Be Brand Proud; Sign Up Now!!

10-Minute Branding Refresher: How do you build your brand 10 minutes at a time? You start small, and you simply begin. An excellent way to convince yourself to get going is to plan your ending. You can even set a timer. Then, be sure to bask in the success of your huge accomplishment of actually beginning and also appreciate the amount of work that got done. Then, repeat the process tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. You will be amazed at your branding progress . . . 10 minutes at a time.

National Small Business Week Virtual Summit: May 2-3, 2023

In the words of the small business hosts, “Attend this free virtual summit to learn new business strategies, meet other business owners, and chat with industry experts!”

This week’s 10-minute branding task is to start taking advantage of this opportunity by getting your registration done (a task easily completed within the allotted time). Registration is now open!

Note: While signing up will take just 10 minutes, plan to invest up to two days to attend the Summit. (Your time will be well spent.)

Each year, the Small Business Administration (SBA) sponsors a variety of events in conjunction with National Small Business Week, which officially runs from April 30, 2023 thru May 6, 2023. The annual Summit that occurs within this week features extensive resources. To learn more about what to expect, see video highlights from years past. We also suggest that you acquaint yourself with some of the in-depth tools and information made available via the SBA Guide.

Reminder: Steps Your Business Can Take Now

Last year for the 2022 event, we highlighted several actions you could begin taking now to promote your small business in conjunction with the national celebration. The suggestions still basically apply in 2023, so you might want to spend 10 minutes tomorrow refreshing your memory and considering which initiatives might work well for you this year!

So How Does This Apply to Branding?

The fact that you are a small business is an automatic, integral part of your brand – one that can be a great strength to the success of your operation. Branding is all about values . . . and some of the typical ones associated with small businesses are:

Personalized attention
Commitment
Adaptability
Independence
Directness (i.e., lines of communication and number of layers to reach decision-makers)
Loyalty (to staff, customers, and community)

In other words, successful small businesses generally have good qualities to have associated with you and good qualities to live by and cultivate as part of your brand.

Be proud of this lineage.

Sign up now to learn more about the kinds of activities the SBA/SCORE have planned for 2023 and check out all the valuable resources being made available. Every time you promote your business by participating in this national celebration, you are helping to reinforce your brand in the eyes of the public.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Coffee Break!!

Disclaimer: While we only recommend products we know and love, we want to note we use affiliate links and may earn a commission for purchases made through those links.

Recognizing Opportunity

Take a coffee break . . . and check out another installment of 10-minute branding.

Today’s article is about recognizing opportunity in very commonplace objects and activities. In this case, we’ll use the basic coffee mug as an example.

Chances are, your business already has a supply for your own and visiting customer use. Perhaps you’ve even gone to the next level and purchased branded mugs. If not, we suggest you do so, going to a major, well-known supplier like 4imprint to see a wide spectrum of options . . . OR a site such as Zazzle where you can find a variety of items, including mugs. (Check out our 10-minute branding story on promotional items.)

However, the focus of this article is one highly successful effort to take a commonplace item and associated activity to the next branding level. Specifically, we offer our kudos to Willie Geist and his Sunday Morning show for implementing an extremely clever and popular promotion.

A specially branded Sunday Morning coffee mug is available through the network. Once you have yours, you can then take your picture holding the mug (i.e., “a mug shot!” – VERY CLEVER) . . . which just might then get featured in the closing segment of one of the future shows. Every Sunday, week after week, new images are displayed that have been submitted by loyal and enthusiastic members of the audience across the country (images that coincidentally also display the highly recognizable brand iconography).

So, are we suggesting that you copy this promotion?

NO!

However, we are saying that the real secret is to recognize opportunity in the commonplace, and we suggest you periodically take 10 minutes to consider clever ways unique to your small business that might enable you to create your own highly successful campaign from an everyday object and/or activity. (Although I will never really know, I personally believe some clever person thought of the label “mug shot,” . . . and that flash of inspiration suggested the whole promotion.)

Speaking of coffee cups and companies, that branded item must be among the most successful. In fact, some of the most coveted branded mugs are those available under the name of a fictitious company – Dunder Mifflin. If you followed the cult classic TV series The Office, you know who that is. While the company only has a real existence within the land of make believe, the popularity of the company’s mug is impressive – just do an internet search of the term Dunder Mifflin Coffee Mug.

Remember, think outside the box during your 10-minute coffee break, and you may land upon the next great promotion to wrap around a branded giveaway tchotchke!!

