February 17, 2009

Leo Buscaglia Foundation web site

YCL is very pleased to be working with this excellent non-profit organization.  In 2006, YCL re-designed the web site to update the appearance and make the site more flexible. We also worked with the Executive Director, Jeff Jordan, to add new donation options.

Since the update, we've maintained the site. Each year we add a new section for the Report to Contributors. The report itself lists the organizations who received funds from the Foundation. Each organization has their own page with the opportunity to share their message through text, photos, videos and internet links.

YCL works within the Foundation's budget to add new photos and new features to the site to make it an important resource for its community.

February 11, 2009

Email Marketing Works!

Just received this email from a happy email marketer!

"Pamela, just wanted to share with you that our phone is ringing off the hook and I am getting email inquiries every 5 minutes! Two of them were corporate and six brides!!! ALL in the first hour! Thank God, I am so excited. Thanks for your hard work."

Julia Aldana
ALL About Catering Company
Goodyear, AZ
P: 623-846-6800
E: Julia@AllAboutCateringCo.com

WHAT WE DID AND WHY IT WORKED SO WELL
Julia has great photos of her food and her servers. We used lots of photos in the message then added descriptions of her scrumptious meals.  We used the same basic message for two groups. That doubled the bang for the buck. 1 set of photos. 1 newsletter. 2 email messages. For "Brides" we added two special sections with bridal offerings.  The message was clear. The message was to a specific niche.

PS - There are only 225 contacts on her Corporate email list. You don't have to have a big list to be successful in email marketing.

February 9, 2009

History proves that marketing during a recession is necessary for acompany's survival.

The research firm of Meldrum & Fewsmith studied all post World War II recessions and found that advertising aggressively during recessions not only increases sales but it also increases profits, and at a far great rate than those firms that cut back. (1)

"This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at a lower cost than during good economic times." (2)

The marketing you do now will set the growth rate of your company through and after a bad economy. Don't miss out on this important time of opportunity.

This article is from AffordableImage.com
(1) Source: Ibid
(2) John Quelch, Sr Associate Dean & Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

February 3, 2009

5 Ways to Build Customer Relationships

Great article from Entrepreneur.com by Gail Goodman who happens to be the President of Constant Contact.
  1. Build your network--it's your sales lifeline
  2. Communication is a contact sport, so do it early and often.
  3. E-mail marketing keeps relationships strong on a shoestring budget.
  4. Reward loyal customers, and they'll reward you.
  5. Loyal customers are your best salespeople.
Read the full article here...

Why Customer Relationships Are So Important

Excellent article by Laura Lake from About.com

Before you spend your time and money going after new customers and clients you do not currently have a relationship with consider the following statistics:
  • Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers.
  • Referrals among repeat customers are 107% greater than non-customers.
  • It costs six times more to sell something to a prospect than to sell that same thing to a customer.
Click here to read the full article.