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How To Identify Your Ideal Customers In 5 Steps

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How To Identify Your Ideal Customers In 5 Steps

We’ve got a question for you. Do you really know your customer?

It’s pretty tough for a business to really understand who their customers are, so we’re betting you’re giving no as an answer.

What is an ideal customer?

When zoning in on your target customers, you need to have a good understanding on what really an ideal customer is. We want to make this concept quite simple, so an ideal customer is someone who gets their exact needs from your products or services.

Now let’s get to work. It’s time to identify your ideal customer with these five steps.

      1.  Understand your business.

First off, you need to have a good grasp of your business. It doesn’t only mean you are able to recite your mission and mission in your sleep. It means you need to establish a sensitive understanding of your business from customer’s point of view.

Know what you offer to your customers and what problems do you help them with. It boils down to one thing: know who actually gets value in your offerings.

      2.  Know your goals.

Once you have a solid understanding of your business, the next step is to determine your goals. Are you satisfied with your current customers and do they feel the same way as you?

Take note- your current clients may not be the ideal ones. Maybe you just want to change your focus, modify your business model, and connect with a completely different audience.

That’s the time you need to outline your goals. Know what you really want to achieve because it’s your key to changing your strategies smartly.

      3. Set up a discovery test session.

Everyday established businesses learn a great day from dealing with their customers. And for startups without any customer interaction, they need to come up with strategies to test their theories initially.

It could be a bit tricky since you don’t have a relationship with your target. One possible trick is to offer free samples or beta test relationships to those who are eager to provide you with decided feedback.

      4. Start your CRM thinking.

After trotting your hypothesis and testing it with a group, you should know and define everything as much as possible about your ideal customers. Some information may be basically understood, but much information will be explored in the test sessions and additional research in a more behavioral setting such as social media. Start your CRM thinking by establishing customer profiles including much information than most people get.

      5.  Apply your new ideal customer approach.

The final move is to add strategy model components. The thing here is that when you know your initial ideal customers, it should affect the thinking about your business model and overall strategy. Consider how your new strategy affects the other aspects of your business.

Identifying your ideal customer can seem like a daunting task. However, it’s an essential step to take in growing and expanding your business.

Drop These Bone-Crushing Internet Marketing Mistakes

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Companies address internet marketing frustrations in a number of ways- changing this and tweaking that. Nevertheless, the vast majority of businesses floundering with digital marketing makes one or two of the worst mistakes and never do anything about them. Drop these mistakes and you’re on your way to successful digital marketing.

Unfocused Campaign Goal

If you’re lacking an end game, or you don’t have a concise strategy to hit it, you could end up wasting a lot of business dollars. When setting up a campaign on search engines or social media, be sure that you know what you want to obtain from these ads. Do you aim to rank on search engines? Or do you want to reach your sales goals? Be vigilant. Don’t fall into the trap of constantly changing marketing campaigns just because you’re not getting instant gratification.

Ignoring A Solid Core Statement

Know your brand and your customers. Be sure that your mission and vision align to your business. Come up with a strong narrative statement that will drive every piece of our content. It should also contain the key items that matter to your brand. Let your customers know your niches and what sets you apart from other brands.

Not Automating

To save you time and streamline the process, automate it. Automating your social media processes including emails and blog posts does the trick. However, don’t just automate it and then forget it. It’s still your responsibility to add opportunistic posts on your social media profiles and interact with the online community.

Failing To Constantly Monitor

One of the main ingredients to successful internet marketing campaign is constantly keeping track. Who’s liking and sharing your posts? Which posts get a lot of reaction? If you’re receiving awful open rates, do something about it. Review Google analytics and carry out internet marketing reports to stay in track.

Not Paying Attention To Negative Comments

A frustrating 1-star review means a lot, so don’t just ignore it. But how will you respond? Instead of ignoring or deleting it, grab the chance to address the unhappy client and turn him into a raving fan.

The world of internet marketing is uncharted waters troubled with opportunity for potential bloopers. However, you don’t have to be a marketing wizard to avoid these blunders. All you need is a well-established strategy for your business and the dollars follow.

Marketing Ideas Your HVAC Business Needs To Use

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Marketing your HVAC business can be costly- we understand that. It can be hard to pull the trigger on a successful HVAC marketing when it has to cost a pretty penny. But you can be smart with your marketing budget. Here are 5 marketing ideas that could provide big returns to your business.

Online Presence

Having a strong online presence in today’s business environment is critical to building trust among your existing and potential customers. Your HVAC business should have a website where customers can easily look up to whenever they need more information about your business. Your website should be responsive and optimized so it can be easily accessed using different devices. It should always be updated and should mirror your business products and services.

