November 2008 – Steve Pohlit

Social Networking: Response To WSJ Marketing In The World of The Web

Tom and Michael’s article “Marketing In The World of The Web” is excellent work pointing to the changing landscape of retail marketing. The high rate of growth for the social networking sites is surprising many. Naturally strategies to recognize these trends are in the experimental phase.

My own research into social networking was launched by becoming very active on a number of sites. My experience has been very enlightening. The guidance I offer as a result of this experience is actually very similar to when the Internet was in its infancy: “Make best use of the tools that become available. Continually test to determine which applications work best for your business. The primary goal as it relates to building revenue is to continually strengthen positive relationships with your customers and prospective customers. Use technology to assist in achieving that objective. Relationships are key as they will confirm what you are doing right and what you can be doing better.”

Social networking appears to be great resource for building relationships. Ultimately a social networking strategy needs to be linked to the point of purchase. If you are largely selling on line you should have an aggressive program to build a strong social network. This recommendation becomes progressively stronger when your on line customer base is international. I recommend one of your most experienced and talented marketing professionals be in charge with the sole objective of linking your social networking strategy to the goal of further achieving the customer relationship objective. There is a huge integration opportunity.

Harley Davidson was mentioned in the article. Harley is a great brand. They will and should continue to strengthen the brand. Their opportunity is to build a tighter connection with their dealers in the marketplace from the eyes of the customer and potential customer. The social networking value in this example is generally solidified within a market and ultimately by the dealer. Again another integration opportunity with strong customer and prospective customer relationships being the goal.

So the landscape is changing but I don’t think the underlying fundamentals are. Develop customer loyalty and those customers are your most significant asset with your prospective customer. Communication is key in executing that strategy. Social networking makes it that much easier to communicate.

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.

Circuit City Files For Chapter 11 My Comments Reported in the WSJ

(Please Note: the best course of action is to take bold steps before have to file for Chapter 11 or worse a dissolution. I am experienced with crisis management, turnaround management and bankruptcy. Contact Me if you are worried about your business.)

Chapter 11 comes with a great cost including, legal, accounting and filing fees. The most significant cost is often the distraction of management’s attention from the core processes of the business. This filing raises more questions than it answers. The effectiveness of the company’s infrastructure in identifying and correcting the real reasons for losses should be under microscopic scrutiny.

Retail is won or lost one transaction at a time. It looks like Circuit City has a no profit pattern. It seems like this pattern is the core issue that should be resolved during this opportunity for reorganization. If not, the Chapter 11 reorganization will likely move to dissolution.

Ultimately, secured lenders will be fine. Vendors will be paid for new deliveries but are at great risk of not being paid in full for invoices related to deliveries prior to the filing. Landlords of closed locations can now begin to plan on what to do with that space as lease payments will be terminated during the Chapter 11 process. Other leases are likely to be renegotiated. Of course, there are large numbers of people who are now not working just as the holiday season is near for them and their families.

There is very little sunlight shining through with this picture. The glimmer of opportunity is for a structural reorganization to be defined and implemented that strengthens the core business. Should that occur, the purpose of Chapter 11 will have been fulfilled.

Steve Pohlit
http://stevepohlit.com
727-587-7871

How To Implement A Business Marketing, CRM or Customer Relationship Management Campaign With An Immediate ROI

Please comment below if you find this information valuable.

Business marketing to customers, to prospective customers and to other businesses. The online marketing venues are excellent. However, f you are targeting companies, remember those company owners and managers are not online reading your marketing articles and marketing messages by email. Unless, of course, they know and respect you.

Understanding this I stepped up my idea to test a “door opening” offer. I high value added offer that most companies can afford. In developing a “door opening” offer for my consulting practice I discovered an excellent source of business contact information for my campaign. My campaign objectives are:

1. To mail a letter that will motivate a business owner to call me for an appointment. The letter is just being mailed and I will report on my actual results vs target in a later post.
2. The “door opener” I am promoting is described in reasonable detail at http://b2cmarketing.biz This link will not be in the initial control letter.
3. Since my goal is a physical appointment, I am targeting companies within a three mile area of my office. I thought there was maybe 200 or so in the revenue range I was specifying.
4. I heard the contact information was in the public records. After searching for quite some time, I lost patience and went to a suggested lead source.
5. I was amazed to find the contact information, sorted as I specified, was readily available and surprisingly affordable.

Watch this video for how I found and proceeded to create the database of contacts for my initial campaign.

There are several reasons why I am providing this detail for interested viewers:

1. I welcome referrals for all my consulting services including this program which is described at http://b2cmarketing.biz This is part of the marketing of my consulting practice.
2. I do what I teach. This is a blog, there is a video in this blog post and I am syndicating this article on the social networking sites as well as several article syndication sites. This article which is also a blog post will be sent to my subscriber list. All of these techniques I teach business clients. I am now moving to a “do it for you” offer since many of the recommended tactics with Internet tools are not being implemented by traditional businesses.
3. It is important to note that while I am marketing business consulting services, under that umbrella is a huge list of services including: email marketing, direct mail campaigns, website design, SEO, blog development and management, video marketing, Internet marketing campaigns, social media marketing, business modeling, cost management, systems evaluation, refinancing, mergers and acquisitions, organizational development and more. Yes there is more but they all come under one business goal…Optimize Profit. I am an expert at optimizing business profit and the more people trust those words the better business will be – their business and mine.

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.

WordPress Blogging Is A Foundation Marketing Tool: Backup Your Content

There are four foundation tools every business should be using as part of their marketeing strategy. These are listed on my site www.stevepohlit.com I have also written detailed articles about these foundation tools. For example Click Here for an article on how blogs and video help your internet site search engine ranking. You sould be subscribed to Steve Reports for tons of information I publish that will help your business grow profitable revenue.

For your convenience the foundation tools are:

A currently updated website, keyword optimized and with contact information capture script with linked to an autoresponder.
A blog that is regularly updated with relevant information and links to your website. You blog should also have contact information capture script linked to your autoresponder. Register at http://bloggingforprofits.biz for free instuctional videos on how to do this. Here is my introductory video on Blogging For Profits again for your convenience
Use short videos that you produce, topic and keyword specific that you post to your blog. Select ones should be posted to your website. Register at http://youtubemastery.net for more than 20 videos that teach you how to do this for free.
Enhance the relationships with your customers and prospect list with email communication. Use off line actions including; meetings, phone calls, post cards and letters. This is why you want to capture the contact information of visitors to your website and blog.

Of course there is more and that is covered in the marketing module of my business consulting practice. My contact information follows this article.

BACKUP YOUR CONTENT

By now most people are aware of how to backup websites and most autoresponder companies provide an easy to use download feature for you customer database. My preferred autoresponder service is Aweber Click Here

It seems most people are not thinking about all the content they add to their blogs and the backup of a blog is differenet than a website. WordPress Blogs, and I believe most other formats, run by adding your content to a database. WordPress based blogs all use MySQL database technology. Sounds “Twilight Zone” but it isn’t except for you are not able to simply backup your files like you are able to do with a website. You must backup the database.

Sounds scary? It isn’t. Watch the video I prepared on this topic and I suggest you believe me when I say: “if I can do this …you can do this”. Of couse if you don’t want to do any of this and have someone do it for you, I am ready to help. For the video on how to back up you WordPress Blog Please Click Here.

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.