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Wednesday, February 01, 2006

IT Marketing: Reaching Out to Your Customer Database

Creating a mailing for your current customers is an excellent way to start in IT marketing and can be a very effective business tool. First of all, you already know the people on the list, so it should be easy for you to reach out to them. But, even more importantly, they already know and trust you, so they will be receptive to your ideas.

WHAT SHOULD YOU PITCH?

If you are already perfectly comfortable talking to business managers and owners you know about providing services like virus protection, firewalls, password protection, data back-up and other issues, it should be easy for you to add to that list more complex items like IT audit and data protection.

Chances are, the people that know you will listen to you, but they may not automatically buy into new ideas. When pitching new concepts, offer an extremely discounted IT audit package. For example, if normally you would charge $400, tell them it’s only $299. Throw in some bonus features like a surge protector or an entry-level battery back-up unit. Because they are your most valued clients, they not only deserve it, but they will respond with more business in the future.

TRACK YOUR RESULTS

Part of a successful IT marketing plan is tracking the responses you get from mailing campaigns. Your current client database is a good place to do a test to see how others in the community might respond to your offers. If you see that out of all the existing clients you reach, 5 percent respond and half of those take the audit package it will allow you to measure responses you might get from similar mailings to other potential clients.

HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS USE EXISTING RESOURCES

You can build trust in your relationships with current clients by asking them how you can help them additionally to better use hardware, software or other items that they already own. Most companies buy a lot of things that end up collecting dust. Showing them how to use things they already have that might truly advance their businesses will increase the esteem they have for you and boost your relationship with them. Helping them make use of things they already have will also help support your business by giving you incremental service revenue.

Posted By: Computer Consulting Kit