SEO and Paid Search

Having a website is like having a brick mortar space on the online environment, and SEO and Paid Search serve as your online signage. Getting a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service ensures that your website is set up for rankings on search engines such as Google and Bing. If your website does not appear on top 5 searches on Google, then you could be missing potential clients when they’re searching the keywords ‘’HVAC Services + your city”.

Paid Search is the sponsored version, which means you need to pay every time your business ad is clicked on. For instance, if your business is not showing up using the keywords “HVAC Services + your Location”, then another option is to pay Google on ranking for that keyword phrase. A combo of SEO and paid Search is a good idea to dominate online rankings.

Social Media Marketing

Before you revamp your business’ social profiles, it makes sense to review your social media marketing strategy to ensure future improvements. Before jumping into this form of marketing, be sure you know where your customers are likely using content and be sure to integrate it with your social media channels.

Content Marketing

In today’s business environment, the power of content brings more awareness to your HVAC business. Blog content is a valuable tool to promote your business since it provides viewers with useful information that are relevant to your business. At a loss for HVAC subjects to write about? Ask your team, or hear from your sales reps. Or, you can get an expert blogger to write for you.

So, there you go. These are just some of the many ways to promote your HVAC business. Always remember that with every marketing campaign, a clear goal and effective strategy are the keys to taking your business to heights that you want to hit.

Seek for professional help when needed. For more tips and assistance, contact us at Cornerstone Marketing Solutions.

Building Your Brand On Social Media

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When building your own brand, make sure that it reflects your company or the person you are. Actually, you are creating your identity and earning the trust of your target audience. Try to find something unique in your products and services. This is a great way to become steps ahead of your competitors and this is where social media will come into the big picture.

Use these tips to help you build your brand on social media.

Choose the Right Social Media Platform

Since there are numbers of social media platforms to choose from, it is a wise idea to know which one will work best for you. Take note: not all of them are perfect match for all brands. Facebook is the most used network and majority of brands will have presence there. But if your niche is selling to other business, LinkedIn might be right for you.

Provide Shareable and Reliable Contents

Rather than cranking out contents to cover all the subjects you want to read, you can focus on creating reliable content that your viewers will want to share. Just make sure that your contents support your own brand image. Find out the kinds of content that are more likely to get more visibility on your networks. Lastly, do not be afraid to utilize visual content.

Get Influencers To Help You Out

Building your brand on social media from scratch may take a long time. If you can keep your existing social media participants, it can definitely shorten the time frame. So, as much as possible, share, like, and reply to posts that come from your well-connected participants. Also, make sure to thank them especially if they share, reply, or like yours.

Be Visual

Posts that have photos are more likely to have higher engagement rates compared to text-only posts. You can include images whenever possible. Videos on the other hand can absolutely encourage engagement. Use colors to help you stand out right in the main stream of postings.

Leverage Your Influencers

Publish killer contents to attract huge numbers of audience. However, this strategy is surely going to take time. A much better strategy is to leverage your existing influencers. You can do this by mentioning their sites in your content. Tag the influencers you have referenced every time you share content. You can also email your influencers right after you have successfully published your content.

Engage

Make sure that the social media feeds of your brand should include healthy portions of posts of what interest your audience. Moreover, your engagement must be two-way. Aside from posting your content, like and share others’ posts.

Social media has become one of the biggest communication channels between brands and customers. If you follow the abovementioned tips, social media can become your most powerful channel for building your brand. So, take advantage of its uses and expect highly satisfying results in the long run. Not only it will help build your brand, but will also help earn the trust of your audience.

Direct Mail Marketing

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Direct Mail Marketing

Are you searching for the best strategy to spice up your marketing campaign, but cannot figure out exactly what it is? Maybe it is time to take all your advertising efforts offline. Try to step out into the world of direct mail marketing.

What is direct mail marketing?

It refers to the process of sending promotions or offers via mail to customers. It mainly includes brochures, sales letter, prepaid envelope, and order form. Amazing benefits accrue to utilizing direct mail marketing.

Cost Effective

With direct mail marketing, companies can design more appealing brochures with their desktop and computer software. There are also thousands of copies that can be printed affordably by print vendors. Also, companies can mail out small direct mail advertisement quantities as a test. After determining that the first try is successful, they can now increase the mail pieces.

