What the Heck are you going to do with ALL those Business Cards!?
Business cards are great, they carry a wealth a contact info and they are very easy to acquire. Whether you have a pile of cards you’ve collected from a recent trade show or cards you’ve collected overtime, you need to harness their latent energy. I imagine they aren’t doing you much good is a desk drawer.
As my amazing wife often says, “The Fortune is in the Follow-up.” So, how can we best tackle this mountain of cards? Let’s re-look at all these cards, not as a daunting task, but as opportunities to do business.
First, sort the cards in four groups; 1) Hot Leads, 2) Leads, 3) Contacts & 4) Junk.
Hot Leads are people that are very interested in your product or services right now. They need to be contacted ASAP. If you have a lot of these, don’t panic – be grateful. ~:-) Depending on the age of your mountain you might not have a lot of #1’s.
Leads are your second group to make contact with. You might be surprised to find out they are hotter leads that you believed.
Contacts are people to stay in contact with but, aren’t in the market for what you offer today. I would ask YOU to consider if they might know people that would be interested in your offering.
Junk are cards that you believe would have no interest in your company or if you already have their card. Excuse my optimism, but if someone gave you their card, I believe their might be an opportunity there.
OK, so you only really needed two groups, Hot Leads and Other, but I made you consider each card. ~:-)
Get those business cards on your computer. No, don’t stack them on your monitors. We need to digitize them. You can open your address book and start typing away or you can
use an app on your phone or tablet. Earlier this year I shared my top 10 favorite apps for the iPad. Number 4 was CardMunch.
This is a free app that works remarkably well at capturing the data from your cards. It can then sync with the address book on your computer(s). Note: It does require a free LinkedIn account. When you scan the cards it will look to LinkedIn to see if they are a member. If they are it will take some of their info from their profile and add it to your address book. Pretty slick.
Make Some Calls and eMails
What are you waiting for? Get a hold of your #1’s right away! There is no substitute for personal contact. Yes, personalized eMail can be personal.
Contact All of them, ALL.
Yes really. If you had unlimited time and resources, you’d personally make contact with everyone. But, I’m not here to give you more work, my aim is to help you work smarter and more efficiently. For those of you who have read my articles in the past know, I like to reduce the amount of keystrokes (work) needed to achieve your goals. To make the least amount of impact with the least amount of work.
eMail is a powerful and cost effective way to connect and stay connected with your people. So take those newly entered cards and prepare and eMail (maybe an article like this. ~:-). I recommend that if you have over 50 people that you wish to eMail that you use an online tool such as Constant Contact or iContact. These
services will ensure maximum deliverability (higher percentage of people will actually see your message).
I understand this is just the beginning of the journey up the mountain. If you need help along the climb let me know. ~:-) Remember, “The Fortune is in the Follow-up”.
Building Bridges – A Regional Business Showcase
April 17th, 2013 – Cowlitz County Regional Expo Center
We are proud to be part of this great business event for the 3rd year running.
Please download and print this invite and bring it with you to the event.
We look forward to see you @ our booth.
Be sure to print this Invite for your chance to win our awesome gift box.
From the Kelso Longview Chamber…
Welcome to the third year of the Business Showcase, formerly called Business 2 Business Expo. We have a new name, Building Bridges a Regional Business Showcase. This was changed to try to encourage more people to attend. A Business 2 Business expo lead many people to believe that only those businesses displaying at the expo were permitted to attend. Your committee decided to change the name to hopefully do what was originally intended…
Showcase the businesses of Cowlitz County. Thank you, for continued support this event and be a part of the over 100 businesses showcasing what they do.
This year set up will be able to take place on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, followed by a lunch in one of the break-out rooms with a speaker who will provide you with valuable information on how to make your day the most successful it can be.
Again, this year we will offer a chance for one of our booth or table holders to win a Multimedia Packaged valued at close to $5,000 that can be used for Transit advertising, local newspaper ads, radio spots, webdesign and graphic design. We will also be giving away baskets of goodies provided by our sponsors/venders and this year we intend to give away a number of tablets to our exhibitors. The more people you get to attend and visit your booth the better chance you have to win one of the popular new tablets.
A reminder, there will not be an After Hours Reception this year. Light snacks and a no-host bar will be set up at 5pm for you and your guests to enjoy.
Kind regards,
Bill Marcum
CEO/Kelso Longview Chamber
Need to update the username or page name for your Facebook Page?
Fresh off the press!
Facebook said your Facebook fan page username (vanity URL) and page name could never be changed (after you received 100 fans.)
Pigs must be flying. It is now changeable!
Now you can trade in the username and/or page name of your Page once without having to submit a request.
