Kim Bartells - Result Driven Real Estate Marketing Expert -

That’s right, when you own a business you NEED TO BE A SHOW OFF! You always have to be putting your best foot forward whether you are dealing with suppliers, clients, or potential clients. This means your presentation matters. Everything from your apparel to your print material.

In writing this blog post, I hope to enlighten you on some of the most important print material you will need for your small business. The list below outlines those basic documents. Every business is going to need ‘industry specific’ documents in addition to this list. Take the time yourself to make these items, or contact a marketing/design firm for assistance.

The design or ‘look’ of your print material will, without a doubt, have an impact on your clients decision making process. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard potential customers say, ‘Look at these two business cards. Which company would you want to work with?’ Keep that in mind when you are working to compile these documents for your company. Saving a couple extra bucks by doing it yourself could lose you more business in the long run.

• Business Cards
• Brochure/Flyer about your company/services
• New Client Packets
• Invoice/Sales Slips
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Presentation Folder
• System of Letters: Welcome, Thank You, Referrals, Recommendation Request

Those are just some of the basic, must-have items. You need also to keep in mind that it is very important to have a consistent design theme throughout all of them. This is referred to as a ‘brand’. If each piece looks different, you are going to give an impression that is only memorable in a negative way. Avoid that and keep your brand/design cohesive.

Also, consider the type of ‘material’ you are using to print these documents. Quality print material can make all the difference. What pound paper, the finish, color or black and white, etc. all matter in the world of visual communications. You may have to pay a little extra to get a nicer foundation, but that’s what your entire business is built on so you better make it a strong one!

Remember, BE A SHOW OFF! To get clients you need to be more than good at what you do, you need to present yourself in a professional manner so new clients are willing to move forward with your company, and so repeat clients keep coming back for more.

I cannot stress enough the importance of tracking the sources of your new leads. If I were to put a dollar sign on the value of this data, you would probably choke on your lunch right now. Knowing the who, what, when, where and why behind consumer behavior is the most important element to any businesses success.

In most cases, this data can be very easy to compile. Have the office secretary keep a tally sheet next to the phone and ask the simple question, ‘How did you hear about us?’, with each new call. This will tell you where people are seeing your business information – yellowbook, drive by everyday on the way to work, someone referred them, website, Google, etc. It will also tell you where your marketing dollars are best spent.

Now, tracking leads can also get a little more complicated when it comes to website analytics, seo, social media, blog ROI and things of that nature, and when you business is ready to grow to that level, consulting a marketing firm may be your best option.

Let’s get back to the who, what, when, where and why of lead tracking. Attaching this data to your new leads will enable you to see your typical consumer in a whole new, more profitable light. Now, don’t go asking all these questions during the first phone call, relationship marketing is needed to help build this profile for each consumer. This is where most businesses lag. Each consumer is unique and needs to be treated as such.

WHO: age, gender, income level, education, salary

WHAT: specific service/product they were looking for, do they need other services/products

WHEN: why did they call now, time of day they contact you, time of day they opened your emails, frequency they need your services

WHERE: where do they live (some business is very local, some is countrywide),where did they find your information (print, or internet)

WHY: why do they need your help/product, for them or is it a gift

Being able to describe your consumer with such great detail enables you to market more precisely, therefore creating a better return on your marketing investment.

Email TC at kim.bartells@gmail.com for some basic, free forms to help you start tracking leads successfully. Starting with a strong foundation in lead tracking and nurturing is going to help expand your business year in and year out.

The best way to set your marketing efforts up for success…PLAN! A calendar of marketing events, next to reviewing your budget from the prior year, is one of the essential first steps to a successful year of marketing. Those who set goals, write them down, and then review them are ultimately more likely to implement them.

Not sure where to start? Email TC – kim.bartells@gmail.com – and we will send you our free calendar of events forms for both your database of current clients and general marketing efforts.

Once you have these forms in hand, sit down and start brainstorming. Write down, not only the marketing efforts that you would like to try, but also the marketing efforts that have failed in the past. You can learn a lot from failure, and it can make you become more creative when brainstorming new strategies.

