I found this on a newsletter while I was researching virtual phone systems. It's basically a profile on a marketing co. with some great experiences in brand-building. To put it shortly: don't discount the old-school ways, namely direct mailing and face-to-face networking:
gotvmail.com/newsletter/04-2008/customer-profile.html
Excerpts:
Quote:
In this age of email, Internet search engines, social media and blogs, it’s important for small businesses to not lose sight of other so-called “offline” marketing tools to help their business grow.
More traditional marketing methods – direct mail, sponsoring trade shows, brochures – can be leveraged to boost your sales, but must be done with the ultimate goal in mind, which is driving human traffic to your company’s website.
That’s according to Brett A. Schklar, chief marketing officer of Denver-based The Market Creation Group, a GotVMail customer and business-to-business marketing company with clients in a variety of sizes and industries.
“Every situation is different. It depends on the industry and the size of the company, but we feel that for a lot of small businesses, no marketing beats word of mouth,” Schklar says. “What we work with our customers on is how to move that word of mouth from a passive, reactive program, to a more aggressive, proactive one.”
|