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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume
3, Issue # 6 - February 7, 2002
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In
this issue:
What about online marketing?
Let’s look at a few choices for online marketing, including direct e-mail,
online newsletters, e-zines, online conferences, etc.
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What
about online marketing?
After sharing with
you the six weapons that successful companies use to promote their business
and increase sales, I received an e-mail from someone who asked why
I totally left out online marketing!
To refresh your
memory, here are the six weapons I wrote about in last week’s e-newsletter.
(Yes, I’ve shared them with you three times now, but they’re too important
to not repeat several times! Great marketing has a high level of repetition!)
Direct mail
Advertising
Customer education
Media relations
and public relations
Brochures and marketing
materials for your company
Direct contact with
your customers and prospects
So what about online
marketing? Why did I leave it off? Was I just sloppy?
Before I proceed,
I must admit that the question came from a good friend of mine. His
company - www.pageviews.com - specializes in helping businesses with
their online marketing. They do a great job for their clients, including
us. So he may have been a little biased when he asked the question.
But I would guess some of you had the same question and just didn’t
take the time to ask!
So here are my thoughts.
I think online marketing
is a great SUPPORT tool for the rest of your marketing! I get e-mails
daily that claim any marketing that’s not done online is dead or dying,
that only dinosaurs still do traditional old-fashioned marketing!
From all that I’ve
read, this is simply not true. Online is one more way to "touch" your
customers or prospects. It’s not the be all and end all. It’s one
more tool.
Having said that,
it’s important to point out that online marketing could be the preferred
method of contact for some very targeted markets. For example, I like
e-mail because I’m not always interested in talking to people after
conducting a seminar all day. This makes e-mail or online communications
in general a very good choice for me. Also, I know from the number
of pieces of snail mail we receive every day that it’s tough to cut
through all that clutter. So online can be better under certain circumstances.
I should also point
out that my e-mail inbox overflows with junk! I’m shocked at the number
of worthless e-mails I get each day. Spam - it’s alive and well and
it’s not just for breakfast anymore.
If you decide to
use online marketing as one of your tools, you need to be very careful
and professional with it. Yes, you can buy a list with millions of
e-mail addresses and send a marketing message to all of them with one
click. But what does that say about you, your company and the level
of service you provide?
Online marketing
is a great tool if it’s used properly for the right target market.
As I’ve said many times, no marketing tool is right for all situations.
You need to mix and match the best tools to meet your target market’s
needs and desires.
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Let’s look at a
few choices for online marketing, including direct e-mail, online newsletters,
e-zines, online conferences, etc.
Lately, I’ve been
hearing from retailers that it’s harder to get people to attend seminars
or even come into the store! Think for a moment about how economy has
been rocked and the negative press that many natural products have gotten.
Maybe some of these online marketing tools can make it easier for you
to educate your customers and prospects while growing your business!
I want to start
with direct e-mail because I think it’s very misunderstood.
Buying a list with
a million e-mail addresses and sending an unsolicited e-mail telling
all of them how great you are is spam! Buying or renting a targeted
list of people in your area who can benefit from your service and then
e-mailing information that will educate them and help them make informed
decisions is marketing. People say it’s just a numbers game. The more
people I touch, the more sales I will get. That’s like saying golf is
just a numbers game! The more you play, the better you will get. I
know people who play every day here in sunny Arizona and they never
get any better!
I’m a huge fan of
online newsletters. They’re a great method for cost effectively educating
your customers and prospects. Newsletters are easy to package and you
can make additions and deletions at a moment’s notice.
I think e-zines
are also strong, but e-zines and online newsletters have the same challenge
- content. It’s not easy to plan and write a regular magazine or newsletter.
It can take hours to develop the material and that could be time you
simply don’t have.
You can save a huge
amount of time and energy by getting permission to share other people’s
information and stories in your newsletter or e-zine. As always, the
information should be educational and informative if you want people
to read the next issue!
Last on my list
is the online conference. Once again, I’m a huge fan. You want people
to attend your seminars, but just getting them to drive to your store
can be a challenge. Bad weather can cause a huge reduction in attendance.
Online conferences
avoid all of those hassles and you don’t have to buy dinner or lunch
to get people to attend!
My last thought
about using online marketing as part of your marketing mix is that for
every benefit it provides there can also be an equal or greater challenge!
You may save the cost of a meal but you could also miss out on landing
a great customer because they are not computer friendly!
As always, have
fun with marketing!
Marty
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Quote
"The reason so many
people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks,
they are in the backyard looking for four leaf clovers." Walter P.
Chrysler
Online marketing
is an opportunity for you to reach new customer and try new things.
It’s not the solution to all your marketing ills, just one more choice
that you need to use wisely.
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Please
note that all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter
or on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As
you know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
