Today I’d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

1. In person: It’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you discussed, new agreements or partnerships made, and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners with whom you find success.
3. Phone call: Follow up by phone to review the matters you discussed in your meeting, and offer any assistance you can to help their business run more smoothly and successfully.

But none of these will work if you don’t have a quality product/service to back you up!

Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:

1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards, and customer service.
5. Develop a post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open with customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” -Peter Drucker, management consultant.

Here’s another one from a business icon:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” -Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way.