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Want to see an example of a customizable coffee mug that can be obtained in small quantities per purchase from Zazzle? Check out Example1 and Example2.

Ties That Bind (and Define)!!

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding!

Who Are You?

Are you a member of your local Chamber of Commerce?

Your Rotary?
The Kiwanis?
VFW?
American Legion?
Junior League?
Union?
Trade group such as the National Restaurant Association)?
College Alumni?
Local PTO?
Church or other religious organization?
Etc.

Frankly, the list can go on and on and on! Most people have far more affiliations than initially imagined, and each of these relationships help define our personal brand, which in turn can be very useful in promoting the brand of your small business. So . . .take 10 minutes to build your list of ties for further action. Then, take another ten minutes tomorrow or the next day to act upon your list.

How Can Your Affinity Group Involvements Help?

Within whatever limits or restrictions imposed by your organization, spend your customary block of time getting the word out about your business . . . but presented in such a way as to benefit the interests of all the group’s members (not just you) by highlighting the manner in which your product and/or service can satisfy their personal needs and interests.

How Can This be Done?

You might consider . . .

Sending an e-mail to members.
Posting a social media comment or message on the platforms of choice.
Placing a small business-card ad in the most popular communication vehicle of the group (such as a newsletter or bulletin).
Etc.

In other words, take a few minutes to harness the power of networking, word-of-mouth advertising, and personal branding acting in unison.

Aside from delivering a needed value via some aspect of your product or service to them, consider adding a financial incentive as well:

A special discount.
A coupon (perhaps a buy-one get-one free offer for fellow group members).
Extra reward points that accumulate toward a few items.

We believe that 10 minutes spent on a regular basis informally promoting your brand to your fellow affinity group members will yield surprising benefits and increase the brand recognition of both you and your company.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

“Your Call Is Important To Us” (NOT!!)

How many times have you heard this telephone automated attendant message? And did those words make you feel the exact opposite of the intent? If so, you realize the importance of ALL forms of messaging to your brand, and we suggest you keep reading this next installment of 10-minute branding.

Meaningful Content Matters

On one of the most common routes I drive, this very small country church has a changeable outdoor message board (such as the one shown below) with sufficient space for a meaningful thought to be communicated.

Over the years, I have looked forward to reading the new weekly message that almost always contained a mix of humor and serious, understated insight. Often, a basic piece of housekeeping information (such as the dates and times of special services) was included . . . and I suspect people paid a whole lot more attention because the content was carefully tucked inside an entertaining wrapper. I know for a fact that I have not been alone in becoming a fan of the sign, which I also saw reproduced in photos on social media by appreciative fans who shared my reaction.

Similarly, a local bar I pass almost as often has a sign that is used to make comments about current events, send regular patrons best wishes on special occasions, and sometimes even crack a joke or two. Like the church signage, this one also has a fan base and regular following who waits each week for the letters to change – enjoying the sensibility of the message that gets posted and perhaps even checking to see whether they got mentioned.

In each of these cases, the organization’s brand was defined, communicated, and publicized in a way that brought great visibility and recognition . . . while assuming a place at “the top of thought” of the audience. Furthermore, this brand building exercise cost nothing to execute and was probably accomplished in 10 minutes – five to develop the message and five more to change the lettering.

While not all small businesses have a sign to be used for this purpose, pretty much everyone has telephone voice mail that communicates a very basic, practical message; 90% of the time, this opportunity to get the attention of a patron is wasted.

While some offices do at least use out-of-office or wait-time messages to run canned ads (which can be effective), these notices are too often tuned out because the content is updated too infrequently.

I suggest learning a lesson from the master marketers in charge of the outdoor signs mentioned above by adopting their practices of wrapping their practical content in a message that informs, entertains, and communicates (either directly or indirectly) some basic understanding of your brand, your style, and your sensibility. In doing so, you want to establish a regular posting schedule and feature information people want to hear. (I have on occasions gone out of my way to drive past these signs just because I wanted to see the newest message.)

So, what kind of options do you have for creating such content?

