Because the cold calling market is so saturated, you may have to make well over 100 calls to get even the smallest nibble. And, even when people say yes to receiving information from you, they are doing this just to be polite to get rid of you. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because someone says yes to receiving an email from you that they are at all interested. The lesson from this is that you do not have to put yourself through the misery of cold calling anymore. There are now thanks to advances in technologies and the internet, new ways to reach out and get new business. Following are a few great new marketing ideas that you should start implementing into your business, rather than spend fruitless, miserable hours speaking to people who do not want to be contacted. By adopting these strategies you should start to see results immediately and in turn see sales and revenues rise. Save your nerves and reduce your stress by never having to cold call again.
Get a new website design for your business.
This is a no brainer. All businesses need a website, and if you have not got one yet, then you are really doing damage to your business. A website is now the fundamental cornerstone of your business and it is the first place that consumers, new clients ( if they can find you ), will turn to, to do a bit of research about you and your product or service offering. If you cannot be found online then you are a ghost and you might as well close your doors. Unless of course, you have such a great name that people come to you purely out of your reputation. Most businesses and companies are not in this fortunate position and need to have a web presence that clearly reflects their business, their personality as well as a strong visual presence to attract users.
Alternatively, if you currently have a website and you find that it is not working for you ( perhaps it is a few years old) then think about getting a complete website overhaul. In fact, you should be looking at refreshing your site annually. There are huge benefits to this which I will discuss later on in this article under SEO.
Times change and so does the consumer base and this has to be reflected in your online image, that is your website. If your look and feel does not evolve with the market then you will and this is a certainty, loose business to your competitors that may have a funkier, more stylish look and feel. Think of it like a hotel. If you are on holiday wouldn’t you prefer to stay at a modern hotel with all the add on facilities, like a gym, pool, internet access, rather than an old 1970’s style hotel with a old bed and fan. People gravitate to more modern, contemporary and dynamic styles and your website design is no different. A new look will impress your old clients and attract new ones if your marketing strategy is right. If your site is optimised for the internet and online rankings then you should start to see your listing rise on Google and this in turn will bring in the inquiries, meaning you never have to cold call. All you need to do now is find the right website design studio to turn this into a reality. A word of note here; be extremely careful about who you align yourself with when it comes to web design companies. There are just so many web companies online that making the right choice is going to be fundamental in the way your site is perceived and ultimately its success. Keep these points front of mind when looking for a web studio:
– find a web design company that is prepared to have a face to face meeting and go over a proper design brief. Remember, your aim is to get the phone ringing again and to do this you need to deal with people that know how to design a sales driven website.
– Don’t just go with the cheapest option. There is, I know the temptation to say to yourself that times are tough and you need to trim down on marketing. But, this is the opposite. Spend more money on your marketing, including your website and get it properly done. Cheap and fast web solutions are absolutely pointless and will do nothing to lift your online digital profile. Might as well forget the whole exercise and go the beach instead of wasting your time. Only a web studio that has a credible design history with a solid design back ground should be offering advice to you. Anyone else is just there to take your money, and deliver sub standard web templates that will only turn people off. Being tight now, will just cost you more money in the future. So open those purse strings and get real about web design and about what’s feasible for your business.
– Speak with your web designer/s and explain to them clearly that you are having issues with your current site or that you need a site to get inquiries happening. Be honest and open about your expectations and try to be as clear in your brief as possible. Also, be very open minded about what can be done and be prepared to accept the fact that you might have to completely change your image both offline and online. The aim here is to bring about changes that will have a positive impact on your business, so be accepting of the advice as you should be dealing with professionals who do have the answers. Being negative, close minded or taking the easy cheaper path is not the way to go at this stage. Adopt a broader, open minded philosophy and be aware that you will have to take risks and be bold to turn the slump around.
Think about your branding
Think about the following questions carefully:
What does your marketing or sales material say about you and your company?
Is the logo a relic from the past, handed down over generations?
Is the owner reluctant to make any changes to the logo because hes scared to do anything.
You don’t want to get any new brochures printed because you got thousands printed 10 years ago and there are still some left in the basement.
You got your cousin to design a logo 5 years ago free of charge but it does not look professional.
Our older clients like our marketing and sales brochures so changing them might offend them.
If these sound familiar then you are fooling yourself that you can get out of cold calling. Sitting with old and out dated collateral just further distances yourself between your business and a new market base.
A good idea is to chat with a graphic design company to discuss ideas and see how you can give your company branding an overhaul and bring it into the 20th century. I have seen so many examples over the years here at Hopping Mad Designs the power and positive benefits to a business just by simply giving the logo and some sales material ( brochures, flyers, business cards ) a new revamped look. It really can give your business a complete revitalised and energetic overhaul it needs to again be competitive.
Have you heard about Social Media?
Your kids are on it, your staff are on it but your business is not and this is a big issue. No one has explained social media to you and just the thought of it makes you uncomfortable.
Lets draw another comparison with other technologies. Look at email, slow to take on board but after a while everyone had one. It was common place and part of the business process. If you didn’t have a email address you were a dinosaur. Email is so common place that sending things via snail mail is now becoming more uncommon. This is the same with social media, slow to begin with but this will eventually outstrip all marketing mediums and platforms. If you are the type of person who wants to stick your head in the sand, hoping it will go away then you are wrong. And I must emphasise wrong. The uptake of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google + will mean that most marketing campaigns will be conducted online and through these sites.
The barriers to entry of are easy and you can have your own business Facebook page up and active within a couple of minutes. Rather than be afraid of these new technologies, embrace them and look to them to reach out to a whole new potential client base looking for your product and or service.
Does the word copywriter mean anything to you?
If not, then you should really familiarise yourself with what they are al about and what they can do for your business. If you were responsible for all the content that has gone on your marketing and sales material, then it may be a good time to read it again and see if it is still relevant. If is isn’t, then you may need to engage a copywriter or wordsmith to look at all the copy on all your material. If business has slowed down, then it might be that your communication is out dated and poorly written. A professional copywriter with a strong B2B background could just be the tonic to get things moving along just that bit faster. This can be especially true for the website where well worded content can have a huge impact on your search engine rankings.
Have you implemented a search engine marketing campaign yet?
This is an absolutely mammoth area and if you have not implemented an SEO campaign then you are really doing a disservice to your business. SEO is the technique of ranking your website on the major search engines and is really the best marketing tool available today for you to generate new business leads. SEO is something that only a company with heaps of previous experience can implement and before you embark on choosing a SEO company, you really need to take heed of the following few points to avert any disasters.
– never go with the cheapest SEO company. Generally speaking, if they are cheap, then they are cutting corners and will not do a proper job for you./ Plus they may be using really bad SEO techniques which could cause you to incur a online penalty.
– Make sure that the company you deal with can show you their past SEO work and make certain that they are able to point out their own online rankings.
– Never sign a contract with them and only go on a month by month basis.
If done correctly a search engine campaign should and will in most cases get your business ranking very high on page 1. This I believe is your most powerful weapon and you should do everything possible to ensure that this SEO campaign is started without any delay.
You will see the difference this makes to your business and once ranking you will notice those inquiries start flooding in. So if you are at the stage of thinking about cold calling, then don’t worry. Put all that negativity behind you and forget about ever having to do it again. SEO is the real answer and if you start this today you will be one step closer to ditching cold calls forever.
If you are thinking about cold calling and have just read this article and want to learn a little bit more about other much more effective options available to you then please give us a call here at Hopping Mad Designs on 02 9360 8514. After speaking with me for just 5 minutes I can guarantee you that you will ditch cold calling forever.