The Phone Call…Marketing 101

Last week I wrote a post about International Marketing and how we as a company work to ensure that the world knows about our clients’ aircraft for sale and our acquisition projects.  I have been thinking a lot lately about the different components of our marketing mix to ensure that we employ the most value add resources in our bag of tricks.  In today’s world there are a ton of magazines, an endless number of websites, constant trade shows and industry events and new social media venues all vying for our business.  It would, however, be an impossible task and require unlimited marketing dollars to use everything available.  Therefore, we need to choose those resources that provide the greatest return.  And, I believe that the resources that our firm uses provide the right combination of solutions to most effectively support our clients’ sales and acquisition projects with global exposure.

The most direct and targeted marketing option, however, is also the most basic and cost effective and often the most overlooked: the phone call.  Picking up the phone to say hello, stay in touch and remind people of your current projects is still the best and most targeted direct marketing there is.  I am writing about this because it is a critical piece of the marketing puzzle that most people ignore.  We, however, do make it a regular part of every day to stay in touch with brokers, dealers and service providers throughout the industry worldwide.  I can’t tell you the number of times I have made a call and found a connection that turned into a lead to sell or source an aircraft.  Staying in touch with our peers provides an opportunity to point out the differentiating benefits of our listings, talk about the markets and understand where there is activity all of which better supports our respective clients’ needs.  In the course of calls I also often have the opportunity to connect my peers if I know of one person looking for an aircraft that another has and I don’t. 

So, I welcome your calls and I hope that you don’t mind mine.  Let’s talk to each other regularly and find some opportunities to put our buyers and sellers together.  I look forward to talking to you soon!