Front of Card – 10% Discount

• Apple Cleaners* (B) Azar’s Mediterranen Cafe’ (HM)
• Barberitos (HM) Bruster’s (D)
• Capital Nail & Spa (D) Cabo’s Mex-Grill (B) (SS)
• Caprese Pizza & Pasta (HM) Del Rio Mexican Grill (D)
• Duck Duck Goose* (HM) Elan Cleaners* (HM)
• Famous Joe’s (B) Fatso’s Sports Bar (D)
• Fernando’s (D) Firesalt Tavern (B)
• Froyolo (D) (HM) Ippolito’s (HM)
• Iron Wok China Bistro (HM) Jack’s Old South BBQ (CE)
• Jeffrey’s Sports Grill (CE) Joe’s NY Pizza (CE)
• Mirko Pasta (HM) Minuteman Press (L)
• Momoya (B) Nature’s 5th Season* (HM)
• Ninja Steakhouse (HM) (CE) Oriental J (B)
• ProNail (D) Rice Station (D)
• Rick Tanners Grille & Bar (HM) (B) Scoops (D)
• Shane’s Rib Shack (HM) Subway (B)
• Subway (D) Sun Garden (D)
• Waffle House (HM) (MG) (@985) Wild Bird Center of Buford (B)
• Zaxby’s (HM)

Back of Card – Special Offers

Buffalo’s Southwest Cafe – Tuesday and Thursday – $5 off $25 or More
Excluding Alcoholic Beverages

Chili’s – Free Chips and Salsa (Dine In Only With Purchase)

Christian Brothers Automotive – 3% Discount, 3% Rebate to Booster Club
$50.00 Max

Dos Copas – Monday and Wednesday – $5 off $25 or More Excluding Alcoholic
Beverages
Hamilton Mill Car Wash – 10% Off Car Wash Packages

Jolie Amis Salon & Spa – 20% Off First Service

Lanier World & Family Fun Park – $5 off Per Person (up to 4 people) off
Admission to Lanier World & Family Fun Park

Lee Sports – 10% off Merchandise (Excludes Bats and Team Pricing)

Little Caesars (HM) – 10% on All Hot-N-Ready Cheese or Pepperoni Pizzas

McDonald’s (HM) – Buy Any Sandwich and Get One Free of Equal or Lesser
Value Limit 1 Per Customer (Exclude Dollar Menu)

Rick Tanners (B) (HM) – 2 Free Chicken Lips with Purchase of 2 Entrees

The Stables Equestrian Center – Buy 1 Get 1 Free Pony Rides (one per day)

(B) Buford (CE) Chateau Elan (D) Dacula (HM) Hamilton Mill (L)
Lawrenceville (MG) Mall of Georgia (SS) Spout Springs

Must Present Card for Discounts – Not Valid With Any Other Offers – (*)
Other Restrictions May Apply – Discount Does Not Include the Purchase of Alcoholic Beverages – Card Expires July 31, 2012

I’ve talked to hundreds of small business owners about marketing.  99% of them could grow their business significantly and quickly — if they just did this:

• Build a really good list of 100 potential customers (or existing customers who could buy a lot more)
• Make a simple plan to communicate with that group every week for 10 to 12 weeks
• Actually do it (like it mattered)

Build a really good list

Start a database where you can keep all your contacts (often called a CRM or customer relationship manager).

I use something called Highrise but I also like Batchblue and several others.

A Simple Plan

You just want to keep your name and your business name in front of everyone on the list consistantly.  So how do you do that without being a pest?  
How about a plan like this:

You get the idea, right? You can fill in the rest of the weeks with stuff that meets your style.

Note: spend more money on high quality ‘touches’ and client gifts in proportion to the value of each client. If one client is worth $10k, you should spend WAY more per client than someone who’s average client revenue is only $50. Make sense?
After that it’s just ‘rinse, modify and repeat’

Rich wanted to catch up with me. We’ve been friends for a while – maybe 8 years? But, he definitely also wanted to talk about how I could possibly help him with his small business marketing through social media – and through more traditional marketing.

I LOVE these kinds of conversations! I’m such a marketing freak and technology geek that I get fired up just talking about how it all can work in business. So, we talked and talked about implementing a pretty classic marketing campaign. When I was active as a Realtor and then as a real estate broker, I used these same classic marketing ideas to great effect.

Every business is unique, but ALL businesses have to begin with the end in mind. You have to know what the goal is before you start your marketing plan.

Do you want 100 new customers in 6 months? Or would 5 ‘perfect’ customers be even better?

Is $100,000 in new revenue the goal? or is it more like $2 million?

Note: everyone wants to over-complicate this. Just decide what you WANT and then go for it. Yes, it should be reasonable and possible to attain, but it can (and should) be ambitious.

Just Do it!

Now that we know what we want, the plans are pretty simple.  Execution is the trick.

So, Rich decided that 10 new clients in the next 6 months would be great.  His clients tend to bring repeating business and so those 10 clients should easily generate $50,000 in additional revenue.

He wants these new clients to come from a ‘warm’ list of known prospects, so I suggested that we develop a plan to touch or connect with these known contacts every week for 10 to 12 weeks.  This includes phone calls, emails, print mail as well as face to face contact.  (psst.. this kind of ‘constant contact’ is a known method to increase results)

To get 10 new clients from a warm list, experience tells us that we’d probably need at least 100 potential customers on the list.

Job #1 = Take the time to make the list of 100.  It’s not sexy work, but it’s the critical starting point.

Lots of people fail to execute at this point.  Don’t back off.  Make a good solid list with very complete and accurate info.

Once you have your list, you simply execute your plan.  The odds are very strongly in your favor to hit your goals!

Rich didn’t do any of this (yet).  He bought a billboard instead.  It won’t work

When that happens, stop back here and watch these…

The way they are presenting the information is very useful. Check out this short video