The present economic recession and the plunging consumer demand is having a huge impact on small business. It comes at the very same time a revolution has been well under way in how consumers do business. With the rise of internet commerce and social media, consumers exert more control over their buying decisions than at any other time. As a result, the traditional marketing channels and methods, i.e., newspaper, mailers “spraying and praying”, tv, are becoming less effective in compelling customers to choose your brand.

Because of the decline of brand loyalty owing to a competitive marketplace awash with consumer choices, small businesses are under more pressure than ever to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

At least part of the solution lies in the power of capturing client data, observing buying patterns and establishing an ongoing personalized and relevant marketing experience that has been honed through analyzing and acting upon customer feedback.

This is proven time and time again, through the growing number of success stories that show a strong correlation between an increased focus on customer feedback as a strategic imperative and an increased customer retention and activity.

By implementing, with the right technologies, marketing strategies based upon increased knowledge of customer buying habits and preferences, one can only expect to enjoy a very positive business outcome: Your customers will stick with you and increase their frequency of purchasing.

Up until now, these strategies and tools have only been available to the Fortune 500’s and the large franchises. No one has been able to develop a similar package that could be implemented, affordably, for the independent small business.

Enter KM Marketing Services of Northern Virginia. We focus on local, independent businesses and provide affordable marketing solutions for an ever increasingly competitive consumer marketplace.

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A well-run business is one with systems and procedures. One vital area where a system and procedure is essential is the are of marketing one’s goods and services.

Marketing defines how the client should think of the product by showing how that product is relevant to their needs. There are many theories of the amount any business should devote to the purpose of marketing one’s business. Each business must find the balance that works. So much, of course, depends on the type of business, product or service. Each market is different and has its own rhythms. A ballpark figure is 5 – 7% of net sales should be turned back to the purpose of marketing to future clients.  Typically though, many small businesses estimate their sales revenue, cost-of-goods, overhead and salaries, and then gross profit. Whatever is left is used for marketing support. This is not the best marketing plan.  A more simple approach for determining your marketing budget is to figure the amount your main competitors spend on marketing and use that as a basic standard.

In running a business, of all the areas that requires, patience, consistency and a systematic approach, marketing is at the top of the list. It is sometimes a challenge to decide what works best because most productive methods take some time and effort before they show results. . .it is like the cracking of a whip or the striking of a ball. The most solid blow is delivered after the weight has shifted past the target. The actual hitting of the ball is the last element in the process of delivering a powerful swing. Marketing is similar and many times people will give up on a method right before the powerful blow is delivered. Marketing is usually one of the first things cut back when times are tough.

In most cases, such decisions only accelerates the decline and, sadly, the demise of a business. It is the proverbial “death spiral.” In the desperation to survive, we actually chose behavior that accelerates our demise. Penny-wise and pound foolish decisions, in other words. Marketing is not about instant gratification.

This is one of the paradoxes of life that many times the instinct to survive causes us to choose the very behavior that hastens our own demise. Conversely, the most prudent strategy will defy the instinct to survive.  It takes courage and faith. It takes belief in one’s goals. If I may quote the Apostle Paul, “faith is the substance of things hoped for. . the evidence of things unseen.” This is a perfect mind-set for investing in marketing strategies that will not produce an immediate result but will bear great fruits on the foundation of consistence effort exercised with courage and a unwavering commitment to the vision.

Imagine you have been lost in a barren desert, the hot sun has been bearing down unrelenting.  Just when you were sure that you could go no farther. . .you come upon a abandoned wooden shack. Pushing opening the door. . . in the middle of the floor. ..you see a well, a pump and handle. On top of the pump sits a container of water. What do you do? The urge is to quench your thirst and consume the container of water even though a moment of immediate relief may not be enough to sustain you for the long journey out of the desert. On the other hand, a more prudent course would be to take the remaining water and attempt to prime the pump that can draw the water from below the surface.  Such a moment takes faith. What if the well is dry? I will have poured the remaining precious water down a dark hole. This is the critical moment. This is the mind-set a business owner must have. The possibility of reward is a destination arrived via the road of calculated risk. It is a road that is traveled only by those who are also willing and able to man-up to the consequences of failure and learn from them, rather than transferring blame and making excuses.