Highly Targeted

Among the major advantages of direct mail marketing is that it is highly targeted. Businesses can just buy mailing lists of their potential clients via a mailing list distributor. For instance, they can order list of clients who buy specific products in their market. After that, they can prepare direct mailing with the goal of getting those clients to shop at their stores.

Flexible

Businesses can utilize postcards to advertise their products or services to save on costs. Some manufacturers include free samples of their products right in their mailings. You have the freedom to include information, as you desire in direct mail marketing campaign, depending on the amount you want to spend.

Individualized

The best part of using direct mail campaign is the fact that it can be individualized. There are computer programs that let businesses to address clients name via direct mail marketing. This is why, for instance, the message of the sales letter is mainly directed at a specific person as if the business owner is speaking directly to him. Addressing clients by name definitely enhances and prompt them to purchase the products or try the services of the company.

Tangible

Since direct mail is delivered directly to your prospects and customers’ hands, they are sure to see and read your message. Because they can physically touch the pieces of mail, expect that they are more likely to see the content as reliable.

Multiple Formats

Direct mailing can be in a form of catalog, magazines, brochures, and postcards. All of these make direct mail one of the best strategies for almost all applications.

The format is very familiar

While some clients might be sceptical about the novel marketing media and email messages, chances are they remain receptive to direct mail, which in the first place is what they are accustomed to.

In spite of the rise of other forms of advertising, direct mail marketing still occupies a place in the most comprehensive marketing campaigns. Its user-friendliness, affordability, and flexibility make it a great option for businesses that want to make a more effective and cohesive marketing program. So, take advantage of the benefits direct mail marketing has to offer to your business.

The CSMS – Your One Stop Shop For All Your Print Marketing Needs

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Print marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach wide range of audience. However, implementing a print marketing directly could be a difficult task especially for small-sized HVAC businesses. The good thing here is that Cornerstone Marketing Solutions offers scalable solutions for you. With us, you will no longer have to do the task alone. We offer wide range of print marketing services to choose from.

Print Materials

These days, print materials still provide you with great benefits you cannot afford to miss. CSMS has been assisting many companies that need high quality print materials for years. We handle different types of print materials such as:

  • Brochures and Flyers
  • Business Cards
  • Banners and Signs
  • Postcards

We have experts who can design these print materials. Best of all, we can customize these materials depending on your exact needs.

Promotional Products

If you are in search for uniquely designed promotional products for your HVAC business, look no further because we will give you everything you need. Our promotional products are a great way to connect with your customers. Simple products will surely help you make positive impression on your new customers. We have wide range of promotional products in our product collection from t-shirts, mugs, caps, pens, and many more. Any of which can be the perfect items to advertise your business.

Direct Mail

The CSMS has extensive experience with direct mail campaign for HVAC businesses. Over the years, our experts have analyzed direct mail data in order to create turn-key solutions that are proven effective to drive calls as well as leads. This way, you can now do your best to run your business.

At The CSMS, we:

  • Help you use your funds to save money
  • Know what the HVAC industry is
  • Offer tested direct mail pieces that can maximize your ROI
  • Only apply customized direct marketing techniques

Business Card Postal

Promote your HVAC business with our well-designed business cards. We can also provide customized business cards, which can effectively market your business. You can now stand out with our great looking business cards. Just provide us your logo, texts, images.

If you are in the market for quality business cards, make sure to visit Cornerstone Marketing Solutions today. We have wide range of business card options and styles that will definitely look great for your own company. Check out our website to learn more about our amazing offers.

Now is the right time to stay ahead of the competition in the HVAC industry. Take advantage of what Cornerstone Marketing Solutions has to offer. We can give you a head start over the other companies in the market. Our experts will be more than willing to help you and your company achieve long-term success. We will make sure that every service we offer will make a great difference in your business. Hurry and grab this opportunity to take your HVAC business into the next level with the help of CSMS.

Check out our print marketing services now!

CSMS Branding & Identity

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Branding, identity design and logo design are three different parts of the puzzle that join together to form your business’s image. It may be easy to group them together, but they have different roles. Cornerstone Marketing Solutions is more than happy to help guide you through the differences and what they can do for your company.

A logo is what identifies your company through a graphic of some sort, a mark or an icon. A brand is the intended emotional perception that represents your corporate image. Identity means the visual aspects that create the brand. Your brand, or corporate image should reflect the company as a whole entity. It is the primary idea and identification that pushes the company forward. It is the perception your audience will have about you.

Identity design focuses more on the specific image that is created around visual devices that are monitored by a set of guidelines that fit the branding. It is meant to be recognizable to the consumer and can consist of a logo, specific marketing, signage, packaging, marketing, and basically anything visual that represent the company.

