Thursday, February 17, 2011

Marketing or Sales What Is The Difference?

In a nutshell, marketing is getting people to know you – your product and/or service. Attracting them to what you have to offer. Sales are everything you do to secure the order or close the sale…

Marketing creates opportunities, and sales bring about outcomes…

In a larger company, the sales team would be the one who gets the call from potential clients or would call to find interested buyers (cold calling). The marketing department would be the employee’s who come up with strategies to attract potential customers.

The marketing and sales teams need to go hand in hand. Where one ends the other begins. Sales teams that are not integrated and a function of the marketing strategy are doomed to cold calling and

other wastes of time and effort.

A really good marketer can direct peoople who are interested to the sales team.

When a sale is made to the client it is the sales person who will build the long lasting business relationships. So if you are thinking of hiring an outside sales team make sure they are honest – and engaging. Likeability is very important, telling people what they need to know not what they want to hear.

When you are a small business or a start up company you want to control costs and guide the growth of your business so you do many things.

As a small business owner I wear many hats – I like to be in control of my own destiny. So I do the marketing and the sales, because I know my business inside and out.

As a marketer I figure out strategies that will put my business on the map – things that will give my business high exposure and appeal. There are so many ways to market one's business that I could spend all my time marketing. If I am marketing but ignoring the sales or “calls to action” moments, then I am spinning my wheels (not good!).

One of the most important things to consider as a small business is who do you need to hire – to help your business grow. Do you want to do the marketing or is it more cost effective to have a professional help you with that portion? If you do hire a marketer make sure you know what they are doing and the strategies behind it. This keeps you on top of what is happening, as a business owner you want to steer your own ship and may want to change strategies as time goes on.

On the other hand, I believe if you are a small business owner you should be in command of the sales portion of the business - the one to have personal contact when there is interested in what you have to offer.

Case in point: The way I run my business, I am the only one working with the clients – I may hire outside help for programming, etc., but I am the one who works with everyone. I do not want my client to worry about anything “that is my job”. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of business, and I know I will give superior customer service. If I hand out this task to others – how am I going to build rapport with my clients?

I truly believe in my services, so I am the natural sales contact when someone reaches out to get information – I then let them know what I have to offer and why they should go with me.

That is called closing the sale, and because I believe in what I do and what I have to offer it just comes naturally.

Marketing and sales are the lifeblood of every business. When starting from the ground floor up you must remember all your decisions will make a big difference in having a successful endeavor…

For help in strategizing your marketing plan or building a successful blueprint – contact me pamela@artistadesign.com or 801-910 -4825.

To success beyond measure!

Pamela Jacob Artista Design

Providing Creative Solutions & Amazing Results

Monday, February 7, 2011

What is more important for a website design or content?

Not to sound like a broken record... But here it goes!

Get a grip everyone, I am still hearing the same old stuff “But so and so said content is the most important don't worry about the look of the site it is content that sells”.

Or

The look of your website is everything if you have a great looking website everyone will flock to it and buy, buy buy…

Once again may I remind everyone that if visitors are not impressed with the visual presentation of a website what makes you believe that a person will stay around and read the content???

If a visitor to your site loves the visual appeal of your website and then when they look at the content it is a bunch of fluff, has typos and/or grammatical errors, what makes you think they will read anymore about your business or venture into articles you have written?

You need both an awesome (professional) look and great content.

How can you kick it up a notch? Make sure your website is branded/designed to attract you perfect customer.

What do I mean by branding to attract your perfect customer?

Every business need to know who their particular clientele is – and every business needs to know what their prefect customer looks like.

Do you know who will buy your product or services?

If you say everyone – then you are not going to be able to get the target audience you need. You will not know how to - or where to direct your marketing dollars.

Example: If you have a product or service you are selling to baby boomers do you think you would design the website to look like something from Sesame Street or MTV, Of course not.

If I am Home Depot I would not market to customer who have never done home improvement in their life, are not interested in it, or only hire people to do what needs to be done. I would market to people who enjoy doing their own projects and learning how to improve their home or homes of others.

If I am Macy’s I would not target people who didn’t have a certain income – or those that didn’t care about brands of clothes or fragrances’. People who have restricted income would go to places like Wal-Mart or K-mart.

You should always know who you target audience is the more details the better – once you have that you will know what will attract them in the way of design and content.

You need great content and a look that attracts your perfect client/customer.

There are all kinds of people in the world some are visual some are information driven. You must always appeal to both. It doesn’t matter what your personal taste is – it does matter what your client would appreciate and be attracted to.

Moral of the story?

If you have a less than great looking website - or your content leave something to be desired get it fixed!

If you have not sat down and figured out who you need to market to, do it – you will be amazed at the change when you start marketing in the right direction. Success is just around the corner…

For a list of tips on how to market you website Click Here.

For help in website development or branding contact Artista Design

Want a FREE Consultation – Email or call 801-910-4825

Providing Creative Solutions & Amazing Results