Dollars Spent on Communication Technology Lead to Better Business Marketing

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email

Everyone loves to get a "two for one" deal when it comes to parting with their hard earned dollars. I got married on Valentines Day and now every year I get a two for one deal when I take my wife out for our anniversary dinner.

Business owners can get a two for one deal when they invest in upgrading their communication technology because they will quite often discover that improved business communications leads to improved business marketing results.

Following are just a few examples of how better communication technology tools improve a firms normal operations as well as their marketing.

 

More & Better Phone Numbers

Years ago one of the most important annual decision a business owner would make is "Do I change my Yellow Pages listings?"  Now instead of printed directory advertising business decision makers are deciding where to invest in on-line advertising. 

To determine which on-line advertising buys are pulling the greatest response, savvy business owners use a different phone number for every different on-line ad. SIP phone numbers are a new technology service that allows any phone number in the world to be answered by any phone in the world.

With SIP phone numbers and their advertising business owners can decide how to move their advertising dollars around on a day to day basis by monitoring which phone numbers are being dialed through a web portal. No need to wait for the phone bill at the end of the month.

 

Cloud Blogs & CRM

If you've been thinking about which of your on-site computer applications are best suited to by moved to "the cloud" take a look at your blog and customer relationship manager or "CRM" software first. While it's difficult enough to maintain working in-house computers for your employees it can be harder still to maintain separate in-house computers for individual applications like your company blog or CRM.

With "cloud" services applications like TypePad.com, WordPress.com for blogs and SalesForce.com and Zoho.com for CRM's, getting your marketing applications off of old in-house computer equipment and onto a cloud solution with all the latest upgrades has never been easier.

 

Who Can You Call to Get a 2 for 1 Technology / Marketing Deal?  Call Us!

We started in the phone business and phones have always been a marketing tool. Now we're in the "cloud business" and the cloud is certainly a marketing tool.  Give us a call so we can share with you how we've been able to help many clients just like you get improved technology AND improved marketing all the the same dollar.

Following is a short video from CenturyLink that shares additional ideas for using technology to improve marketing.

 

CenturyLink Small Business Toolkit Video: Market Your Business Effectively

 

 

Video Transcript:

Your business depends on bringing products and services to market. Attracting customers is essential, and the more ways you do that the better. In fact, by integrating several ways to reach customers into your marketing you can significantly increase sales. By combining text messages, social media and e-mail one small business was able to increase sales recently by 28%.

Now, technology can supercharge your marketing. Today customers are easier to reach than ever before. Smartphones, laptops, Netbooks, and software all enhance your opportunity to connect. All you need is the right strategy.

Well, here are some ways to build one.

1. Start with a marketing plan that budgets your effort, that sets timelines, and identifies your audience to tell them what they want, how best to reach them, what to say, and what tactics you want to use.
   
   Also, include a system for tracking your efforts and for measuring customer engagement over time. For example, e-mail, websites and coupon tracking all help you see how well you are doing.
2. Be different. Be sure to play up the aspects that differentiate your brand from the other companies competing for your customer's dollars. This helps define your company's identity.
   
   You can fine tune the language on your web site so your business will come up more frequently and higher up in searches. It's called search engine optimization, or SEO, and it is the single most effective way to increase your visibility on the web.
3. Take care of the customer. The easiest customers to reach and serve are the ones you already have. An integrated customer relationship management system, or CRM, engages customers and simplifies communication. CRM is essentially a database with added functionality.
   
   Imagine bringing all your sticky notes and business cards into one organized system. E-mail is still the fastest and cheapest way to enter a dialogue with a customer. A website can project your image as well as be used to listen to customers. Two-way conversations can take place on the website through e-mail, via blogs, or on social media liked LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
   
   But be careful. Just as social media can spread the good news, it can also broadcast failures or shortcomings such as product recalls or service lapses. A bad buzz can ruin a brand overnight, so if negative news reaches your customers be quick, be effective, and be sincere about correcting the situation using everything at your disposal.
4. Don't forget the more traditional options too. Public relations, business cards, direct mail, the phone book, coupons, ads in your local paper and community sponsorships such as the local Little League team can all be effective in building business.
   
   Technology can help make these offline tactics more effective too. For example, an 800 number allows you to track responses to specific ads. You can even reach large numbers of customers quickly with pre-recorded broadcast calls.

Marketing today is still about the fundamentals, and technology has evolved very quickly to support it. With the majority of consumers online, reaching people has never been easier and more profitable.

Taking advantage of multiple ways to market instead of just one can help you retain customers, attract new ones, and ensure the best use of your marketing dollars. Use this checklist of essential components to cover the bases.

1. Create and follow your marketing plan.
2. Differentiate your brand.
3. Use multiple ways to engage with customers.
4. Don't forget traditional offline tactics.

For more detailed resources like brochures and white papers go to centurylink.com/smb-resources.

This content is copyright protected. To license this content for your own website please contact Dan Baldwin at [email protected]. Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com # 19431199 Keywords: communication technology, marketing, blogs, phone numbers, crm, text message, social media, e-mail, coupon tracking, company identity, search engine optimization, seo, business cards, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter,