Hello,
 I’m just back from an amazing four day event in the beautiful inner harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland. I attended the Glazer-Kennedy Info Summit and it was an opportunity to learn and as usual it was also a great place to connect with some old friends and make some new ones. I’ve attended many Glazer-Kennedy events and as I mentioned in the acknowledgment section my latest book, Stick Like Glue - How to Create an Everlasting Bond with Your Customers So They Spend More, Stay Longer, and Refer More! – I rightly give credit to both Dan Kenney (pictured top) and Bill Glazer for providing a marketing and business building education that is not available at any university. I highly recommend attending a Glazer-Kennedy event!
Internet marketing guru Frank Kern (middle picture) gave two presentations that had the audience both howling with laughter and also feverishly writing down his nuggets of wisdom!
Cal Ripken Jr., best known for breaking New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, was the celebrity guest speaker. Ripken surpassed the 56-year-old record when he played in his 2,131st consecutive game on September 6, 1995. It was also a huge honor to listen to Cal share his personal success principles.
 My 2011 Virtual Mastermind Group is near capacity and will likely be filled by the end of this week. If you have any interest in being part of this dynamic business-building opportunity, please fax me the confidential application ASAP. Click here to learn more and download the application.
 Yesterday I recorded the latest episode of Newsletter Guru TV. I shared the success strategy that I call ‘The L.A.G. Effect and how I continuously use it to grow my business. To watch The Importance of The L.A.G. Effect visit www.NewsletterGuru.TV!
My guest expert this week is back by popular demand! Cassie Bair of The Collective Savvy provided an article a couple months ago and it got a lot of positive feedback so I asked her to provide another one - enjoy!
To Your Success,
Jim Palmer
The Newsletter Guru
P.S. Are we friends on Twitter and Facebook yet? I regularly post marketing and entrepreneurial tips, strategies, and videos that I know you’ll enjoy! Click the links and let’s connect!
The Marketing Power of Telling Your Customers “What Else!”
By Jim Palmer
 One of the great things about a monthly customer newsletter is its ability to generate new business from old (or current) customers. That’s right. I said NEW business from OLD customers. One thing that astounds me is how many companies will spend the majority of their marketing dollars on constantly trying to acquire and sell to new customers when there is so much gold to be mined from current ones. It takes much longer, it is much harder, and it costs much more money to acquire and sell to a new customer than it does selling more to a current customer.
I speak often about how a monthly customer newsletter is an amazingly powerful marketing tool for generating more repeat and referral business. If you’re trying to sell more, do you know why it makes immanent sense to go back to your current customers? Here’s why: because they’ve already identified themselves as buyers! And to quote marketing legend Dan Kennedy, buyers are buyers are buyers. So if you want to sell more, go to the people that have already identified themselves as buyers.
The reason that you mail a customer newsletter every month is so that your name will be top of mind when your customers are ready to make another purchase, or refer a business to a friend. You want you company’s name to be the first thing they think of - that alone makes it worth the investment. The added bonus of producing a monthly customer newsletter is this: it tells your customers and clients what else you do, and what else you sell.
Customers initially engage with a business by purchasing a single product or service. Over time they may repurchase the same product or service and be happy doing so. The customers are happy, and the business is happy thinking it is making good use of its customer relationships. However, this is a shortsighted view and here’s why. Happy customers are usually quite willing to purchase other products and services from your company, if they know what those products and services are!
How many times have you heard a customer or client say, “I didn’t know you did that,” or, “I didn’t know you also sold that”? These are all missed opportunities to increase your revenue and your profits. Use your monthly newsletter to tell your customers and clients “what else” you carry; what else they might be interested in. I suggest feature a different product or service in each issue. Write about it in a conversational tone, highlight some of the benefits, and be sure to share success stories and bolster the case with customer testimonials.
Learn more secrets on how to use a newsletter to boost your business in my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing - The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life.
Social Media Myths and Misnomers
By Cassie Bair of The Collective Savvy
As a firm working with many companies just getting into social media, we hear it all. Below are some of our favorite myths and tongue-in-cheek responses!
