Purple Diamond Marketing Blog

When was the last time you read a book or an article that left you inspired or gave you insights in to a subject matter that you knew right away that you wanted to share that literary work with others?  Have you ever considered reaching out to your top clients or prospects with the gift of knowledge or an inspirational story that you know they would enjoy? Consider giving a book or article with a positive message attached and signed by you.  Personal marketing goes a long way with relationship building for your business.  Sending hand written cards and thank you notes, attending events with clients and taking the time to offer them a gift with a nice note attached is a great way to bring your business to the front of the vendor line when it is time for clients to renew contracts or choose who they wish to work with.

Often businesses will have promotional products with their company name and logo imprinted on them to hand-out, but this is just s small part of building a relationship with your key accounts and top prospects.  Standing out from the crowd and being the contact that is elevated from vendor status to friend is what often separates the businesses that just survive in today’s market  or thrive.  Do your top clients or potential “A” list prospects connect with you regularly on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter?  Do they read your blog or even know that you have one? If they were out tonight at a business function and someone asked them about who they most enjoy working with would you be one of the first people they mention? Do their spouses and family know you?  Have you ever been invited socially to go out with them when it wasn’t just business?

Relationship building and personal marketing has to be part of what you do as a business owner.  Consider doing something out of the ordinary for your key accounts and prospects and extend that personal touch. Don’t just wait til the holidays to send a card or gift.  Take the time throughout the year to build a personal relationship with the people you do business with!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

For some of my regular readers to my blog they know I have been missing most of this week because of a death within my family, but if you are new to my blog then you might have wondered where I have been so I decided to post today and share my thoughts. Death is a strange thing in that it is so final and there is no more time to say the things you wish you had or to spend a few extra moments telling the person how much you love them and giving them another hug.  You start to make yourself go crazy with the “should of’s” and “what ifs” and “if only…” , but the reality is that none of us have a crystal ball and we are never certain of our day so the best we can do is live with the choices we make and love with all our hearts in this instant and know that for right now we are here and life is to be cherished.

So, what does this have to do with helping your business??? Nothing and everything.

A business, like life, is touched by what is around it. When you have a death in your family or you lose an employee who was a key part of the fabric of your team, your business feels it.  If you are a sole proprietorship, do you have a contingency plan for if you get sick or you need to take some time off to make arrangements and attend services for a family member who passes away? Have you developed strong relationships with your customers so that if a tragedy hits your home and your regular business activities are altered that your clients still feel confident in working with you?  I have a t-shirt that my friend’s company makes that has a great saying, “Adversity doesn’t build character…it reveals it”.   Having been a cancer survivor and not unfamiliar to how life throws you curve balls when you least expect it, I realize that no matter what today brings you must always remain true to who you are and what you believe in.  I believe in giving as much as I can to help enrich my life and those around me, both at home and in the office.   I care deeply for my customers, their families and  their businesses and in return that is the relationship they give back to me.  If you are reading this and you have not developed a strong relationship with the customers you service then it might be a time to regroup and consider how you can develop a stronger connection with them.  Get to know who you are doing business with and offer more of your self in return.  Go out to lunch or coffee with them or take an extra few minutes the next time you are doing a service call to ask them about their life and to get to know more about them and share about you.  Be more than just someone who sells them a widget….build a friendship and a true connection.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Today is my daughter’s 22nd birthday and so I decided to write my marketing blog about birthdays and how wishing a client a “happy birthday” can elevate your status from their vendor to a friend! Why does it matter? Relationship building and connecting on a more personal level has always improved retention of customers.  Why do you think there are so many business people who learn to play golf or they socialize with clients outside of work? Making a strong connection helps to keep competitors from stealing your accounts.  Why birthdays? Well, there is nothing nicer than to have someone remember your birthday and if you have jumped on board with Facebook or other on-line social networking sites or have a great data-base program that includes your clients’ birthdays, you can easily send them a quick message wishing them to have a great day.  And, if you have more time on your hand, there is nothing better than getting a birthday card in the mail. Last year one of my new marketing coaching clients surprised me with a personal card that was made just for me for my birthday. Yes, she made a great impression and a real friend who will actually drop other projects and get her’s done first. LOL  Probably should not have admitted that, but I am an honest person and I like to help others understand the importance of making a positive and lasting impression.