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. However, always be sure to keep the entertainment side of your message short, simple, and direct. Some examples to use as a starting point for your own brainstorming include (but are not limited to) the following:

Try asking and answering general trivia questions.
Mention a fact from history that happened on the day.
Call people’s attention to the obscure celebrations occurring on the day. For instance, February 10^th, 2023, was National Pizza Day. August 5^th, 2023, is National Bloggers Day.
Note: You can find these lists online at sites such as National Day Calendar 2023 : What National Day is it Today 2023 (nationalday365.com).
Highlight interesting facts about your local history.
Follow local high school, little league, etc. sports teams and comment upon and congratulate the athletes on their performances.
Tell people to come to your website for additional information – perhaps a recipe of the day.
Provide an interesting fact about your business.
Wish a Happy Birthday to patrons born on this day, collecting the date and simultaneously getting their permission as part of a prior sign-up campaign. (Consider sending them to your website to collect an additional reward/Birthday Gift.)
Tell a joke.
Pass along a special password that can be used to participate in a sale.
Etc.

You get the idea. The nature and structure of the lead-in entertainment part of your message can be almost anything and can encompass multiple categories but should be short, simple, direct, AND hopefully somewhat clever. Frankly, that plus the mere attempt to entertain rather than just sell will be part of the branding message that get communicated.

While certain efforts will work better than others, consistency is important to set expectations. Customer feedback will be your best measure about whether the initiative is succeeding as planned. If you realize one strategy is not working, try another and keep experimenting until you have the right formula that speaks to your audience and sends the right message about your brand.

On your part, you should be able to accomplish this task in 10 minutes most of the time. We believe the rewards will far exceed the effort (and time commitment) required.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Employee Reality Check

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding.

Walking the Walk/Talking the Talk

Large companies generally have Mission and Vision Statements that summarize their product and service philosophy and (either directly or indirectly) establish standards for employee/customer interactions. Realizing the potential value of such a written manifesto, many small businesses have adopted their own as well . . . though a few with perpetually lean staffing and operations probably never get around to creating a formal document.

However, that does not mean no written record exists. In such cases, you often find the small business has a motto or byline that serves a similar purpose. When you hear a good slogan that has been around for a while, those words have usually succeeded in capturing the philosophy, the goals, and the essence of the brand – and, therefore, becomes another way of figuring out what that company’s mission might be.

So, What Is Today’s 10-Minute Branding Assignment?

We suggest spending this time meeting with your employees to perform a checkup on the way branding values are being implemented on a daily basis while using the opportunity to:

reiterate your ideal.

OR – perhaps –

learn a lesson from reality.

To get this training exercise off to a fast start, read your mission statement or slogan to your employees and ask them whether those words accurately reflect their daily reality. Depending upon the feedback you receive, you may want to remind your people about your ideal brand values and suggest ways they can integrate those qualities into their daily interactions with customers. If, however, you did find that your ideals are no longer based in reality, ask your employees to help you modify the statement to better reflect their daily experience. In the case of the former, you could end up with a better employee and better brand. In the case of the latter, you just might get a more accurate Mission Statement and/or slogan to live by AND help generate future sales.

Depending upon what you find, several 10-minute sessions may or may not be required to discuss the reality of your brand and retrain staff behavior OR brainstorm a new message. However, the process will be worthwhile and a good reality check. If you were one of those businesses that never took the time to develop a Mission Statement, you may find that now is the ideal occasion to do so.

Click this link to learn more about Mission Statements. And Vision Statements.

Click this link to learn more about creating Company Slogans,

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Go Shopping!!

Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding.

A Gift that Keeps on Giving

Disclaimer: While we only recommend products we know and love, we want to note we use affiliate links and may earn a commission for purchases made through those links.

Do you have 10 free minutes until your next task and want to create a way to keep your business’s name in front of existing and potential customers? Then, Go Shopping . . . for possible promotional gifts that you can distribute in a variety of ways. For example, imprinted pens often have a good shelf life – sticking around in the pocket of your patron or on his/her desk for a considerable amount of time and then staying in the face (and the thoughts!!) of that person throughout the day.

Before you reflexively say you don’t have the budget or extra cash, know that cost and quantity can vary greatly, which makes this opportunity available to everyone. You can check out major, well-known suppliers like 4imprint and see a wide spectrum of options (including some for well under a dollar per unit) . . . OR you can go to a site such as Zazzle to obtain just a handful that can often feature artwork relevant to your business as well as your particular company’s branding. While the per-unit cost might be greater, the ability to buy a few at a time might be helpful.