In today’s tough economy, businesses are searching for the most efficient ways to do business, including how to market their goods and services. One fact about marketing is catching more business owner’s attention. It is the reality that it requires five times the marketing budget to find new customers than it does to increase sales by marketing to existing clients.

Today, the letters CRM are increasingly familiar with more small business owners. Maintaining up-to-date client information is vital to customer or referral marketing. With client information intact there are numerous marketing strategies aimed toward such a target group that are highly efficient, cost efficient and productive.

However, the number of “old school” owners is still vast. It is amazing how many businesses have almost no information about their clients. . even regular clients. But in a troubled economy. . and with no light at the end of the tunnel in sight, more business owners are exploring new ways to address the way they market their business. Getting existing customers to come back more often and to bring a friend or family member with them, is the untapped marketing gold.

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A great article from vertical response: here

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There is a lot of discussion about the merits and liabilities of the free market and of socialism. A cursory glimpse of the argument centers around a few key issues. The strength of the free market appears to be that the most talented and capable individuals within a free market society can achieve standards of success and rewards that are boundless. The free market is characterized, as a result, by various strata of people based upon economic achievement. The upswing in the free market is that the individual is free to achieve and acquire unlimited wealth. The rub against the free market is that, in establishing various strata of upper class, middle class, and lower classes, it contributes to a distorted vision of human value, it promotes individualism, then licentiousness and greed. From the perspective of the socialist, a view that perceives all material as finite and static, the capitalist is hording a disproportionate amount of material and the services needed to sustain it, thus, limiting the opportunity for the “have nots” to advance out of their lowly state.

This perspective of the socialist and his subsequent contempt for the free market is very instructive. The socialist, again, sees material as finite and static. In his view, a fair and equitable system is one that maintains that all should have the same. . .an amount to be determined by the State. . .who acts in the interest of all the people.  The upswing for socialism is that it is a society where no one is left behind. ..it is a society without classes; the egalitarian society, utopia. The rub is that whereas socialism does eliminate classes, the one class that remains is a permanent lower class fully dependent on the whims of the State and one devoid of personal freedom, creativity or incentive.

Hmmm. . .some may say the choice between the two is a true dilemma, that is, having two choices with both being undesirable; a proverbial jump from the frying pan into the fire.

But there is a hidden dimension oft overlooked in this discussion. It is revealed in the view of material. As mentioned, the socialist views material as finite and static. This view also defines the socialist materialist view of humanity. In fact. . . it is an extension of it. Humans are, likewise, material only, possessing nothing transcendent nor divine. It is why those that have experienced socialism know that it is much more than a system of government or economic theory. It is a philosophy, ultimately, of what constitutes humanity and, as rendered, is a philosophy that strips its victims of their souls.

The founders embraced the free market because it was more consistent with their ideas about liberty and humans. Humans were created in the image of the Creator, and thus, as the Creator possessed a creative nature able to fabricate something ex hilo. .that is, out of nothing, so too could humans.  In other words, those in the free market don’t see material as finite and static but as ever expanding and growing. Adam Smith in “Wealth of Nations” introduced the idea of “an invisible hand” that oversees economy as individuals pursue their own interest and zeal to advance and succeed. The “invisible hand” manifests a state of well-being upon the nation who market is free and whose people are tempered by the virtues derived from faith.  Perhaps it was another way of saying that at the root of enduring social structure reside the “laws of nature and of nature’s God” and when they are implemented the “governor of the universe” indeed blesses the nation.

Thus, faith in one’s goals and believing that they will be achieved is a key component that moves the invisible hand of the universe toward benevolent, productive results. Conversely, only seeing finite material and not the living creative and, yes, spiritual realities that underpin them, one is left empty, vanquished and overwhelmed. Such a person is a prime target for the alluring promises of socialism. However, once a people give in to its empty enticements, it is very hard to turn around. We should take to heart the wise council of old. . . .”what would it profit a man, if he gained the whole world but relinqished his soul.”

