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<title>Latest Database Marketing Articles</title>
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<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
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<title>Succeed With E-mail Marketing</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/succeed-with-e-mail-marketing.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/succeed-with-e-mail-marketing.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Direct mail has long been considered an effective marketing tool. Now, in this digital age, direct email marketing has taken over. It has many advantages including cost, flexibility and immediacy.

Unlike direct mail, email marketing campaigns are not constrained by weight limits or postal restrictions. Email marketing is instant and allows multiple links to be imbedded in the message, driving traffic to company websites.

Email marketing is also likely to be better targeted than most other forms of marketing since lists are frequently refreshed with new recipients signing on and others using the self cleaning deregistration facility.

And without print costs to contend with, envelopes to buy and address, and postage to pay for, email marketing is an economic solution that is available to companies of all sizes. 

Of course, however strong the message, it must be well presented if it is to gain the attention it deserves. This is why creative email design is so important to any email marketing campaign - email design that makes the most of the flexibility of this media.

Animation, links, forms, sign-ups, downloads and response facilities are all tools in email design.

Another important element of email design is use of technical knowledge to overcome mail delivery problems and over-energetic Spam filters that can sometimes block even welcome messages.

Data protection issues are of particular importance in email marketing solutions since it is imperative that legitimate messages that have been requested should not be confused with Spam. High rejection rates, use of inappropriate email lists, or invalid email addresses can turn email marketing solutions into nightmares as service providers refuse to distribute emails from the same list. 

But provided good design and mailing list maintenance practices are adhered to, email marketing solutions can be extremely effective in presenting your business proposition.

The term email production is used in advertising and marketing to refer to the art and science of building HTML emails from creative, mock-up images built by designers.

In a sense the production of an email would appear to be a simple task; starting with a picture of the advertisement to be emailed - usually in JPEG, or GIF format and then transformed into another medium i.e. HTML. The act of making this transformation would also appear to overlap with web design itself, as the advertising email is basically a small, one-page HTML application.

However, the medium over which this page is typically rendered is significantly different from the standard browser model in several important ways, each of which distinguish email production from standard webpage coding. First, the email equivalent of the cross-browser problem is much larger in scope when one considers the variety of email rendering clients in common usage.

A highly abbreviated list of the most common clients includes Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Mac Mail, Lotus Notes, Eudora, and web based clients like GMail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. This situation is complicated further by the lack of a recognized body like the W3C to institute rendering standards. Attempts at such standards do currently exist (Email Standards Project), but such efforts are hampered by competing motivations in light of the ongoing SPAM problem. ]]></description>
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<title>Chiropractic Marketing 101: Your Number One Most Valuable Chiropractic Asset</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/chiropractic-marketing-101-your-number-one-most-valuable-chiropractic-asset.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/chiropractic-marketing-101-your-number-one-most-valuable-chiropractic-asset.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There's one thing in your entire chiropractic practice that's worth way more than anything and everything else combined.

It's the one thing that - if taken care of properly - can multiply your chiropractic marketing ROI and income very, very quickly.

It's also the one thing that - if *not* taken care of properly - will... not "can"... will... prevent you from ever having a large thriving chiropractic practice.

Can you guess what it is? No? Alright, alright, I'll just tell you. The number one most valuable thing you have in your entire chiropractic practice is your list of patients.

Not just the list, the *relationship* you have with your patients. You see, it doesn't matter how much your chiropractic tables are worth, your computer is worth, your office space is worth, without a large herd of loyal patients, all those things are worthless.

On the other hand, your entire office space could burn to the ground (God forbid) and if you have a large herd of loyal patients you can still make money.

The key to this entire chiropractic marketing equation is having a large herd of loyal patients. Not just any patients.  A herd of loyal patients.

There's a difference. Let me explain what I mean...

Herd = a group of patients that you nurture, take care of, and that appreciate your relationship.  Loyal = patients who look forward to hearing from you and seeing you. There's a subtle point that I want you to get. There's a massive difference between just having a bunch of patients and having a herd of loyal patients.

A herd of patients schedule and keep more appointments. A herd of patients refer more of their family and friends. A herd of patients respond much better to new chiropractic marketing offers. A herd of patients spend more money with you and lead to a much larger net cash flow.

