Interview with Adriano Messina
Sales and Business Development
BM&M Screening Solutions
What is the business focus of BM&M Screening Solutions?
BM&M has been in business since 1968. We manufacture high-speed, gyratory equipment used by industry to screen and size commodities. I currently manage Canada’s Western provinces for BM&M with literally hundreds of installed machines and thousands of customers, so the power of online marketing, to maintain relationships, educate, entertain and keep top-of-mind awareness is priceless.
How have your CLIENTS benefited from your email marketing?
My clients have told me they really benefit from the maintenance and safety tip articles. Major projects and new product developments are linked to our website, which receives a spike when those are featured. But really the bottom line is they tell me that contacting me (or BM&M), just feels much easier – and that’s worth it to me.
How has your COMPANY benefited from your email marketing?
BM&M has used this newsletter to further our reputation as an industry leader. The increased brand recognition helps us to create and maintain customer relationships and to generate leads via analytic tracking and follow-up. It has helped our bottom line with a dramatic increase in spare part sales. Parts sales (unlike machines), requires much more periodic reminding of where to get them, who to call…etc. My newsletter is effectively making 600+ parts sales calls every two months (3,600 per year). Very powerful stuff!
What is your advice to entrepreneurs starting an email marketing program?
I would say don’t be afraid to ask for help. I started with a professional consultation with eXtra Contact, and they really know their stuff when it comes to online marketing. It was very beneficial to develop a strategic marketing plan and to have ongoing support to stay on track. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that sales results don’t happen overnight, a serious sales professional must make a commitment to the long-term process to yield outstanding results.
Perhaps the most essential use of holiday-themed email marketing is for retail stores, e-commerce sites and restaurants. It a critical time to touch base with your full database. Here are some ideas for you to incorporate into your communication mix:
Wish them a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings!
Remind them about Gift Cards – Whether you are a retail store, e-commerce site or restaurant you can use email to promote your gift cards. For example, a spa could offer a free manicure to the purchaser of a $100 gift card.
Offer Gift Ideas – Everyone is trying to figure out what to buy for their friends and family. You can help your customers out by highlighting gifts that would be great for the family member or friend who has everything.
Offer a Range of Promotions – Don’t just offer one promotion for the holidays. For one person, free shipping might get them to buy from you, for another, incremental discounts might work better (spend $100, get 15% off; spend $200, get 20% off; etc).
Communicate about Holiday Hours – If you have a retail shop, you can send an email announcing that you have special holiday hours for your customers’ shopping convenience.
Invite Customers to a Special Event – A great way to get people to come and shop with you is to hold a special event complete with holiday specials and enticing discounts.
Send out a holiday email with all the details.
Wondering where to start? If you need some professional advice on how “Engagement Marketing” will increase your sales, feel free to ask the friendly experts at eXtra Contact.
Did you know that if you are running your business through your Facebook Personal Profile you run the risk of Facebook shutting you down? Imagine all that time you might have spent on something that could be gone tomorrow. If that’s not enough reason, there are several more reasons to make the switch. So what are you waiting for? Here are some great tips on why moving your Business to its own Business Page makes so much sense.
- Search Engine – Facebook Business Pages are quickly indexed by the Search Engines based on the keywords used in the Business Page Title. Anyone can access your Facebook business page including finding you from a search on Google.
- Facebook Tabs – With Facebook tabs, you can use apps to explain more about who you are. Provide a video introduction. Feature your products. Provide a newsletter opt-in form. Highlight the history of your company. You can have various custom tabs made just for your business.
- Facebook Offers – Easily create new product or services campaigns online using Facebook. It’s an official way to promote a deal. Your Facebook business page alerts your fans of special offers, events and discounts instantly. A great way to get some viral buzz going about your business is to run Facebook Offers.
- Facebook Insights – Insights can tell you what is working and what isn’t, helping with ongoing strategy shifts. Get entry to valuable specifics about people who follow your fan page, such as their gender, age and also place.
- Facebook Ads – You can create ads that target people with relevant interests and attract new fans and new customers. With 500 million users on Facebook, you can drive a lot of traffic to your website through your Facebook fan page.
