Tomato Fish Marketing

We love it when our client’s are so happy with our service that they send us copies of kudos they receive from their clients:

“Thanks for keeping me on your newsletter list… there must be a way for us to partner on projects.”

This simple success story lead to a new relationship for our client with potential revenue they would not have otherwise had if we had not developed their email newsletters for them on a monthly basis.

Got quesitons? Learn more about our targeted online marketing and implementation system we call TOMI.

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Last week I received a post from BNET called “How to Win Customer Referrals…in 6 Easy Steps” – I love it when I get easy to follow steps on how to do something. So, I’m passing these steps along to you:

• STEP #1: Understand the Referral Concept
• STEP #2: Position Yourself For a Referral
• STEP #3: Earn the Right to ask a Referral
• STEP #4: Confirm that You’ve Earned the Referral
• STEP #5: Ask for an Action, Not a Contact!
• STEP #6: Follow up, Follow up, Follow up

Read the full article.

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From SoulSeedz.com:

The shortest known gestation period is 12 days for an Opossum, and the longest is over 700 days for an Elephant. Your countless ideas, visions and dreams gestate for anything from 12 to 700 days.

So, don’t rush, but be prepared to let the world know about your ideas and know what to expect in those first few weeks. Say to yourself: “I am the parent of incredible dreams. I release them in the world like children, to grow and become mature plans.” Then, start to create a business plan that is more general to start but becomes more detailed as your idea matures.

When you are ready to release this idea be prepared to begin branding and marketing it. Here are a few basic questions to think about when creating your business plan:

• 1. What is the purpose of this idea – mission and values?
• 2. What is my value proposition?
• 3. Who is my target market?
• 4. Where is my target market located?
• 5. How can I best reach this target market?

Then, contact a really good marketing or communications firm to help you build a strong marketing foundation in which to grow your idea into a successful business!

Hey, I think I know people who can help, just drop us a line.

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Lately, we have had a handful of clients who came to us at their wits end because they are fed up with “lead generation” methods or other marketing tactics that have produced no ROI for their business. It disappoints us that they have tried so many things that never worked or at least did not work to their expectations.

Our answer is always the same… without a strong marketing foundation you have nothing to build on and will never have true marketing successes.

To combat this problem we have created a new system call TOMI Suite designed to improve communications with current customers / clients and implement targeted online marketing tools to identify who your leads are and market to them in a targeted and strategic manner. This system is made up of two phases: 1) Assessment Phase, 2) Implementation Phase.

If you are interested in building a stronger foundation to your marketing and would like more information on our new TOMI System, please
drop us a line.

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This week we announced our new strategic partnership with a&g Digital Consulting. This partnership will allow us to collectively offer clients a complete online business solution.

About a&g Digital Consulting
a&g Digital Consulting is a marketing firm, specializing in web design and online marketing. Working with businesses throughout Indiana, they are able to bring over 12 years of experience in designing, developing and marketing websites.  The goal of a&g is to become the full service solution for the web and marketing needs for B2C businesses.  While offering a complete list of website design and development services, a&g focuses on the post-launch marketing, maintenance and tracking of their client’s websites. For more information visit a&g online at www.consultagc.com.

Come to our Spring Fling on March 26th from 5p to 8p in our office to meet Angie Commorato and share in celebrating the arrival of Spring!

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Social media is not necessarily the right marketing tactic for your business. Having a plan is key, but don’t assume that your business automatically will be successful with social media. Don’t believe me? Take it from Josh Miles:

“Should our firm be using Social Media?”

Josh says, “Nope.”

Read the full article here.

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Weekly, if not daily, I read something or hear someone talking about Social Media and how it’s the be-all-end-all for small businesses. Let me assure you that it is NOT.

Being a small business does not equate to “social media marketing is perfect for us”. And it’s unfortunate that there are so many companies and individuals out there pushing that if you are a small business you MUST add social media into your marketing plans or better yet – you must make social media your sole marketing strategy. Because it’s “free” and quick to set up.

First, social media is not free. The time it takes to manage and leverage your social media accounts alone is huge. And as business owners you know that “time = money”.

Secondly, what we fail to see amidst all the social media hype is that not all social media represents your target market. Some social media platforms might not reach your target audience at all.

So, what are we to do as Small Businesses? Research, research, and more research. You know your target market, so dive in and find out which social media platforms, if any, fit your requirements. And if you find one, talk with social media experts and get some quotes on what it will cost to implement. Be ready to increase that small business marketing budget of yours because, in most cases, social media requires on-going management.

Lastly, social media should be looked at as a tactic to your overall marketing strategy rather than the strategy itself.

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Recently, my good friend and client, Jon Speer of Creo Quality, sent me a post from the Marketing Tech Blog called “Using Social Networks for CRM“. Here’s a recap of the article:

Ways to use the “big three” networks for CRM:

1. Facebook – categorize your contacts into lists of friends, segment, and create privacy settings (Free).

2. Twitter – categorize those you follow with the unlimited lists feature that was recently added to Twitter (Free).

3. LinkedIn – categorize contacts into folders, add notes and contact information with the Profile Organizer ($24.95/mo)

It’s an interesting read and if you are an avid Facebooker, Tweeter, or LinkedIn user the tips given in this article could be fun to use and free as long as you don’t use LinkedIn.

The problem is that a strong CRM tool should not only be fun and easy to use, but allow you to leverage your CRM data to track sales and lead opportunities. At this point I have not seen this capability in Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

If you are looking for a good CRM tool that is inexpensive and not cumbersome there are plenty out there outside of social media. Drop us a line and we’ll point you in the right direction.

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Thank you to everyone who joined our Whiteboard Session last week. For those of you who could not make it, here are a few key ideas from the group.

TIPS
- Write Daily
- Read “43 Folders” –> suggestions on organizing your daily life
- Rewrite your biz plan often — become reconvicted as to your WHY
- Master workflow –> collect, process, and organize (and Review Daily & Weekly)
- Block Scheduling –> block out your time for the next month or more

TOOLS

- Mind Mapping –> MindManager software (from MindJet)
- Evernote –> enter notes and tag them (Free or $50/yr for unlimited data transfer)
- GMail for searching and categorizing, etc.
- Tungle meeting software –> good for getting meetings set up without a lot of admin
- Hipster PDA (aka “the Poor Man’s Moleskin”)

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REMINDER: Friday, February 12th is our monthly free Whiteboard Strategy Session.

TOPIC: “5 Tips and 5 Tools to Getting Things Done”.

DATE:  February 12, 2010

TIME: 10A – 11:30A

LOCATION: 6055 N. College Avenue #201, Indy 46220

Please RSVP before Friday if you plan on attending.

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