The closer and closer your patient list gets to becoming a herd of loyal patients, the more it becomes worth. The farther it moves away from being a herd of loyal patients the less it becomes worth.

The key for you is in creating a responsive, well-taken-care-of, nurtured HERD, via your chiropractic marketing. So, how do you do that?  It's actually pretty simple. With frequent contact via your chiropractic marketing.

It's critical... and I mean critical... that you contact your patients and past patients, in some way shape or form, every single month. Marketing studies show that every month that goes by that you don't do some type of chiropractic marketing and contact your list, the list loses 10% of it's value.

After 10 months of not contacting your list of past patients, let's say, that list becomes worthless. In other words, at that point, you may just as well contact a random list of people from the white pages in the telephone book.

You'd most likely get the same terrible response. By frequently contacting your list of patients and past patients (and even prospective patients) every month, you maintain what's called top of the mind awareness. When patients think of relieving pain, because you're regularly contacting them, you're the first thing they think of.

Not taking Tylenol, using a heating pad, going to a massage therapist, or anything else. They think of you. And, when someone they know is in pain, stressed, etc., you're the first thing that pops into their mind.

Plain and simple, regular chiropractic marketing and frequent contact with your patients produces steady patient appointments, less no-shows and cancellations, more referrals, and more income for you. Period. ]]></description>
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<title>Which Marketing Channel Do You Use?</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/which-marketing-channel-do-you-use.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/which-marketing-channel-do-you-use.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There are so many marketing channels you can choose from, whether it is online or offline. What marketing channel do you use? What works for you? Are you looking for more ways to market your business and get the word out about your products and/or services? This article will show you several marketing channels you can choose from, and find out which ones work the best for you. Sometimes, you just have to plan to use a particular marketing channel and then put your all into it. Over time, the results will show you which ones to stick with. 

Marketing communications have been around since businesses have. It is just a method to get your potential customers and clients interested in your business, to get to know your business name, products, mission, services, etc. Marketing is a way to get your potential customers and clients to walk through that door or click on your website. From there, it is all about sales. However, you can also choose several marketing methods that are inside your store or on your website. 

Direct marketing is extremely important. There are several different ways to direct market. According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is used when measurable leads, sales, or traffic (retail or web) are the objective. A direct marketing effort is undertaken to generate a specific response -- which can be tracked and measured.

There are many channels to choose from when using direct marketing, including the following:

- Newspapers
- Magazines
- TV
- Mail
- Email
- Websites
- Radio
- Billboard

Direct marketing is basically when you are advertising to a certain group of potential customers and you ask them to call you, visit your website, or come into your store. That is the first step in making a sale. 

Direct mail marketing can be done two different ways. One, for example, if you want to advertise locally, you could send out postcards, flyers, etc. to every resident in your area or town. If you want to target your existing customers or potential customers you can send the mail to all of them. 

Email marketing can be a little tricky because of all of the spam programs out there, and people getting ultimately frustrated about potential spam messages. However, you can use email marketing in a safe and possibly effective way. You can use opt-in emails to send out messages to market your business, and it has been very successful for many web businesses. 

No matter what form of marketing you choose to use, make sure you first weigh the pros and cons of each one. One of the biggest cons can be the cost. Is it worth choosing a certain direct marketing method for the cost? The pros can be your increase in sales, website hits and more. You will also need a way to track every direct marketing method you choose so you can see which ones are doing what. Once you find a marketing plan that works for you, you will be on your way to direct marketing success! ]]></description>
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<title>How Are You Treating Your Company's Most Valuable Asset?</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/how-are-you-treating-your-company-s-most-valuable-asset.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/how-are-you-treating-your-company-s-most-valuable-asset.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It surprises me how poorly we treat our most valuable company asset.

We wouldn't dare buy an expensive piece of equipment for our business and then ignore it. If the machine required regular attention, we would put it on our calendar to regularly check it for oil levels and other maintenance requirements.

Yet there is an asset that each business consistently ignores.

What is this ignored asset?

Your customer list.

Businesses focus too much on landing new customers they ignore their former customers and sometimes even their current customers.

My suspicion that the underlying problem has to do with the way we start our businesses. When we begin, we have no customers. So we start the get new customer process. This is great. The problem is we never kick into the nurture the customer process.

