50 years ago the best marketers were those that drove real relationships with their customers & prospects.
Mass marketing and broadcast media ruined all that and successful marketers became those with the biggest budgets.
The concept of Main Street Marketing is that with modern tools, all marketers, regardless of size or budget can be outstanding.
Thoughts From Mainstreet
Ideas I want to share
Some of you may remember Sam the Butcher from the Brady Bunch. Sam was a great marketer because he treated every one of his customers as individuals. He knew their needs, what they liked and could add value by delvering a personalized experience.
Mass marketers killed Sam. Technology can bring him back. With the internet and inexpensive software, the playing field is level. Safeway and Sam can compete equally...and Sam actually might have the advantage.
Mass marketers killed Sam. Technology can bring him back. With the internet and inexpensive software, the playing field is level. Safeway and Sam can compete equally...and Sam actually might have the advantage.
Mainstreet Marketing Ideas
Links To Sites With Great Ideas
These sites are good stops to get some fresh marketing ideas.
- Marketing Sherpa
- Marketing Sherpa is a great site very focused on case studies and ideas for businesses of all sizes. Terrific email newsletters as well.
- Email Marketing Best Practices
- Might seem a little self serving, but this is my blog on email marketing
- Inc. Magazine Marketing & Advertising
- Constant influx of new articles & cases on Marketing. What's great is that although most of these are written to small business, they are applicable to marketers of all sizes.
- Guerrilla Marketing Articles
- Perhaps the godfather of low budget effective marketing tactics.
- ClickZ Experts
- Want to know about Internet Marketing? This is the place.
Mainstreet Marketing Tools
Check out these sites for great marketing tools
- Salesforce.com
- CRM software that scales for small business all the way to the large enterprise.
- ExactTarget Email Solutions
- Email Service Provider. Very easy to use yet sophisticated tools for creating, sending & measure effective email.
- Postcard Builder
- This company lets you design or upload designs you already have to them and they will print & mail them for you. Inexpensive and can handle any volume large or small.
- Various Desktop Software
- This is a good source for essential marketing software that's not available as web based yet:
Microsoft Publisher. This is the easiest tool I've found to design your own direct mail pieces.
Microsoft Mappoint. Target prospective customers that live or work near your current customers. Upload a spreadsheet of your current customers and it will produce a map of exactly where they are coming from. Your best targets are those that are similar to your existing ones. - Residential Mailing Lists
- The trick here is to understand the demographics of your best customers (consumers). Then with this company you can search on street or zip and find all those with matching attributes. Usually less than $1 per record. This is the mailing list for your prospecting postcards.
- Business Mailing Lists
- I don't nececssarily think busines 2 business direct mail is the best tactic, but if you must here is a source.
- Free Blogging Software
- I can't tell you enough how valuable a blog is. Take the time to set one up here about what your business covers. Take the time to use the tool properly and post often. The rewards come in both enhansed credibilty and it really boosts your search engine rankings.
- Great Web Site Building & Hosting
- What's great about this tool is it's simple and cheap...but also have a live chat feature so you can get instant help whenever you need it.
Small Biz Trends
Title says it all
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My personal blog
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