Choosing Your Marketing Channels

With the plethora of marketing channels available to you today (over 120 at my last count) from loyalty programs to public relations stunts, it’s hard to decide which channel might work for you. While Pinterest might work for some businesses, does it make sense for you?

In the alarm business, common channels you may already be familiar with include: invoice stuffers, email, printed or electronic newsletters, blogs, and social media.

If you haven’t been using any or all of these channels yet, start here. You are already sending an invoice to your customers, so take advantage of the “free” space to add an insert describing a new upgrade or a referral program.

Email marketing is one of the lowest cost and best methods for communicating with both current customers and prospects. It’s important to segment them in your database and speak to them with a different tone and message; after all, your customers “know” you, but you are still building trust with many of your prospects. One of the critical factors in email marketing is to make sure you have what’s called a “clean” database.  If you have names and emails that haven’t been verified or qualified for years, you’re in danger of having your email marketing efforts stall.

To clean your database, first is to be strategic about the leads you acquire. Rather than purchasing lists of names, your sales team should be adding prospects that have been qualified. The second option is to allow your recipients to opt-in to receive emails. By gaining their permission first, you can ensure that your list is populated only with recipients eager to receive your content.

E-newsletters are a great, low pressure method to inform and educate your prospects and customers without “selling.” They begin to see you as more of an expert in the industry and someone with whom they can call if they have questions or issues. They are excellent trust-building vehicles but only if you use them to educate and inform. Another excellent method for building trust and establishing yourself as an authority in your industry is to blog. By blogging about subjects your customers and prospects care about, you let them know you have your fingers on the pulse of the industry and that you’re there for them as a resource when they are ready. Finally, don’t forget about Social Media. The social network you should use will depend on where your audience is on the technology lifecycle adoption curve and what type of social media they tend to use.

For example:

• •Facebook is good for almost everyone – it has become mainstream and widely adopted.
• •LinkedIn is great for Business-to-Business leads, and is a good place to find other business developers who are targeting the same audience as you. Sharing leads and referrals with these people could be a tremendous advantage.

As you become more sophisticated in your marketing efforts, you’ll begin to understand which channels work best for your business and where to spend more of your time, energy, and effort to build your customer base most efficiently.

We know marketing isn’t easy. But we’re here to help. If you’re an existing ACA dealer, learn more about our individually branded marketing tools.  If you’re not yet an ACA dealer, find out how to become one!