Considerations - The Art in Marketing
From The Start - Follow our Journeys
Cold Calling
today it was 47 degrees out this morning when i went and looked. This means a full day in the shop, and probably an evening! Woot! Todays posting will be the quick version so I can take advantage.
So I have a new experiment
My take is,things though bad, will get better for the country. It is hard to call a bottom to any recession, but we are defiantly at a local bottom now. But I think this economic down turn woke up some folks, there also is something else in the air namely some sort of awakening of folks, sort of a resurgence into things more Green, local, neighborly, and I detect spiritually as well. It is kinda neat. Even many of the national advertisers are using green as part of their brand promise. I think folks are seeing that global warming is here; whether warming or coldlng, the Hadley cells, that are a major control on weather are playing havoc. This was considered the worst winter on record since 1966 for the pacific north west. Some how I survived it, spring is here and I am full of springtime energy. Say so long to cabin fever, say hello to haughty days of sunshine and warmth.
I have been at my marketing model again, pushing and shoving it, and deflating the balloon and trying all sorts of things, some great some not even a whisper. So here is my take on what I am trying to do now. My take is green, local purchase are in. This means that I need to find the boutiques. Easy, get on line and search for local boutiques with an internet presence. Yep, If they do not have an internet presence, I do not want them to be part of my target group. I want to be able to cross pollinate, a presence is important. Say hello to brick and mortar. I am going to collect, database, and track, online boutiques,starting local and moving outwards.
I am going to spend sometime cold calling. Now I am not a big fan of cold calling, but there just is no way around doing it. It is a MUST do even. The amount of information you get by cold calling is simply staggering and can not be duplicated in any other way besides getting out there.
You must go in. Even though I am resistant to cold calling, it must be done to some minor limited way for anyone trying to fully understand their market. I will not have to spend lots of time cold calling, unless i am hungry. A few days on the road should be enough to get 95% of the information I need from the effort. My primary goal is to increase my understanding of my customers. My other goals while cold calling is to, see what stores look like, what are the presenting this year. Get to know some fellow business owners, and perhaps make some new friends while at it. My goal is to find at least one brick and mortar business owner that I can call a friend; Hopefully two. Someone that wants to shoot the crap about customers and business. Someone to bounce retail ideas off of. Someone one that is an expert at their customer base, and my customers also.
My goal is 10 boutiques. Here is how I am going to do this. I am going to cold call so I can see my customer face to face. When I feel that most of my questions are answered through this research method, I will start collecting targeted names and databasing them; drawn from a demographics of online presence, art or botique sales. I will refine this targetting demographic model to include things like, they sell Art silver already, they are upscale, they have wonderful presentations both online and offline...
I will then start an online marketing campaign or phone cold calling campaign against my target list. Till I get enough customers, 10 or so I will keep targeting this group. I will try and get into all the national big art towns as I evolve, I want representation in Europe also. This will take time.
I want to turn cold calling into warm calling pretty darn quickly
After i get to know my customer a bit from cold calling in person, I can work towards warm calling other targets; the preferred method. I will Email proposals and follow up with phone calls to anyone showing the least interest, to this targeted list, the form will be in a newsletter structure but very personalized if possible. I hope that should get me to my goal, but have plenty of other ideas about how to get my 10 boutiques.
Thinking about it
Things are changing, for me, for everyone. Spring time is here. I am taking all the wonderful pent up energy and applying it to my art. I have something like 15 new pieces right this second. Now is the time to strike out and share my work. I am in building phase now; building catalogs, and building customer relationships. Soon I will be in add copy phase, and will revisit all all my work, consolidate my marketing message across all presentations. It is during that phase that i will present my global message on a website also.
Cya,
It is warn today! shop time gallor!
So I have a new experiment
My take is,things though bad, will get better for the country. It is hard to call a bottom to any recession, but we are defiantly at a local bottom now. But I think this economic down turn woke up some folks, there also is something else in the air namely some sort of awakening of folks, sort of a resurgence into things more Green, local, neighborly, and I detect spiritually as well. It is kinda neat. Even many of the national advertisers are using green as part of their brand promise. I think folks are seeing that global warming is here; whether warming or coldlng, the Hadley cells, that are a major control on weather are playing havoc. This was considered the worst winter on record since 1966 for the pacific north west. Some how I survived it, spring is here and I am full of springtime energy. Say so long to cabin fever, say hello to haughty days of sunshine and warmth.
I have been at my marketing model again, pushing and shoving it, and deflating the balloon and trying all sorts of things, some great some not even a whisper. So here is my take on what I am trying to do now. My take is green, local purchase are in. This means that I need to find the boutiques. Easy, get on line and search for local boutiques with an internet presence. Yep, If they do not have an internet presence, I do not want them to be part of my target group. I want to be able to cross pollinate, a presence is important. Say hello to brick and mortar. I am going to collect, database, and track, online boutiques,starting local and moving outwards.
I am going to spend sometime cold calling. Now I am not a big fan of cold calling, but there just is no way around doing it. It is a MUST do even. The amount of information you get by cold calling is simply staggering and can not be duplicated in any other way besides getting out there.
You must go in. Even though I am resistant to cold calling, it must be done to some minor limited way for anyone trying to fully understand their market. I will not have to spend lots of time cold calling, unless i am hungry. A few days on the road should be enough to get 95% of the information I need from the effort. My primary goal is to increase my understanding of my customers. My other goals while cold calling is to, see what stores look like, what are the presenting this year. Get to know some fellow business owners, and perhaps make some new friends while at it. My goal is to find at least one brick and mortar business owner that I can call a friend; Hopefully two. Someone that wants to shoot the crap about customers and business. Someone to bounce retail ideas off of. Someone one that is an expert at their customer base, and my customers also.
My goal is 10 boutiques. Here is how I am going to do this. I am going to cold call so I can see my customer face to face. When I feel that most of my questions are answered through this research method, I will start collecting targeted names and databasing them; drawn from a demographics of online presence, art or botique sales. I will refine this targetting demographic model to include things like, they sell Art silver already, they are upscale, they have wonderful presentations both online and offline...
I will then start an online marketing campaign or phone cold calling campaign against my target list. Till I get enough customers, 10 or so I will keep targeting this group. I will try and get into all the national big art towns as I evolve, I want representation in Europe also. This will take time.
I want to turn cold calling into warm calling pretty darn quickly
After i get to know my customer a bit from cold calling in person, I can work towards warm calling other targets; the preferred method. I will Email proposals and follow up with phone calls to anyone showing the least interest, to this targeted list, the form will be in a newsletter structure but very personalized if possible. I hope that should get me to my goal, but have plenty of other ideas about how to get my 10 boutiques.
Thinking about it
Things are changing, for me, for everyone. Spring time is here. I am taking all the wonderful pent up energy and applying it to my art. I have something like 15 new pieces right this second. Now is the time to strike out and share my work. I am in building phase now; building catalogs, and building customer relationships. Soon I will be in add copy phase, and will revisit all all my work, consolidate my marketing message across all presentations. It is during that phase that i will present my global message on a website also.
Cya,
It is warn today! shop time gallor!
Tags: accounts, brick and mortar, cold calling, leads, marketing, online presence, sales, warm calling
1 Comment
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Comment by Spincus on May 4, 2008 at 12:02pm
- here is a great Etsy thread on boutique sales. Thanks Ida for pointing it out. Also one of our members is a major contributor to the thread. thanks for your insite CricketsCreations
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