Such small quantities can be used very effectively when distributed in a personalized way. For example, invite a prized customer to lunch and pass along a customized pen as a takeaway. (The whole cost of such a gesture can – together with a good product and service — help secure brand loyalty in the present and future.) If, on the other hand, you have been able to invest in a larger quantity, we suggest getting a good enough quality to enhance the chances of being retained but at a sufficiently inexpensive cost to distribute them freely – including having a handful at your point of purchase for customers to grab-and-go at will.

While we have offered pens as a very typical example of a common company promotional gift offered by a high percentage of businesses, the same logic can be applied to countless other items like key chains, stress balls, lens wipes, sanitizer bottles, lip gloss, etc.

Although you can seldom go wrong with a pen, look for a gift that is both unique and reflects your products and/or services For instance, a contractor might offer a tape measure, an optician an eye glass repair kit, or a doctor a pill box.

If you are lucky, you might find the perfect item in just 10 minutes. If you are one of those people who just can’t get enough shopping and are constantly distracted by a need to check out each item you see, more than one 10-minute session might be required.

Once the perfect promotional gift has been identified, use a second 10-minute session to place your order – typically an action that can be accomplished via the Internet and/or a phone call. When completing your transaction, remember to stay consistent with your brand style guide in selecting fonts, colors, bylines, etc., which will enhance the recognition of your brand.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Till then, Happy Shopping!!

Want to see an example of a customizable pen that can be obtained in small quantities per purchase from Zazzle? Check out Example 1 and Example 2.

2023 – Start a Fresh, New “To Do” List!!

Give Yourself a New Beginning Free from Old Failures

The New Year is a time of fresh beginnings . . . a time of optimism not yet marred by those inevitable defeats we all experience on a daily basis. To properly capitalize on this moment when you get to start over with a clean slate, our 10-minute branding tip for you is to develop a new “TO DO” list that reflects this positive state of mind. If you happen to have an old one, resist the temptation to just perform a quick update. Rip that old page up so you enter the New Year without unnecessary baggage and dead weight from those tasks you never got around to trying or that failed because you did not follow through sufficiently to succeed.

While you will of course need to carry some items over onto your new list because those tasks have indeed been deemed worthwhile, you will have gone through the exercise of re-evaluating each item before automatically (and blindly) carrying the activity forward.

When building your new list, look back over your 10-minute branding successes and determine which ones deserve to be repeated and which ones have advanced to a new stage. Consider your short- and long-term branding goals and identify those new tasks that need to be added . . . but make sure your running list – while ambitious – stands a chance of getting completed.

Start Moving “TO DO” to “DONE”

Attitude and outlook – these intangibles are critical to maintaining the positive energy needed to accomplish your initiatives. Optimism for the future is ultimately the fuel that drives you to move your “TO DO” list over to “DONE” . . . and keep adding new ones that define and advance your brand throughout the year.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Happy New Year!!

* * * * *

Special Note

Are you willing to start the New Year with an additional slightly more ambitious assignment — one sure to take more than 10 minutes? (If so, see our article from 2021.):

Perform an Annual 5-Step Brand Wellness Checkup

A Match Made in Minutes

Consider Bringing a Partner On Board

Owning and operating a small business can be a lonely and overwhelming proposition. Sometimes, you just wish you had some additional resource you could rely upon. If you have ever found yourself in this position, perhaps you should consider enlisting the assistance of a strategic partner – the topic of this newest 10-minute brand building tip.

Such a relationship can but does not have to involve any kind of formal legal arrangement. Rather, you are looking to pair with another business that – like you – is hoping to gain a certain marketplace advantage.

Identifying a Potential Prospect

Some combinations seem to have a natural synergy – like the way peanut butter pairs with jelly or marshmallows with chocolate bars and graham crackers. When considering prospects, ask yourself what other product or service might be acquired to better take full advantage of the characteristics of yours.

For instance . . .

If your business is to share advice about branding, you might consider forming a strategic partnership with a designer who produces branded stationary, business cards, etc. If you are a farmer with apple orchards specializing in the production of cider, perhaps your ideal strategic partner would be a grocery store or farmer’s market that uses seasonal campaigns (such as fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween) to promote sales.

Basically, think of a business that could benefit from your product while, in turn, enhancing yours. That said, you will want to consider issues such as goals for growth, culture, values, attitude toward service, and history of success to ensure the optimum likelihood of a good match.

Potential Benefits of a Strategic Partnership

Many exist . . . but I will concentrate on three for the purposes of this piece.

