by Tara Jacobsen on November 18, 2008
So I was at a Philanthropy lunch today with one of my favorite people, Tammy Leventis of Mail Marketing. On the way over I was telling her to hold on to her hat because we were gearing up to help even more people with the Thrive Program and she was going to be super busy (she provides the printing and mail services for our premier clients).
She was thinking that she should start sending something out too (you think?) BUT she did not have her people in a database. In addition to that she did not know what email program to use. I suggested a couple to her and she said that she would have to wait until she had her people in some kind of order.
SIGH
If this is your thought you will NEVER have everything ready in order to start. You will never take 3 days of your life to data-entry all your contacts into a program. You will never look up all the emails from all those business cards. You will never start!
So what should you do? Start with what you have! If you use Gmail or Outlook or many other programs, just by typing a letter you will get a list of people by that name that you can email to. When I am sending out “special” emails to my internet friends I use this method. When I am just trying to hit my personal contacts I use this method. The glorious part of it is that all those people are my friends! They never yell at me for sending them anything – sometimes they may delete me without looking at it – but they never scream spammer at me!
The next best thing is to start with an excel or database program (here is a good post to read – What Is A Small Business Database?). Enter 5 people every day. At first it will be easy because you will have a backlog of people, but soon you will have to actually TRY to find people to enter into it! Make it a game to figure out who should be in there – your doctor, vet, lawyer, hairdresser, the mailman, your family, friends, networking contacts, co-workers, even old flames!
Can I make a suggestion? Start with The Thrive Contact System even though you are not ready. Try it and see if you get more business – the majority of our clients do! Make enough money off the people that you DO have in it to hire someone to do your data entry. Stop figuring out why you can’t do lead generating and just start! TODAY!
by Tara Jacobsen on November 17, 2008
So I talk a lot about how to use your small business database. Many small business owners do not know exactly what a database is. It can be as broad as a full-blown contact management system to a Excel spreadsheet with names and emails. I am going to review the good and bads of different kinds of databases. Please feel free to chime in with your opinions!
Excel Spreadsheet – If you do not have your contacts in any order yet, an excel spreadsheet can be a god-send! All you need to do is start collecting names, addresses, emails and maybe even have a field for notes. The benefit of an Excel Spreadsheet is that it is easy, you can cut and paste email addresses into almost any email client and it is super easy to make labels from! The drawback to an Excel spreadsheet is that it is hard to set up times to call people or schedule emails to automatically go out. Click here to download a sample contact spreadsheet!
Outlook – Most computers come with Outlook. It is great for mananging your contacts, exporting mailing lists and sending emails. You can schedule tasks for yourself and there are many add on systems for Outlook out there. Here is a list of some neat add ons (here is a Google Search for Outlook Add Ons).
Databases – A full blown database that you are committed to will change your life! It will tell who you to call, when to call them, who to email, when to send out your letters and so much more. You can set up “campaigns” or “plans” that will send out periodical emails or set up tasks for you to do. Many times these are called CRM or Customer Relation Management.
There are MANY different databases that cost NOTHING (EssentialPIM and FreeCRM are two).
There are great mass market databases like ACT, Goldmine, and Wise Agent for Realtors (my personal recommendation – even for non-realtors!) They generally charge a per month fee and are online. That is great since you can access your clients from anywhere – not so great if your internet is down.
The database I use is CLP – it is a relational database that does LOTS of things but you have to set it up yourself! It has MANY features like HTML emails, project plans, sales force automation and multiple users. It is NOT cheap and it is hard to use sometimes BUT everyone asks so I thought I would tell you!!
Whatever you use, remember that you want to make sure that you can export your contacts out of it in case you want to change vendors. Also – it does you no good if you don’t put your people in it!!!!
by Tara Jacobsen on November 16, 2008
I LOVE lead generating! Whether I am setting up new websites, thinking up a new email, networking with small business owners or speaking to groups of people, everything I do seems to bring me more business.
I do A LOT of public speaking and many people ask me “how do I make money from giving free classes?” I spend time with friends (who are sometimes clients) doing favors and masterminds and sometimes wonder myself how that makes me money. I help people via email who ask me stray and random questions and who think I may have some special knowledge that could help out.
EVERYONE you meet is a potential client or referral source! I have gotten the most opportunities and advancement in my life from talking to someone who I did not think was “important” – I just thought that they were interesting.
I sometimes think that everyone is connected to someone that can help you, if you just take the time to be interested in them! Who do you know that you haven’t talked to lately? Who does something interesting that you have been wondering about? Every person you meet is a potential lead – so get out there and make some new friends!