- Social media is not part of your “regular” integrated marketing efforts. Sure it’s not. Because it doesn’t reference back to any of your other marketing efforts, doesn’t say a word about your brand and would never impact how customers view your company. It could never help you achieve your goals. So it’s best to keep your social media efforts totally separate from all of your other marketing activities.
- Social media is free and easy. That is absolutely correct! Because when things are free, you don’t have to dedicate time or resources to it. You would never pay to have graphics developed, to have someone manage it or to place targeted advertising. Just like all other marketing, it takes nothing to be wildly successful, drive sales, and make money. It’s so easy, anyone can do it and do it well!
- Social media requires rigid plans and policies.That is so true. We must set a hard and fast plan, and ignore any and all unique or unexpected opportunities that might come our way that we could capitalize on from a PR or marketing perspective. After all, a plan is meant to be stuck to!
- Social media management is a one man/woman job. It is best to only let one person with one company perspective manage your social media. S/He will of course understand all elements of the company, all aspects of customer service, and have all the time in the world to respond to customers online.
- Social media marketing cannot be measured. There is absolutely no way to internalize analytics or set up campaigns to drive actions that can be tracked to determine return on investment (which makes sense, because it’s free!).
Social media marketing is not a stand-alone activity. It works well when implemented by a cross-functional team of individuals who can best handle customer dialogue and demands. It works even better when integrated with a variety of communication vehicles, such as email newsletters, websites, and print collateral. And it works best when unrealistic expectations are shed and efforts are built from the groundup.
The Collective Savvy is a strategic business collaborative designed to help people institute shrewd marketing and social media strategies via consulting, technology training, and idea sharing. The Collective Savvy is the brainstorm of Candy Rice and Cassie Bair, experienced marketing professionals and instructors. Learn more at www.thecollectivesavvy.com.
 Zig Ziglar – Prime the Pump!
Here’s a classic video of Zig explaining success in life by using the analogy of a water pump. You must prime the pump!
Check it out!
Question: Jim, what do you mean by newsletters have a longer shelf life than other types of marketing?
Answer: Shelf life refers to how long something will stay around before being thrown out. Regarding newsletters, they do not get thrown out instantly like other forms of marketing. Think about it this way. Newsletters can be taken anywhere. They are received at the office, but are taken home, on a plane, to the kids’ soccer games—everywhere. And when the newsletters are informative, fun, and easy to read, they are not thrown away. They are kept and referenced. Plus, newsletters are often read by multiple readers. People pass along newsletters to friends, business associates, or even their neighbor. This is a huge benefit of producing a newsletter.
If you’ve got a question you’d like Jim to answer, email it to
guru@thenewsletterguru.com
 Levi Strauss made his fortune in the California Gold Rush as the maker of sturdy pants -- Levi's, the world's most famous denim jeans. Strauss immigrated to New York from Bavaria in 1847, then made his way to the San Francisco area in 1853. A tailor who had planned to make tents for miners, Strauss ended up stitching canvas pants that became famous for their durability. The "pants of Levi's" came to be called simply Levi's, and they became one of the best-selling products in his dry goods store. He began using fabric from Nîmes, France, serge de Nîmes (the origin of the word denim), then added dye to make them blue. In the 1870s he partnered with Jacob Davis of Nevada to add copper rivets to the pockets. Levi Strauss & Company became one of the world's largest manufacturers of casual clothing and Strauss himself became a wealthy patron of the city of San Francisco. Strauss was a lifelong bachelor, and after his death in 1902 his nephews took over the company.
The following unsolicited testimonial is more proof that newsletter marketing works and No Hassle Newsletters makes newsletter marketing quick, easy, painless, and profitable!
"You transformed me from being a newsletter PANSY into a monthly newsletter BELIEVER!"
 Customer retention increases profits and Jim Palmer, The Newsletter Guru’s No Hassle Newsletters will save your company time, money and headaches. It provides me with high quality content and professionally designed newsletters and saves me at least 10 hours of work every month!
The No Hassle Newsletter system allows me to market my business like the big boys! If you have customers, you have to have a newsletter, period. Don't think about it, DO IT. I couldn't be more happy! Thanks Newsletter Guru, you transformed me from being a newsletter PANSY into a monthly newsletter BELIEVER
Joseph DiDonna (Joey D)
www.josephdidonna.com |
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Jim Palmer 