Online Tools to Grow Your Business

By Mary Costa, Ennect

Mary Costa Get customers, keep customers, get more customers—that’s the mantra for every growing business. Unfortunately, time is often stretched too thin to establish and cultivate strong relationships with potential and current clients. Online marketing tools can change that.

Online software saves your business time and money. Repetitive tasks can be completed quickly, which means you and your staff can do more work in less time. According to research conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in April 2006, Internet penetration among adults in the United States is the highest ever. If your clients are online anyway, why not use the Web to connect with them?

Get Customers
It doesn’t matter what type of business you own. You can use online marketing tools to help expand your customer base.

Offer seminars. Let’s say you’re a financial planner. You could offer a seminar explaining retirement options, but sending invitations, coordinating registration, and printing name tags takes a lot of time. Instead, collect e-mail addresses of people who might be interested in your services and send them an invitation using online event registration software. Recipients have an easy way to register, which won’t tie up your phone lines or jam your e-mail address. You can even print name badges electronically.
Use sweepstakes. How can a car dealer reach customers online? Have a sweepstakes where the winner could receive free oil changes for a year. Banner ads could be used to announce the sweepstakes. This would drive traffic to your Web site and help you build a list of prospects.

Keep Customers
Once you have clients, there are many online marketing strategies that can help you retain them.

Send surveys. How can you improve your service? Ask your clients! Phone surveys, however, are often irritating. Printed surveys usually have a low response rate, not to mention the expense of printing and mailing. By using an online survey tool, response rates increase and costs are lower. Perhaps the best part of an online survey is the ability to view results from each survey-taker. Online surveys are so inexpensive and fast, you’ll quickly find other uses for them, such as soliciting feedback on a new location you are considering, a new product you are thinking of developing, and so on.
Send e-newsletters. Thanks to the Internet, you can segment your communication directly to each client’s specific interest. If you own a pet store and you know a certain customer has previously purchased an aquarium and fish, send a newsletter with information about fish and include a discount on a future purchase. Change the newsletter content so it appeals to those who purchase snakes, puppies, or ferrets. This keeps the content specific and relevant for each customer.

Get More Customers
The beauty of the Internet is that it gives you the ability to reach specific niche markets. When you combine online survey, event, sweepstakes, and e-mail tools, you can expand your outbound marketing efforts.

Do market research. Wouldn’t it be great to get inside the head of your potential customers to learn their preferences before you manufacture a product? We had a creative client who used a sweepstakes campaign to do just that. An invitation was placed on specific forums and panels asking people to provide feedback on a new piece of furniture that was being manufactured. All they had to do was answer questions on their style preference, finish preference, and consideration for purchase, and they might win a prize. This type of research usually take six months. Thanks to the immediacy of online survey tools, the research was completed in just seven days.
Combine online and traditional marketing. Sometimes a traditional mass-media approach, like billboards on highways and a blitz of radio commercials, is the best way to reach more customers. But always ask yourself if that approach can be improved with online marketing tools. For example, if you have an event with major market appeal, billboards and advertisements are a great way to get the word out. But you can also direct people to a Web site for more information and encourage them to provide their e-mail address. Now you can use an event tool to handle registration and a survey tool to follow up with them.

You can implement these ideas with your own business. Don’t limit yourself to using just one type of online marketing tool. Creatively combining online approaches delivers results faster!

Mary Costa is the director of sales for Ennect, whose online marketing tools help you work more effectively and efficiently. Visit www.ennect.com, write to info@ennect.com, or call 866-435-1212.