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Marketing Software

Written by: Robin Smyth

Article Overview: I have a friend named John who I met a few years back at a business convention. Due to our similar interest in startups, we hit if off right away. John was just working on getting his public relations company off the ground and running, and with the amount of passion he always had for this business, I had no doubt he would be able to do so. But, after having lunch with John the other week, I realized something; three years after I had first met him, John was still struggling to get his business off the ground. It wasn’t because he wasn’t dedicated. Rather, after talking to him, I realized he was missing out on having one big advantage: marketing software.

Marketing Software

I have a friend named John who I met a few years back at a business convention. Due to our similar interest in startups, we hit if off right away. John was just working on getting his public relations company off the ground and running, and with the amount of passion he always had for this business, I had no doubt he would be able to do so. But, after having lunch with John the other week, I realized something; three years after I had first met him, John was still struggling to get his business off the ground. It wasn’t because he wasn’t dedicated. Rather, after talking to him, I realized he was missing out on having one big advantage: marketing software.

Sure, it may not seem like much. After all, can on little program really make the difference between crashing and burning, and achieving success? Well, in John’s case, yes.

John’s business focused around his website, and one of the key tools he used to promote his services to new clients, as well as keep in touch with previous ones, was through a newsletter. Every week, John would send out a newsletter updating everyone on his mailing list about new offers and new services, as well as including articles about industry trends.

But, John’s business was still a one-man operation. As such, he would spend hours upon hours each week not only researching the industry, writing all of the copy for the newsletter, proofreading and checking for correct links, but also trying to maintain a clean mailing list of addresses. He wasn’t using any marketing software, but instead doing it all by hand.

When somebody wrote to John asking to unsubscribe from his mailing list, he would go through the entire list and take them off manually. Similarly, if an email address was incorrect and the newsletter bounced back, John would also go back to his list and try to find or remove the problem himself. He was proud of his pristine email directory, but what did he have to show for it?

We’ve all heard the saying before that time is money, but John was a living example of how inefficiently some entrepreneurs use their time. Instead of spending hours each day perfecting his email list, he could have been working on other means of promotion, or diversifying his services, or any number of other tasks. Instead, he was cooped up in front of his computer sifting through lists.

It was a painful image so I decided to recommend a marketing software program to John. Only time will tell how it will turn out for John, but I can guarantee one thing: if his business fails it won’t be because he was using his time inefficiently. By having a program that will automatically update his mailing list as needed, as well as perform a range of other functions such as auto-responding to requests, John will free himself up to focus on the things that really do need his attention.

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