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There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your email marketing offers. I’ve put together a list for you to read, so you know all of the ways you can be growing your list.

1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Tradeshows – Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
4. Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
6. Host your own event – Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
7. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
8. Incentivize your employees – Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
9. Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
10. Referrals – Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount.
11. Bouncebacks – Get them back! – Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
12. Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
13. SEO – Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services.
14. Giveaways – Send people something physical and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
15. Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
16. Include opt-in forms on every page on your site.
17. Popup windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
18. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
19. Include a forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
20. Offer a community – Use Ning as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer “Email only” discounts and don’t use those offers anywhere but email.
22. Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
23. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list.
24. Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
25. Tradeshows – Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.
26. Use Facebook – Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
27. Use Facebook – Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word.
28. Use Facebook – Include an opt-in form on your Facebook Fan page.
29. Use Twitter – Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch.

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Customer Retention marketing is a tactically-driven strategy to keep relationships with customers going and increase customer interest. This strategy relies on the study of customer behavior. Here are the basic tenets of a marketer that seeks to increase customer retention:

1. Past and Current customer behavior

This is the best predictor of how customers will behave in the future. They are the characteristics marketers should most often look at. Analyzing customer tendencies and trends allows the marketer to anticipate, if not predict, the customers reaction to different situations. The marketer must take note that behavior is action oriented, not a description. For example, being a 35-year-old woman is not a behavior; it’s a demographic characteristic.

For example if you know from history that customer A is likely to make a purchase if presented with a discount promotion, then you might want to change your marketing tactics to include promotional selling when approaching this customer. A great deal of observation is needed if you desire to predict your customers’ behavior. This involves a great deal of notetaking as well as watching what reaction the customer has to different situations.

2. Active customers are happy customers

Happy customers are retained customers. If your keep your customers involved, they develop a sense of contentment from the fact that they are in control. Marketers will take advantage of this by offering promotions that allow these customers to exercise this feeling of control. The most common means of achieving this kind of relationship with your customers is to offer promotions such as discount cards, discounts, sweepstakes, coupons, and customer points that can be converted to prizes.

Remember, if the marketing is not active, then the customer is not active as well. And as we said earlier, active customers are happy customers. Inactive customers on the other hand are lost customers. So activity on the part of the marketer is very important. Customer retention relies heavily on satisfying your customers.

3. Customer Retention depends on:

- Action
- Reaction
- Feedback
- Iterate

This is a cycle that the marketer should perpetuate. If the marketer fails to continue this cycle, more or less, they will start losing the customer. This process makes for a constant improvement in customer relationship and in marketing power. It also optimizes the marketers’ strategy toward the customer. Remember that not all customers are alike, so adapting your strategy to fit the unique types of customers is vital in improving customer retention.

- Listen -
It’s funny, but it’s not the marketer who does all the talking. If you expect to have your customers to listen to you, you must also learn to listen to them. Remember that marketers are trying to present products or services that the customer desires. The marketer will never learn the right approach towards addressing these desires unless he listens to his customer.

- React -
Watch for the customer’s reaction to different situations and note them down. If the customer shows favorable reaction to a particular type of pitch talk, try that approach again next time. If the customer shows a negative reaction to, let’s say, too much talking by the marketer, the marketer should take note of this.

- Feedback -
Knowing what goes on in the mind of your customer is very important. Usually they will be glad to have their thoughts regarding your service known. The marketer may receive this feedback through suggestion forms, interviews, and other methods.

4. Allocating Marketing Resources

Customer retention is not free! You should consider customer retention as a major activity. And all major activities require resources. If customer retention is not given proper attention, it will fail. Customer retention needs resources to be effective.

You should not be afraid of its costs because customer retention pays its own dividends. Remember that is easier to keep a customer than to win new ones. And that it is easier to lose one than to gain one. Lost customers will probably never come back. And to top that, they spread negative publicity about you. On the other hand, customers that are happy attract more customers to your service or product. Customer retention, therefore, should be an integral part of any business plan.

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