Technology Is A Friend To Marketing
Voice-Activated Technology, Smartphones, Tablets, Touchscreens, VOIP, Video Conference, Projectors, etc.; technology has infiltrated all aspects of our lives so why not use it to make your marketing efforts easier.
But how does this new technology apply to marketing? Marketing is a lot of information gathering, thinking, writing and rewriting and presentations. No one sits down to write a marketing plan in one try or to create the perfect copy and design for an email, ad or brochure with the initial draft. There are always going to be multiple ongoing revisions and updates. In addition, social media and social networking is dependent upon technology.
Technology can help you to do many of the things that you normally don’t spend enough time on. You are able to create more valuable marketing materials and execute programs in a shorter period of time and get them out to your customers more efficiently.
Everyone has good intentions when it comes to making presentations, answering e-mail, sending a follow-up thank-you letter in a timely manner and creating proposals. These are all jobs that require you to spend a fair bit of time at the computer. Some people use their unfamiliarity or their discomfort with computers to avoid these tasks. Unfortunately, the computer is not going to perform these jobs completely without your assistance, but if you use technology properly, you can make them much easier.
You can enjoy the benefits of tablets, touchscreens and voice-activated technology to make presentations, input large amounts of copy and pictures, videos, etc. For example, suppose you wish to use information from an existing web page or a previous brochure that a client has supplied. In the past, you had two choices: input the information yourself or have an assistant do it.
Now you have other choices including copy and paste or dictate the copy directly into the computer, saving hours of two-fingered typing.
You can also use new software to fill out internal forms, which enables you to process customers’ orders more quickly. Many fast-growing companies have been able to build their businesses because the computers they used enabled them to process orders more quickly and efficiently than their competitors. When a customer requests a part or makes a call for service, he or she is not willing to wait two weeks, one week, or even forty-eight hours for delivery. In most cases, when someone needs something, he or she needs it right away. The more efficient you are at getting an order from the initial customer request to the invoice stage, the longer you might stay in business.
Businesspeople often leave a briefing meeting with a new prospect or a current customer and return to the office with rough notes. Taking those rough notes, putting them into the computer, and determining the next steps keeps you organized and reduces the number of items that might fall through the cracks. Note taking on a write to text program while using a tablet is even more efficient.
Technology is about speed and volume. The more you can do and the faster you can do it, the more competitive you will be. As the technology improves, you will be able to update your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, dictate emails, memos, letters, invoices, orders, and other correspondence with an ease and efficiency that has never been seen before. People who pride themselves on their lack of computer capabilities will be left behind.
How does a small business compete against large companies? If you can do the same quality of work in the same time as your larger competitor and at roughly the same price or less, you have a good chance of winning an opportunity.
There have always been innovators and followers in business. Adopt new technologies at an early stage. Be one of the first to reap rewards by servicing your customers better than your competition.
Every so often, small businesspeople will say, ‘‘I’m so busy’’ when they are asked how their businesses are doing. But ‘busy’ doesn’t always mean profitable.
In a prior installment, I discussed turning down work or assignments that aren’t right for your company. Modern technology can help you service more of the good assignments and turn busy jobs into profitable ones. There is nothing worse than passing up an opportunity because you don’t have the time for it.
“Tools exist to help you manipulate time. Not the other way around” A2E
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