Next, start working on creating these marketing ‘events’ now. Have them ready to go long before you plan on implementing them. This will allow you time to process and possibly improve upon each marketing occurrence. Last minute, thrown together marketing usually is not worth the money, or time spent.

A very useful tip that TC recommends and sets up for their clients: a Google calendar specifically for their marketing. Reminders are emailed when tasks need to be completed at set intervals. CRM tools can be extremely useful as well, but are a little more complicated to implement.

Get started, and feel free to call, or email us if you have any questions along the way. We would love to help make 2012 a great year for your small business. Don’t forget to email us for our free Calendar of Events forms!

If you are a regular reader of our blog, then you’ve probably already thought about what you want your business to accomplish in 2012 (maybe you even wrote it down!). This is great! Now, we really need to get specific about it, and definitely write it down!

Your goals need to be attainable, yet challenging, and we need to outline them in detail.

Say you want to increase sales by 10%. That’s a great goal, but it’s way too general. Lets get specific about it.

What sales do you want to increase – up-sells? repeat customers? new customers? cross sells? What will the breakdown be between each category of sales – 3% up-sells, 5% repeat customers, 2% new customers, 0% cross sells?

How do you plan to generate those new sales – email marketing? cold calls? print advertisements? social media? video marketing? relationship marketing?

It’s important to not only be specific about your goals, but to outline how you plan on reaching them. Maybe you were hoping that you could increase sales simply by implementing an email marketing campaign. Three months into it you may not be on track with meeting your goals, and because you don’t have a back-up plan, you just give up and hope for the best when you sit down with your accountant at the end of the year. Hey, you tried, right?

You need to write out specific objectives, time frames and back-up options you can implement if things don’t go as planned.

This brings up the topic of accountability. If there is no one holding you accountable when it comes to reaching these goals, do you think you will be more, or less likely to succeed? Find a friend, or business partner you can trust to hold you accountable to your goals. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a month where you are off the mark a little, it just means there is someone there to talk to you about how you are going to fix it for the next month.

A lot of these tasks can be time consuming and frustrating if you’re not sure which direction to go. Consider working with a marketing consultant like TC who can sit down with you, outline your goals, help you track your progress and hold not only you, but themselves accountable when goals aren’t met. Consultants exist because they can increase your businesses bottom line by more than enough to justify their cost.

In the next week or so, get out a pen and paper and write down some simple goals. Hang it somewhere you will see it everyday. Once a week, check your progress.

The idea of checking your progress brings up the importance of lead tracking. Where are the leads coming from? What marketing efforts are working better than others? We will discuss the importance of tracking in our next post and will be providing you with FREE FORMS to help you accomplish the task.

Until then, happy goal setting!

This post was inspired by another blog post I received this morning: http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/just-a-quick-question/. It raises a VERY important topic. How much of your time do you spend working for free?

I know I get emails all the time filled with the so-called 'quick question'. The reality is not only do they want a quick answer, but they also want a free answer.

As REALTORS, you have an even harder time with this topic compared to someone like myself that charges for the services preformed. You work on commission so you want to seem willing and knowledgeable to help, but you also don't want your time wasted.

You have the sellers that want to call or email you after 10:00PM, weekends and holidays. You have the buyers who want to look at homes all over the county and who aren't willing to sign a Buyer Agency contract.

So, what to do?

Here's what I say. Set a precedent for the way your time is spent. Upon first meeting, have a highlight sheet that outlines your responsibilities in the relationship and the potential clients. If you respond to clients when they call you after 10:00PM, they are going to think it's OK. DON'T DO IT! If you ignore them, they are going to get mad and not want to work with you. You need to tell them how your business works. Then, you'll find, business will be a lot easier and less frustrating than you remembered it from years past. Less of your time will be wasted and you'll find your productivity increasing. All good things.

If they can't respect you and the way you run your business, then move on. It's OK to let clients go. I know it's hard, but it will save you a lot of time and money if you get over this fear now.

For those in the business like myself, who bill based on the service preformed, send them the quick answer along with a 'quick invoice', as stated in the blog referenced above. That may help get the message across :)