- Promoted Posts – Through your Facebook Page, you can reach more of your Fans and you can reach friends of those Fans with Promoted Posts. Several companies use this feature to create a buzz or thank followers for liking your company. Running a contest or promotion is the perfect chance to display your creativity by engaging and/or rewarding your loyal followers.
- Keeping it Business – With Fan Pages, people who become a Fan of your Page are expressly saying they want to find out more about your business, not just you the individual.
- Number of followers – The goal of marketing is to reach as many people as possible. A company Facebook page doesn’t limit the people you reach like the personal page that maxes out at 5,000 friends. I’m sure you want your company to pass this number!
- Wall postings – You have the ability to make your wall postings open, closed, or subject to approval. As a result, you have total control of the content your fans see when they visit your page.
All of social media is about relationships, referrals, and socializing. Having a business page will take full advantage of the viral nature of Facebook and Social Media and soon your Business Page will be seen by more people than ever before.
Do you need help with your Facebook Business Page?
Let us help you… Contact [email protected]
Reasons people unsubscribe from permission email?
As any experienced marketer will tell you, businesses live or die by “customer loyalty”. You work so hard to build a customer database, with dedicated customer service and a parade of networking events. So, the last thing your want is to lose those valued customers by having them “unsubscribe”. This can happen for many reasons but one of the biggest reasons is ineffective marketing strategies. So, here is some expert advice to make your marketing program so spectacular that people will love hearing from you!
Emails came to Frequently
Many people today complain that they are inundated with too much email. We recommend customizing your email marketing to your customer desires. Do send them updated news and specials, which are relevant to them; but always be considerate and don’t over do it.
Content became boring, repetitive or too sales-based
Be dramatic, be original and be relevant! In order to stay competitive in the online marketing world, your content has to offer something that your customers really want to receive! Your readers want to be educated about something that interests them. They do not want a hard sell. Always think “What’s in it for them?”
Communication is a two-way street
If you’re not entirely sure what your customers are most interested in. Ask them, either in person of via a questionnaire, what information they would like to see from you. Then apply this knowledge to provide the inspiration for your subscribers to stay loyal.
At eXtra Contact, we create communications which are extraordinary, for businesses who desire a competitive edge!
Contact us today…
Stay Connected to Customers via Email Marketing!
“Think of your email marketing program like a “giant team of friendly virtual salespeople” reaching out to your customers on a regular basis.”
BE FRIENDLY:
Email marketing does not have to be cold and impersonal; it can be fun and friendly, like a regular visit from a good friend. The secret to a successful email marketing program can be summed up as: Give readers information they can use or enjoy and design it with a warm, human, personable style. Then deliver your message consistently with a professional distribution system.
FOLLOW-UP CONSISTENTLY:
Sales results do not happen overnight, they are cultivated like gardens. Customer relationships develop slowly over time, from many points of contact. Businesses that do not follow-up with customers are forgotten faster than yesterday’s news. Did you know that consumers may need to see your brands dozens of times before they even begin to feel familiar with it? It can take hundreds more positive contacts to convince them to actually buy your products or service.
GROW CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS:
Developing customer relationships is about more than just sending them an annual form letters or holiday greeting card. You gain people’s trust through positive and consistent experiences with your company. Think of your email marketing program like a “giant team of friendly virtual salespeople” reaching out to your customers on a regular basis. This hard working team keeps in touch with your entire customer base, educating them on your products, services, specials, announcements and events. Staying ‘Top of Mind’ with customers leads to increased repeat business and more referrals.
Your Virtual Sales Team reaches more clients than any in-house sales team ever could! Thus without the expense of wages or overhead, the return on investment is amazing! Don’t you think it’s time you put a virtual sales team to work for you?
1. Consistent Contact (Online Newsletters):
In the online world, businesses are forgotten faster than yesterday’s news, unless you keep in close contact with customers. Staying in clear view is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd. To strengthen customer relations, it is highly recommended to have a monthly online newsletter. This is called the “soft sell”. The newsletter should contain interesting and useful articles (that is what is in it for customers). Having customers remember to contact your business the next time they need your services (that is what is in it for you!). Want to increase your success with online marketing? Contact us, we’d be glad to help!