Directions: Edit Page –> Update Info –> Basic Information –> Change Username
LinkedIn hacked.
LinkedIn confirmed that hackers gained access to some of the enterprise social network’s passwords on June 6th, 2012.
Affected members will receive an email with instructions on how to reset their passwords; current passwords will not work. They will also receive an email with more information on what happened.
“We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts,” LinkedIn director Vincente Silveira wrote in a blog post. “We are continuing to investigate this situation.”
We recommend that all LinkedIn user change their password at this time.|
omOriginals Marketing offers refreshingly different marketing solutions including Web Sites, Web Hosting, eMail Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing & good old fashioned Graphic Design.
The Pope and KFC
A Marketing Consultant employed by KFC gained an audience with the Pope, and offered him a million dollars if he would change ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.” The Pope refused the offer.
Two weeks later, the consultant offered the Pope 10 million dollars to change it from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken” and again the Pope refused the generous offer.
Another week later, the consultant offered the Pope 20 million dollars, and finally the Pope accepted.
The following day, the Pope briefed his staff.
“I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, that we have just received a check for 20 million dollars. The bad news is, we lost the Wonder Bread account!”
Who says marketing can’t be fun?!
We offer refreshingly different marketing solutions.
Websites | eMail Marketing | Social | Search | Graphic Design
Marketing: Retail Joke
A retailer was dismayed when a competitor selling the same type of product opened next-door to him, displaying a large sign proclaiming “Best Deals“.
Not long after he was horrified to find yet another competitor move in next-door, on the other side if his store. It’s large sign was even more disturbing- “Lowest Prices“.
After his initial panic, and concern that he would be driven out of business, he looked for a way to turn the situation to his marketing advantage. Finally, an idea came to him. Next day, he proudly unveiled a new and huge sign over his front door. It read,
“Main Entrance”!
Who says marketing can’t be fun?!
omOriginals Marketing! offers refreshingly different solutions.
Websites | eMail Marketing | Social | Search | Graphic Design
Renaud Electric Video Commercial
We’ve been having a super time with the Renaud Guys. If you live in the Longview/Kelso area of Cowlitz County you’ve likely heard some of the Renaud radio ads. There are funny and effective with just the right amount of marketing punch!
We’re honored to be able to help these super heroes get on the big screen with a TV Commercial.
Campaign includes; print, web and video.
A few of our favorite things!!!!!!
Great pieces of marketing are among our favorites.
What is your favorite Website or Facebook page? Post it here!
For a chance to win over a 1lb of yummy fudge!
We will select a random “Poster” to win some of our favorite fudge. We will draw after 74 entries have been posted using our Random Number Generator and
Post the winner here!
Tip: Feel free to post your own Website or Facebook page for free exposure. It is welcOMed. :-) *Each URL counts as 1 entry, only 2 entries max per person.*
Prize = Fudge from Tom’s Fudge made with love in Longview, WA. Assorted Holiday Pack with well over 1 lbs of Fudge
Be sure to keep checking back and tell your friends!!!
Comment on our blog on or on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/omoriginals
Tis’ the season to eShare.
Howdy Neighbors,
Tis’ the season to eShare. What better gift is there to give than fresh info about our community?
We encourage you to visit the websites our clients that offer event info, news, and good news about about Cowlitz County.
- Cowlitz Today
Our communities online event calendar. You simply can’t say, “There is nothing to do in Cowlitz County”. Check it out.
- KLOG Radio
Hometown News, Home Team Sports, and Classic Hit Songs. Tune in to AM 1490 to listen.
- Valley Bugler Newspaper
The Valley Bugler is a monthly good news publication.
Featuring Community Events & Activities, Funnies, People, Animals and an Occasional Tall Tale.
We’ve integrated these web sites to make them social savvy. Please take a look and share them on Facebook and Google.
Spread the (Local) News!
Beautiful Skin Website
We are proud to launch the Beautiful Skin Website for Oscar & Michelle of omOriginals Marketing!
This site was created to share Nerium AD, with its amazing age-defying ingredients derived from the oleander plant. Clinical results have shown dramatic reduction in appearance of wrinkles.
Nerium International offers an exciting Home based small business opportunity. To learn more please visit BeautifulSkinWebsite.com
tags: age-defying ingredients aging beauty contest biotechnology research clinical trials enlarged pores extract fine lines hyperpigmentation nae-8 nature-based nerium nerium oleander nibio-pl2 noncomedogenic nourish your skin oleander plant reduction in appearance of wrinkles safe for all skin skincare line sun-damaged skin sun-dried skin uneven skin texture wrinkes wrinkles