The following tips and techniques are not hidden secrets by any means, but they are some of the most overlooked ways to market a small business today.
1. Know your target audience.
As silly as it sounds, many small business owners kick off a marketing campaign without regard to whom they want to target. If you send out a coupon for NASCAR tickets to the first 1,000 people in the phone book, some will undoubtedly be thrilled and will do what's necessary to earn the tickets (akin to dropping 1,000 mailers from an airplane -- some will hit the target).
But just imagine the response rate if you sent out the same 1,000 NASCAR ticket coupons to only those people who attended a NASCAR event in the last year.
You've gone from wildly shooting to steadily aiming your campaign, thus increasing your response rate and decreasing your cost per customer.
2. Publish an e-zine (or newsletter).
Publishing an e-zine or print newsletter (even as short as a page) is a great way to keep in touch with your customers and clients. You can produce one online using a program such as Constant Contact for little to no money and can even set your e-zines up in advance using easy-to-understand templates.
3. Have a website and keep it updated.
All businesses, no matter your size or field, need a website these days. You can get a domain name for as little as $2.95/year and, using templates, have a basic design done in a few hours. Or, you can use free software such as Wordpress to set up your site.
Once your customers, clients, and potential customers and clients have visited your website, they will find fresh, quality content in the form of new e-zines, articles, blog posts and tips. This will keep them, and the search engine spiders, coming back for more.
4. Opportunity is calling.
While not usually viewed as a marketing technique, answering the phone and following up is critical in this day and age of limited valuable time and impersonal service.
Have you ever called someone only to not get a call-back or sent an email and waited days for a response?
More clients and prospects become lost revenue these days due to inadequate, or non-existent follow-up. If you receive a phone call from a prospective client or from an existing client, call him back as soon as possible or, better yet, immediately!
5. Get involved online.
Find out where your target audience hangs out and participate in those online discussion groups and forums. Yahoo Groups is a great place to find a wide variety of discussion groups. Several business owners also belong to Ryze -- an online networking forum. By consistently offering your help to others, you will position yourself as an expert while letting others get to know you.
6. Get involved offline.
Getting involved with local organizations can help to build your reputation as a "doer", a "go getter" or just a really dependable individual (all things which will help your business). Just remember that you are representing your business in everything you do and act accordingly.
7. Word of Mouth/Referrals.
We've all heard the saying that a happy customer tells somewhere between 1 and 3 people about her experience while an unhappy customer tells up to 12 people about hers. Keep your customers happy, ask for feedback as to what you could do better, and once you know they're happy, ask for a referral. People generally are willing to help those they like.
8. Use postcards.
Whether you are an online-only business, a brick & mortar establishment or a hybrid, you can effectively use postcards to market your business. Postcards are easy to do, inexpensive to mail and have a high readership. Many people associate postcards with personal notes from friends and family and don't even think before they turn it over to read the message. With this method, you have already gotten into the hands of many people that wouldn't take the time to open what they perceive as junk mail.
9. Have others do it for you or with you.
Never underestimate the power of cooperation and reciprocal agreements. Is there a vendor that has a related, but not directly competitive, target audience to yours? If so, form a strategic alliance where you recommend his products/services and he recommends yours. For example, a movie theater and a restaurant could share customer information and play off each other for promotions.
While many of the above tips and techniques may elicit the "DUH" response, it's constantly surprising to me how many businesses - small and large - overlook these basic items in their day-to-day marketing and operations.
a.Sales letter Sales letters are great ways to promote the content you have created. Let's say you have written an e-book on 'Losing fat'. You can have attractive sales letters with titles like 'Get washboard abs in 30 days flat' or 'Fit into the jeans you wore during college' etc. By having such compelling and catchy headings, you can grab the attention of readers and ensure more publicity for your content. Such sales letters are great at generating curiosity in the minds of readers and enticing them to buy your content.
b.Press releases Press releases are great as marketing tools. It doesn't cost anything to create or distribute a press release. All you need is a little bit of time to write out the release. Then if you have a good network of contacts you could communicate with newspapers and publication houses to post these press releases online. Make sure to include your contact details and website URL at the end of the press release.
c.Social media sites There are thousands of social networking and media sites available these days which allow free exchange of information. Through these sites you can easily spread the word about your content online. In fact such sites allow a free mechanism to build on your contacts, through which you can publicize the content you have created.
d.Relevant sites Your promotional efforts will only reap benefits if you propagate your content on relevant sites. So if your e-book or article is about health food, try aiming at sites which talk about health, nutrition, fitness etc. By sticking to the relevant niche you stand greater chances at being noticed and heard. Plus you also get to tap into a relatively warm market that's already interested in what you're selling.
e.Forums and discussion groups You could also try visiting relevant forums and online discussion groups which deal with the relevant topic associated with your content. This involves a more active and direct participation from other users, which in turn will ensure that your content gets the necessary amount of publicity for free.
f.Keywords Promoting your content is all about being visible on search engine results. That automatically entails having strategic keywords well placed in your article or e-book. This way search engines will automatically detect your content and index it on their results page. This automatically generates lots of free publicity for your content.
g.Teaser material You could even use snippets of material to effectively generate curiosity for your content. For example a small video clip or a paragraph of highly interesting content - could interest readers a great deal. Then at the end of this material you could include a backlink to your site content. This way, not only do you generate interest, you are also ensuring more click throughs and hits into your site.
Having great content won't do you any good unless you can market it well. With these seven low ways you can take your business to greater heights of success. Just follow any one of these proven methods or try them all for greater success!
Both Sandra P. Martini & Doug Brown are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Sandra P. Martini has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Shopping and Marketing. For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at. Sandra P. Martini's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
Doug Brown has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lead Generation, Home Improvement and Collection Agencies. Doug Brown uses his 30 plus years of business building experiences to educate people and businesses on how to . Free Report "17 Str. Doug Brown's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.