THINKing

Show Up For Success

Your minister of the church of marketing has some words for you to ponder today: if you want to succeed you must show up. Woody Allen has often been quoted – incorrectly – on this subject. What he really said was, “80 percent of success is showing up.”

7 Ways To Kickstart Your 2010 Marketing

It’s 2010, now what? Have you completed your marketing planning or did you leave it to the last minute? No matter. We have 7 ideas of things you can do to kickstart your marketing.

Dusty Archives – February 2009 Edition

From time to time we sort through the archives of THINKing to resurrect gems that you may have missed. Here are a few that we recommend.

It’s The Relationship, Stupid – I don’t care how you slice it, when it comes down to fundamentals, business is all about relationships. Ignore this truth at your own peril.

New Business 2009

Are you out looking for new business? Who isn’t? I wrote a series on the topic some time back. You may want to check it out if you missed it the first time around.

New Business Primer – Part 1 – Introduction to the new business primer.

New Business Redux

Are you out looking for new business? Who isn’t? I wrote a series a few months back on the topic. You may want to check it out.

New Business Primer – Part 1 – A Primer

New Business Primer – Part 2 – Positioning

Cheaper To Keep

You’ve heard it all before when it comes to stats about customer retention. Some say that acquiring a customer costs five to 10 times more than retaining one. Repeat customers spend, on average, 67 percent more. After 10 purchases a customer has referred as many as seven other people. I’m not sure about the math, but I am sure that the underlying premise is correct: keeping existing customers is cheaper than getting new ones.

It’s In The Cards

I was talking to a young man last night whose company has filed for bankruptcy and he is out of a job. He already has developed a business plan and is preparing to start this enterprise. I applaud this action, since I am a huge advocate of owning your own business. Job security at a big company is a myth. You are much more secure when you control your own destiny. OK, sermon over.

Dear Valued Customer – Part Deux

OK, apparently Boca Java – which by the way provides fine coffee beans – did not read my recent posting about banning the phrase “Dear Valued Customer.” So, I’m a little disappointed in them. How do I know they did not read THINKing yesterday? I received this email from them today:

Oh, So Now You’re Interested In Customer Retention

I’ve been saying it for years, marketers want the thrill of new business and spend way more money on it than they do on retaining the business they have. But every time there is a hiccup in the economy, you customers start to be a marketers new BFF.

Connections Revisited

I asked what social networks you are a part of and several of you have waded in. Let’s see what’s working for our readers:

Ashleigh Hunter of Bank of America wrote: