Feltenstein - 501 Killer Marketing Tactics to Increase Sales, Maximize Profits, and Stomp Your Competition

501
KILLER MARKETING TACTICS

to Increase Sales,
Maximize Profits, and
Stomp Your Competition

to Increase Sales,
Maximize Profits, and
Stomp Your Competition

SECOND EDITION

TOM FELTENSTEIN

Copyright 2010 by Tom Feltenstein. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Since the publication of 401 Killer Marketing Tactics in 2005, the emergence of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr, along with the proliferation of corporate Web sites and blogs, has radically altered the landscape of modern marketing. These new media channels have become powerful new resources that now allow businesses to reach highly targeted audiences in engaging and informative ways that had never been possible. Todays most effective digital marketing campaigns facilitate dynamic ongoing dialogues between businesses and the individuals they serve. In this personal and informal platform, successful marketers have the unique opportunity to really listen to what their customers are saying and then respond quickly and decisively to best fulfill their needs.

To ignore the power and potential of these new social media channels is to risk the peril of being left out of the conversation, freeing your customers to forsake you for your competitors.

Much of the new material Ive provided in 501 Killer Marketing Tactics consists of exciting new stratagems that will keep your customers returning repeatedly to be part of the conversation, while establishing your business as a viable player in todays digital marketing landscape.

The marketing battle is hard, unrelenting work, but it can also be fun. It costs money, but any business or organization can afford it, no matter how small its budget, how unique its activity, or how ferocious its competition.

Furthermore, you should think of marketing your business and yourself as a way of life, not as an expense. Thats how it was a century ago when Mr. Miller at the general store remembered every customers birthday with a lagniappe, a small gift of appreciation. That was marketing at its most fundamental and effective. Since then, weve forgotten the wisdom of itweve become impatient and allowed ourselves to think too big.

Today most companies spend huge sums on advertising, with ever diminishing returns. Fewer and fewer people notice ads anymore because theyre everywhere, even on a piece of fruit, and therefore are as invisible as wallpaper. Like bombing campaigns, advertising makes you feel as if youre accomplishing something, but it cant win the war. The competitive battle is won in the streets, in your neighborhood, and within your four walls. And the prize is not a sale but a relationship.

The only reason to be in business is to create a customer. This quote by Peter Drucker, author and father of American management theory, should be posted on every cash register and every telephone in every business in the land. Creating customers, not just generating sales, is the focus of this collection of promotional tactics Ive assembled during three decades working with hundreds of companies, large and small. You dont need all these tactics, just the right ones at the right times.

Everything Ive learned about how to grow a business began at the knee of Ray Kroc, the man who founded and built McDonalds. As a marketing executive at McDonalds in the 1970s, I had the privilege of watching how commonsense practicestreating your employees as allies, making your customers feel important, keeping your place of business clean and welcoming, being a good neighboralways win out over flashy, expensive media campaigns.

Whether youre starting a new venture or your business has been around for generations, chances are that youre reading this because your competition has more marketing experience or muscle than you. But that fact can work in your favor. Marketing techniques change quickly, and most of your competition will be relying on principles that have been out of date for years. You will be amazed at how many simple, affordable, and effective marketing tactics your competitors ignore or dont even know about.