2. Rev Up your “Social Media” Impact:
Social media is a great way to get attention online and it’s cost effective because it’s generally FREE. You-Tube Videos are a great way to explain what you do, they are like a friendly virtual sales person. Facebook pages are a nice way to get more personal with your customers, so post photos of your recent events and tell interesting stories about your business. Promote your upcoming events on Twitter and let everyone know what you’re doing next.
3. Use “SEO” to Get Found in Web Searches:
All the buzz about SEO (search-engine optimization) reflects the new realities of the digital age. When customers want to purchase goods or services they research them using search engines like Google (i.e. when was the last time you looked up a business in the Yellow Pages book? It’s probably been a while…) Since people rarely click below the first few listings, getting your company or product ranked higher will result in more traffic to your website. If you need a hand in this area, we offer excellent SEO services, so let us be your advocate in this complex technical process.
4. Hire Online Marketing Professionals:
Nothing says that a business is “NOT serious about success” more than a poorly designed website or online newsletter. So don’t be hesitant to invest in your own success. Hire the experts in who can guarantee that you will shine online!
A client of mine told me that a customer opted for an additional $3,000 in services on top of a $5,000 order simply because of a follow-up message that was sent.
That same message that prompted this customer to purchase another service is one that goes out to his entire prospect list (the prospect list is the customers that may need your services but have not gone forward) on a regular basis.
Every prospect should be put into a database to be contacted forever unless they “buy, die, move, or scream get me off your mailing list.” This should be considered a “holding tank” for future return on marketing expenditures.
Why should we “feed” and maintain our holding tank of prospects?
If we don’t, we are throwing away something we’ve paid for. Most businesses don’t even know they are throwing an asset away. Every time you meet or a potential prospect calls your office, you have quite literally paid that prospect to call you through some mechanism be it internal or external marketing purchased with either time (networking, referrals), money (marketing, advertising), or both. It is likely that this occurred because you bought their phone call through some form of internal or external marketing.
Meeting and getting the customer to call that very first time is the biggest marketing expense in any business. After the first call, our ongoing marketing expense is tiny to continuously keep us ‘first in line’ in their mind so that they only think about getting their service/product with us when they become ready.
As a result of understanding this, businesses not only reap big rewards immediately with the prospects that are ready to buy right now but they also continue to reap big rewards from prospects that they literally paid to call them years ago. They know how important this is.
Looking beyond the ongoing sales to keep you in business, the Prospect List is a Tangible Practice Asset. Here is another very big financial reason your marketing system must build and automatically keep a marketing contact database.
You already know that one of the ways your practice is valued is by your existing clients and your bottom line. Another asset that is hugely valuable in any business is having a list of people that you have contacted that have a known problem for which you are selling the solution (literally customers that need you and have told you by their actions that they are likely to spend money with you).
In marketing terms this is called a prospect list because these people have literally ‘raised their hand’ and said to you that they have the very specific problem for which you have the solution. Business Owners pay $25,000-$200,000+ for these lists!! In creating your own list you are building an asset in your business!
Here’s A Little Secret You Won’t Read in Economics – Having a prospect list is a business asset that can be sold as part of your business and depending on the size of your list and how many years you have had a relationship, the list can save a future owner several hundred thousand dollars… that’s just how valuable it is! Or take the list to a business you may buy.
So Be Honest – Do you have the contact information for every person that you feel could potentially use your business. Are they in a holding tank that is constantly being fed and fished? Does your marketing system automatically perform follow-up and is it constantly doing everything it can to keep your prospects engaged so that they are more likely to be ready for your help?
If you choose to let the right systems make this happen for you, the warm prospect list it creates for you can add tangible value to your practice when you sell it to another owner that will want the same things you have… a pool of potential customers that constantly show up as they are marketed to over time.
This is super advanced knowledge. Few accountants understand it and even fewer businesses know about this or even know how to create this effect to reap the financial reward.
There you have it… one more method to increase the future sale value of your business without it requiring any effort on your part.
Need help building your database… Contact us today for some list building strategies.