Cut Costs

One role of well-matched strategic partners is the ability to run joint sales and advertising campaigns, which has the potential to substantially reduce the expense of both parties by splitting costs while also allowing everyone to take advantage of economies of scale. Better deals can sometimes be available to companies willing and/or able to spend more, which can be accomplished through a partner while your own original investment remains the same. Any activity targeting large numbers of prospects falls into this category (direct mail/e-mail campaigns, sales events, etc.)

Increase Your Audience

You have your own list of customers as well as a data base of prospects. More than likely, your strategic partner does as well. Combining these lists for activities such as direct mailings or even telemarketing campaigns substantially increases your pool of highly qualified prospects. If you’ve chosen your strategic partner well, their customers should be very interested in your products/services and more likely than your average cold contact to ultimately become your customer as well. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you already share some of the same customers and that letting them know about your strategic partnership can only strengthen their loyalties to both of you, which suggests a joint loyalty program might be very successful.

Remember, strategic partners are not your direct competitors. Rather, these companies are ones that complement your main focus . . . so sharing of customer data is reasonable.

Enhance Your Product

Even the best products can always become a bit better . . . but you just lack the resources to pursue such development. By choosing your partner wisely, you can make your product better by being able to offer additional qualities brought to the table by your partner. (Once peanut butter found jelly, that partnership created a new enhanced offering called PB&Js . . . and the rest is history!!)

In the case of a branding blog, we try to explain some of the characteristics that create an effective brand, we can even provide instruction for building certain basic tools like logos. However, a partnership might allow us to highlight certain vendors who are able to supply finished products for items like brochures (helping those readers who prefer not to take the DIY approach).

Your 10-Minute Branding Assignment

Identify a company offering a product/service that complements yours. Visit their web site to get a sense of their audience and approach to sales. Determine whether the prospect has been involved in a coordinated effort with another business (perhaps even one of your direct competitors). Track down the names and contact information of people within the operation who might be the best ones to approach about possible partnerships. (The “About” page of the candidate’s web site can sometimes yield this information.)

While your 10-minute task for the day is done once you’ve completed this assignment, another day your mission will be to make a preliminary contact. This process can be repeated as many times as necessary to move forward. The potential benefits will easily justify the effort.

Conduct an Ongoing Three-a-Day Sales Campaign

This newest 10-minute brand building tip makes the assumption that you have already followed our advice to start to create a 10-minute contact database (see Build a Contact Prospect List) or alternatively have a list acquired separately from a third party that you’re now ready to start approaching.

While contact and production sales campaigns are most often created via a major coordinated effort aimed at reaching dozens of prospects simultaneously, your initiative need not be such an all-consuming, resource-draining exercise to produce meaningful results that enhance both your brand building activities and sales.

Instead, we suggest developing an ongoing sales initiative that will approach the task three prospects at a time. Since your contact list was developed from your personal knowledge and efforts, we believe this data will be more qualified than lists acquired from a third party and will very often allow you to know the best media or strategy for making your approach.

Nevertheless, success will still be measured in very small percentages. However, each success will represent the opportunity to create a loyal customer that delivers repeat business over time, and you also benefit in another less obvious way. Since your direct marketing materials will be incorporating the key elements of your brand in your chosen way, this exercise also reinforces your brand with an important potential audience.

Direct Mail Letter – E-mail – Text Message – Phone Call

As a separate exercise apart from this 10-minute tip, we suggest you build reusable templates for generating a letter and/or e-mail to individual prospects. Then, you simply have to plug in the necessary name and contact information, generate the document, and send your solicitation to the targeted recipient.

Generally speaking, you should be able to complete three prospects at a time and still have a chance (and the energy!) to properly update the activity in a contact and production control log (that is either part of your original database or a separate spreadsheet). While methods can vary, you need to maintain a record of every date and method of contact as well as any responses received. In general, we suggest using a multimedia approach, so we recommend scheduling your first follow-up contact about a week after your letter or e-mail was sent. Since you are building your contact list three items at a time and executing your sales and follow-up activites at a similar pace across as many days or weeks as needed, this process will essentially become an ongoing effort spread throughout the year that hopefully also produces some ongoing results!

If you initially felt a call was the best method to use, your follow-up will depend upon the response you receive.

If you actually spoke with a person, a letter or e-mail can be sent to thank the person for his or her time and consideration . . . with a promise to contact them again in the future.
If your initial call did not get through, a second call is probably in order – separated by about a week.
If one of these contacts connects and you are ready to move on to the next stage of the sales cycle, plan to schedule a follow-up session (very often a personal or virtual visit/meeting) to try to convert the sales lead into a customer.

