I’m so hyped.  I just don’t know where to start.  There is direct response marketing, building brand equity, channel building, social media, relationship building, on demand advertising and so much more.  All of this is available, all of this inexpensive (or free) and all of this is at your finger tips. It is just a matter of developing a plan, an approach, and start doing it.

With the technologies available today there is no excuse for not being out there talking to your customers, answering their questions and developing your brand equity among your base.  Once your base is thinking about you, the word will spread and your base will grow.  Once your base grows, you can get direct response from your marketing.  Once your base grows, you can turn them on to your channel, heck, your entire network.

Ok, Ok, I apologize.  But, I really am hyped.  There are so many platforms available today to get your message out, to build customer loyalty, to develop and maintain your brand.  Organic Business Strategies is all about developing relationships.  And the tools to do this have never been cheaper or easier to use.

Let me tell you a story about just one of these concepts.  Oh, probably 40 years ago, there was a restaurant that was fairly expensive.  They knew that they were priced at the higher end of the spectrum and that many families were not able to afford eating there.  So they developed their own channel (this term is like a TV channel); a place where people, who were loyal customers, knew to go to hear from them.

Let me explain.  This restaurant bought the same advertising space (same page, same location on the page), every week, in the local Sunday paper.  Their ad was always the same:  50% off all entrees with coupon – good this week only.

So what happens?  People who could afford the restaurant may, or may not, use the ad.  People who are embarrassed to use coupons paid full price.  Customers that are not regulars paid full price.  People not aware of the restaurant, who ran across the advertisement, were motivated to use it (this week only).

But the regular customers used the coupons every time and knew where to find them (as long as they thought ahead).  This restaurant built a channel, a place where their fans knew to find them, and by doing so developed a relationship with their most valued customers.

This was 40 years ago and was built with just word of mouth and a newspaper.  Today, there are numerous platforms on which to build your channels.  Because there are so many platforms, these all have different users, therefore different customers and possibly with different demographics.  And, you have the ability to develop the different channels by offering different deals on each.

This is very powerful.  All you need to do is develop your strategy and get started.

Photo by My Melting Brain

Do you realize just how powerful building a list of people that you can email is? We’ve been reading about it for a while and do realize it is something that we need to do but we have been dragging our feet about doing it. The only reason we’re dragging our feet is money. I suspect we are not alone. There are probably many that are thinking the same way we are (or rather, we were).

Starting a list requires you get an account with a company that does that. Getting an account is going to cost money. If you do not have many readers, you wonder if the expense is worthwhile. Well, we have come to the conclusion that you can’t afford not to start your list. And start it now.

More than that, I cannot think of any business that wouldn’t benefit from having a list. Being able to communicate with your customers is…..well, priceless. And, the fact that you can do it for a small fee per month is great. The potential for additional revenue exceeds that amount and the benefit of being able to develop relationships with your customers is worth far more than that.

In my next post, we’ll talk about some ideas we have for how different types of businesses can use their list. Today, I want to share some information with you about the company that we have chosen to handle our email list.

We have decided to go with AWeber Communications. AWeber seems to have all the features that we need at a reasonable price. They also are very highly recommended by many bloggers that we read and respect. I don’t think we can go wrong with this choice and I don’t believe you can either.  Besides, there’s a 30 day risk-free trial.  This is a company that is very confident in the services they offer.

Join us! Start your list today. We are. Be watching for our sign-up form. When you sign up for our list, we will be sending you a free gift and we look forward to getting to know you.