604-985-3739 [email protected]
Let’s face it, online marketing isn’t a fad-it’s not going away anytime soon. And social media is the fastest growing component of that marketing medium. As a business owner, speaker or consultant, it is important to realize that what you put out there reflects on your business, even if you are just being social! These tips will ensure that you put the best you forward in the social space and attract the right people online to your business!
1-Be real: Use your real name. Research actually shows that people connect more quickly and trust you faster when you use your name. More importantly, use a current, energetic headshot. If they meet you in person and you don’t really look like that, not so good! More importantly, that picture is actually very small where most people see it -in their streams, not on your profile. So look at it as a friend or follower would and make sure it connects energetically!
2-Brand and Complete Profiles/Pages: I am amazed by how many business people I connect with that have not fully branded their pages, filled out their info, and posted their websites/blogs for me to look at. Take the time to do this; it will only help people know you and what you do better and in a non-threatening way.
3- Project your authentic voice: This is the most important thing I work with clients on. And trust me, they all say: “But I know my voice, Ann!” Often when we write content for our Facebook page or twitter account we change that voice. People hire you because of who you are- so align that with the written messages you share. I’m feisty in person and feisty online. This is also why I say be careful of outsourcing the writing; it typically doesn’t sound like you (I wrote about this on my blog).
4-Determine “boundaries” in advance: So many worry about privacy. But I personally think it’s a different issue. If you determine what you absolutely will not share about your life, or conversations you will not participate in, then privacy doesn’t really become an issue. Will you discuss religion? Share pictures of your children? Decide, and then respect your boundaries and you won’t have privacy issues. Besides, most sites allow you to choose who you want to share which posts with, which helps tremendously.
5-Understand the difference between engagement and promotion: Why is it that so many people just turn into slimy sales people when they participate in the social space? The social space is just that: social first. Take the time to log in and participate in others posts. Listen to them and comment, without promoting. Believe it or not, this is one of the most powerful sales strategies there is.
6-Relationships Rule! Ok, makes sense after point 5, but the most powerful outcome of NETWORKING online is word of mouth marketing. Build relationships, follow though, and show you care. Get to know people. It works, people will LOVE you for it and will share your offerings!
7-Decide where to post what: this is actually a sales strategy, one that creates tremendous success for my clients! If you post the same content, at the same time to every site you have an account on, people have NO reason to follow you everywhere. And they start to hate it when you fill up their feed with the same thing at the same time on every site (and even worse several pages/accounts on a site)! If you share different things on each site, they have reason to follow you in more than one place and they love you for new and different content.
8-Repect and Know TOS, FTC and ICANN rules/law: TOS: Terms of Service, FTC: Federal Trade Commission, ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. These entities create the laws for website, sales online and rules for how to participate in their social media sites. Knowing and respecting the laws are the things that demonstrate you run your business ethically online and in the social space. For example, did you know it’s against TOS on Facebook to have a profile with a business name and your account can be removed if reported? That the FTC can fine you up to $1000 for not fully disclosing an affiliate link? Or that ICANN requires that any subscription have a single opt-in, preferably a double opt-in, and fines are up to $16,000 for email loading without it? Knowledge increases your professionalism online and ensures you represent your business well! Take the time to read the TOS!
9-Friend and Follow: Most importantly, the social space is about connecting with people. Friend people when they request it. Follow people back. Don’t just ask yourself if they could be a potential customer. Ask yourself: Is this someone that could become a referral source? Could they be a “true fan”? Could they become a part of my word of mouth marketing in the social space? Then accept that friend request. Follow them back. Get to know them. The rewards could be fabulous.
These 9 tips are powerful cornerstones to presenting the best you online. I could probably go on and on! I find if you start here, you will build a powerful following and grow word of mouth marketing, because your image is one people want to share!
Ann Evanston
www.warrior-preneur.com
e: [email protected]
Named one of the TOP 6 Marketing Consultants on About.com
Ann Evanston, MA, has been named by About.com as one of the Top Six Marketing Consultants, Feb 2001, and recognized in the Huffington Post for her unique approach in using Facebook to increase profits though giving. In October 2008 Ann created the Social Networking Coaching Club, a forum where you get personalized support to learn how to “discover your REAL edge” and make more online in less time with integrity.