When your initial contact and follow-up activities fail to produce results, plan to repeat the same activities with the same contacts at a future date – recognizing that repeated efforts might be required to get your message in front of the person at the right time – buying time (that moment when a potential need becomes an actual one).

Note: Although this article deals exclusively with implementing the mechanics and timing of running of a 3-a-day sales campaign, you can find more information about creating the necessary templates in other articles at www.brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com. Specifically, you might want to check out: Role of Branding in Direct Mail/E-mail and Creating a Mail Merge Document for Direct Response Mailing.

BTW – Using direct contact opportunities to wish your customer a safe and happy holiday for occasions such as Thanksgiving makes a positive statement about your brand!!

Measuring the Success of This 10-Minute Branding Task

While accomplishing three contacts in a day might seem like too little to make a meaningful difference when the percent returns are so small on direct marketing and telemarketing activities, these numbers DO multiply with consistent, sustained effort. Furthermore, conversion of a single lead to a customer who becomes a loyal repeat client year after year represents a significant victory – the kind upon which successful businesses are built.

Build a Contact Prospect List

Add Three New Names Per Session

When you think about telemarketing, direct mail, or some other sales campaign, you probably imagine using a huge database of prospects obtained from a third-party source. Perhaps the list was purchased from a vendor or downloaded from a non-profit professional organization of which you are a member. Then, you probably see this list becoming the engine that drives a huge concerted effort involving many people . . . and then producing results measured in depressingly low percentages.

Well, that description is very often extremely accurate and can indeed be extremely worthwhile . . . but can also sometimes involve extensive resources. However, another 10-minute approach to the same basic activity does exist.

Specifically, build your very own sales contact list three entries at a time. Create a spreadsheet or other electronic list that includes the following columns for:

Name (consider separating into separate columns for first, last, and salutation)
Address (consider separating into separate columns for street, city, state, zip)
Phone number
E-mail address
Social media presence (identify which ones)
Dates contacted (Leave space for three entries)
Contact method (Leave space for three entries)
Contact response (Leave space for three entries)

When identifying the entries to include in your database, consider prospects from the following:

Your street, town, neighborhood
Personal acquaintances that could also have a business interest in your products/services.
Business associations and memberships such as the Chamber of Commerce, trade groups, etc.
Leads mentioned by your friends and family members.
Internet searches using a variety of terms related to your business.
Possible leads encountered through social media or other advertising activities.
Sign-in sheets located either online or within your place of operations.
Etc.

You Get the Idea

Prospects can come from almost anywhere; you probably encounter a half dozen a day . . . but never bother to formally collect the information into a useable file with accompanying contact information.

When entering such data into your spreadsheet, finding the names will probably come fairly easily, but you will spend the majority off your time gathering the other information that makes the file useful, using phone books, online searches, social media searches, directories published by groups and organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce, etc. I can almost guarantee that 10 minutes will be required to do your three daily entries, and you will probably not be able to fill in every column of contact information but WILL succeed in collecting enough to be useful.

Next Steps for This 10-Minute Branding Task

Collecting three prospects per day may not seem like enough to be useful . . . but perform that task for 10 days during a month, and you have 30 at the end of that period. Do that for six months and you have 180. Furthermore, your list is reusable. Following the basic principles of sales contact campaigns, you should plan to reach out to each name you have collected at least three times at different intervals to try to assure that you get your information in front of that person at buying time – the circumstance in which you are most likely to be successful in making a sale, adding a new customer, etc. Similarly, you can try to approach your prospects in a variety of ways – by phone, by mail (direct mail letter or postcard), by social media messaging, etc. That way, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of reaching out to each prospect by his or her primary media preference.

Will You Be Successful?

Conventional wisdom suggests yes – with sustained, consistent, and professional effort, you will generate new business. While the percentage of victories will probably be low, new customers tend to be recurring and can more than payoff your 10-minute investments fairly quickly over time. Furthermore, I think you will find that a list assembled in the ways described above will be somewhat prequalified and therefore more useful than prospect lists obtained in other ways that tend to include countless entries with little likelihood of success.

For more information, see Role of Branding in Direct Mail/E-mail and Creating a Mail Merge Document for Direct Response Mailing. Also, look for further 10-minute branding suggestions upon executing a prospect sales campaign three leads at a time!