Creating fans of your company
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Differentiation is key to a successful marketing strategy. Create stories and ideas that distinguish your company from the rest, and transform your clients into loyal, long-term followers of your company.

60-Second Articles:

1. Are You Losing Business Because Your Web Site Needs a Checkup?
2. What’s Your Plan to Give "Remarkable Service"?
3. Can Grocery Stores Make You Happy? This One Thinks So!
4. The Sanjaya Marketing Lesson for Everyone
5. The 60-Second Close: Make It All about the Story

We welcome your newsletter feedback.  Share your thoughts with us and offer further commentary on our blog (www.axia.net/blog/).

1. Are You Losing Business Because Your Web Site Needs a Checkup?

• The novelty of having a corporate Web site has worn off and now the question being asked is this: “Are you getting a return on your investment and if not, then why not?”  The two major purposes of a Web site are to inform and sell, with the hopes of converting users into “fans” of the company by enrolling them into your newsletter program or by allowing them to purchase one of your products online.  
• Over the years, designers with little marketing or sales knowledge developed Web sites. The trend now is to have as much marketing input into the site as possible. Is your Web site designed for beauty or to help your bottom line? But here is the million-dollar question: What percentage of visitors are just going to your homepage and then leaving your site immediately?
  

2. What’s Your Plan to Give "Remarkable Service"?

• Got a sales-building plan to attract new business? Great! But what is your plan for your current customers and clients to get them talking about you? What is differentiating you from the competition? Having a “remarkable service” program in place gives you the ability and power to turn each of your customers into your own sales ambassadors in the marketplace.
• The key is that giving “remarkable service” shouldn’t occur only to those who are having problems at the service counter; it should take place as soon as your customer walks onto your property. What can you do differently that will turn the ordinary into extraordinary?

3. Can Grocery Stores Make You Happy? This One Thinks So!

• Tired of grocery stores with long checkout lines? Aisles that force you to squeeze by and fear knocking down one of those huge Coke displays? One grocery store thinks you’re ready for a change and wants you to “shop happy.” Food Lion has unveiled a new chain called Bloom that promises a new way to grocery shop.
• Shoppers scan items with personal scanners and bag them in their carts as they shop. The scanners also allow Bloom to send instant messages to shoppers, alerting them when prescriptions have been filled or when deli orders are ready for pick-up. For check-out, shoppers simply go to any check-out lane and scan an “end of trip” barcode and the order automatically downloads to a register, so there's no need to unload and reload the cart — which brings the average checkout time down to 32.7 seconds. Visit their Web site at: www.ShopBloom.com
  

4. The Sanjaya Marketing Lesson for Everyone

• Whether you liked him or not, Sanjaya made an impact on this season's “American Idol.” Though not a great singer, he had a powerful personality and charisma that engaged and wowed his audience.
• What did Sanjaya have that "differentiated" him from the other (and even better) singers? Whether it was the hair, the smile, the charisma, it was something, and the American audience gravitated to it in a big way. Even as an average singer, he was still the big fan favorite. Why? Because people recognized a difference and grabbed onto it.
• Here's the marketing lesson — people will clutch onto something when you give them an opportunity to do so. If you don't give them an opportunity, you become just another place of business to them. So, what's your story? What's your point of differentiation? What do you have that people can clutch onto and remember you by?

5. The 60-Second Close: Make It All about the Story

• Marketing is all about telling stories. Whether your story is about your product, your price, your location or your skills, your story must be different from everyone else’s in order to stand out from the herd and attract customers. Tell a great story and your customers will remember it and tell others about it.  Call us. We can help you develop your differentiating story and get you there ... faster than ever.

Best wishes, Jason Mudd, APR Founder and CEO AXIA (866) 999-AXIA

P.S. We welcome your newsletter feedback.  Share your thoughts with us and offer further commentary on our blog at www.axia.net/blog/.