The logo, while part of identity is increasingly clear cut. The logo is for identification only, it is not used to create sales, or offer a description. It is to be a symbol, that when seen by a consumer, they immediately know what business they are dealing with. It should be instantly recognizable and memorable, the swoosh on a Nike shoe, or the apple on Apple products. Sometimes, the most successful logos are the most simple. If you have any questions, please reach out to one of our associates at Cornerstone Marketing Solutions.

Why Content Marketing is Essential for SEO Success

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content marketingSEO and content marketing are not the same thing, but they go hand in hand and overlap. Content marketing does not eliminate the need for SEO, nor can it overtake SEO, it is hard to separate the two. Think of them as being the yin and yang that form one circle while overlapping. It is correct to view content marketing as larger and broader, while SEO is perhaps more narrow and technical in nature. For SEO to be broader, it has to endeavor into content marketing and for content marketing to succeed it must implement SEO.

SEO can make demands and run the show, and content marketing will fulfill the demands. Therefore, they complement each other like two best friends! Successful SEO demands content and simply put, content marketing is content! There is no such thing as SEO without content or keywords. Applying keywords, researching them, putting them into a practical application is content marketing. You have to use keywords strategically through well written content.

Even building links boils down having high quality content making people/businesses wanting to link back to it which means high SEO success. To get a link back you need content that people want to link to. Search engines, especially Google like fresh content. Sites need a steady updated, output of content.  Consistent output is content marketing whether you realize it or not. If you work on SEO you are working on content marketing and vice versa.  They are not disconnected and both are essential for each other to operate at a successful level. Both will fail if they are not incorporated together.

The Pros and Cons of SEO

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seoIt seems as though everything in life comes with a good side and a bad side! This includes SEO, there are pros and cons when working with SEO. Let’s start with some pros. The main pro is that a good SEO will allow your business to be seen by people who are looking for answers to their questions. What HVAC company should I use? Where should I buy a certain product? 40% of people will click on the first business that pops up when they conduct a search using a search engine. You want that business to be yours. Therefore, view SEO as a system delivering a flow of traffic to your website for free! An estimated 2.2 trillion searches are made a year on search engines, this is a market you want to tap into! The leads generated by SEO are solid leads that lead to proven business relationships. The close rate generated from SEO is considerably higher than those generated from email marketing or print advertising.  This in turn will help your business grow. SEO plays a crucial role in securing your company a solid and strong online presence. It can make you appear as an authority in your business area.

So what are the cons you ask? Successful SEO can’t happen overnight, and unfortunately we live in a world where people are impatient and want immediate results, this can lead to frustrated customers who don’t really understand how SEO works. They want to see a fast return on their investment if they are paying a SEO team. For the most part SEO is not free, an SEO campaign is successful when a professional team is hired to do the work, and some business owners may resent this expenditure and prefer to wait on organic SEO results which can be hit or miss. Especially because there is no guarantee in the SEO world that even the noblest efforts will make your company number one on 1st page rankings. SEO results can’t be controlled 100% and can be up to the mercy of search engines and their algorithms.

Despite the cons, it is highly recommended you hire a professional SEO team to maximize your businesses online potential.

Popular WordPress #SEO and Social Media Plugins

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If you want your blog to stand out from the multitude of blogs out there, integrating buttons that allow for social sharing into the blog allows readers to share it quickly, and with little effort. Social bookmarks, and sharing buttons, means that your blog can be shared thousands and thousands of times and drive more traffic to your site, therefore having a positive effect on your SEO. It is recommended that you add useful links instead of a plethora of buttons to every social media platform out there! For example, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Facebook Like and Facebook Share.

WordPress has many social media plugins that will allow you to do this. Here are two of the best social media sharing plugins for WordPress. The first one is SumoMe. SumoMe is free, unless you want access to the advanced features. Simply add your URL and create an account, you add your blog and install SumoMe onto your site. WordPress makes it easy, you simply install the free plugin and insert code for your blog. It is a very simple process.

Monarch is a second suggestion if you are looking for a paid social media sharing plugin for your WordPress blog. Monarch gives you the capability to place social media sharing buttons in various places on your blog and they have carefully designed buttons that are created to encourage sharing. To use Monarch, you have buy a license which gives you access to all themes and premium plugins. As a bonus, it allows you add social media buttons on mobile sites and fly outs for adding email subscription options.

Remember, don’t underestimate the power of your blog being shared. A larger and wider audience can be reached sending your blog post viral.