't be afraid to let someone else in your company, or family, or someone from Fiverr, take a shot at designing new marketing materials and copy writing. You might be in a creative rut, or possibly too close to the subject matter to create effective copy. Allowing someone with a fresh or outsider point of view might give your marketing materials a whole new life. Shaking it up might be the difference between your business thriving or dying.
Conclusion
These are some of the basic, but essential, marketing efforts that you should always be paying attention to and improving. You must never stop thinking about them, and working on them. Although improvements to just one of these outbound marketing efforts can enhance your marketing plan's power – if you want to look more professional, and make more money, improve them all.
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