Start by taking small actions and course correcting (we did). Send out your first email blast, schedule your first reminder task but simply start marketing so that you have a chance to be top of mind when your clients, customers and relationships might actually want or need your services.

If not now, when?

For those of you not familiar with Zappos, the company is an online retailer who defied the odds and built an Internet empire, initially as a virtual shoe store and now expanding its inventory well beyond shoes alone. Zappos has always charged top dollar for its products and has succeeded primarily because the leadership innovated an experience that consistently exceeds the expectations of customers, vendors, and people who simply encounter the brand. …

Unlike other failed online vendors from the “dot gone” bust, Zappos invested in both the delivery infrastructure and the corporate culture necessary to produce customer evangelists. To help you appreciate how Zappos might serve as a provocative benchmark for your customer experience, let us give you a few highlights from the 5 principles outlined in The Zappos Experience…

Let’s say Bob referred you to Sally. Sally works with Terry’s brother-in-law. Terry is a customer. So the question is: who is Bob?  Our new Relationship Manager will help you keep it straight.

Watch this short video to get a glimpse at this new tool just released.

(NOTE: If you currently use the Referral Tracking Plugin, this new feature will replace that plugin, so be sure to watch the video)

More and more, we have users asking us for social media integration that is turn-key and easy to use.

This may just be our most innovative new feature of 2011: direct integration to Facebook and Twitter from within your CRM.Twitter @replies, direct messages and Facebook wall posts are becoming increasinlgy popular and effective ways to stay in touch with your customers or prospects. So, why not give these actions equal billing in your CRM with traditional activities like email or phone calls?

Watch this short tutorial to see how you can start using Twitter and Facebook to communicate from within AddressTwo.

Here is what the assistant has to say…

“Having the Support team build the templates for me in AddressTwo is a HUGE help. I love being able to type everything up on a Word document and just email it over with a photo of the house I want to use. I also like that fact that I can send them any other sort of informative flyer and within minutes usually it’s uploading into the system, ready for me to email out!

Doing the newsletter from CRM in a blast email is WAY more cost effective than printing up a letter and mailing it out every month. I can look and see how many were delivered and viewed which is a nice benefit too.”

Here is a how you too can use Up N’ Automated’s support team to consistently market with very little time and effort.

 Make sure you know how to login to the CRM and ensure that your signature line is set up.

1- Send your database into support@upandautomated.com and allow us to help you clean it up and get it into the CRM correctly.

2- Create a monthly message of what you want to say to your network. (Typically in MS word or in an email to us)

3- Our support team will build you an HTML email template.

4- You simply have to login, query your database and send. (This typically takes 2 minutes)

Our support team will help bridge the gap between wanting to use the CRM and having to learn everything about it.

The first step in marketing to a database is building that database—lead conversion.

Before you can start a drip marketing campaign, and long before you’re ready to sell, you need to build a database. In the Influence of Marketing™ methodology, we call this increasing your breadth of influence. Your breadth of influence usually begins with the typical friends and family list, but eventually, you will need to create an effective strategy for converting strangers into leads.

Tips to remember when increasing breadth of influence:

Media Advertising is a “leased” or “borrowed” breadth. The distribution of a given magazine, tv station, or website where you advertise is not your breadth. You pay to advertise, paying for access to their breadth.

The goal of advertising (or any mass-communication) is conversion to a lead, not conversion to a customer. You are indeed selling something, but not your product/service. You need to sell the prospect something of value—content, ideas, contests, give-aways—at the cost of their contact information.

All mass-communication must have a strategy for conversion. It’s not enough simply to “be seen” or “gain exposure” for exposure’s sake alone. Ask yourself, when the strangers hear this message, what will prompt them to give me their contact information in return.

We often find small businesses trying to market themselves very part-time, and rotating their outbound messaging too often.   At Up N’ Automated we focus on three primary principals that guide us in everything we do: clarity, simplicity and automation.  These are the keys that unlock the door to new clients.

Without them, marketing is often times impossible or feels overwhelming.   Most small businesses are busy enough without adding marketing to their plates. However, if you can do these three things, marketing can be a breeze and yes…even fun.

1. Maintain a clear and consistent message

2. Simplify the number of strategies you deploy

3. Automate everything so that you can focus on your customer relationships

Ok, so we told a fib about closing the sale… We said that influencing the money was the deepest influence you could have. In reality, the deepest influence you can have over any member of your database is the influence over their database. When they open their address book for you, not just their pocket book, you know you have great influence over them.

Here are some tips to remember when generating for referrals:

Don’t ask for referrals. That’s right, don’t ask, tell. Tell your closest relationships who you need to meet. If you’ve influenced them deeply enough, they’ll volunteer to help.

Be specific.

Do not ask for “small business owners” or “young married couples.” Ask for a specific person. Our minds need concrete examples in order to recall a possible match. If you’re too broad, you’ll end up getting less referrals than if you’re too narrow.

Understand that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Or, to put it in Influence of Marketing™ terms: influence by giving referrals. Gain more influence over your database by opening up your database to them when needed.

If the goal of Drip Marketing is to deepen your marketing influence, the deepest you could go would be to influence buying behavior. Influencing a prospect’s money is the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, even the most successful marketers fail at the most fundamental level of closing sales.

Tips to remember when closing the sale:

Give them something they can say “yes” to. Far too often, proposals and pitches talk about what one “can do,” not what one will do. When they’re ready to buy, give them something they can buy.

Follow Up.

Every day there is a new book or cd-series on a sales methodology. The real secret, however, is not in which one you pick, it’s in having one. Have a system for follow up. Be reminded to call people back, and don’t let sales fall through the cracks.

Once a stranger converts to a lead and they’re in our database, there’s a chance they’re ready to buy today. If so, great! But what if they’re not? What if it’s going to take months or years to warm this contact up into a prospect? Most importantly: do you know how to do that?
In the Influence of Marketing™ methodology, we call this increasing depth of influence. Here are some tips to remember when increasing depth of influence:

First off, differentiate yourself before dripping. Even after a lead converts, there is still a constant noise level (so-to-speak) of advertising in our world. Signs, radio ads, tv ads, spam, junk mail—all together make a constant hum of marketing messages. You need to shout a little to get above the noise. Differentiate yourself, then drip.

Next, be sure to segment your market and target your message. Not every lead has the same demographic, the same buying habits, or the same need. Collect some vital information about the contact first, then use that information to target different drip campaigns to different audiences appropriately.

All drip marketing campaigns must have a clear strategy to help a prospect emerge as a sales opportunity. It’s not enough simply to “be seen” or “gain exposure” for exposure’s sake alone. Ask yourself, as my contacts continue getting this message, once they’re ready to buy, what will prompt them to give me the opportunity to sell.