Yet it is so much easier to sell an existing or previous client than to find a new prospect and sell them. They've already purchased from you, they already know who you are and what you can do. If your product or service is worth anything, you owe it to your customers to continually sell them your solutions.

A good example of this is a client I had a few years ago. He was in the supplements business and was struggling. The company had been losing $12,000 per month for the 18 months in a row. They'd hired a well known marketing consultant who seemed to know nothing about small business.

They wanted me to help them raise some more money. I've found over the years that money is rarely the real problem. That was the case here as well.

I asked them how many clients they'd had over the years. They had 160 active clients and 2,500 inactive clients. I asked when the last time the inactive clients had been contacted...no one could remember.

I had two of the people in the company each call 20 former customers a day. Within 30 days they closed so much business they were more than breaking even and didn't need emergency funding to keep the doors open.

How do you nurture your customer list?

Regularly touch base with them every 4-8 weeks. Do not try to sell them, but find out how they are doing.

- Call to find out what has been happening with them
- Send them a article that can help their business
- Call them about a helpful seminar you heard about
- Mail them a book or a whitepaper that would be of interest to them
- Send them an email about a helpful hint for their business
- Put them on your newsletter list either physical or electronic

One of my clients triples their daily sales every time they send out a newsletter to their list. The newsletter is not a sales pitch it is an informative article about the concerns of their clients. ]]></description>
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<title>Low Cost Profit Boosting Internet Advertising Ideas</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/low-cost-profit-boosting-internet-advertising-ideas.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Marketing/Database_Marketing/low-cost-profit-boosting-internet-advertising-ideas.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Advertising costs can quickly pile up, especially if you are a small home business.
 
 Getting expensive exposure on TV or radio seems out of the question when we are starting out in our small enterprises.  Where can you possibly find cheap advertising for home businesses? The cause seems so hopeless that many of us give up before we even begin. 
 
This article states that many home business owners are overlooking many inexpensive opportunities to promote their businesses and increase their sales. 

Many of these suggestions have been proven to work, and require but a little ingenuity and imagination. Using these ideas, you should be able to improve your visibility, without spending more than you have to. 
 
Start off by giving something for free. People love free stuff. Especially something with clear value. No matter what business you are in, if you offer something useful for free, chances are that you will get to meet more potential customers.

 A lot of businesses have found it worthwhile to issue coupons. If you are a service provider, try issuing a coupon for an hours worth of your service. You will be surprised how many turn up to take you up on your offer. If you are engaged in selling products, issue coupons that your customers can use to avail of a discount. 
 
Print some stickers. Stickers are a very cost-efficient way of getting the word out. Ask some of your family, friends, and current customers to display your stickers prominently in their cars or personal belongings. 

When combined with a catchy slogan or perhaps an excellent business offer, your stickers will bring you business far above what it cost you to print them, which will be just a few dollars. This is an excellent example of cheap advertising for home businesses. 
 
Personalize your receipts. Most businesses use rather lackluster or generic designs on their receipts. You can take advantage of this situation. By getting your creative juices flowing and adding a little advertising into your receipts, your company will stand out in your customer minds. 

Use your receipts to remind customers of what you stand for. Inform them of any upcoming events or special offers. This way, whenever your customers rifle through their records, they will consider sending some business your way. 
 
Send some cards. This is a little courtesy secret that top salesmen have used for years. First, you get some of your customer personal information, such as their birthdates, anniversary dates, address, etc. Then you simply send them some cards during their important days, such as when they are celebrating their anniversaries, or when they have a new child. 

Frequently you will be the only one who remembers. This is heavy emotional stuff for customers. Trust me. By sending cards to your customers, you make them like you better, making it more likely that they will do business with you. 
 
Develop the reflex of passing out business cards that clearly say what your service is. One topic is all you need. Use a pretty picture, very light colored, on your business card. Use the exact same picture everytime you have your business cards printed up so the picture reminds everyone of your business. Have lots of clear contact information on the card.  

Let the info be absolutely clear and simple as possible to contact you. A short email address that mentions your business in it. Phone number. Street address. Web site with a short name and aggressively related to your business so it is easy to remember. Everytime someone asks you for info of any kind, write it on the back of your business card. People will now save the card with your business contact information on it.
 
As you can see, there are many inexpensive ideas that can help you boost your business. Cheap advertising for home businesses is available, you just need to know where to look. ]]></description>
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