So, as I wish my daughter, Nicole, a Happy 22nd Birthday….I remind my readers that it doesn’t take much to connect on a more personal level and it will bring you more business and a higher retention rate of customers.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Yesterday was one of those days in which the world was rushed and not everyone was offering the best customer service. Since I start my day with coffee, the local coffee shop sees me quite often and handles my order of Pumpkin flavored coffee at their drive thru window. Unfortunately, the beloved pumpkin was replaced with regular coffee and I did not discover this til I was back at my office. Right then I knew it was going to be THAT type of day. And, sure enough when I stopped by the bank to deposit a check and get some cash back I was treated poorly by a teller who was not too thrilled to be working this week. This was followed by being cut off in the parking lot by a driver who just had to be 2 seconds ahead of me in traffic. So, what does this have to do with marketing and why am I blogging about it today? Well, the local coffee shop needs to be applauded for “doing the right thing” and apologizing today for yesterday’s error and giving me a coffee for free. I had not mentioned the mistake for that since I had my money in hand to pay for the coffee today, but just wanted to be sure that I received “pumpkin”. The clerk was excellent and so was the manager who also chose to come over and apologize for the minor mistake. WOW, I was so impressed by their excellent customer service this morning that I am writing this now in my blog! And this is an important lesson to us all about customer retention and building your brand of being the “best” in your business for customer service. Doing the right thing when you make a mistake or if a customer is hurt by your rude behavior, apologizing  goes real far.

Had the bank clerk who waited on me yesterday chosen to be as gracious as the clerk from the coffee shop today, I might not be considering moving my account to another bank. [Note for local people reading my blog: I have 4 different banks I work with so I do not wish to do harm to any bank by stating which one it is, but it is easy for a business to get a negative comment on-line which could hurt their business and that is why I am blogging about the importance of good customer service.] When you are considering your budget this year for marketing and advertising please do not forget the little day to day things that might be losing you business. Customer service and doing the right thing for your loyal customers will go further than an expensive ad campaign. Of course, choosing to offer great service [that means closely monitoring ALL the people who work for you] along with a strong marketing and advertising campaign will get you the best results!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my loyal blog readers and clients!

All my best to your success!
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Today is Veteran’s Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada, and I wanted to be sure to thank the military who have bravely defended my country, protected my family and way of life and helped to provide me the opportunity to be free to choose to be a business owner. There is so much focus these days on the economy and keeping your business profitable that we can forget the vast number of military men and women who are serving and have served to protect us. However, it wasn’t so long ago that I watched the Twin Towers in New York City on 9-11 come crashing down and I recognized that in a moment the day to day business of doing business was meaningless when your life and family are threatened.

I was just a kid during the Vietnam War and I had an older brother who had friends who had been drafted and killed in Vietnam and those who were not killed were never the same again. There were so many people who treated the military poorly back then and felt that we had no business being in Vietnam. I was too young to really understand the political issues, but I knew that the older boys being drafted didn’t have much say in whether they served. Their only other choice other than being recruited was to leave the country and go to Canada to avoid the draft. Today you see many of the men who served during that awful war and they share how their life was forever affected by what they observed, but were saddened by the lack of our support when they returned. Thankfully, those same Veterans are here today to make sure people recognize and honor our military for their service and courage. And, as a business owner and a mother I wanted to be sure to always say “thank you” to the brave men and women who protect us while we sleep and make it so that we can have days in which we are so busy in the day to day operations of our businesses that we forget that it was only a few years ago that the world stood still and watched the planes take down the twin towers of the World Trade Center and crash in to the Pentagon killing so many innocent people.

I want to give thanks to all the branches of the military and to the firemen and police that protect my business daily!

All my best to your success,
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”