Five Cheap Tricks for Promoting Your Business
If you're like me, you're always looking for ways to promote your business - without spending a ton of money. Well, you're in luck. This article lists five of my top 10 favorite ideas for promoting your business or organization for next to nothing (and in some cases, completely fr*e). While these ideas are a start, there are plenty of other ways to get the word out about your product or service and build relationships with potential clients. Use this list as a jumping off point to brainstorm more cheap ideas that may work wonders for your business. And stay tuned for the other five tricks, which will appear in my Nov. 2004 newsletter, "Marketing Tips from The WriteShop." 1. Volunteer your services or donate your products to a local nonprofit. This tactic doesn't just help spread the word about your products and services, but it also allows you to help a worthy cause. Many nonprofits are happy to promote their donors in their own marketing materials, and nonprofit leaders are also good people to know because many of them are well-connected in their communities (and happy to give referrals). 2. Educate friends and family about your business. Simply utilizing the relationships you already have is one of the easiest but most often overlooked forms of marketing. Nobody wants to hear about your business or products all the time, but it's a good idea to make sure your family and friends understand what you do - you never know when they might have an opportunity to send business your way. 3. Become active in online forums related to your industry. Many business owners and marketers turn to online discussion groups for advice or to vent frustration, and you might be surprised how frequently discussion pals become clients or referral sources. By maintaining your professionalism and sharing your own advice freely (remember to give, not just receive), you'll earn respect from other forum members, who may turn to you when they need your products or services. 4. Make yourself available to local media. Reporters for newspapers, business publications, television and radio are constantly looking for expert sources to interview about various topics. If they know about you and your areas of expertise in advance, chances are they'll contact you when they need a quote or expert insight about your particular field. If you don't have relationships with media already, start by locating the reporters who usually report on your areas of interest. Introduce yourself in a personalized letter or e-mail, and include a list of issues for which you would be willing to comment. Follow up occasionally with press releases or other information the reporters may find interesting or newsworthy. 5. Sponsor local events in your market area. Consider hosting an after-hours event for a local business organization at your office or home. Sponsor a Little League team or a nonprofit fundraising event. These types of activities will not only keep your name in the spotlight, but they'll also help establish your company's reputation as a generous, community-minded business. Copyright 2004 Nancy Jackson About The Author Nancy Jackson of The WriteShop helps companies better market their products and services with powerful written communications including newsletters, articles, Web content, brochures and custom publications. Learn more, contact her, or sign up for her free monthly newsletter at www.writeshoponline.com.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing Apathy Solutions: 10 Solutions for Overcoming Apathy Beginning Today
Are you suffering from feelings of indifference or a lack of concern when it comes to marketing your business? Do you lack the passion that's necessary to attract customers to your business?
Specialized Mailing Lists Make All the Difference
If there is one thing I can't say enough it is that the most important part of your mailing campaign is your mailing list. It is vital that you put the right amount of energy into learning about lists ? who to mail to ? so that your mailing efforts aren't wasted. There are a few different ways that you can get an adequately targeted list.
5 Print Ad Essentials!
Writing an effective print ad, particularly a classified advertisement, requires that you remember five essential points. Failure to implement these points correctly can cost you much in the way of time lost and a sale missed.
Eight Advantages of Fundraising Letters Over Other Methods
1. Personal
Fundraising letters are about as personal as you can get with a donor without meeting face to face or talking on the phone. Unlike special events, fundraising letters let you have a one-on-one "meeting" with each donor.
Eight No Cost Ways to Market Your Business
Are you trying to promote your business with a tiny marketing budget? Opportunities are plentiful for low or no cost marketing. Here are a few that won't cost you a cent.
Publish articles about your specialty. "How-to" articles are always welcome. Ensure you include your contact information.
Write letters to the editor of publications your target market reads.
Get involved in an organization or community project.
Build strategic alliances with non-competing businesses and cross-promote each other.
Publish a special report. A "super how to" list for your specialty area. Distribute freely. Ensure that your contact information is included.
Speak to groups and organizations. Make sure the audience is your target market.
Carefully target relationships with media sources.
Write newsworthy press releases and distribute to your special contacts.
The more proactive you can be, the better off your business will be.
Seven Secrets For Building Customer Loyalty In Your Restaurant
Imagine how much your sales and profits would increase if each of your customers come back just one more time a week or a month. You would boost your sales by 50%. Getting your existing customer base to visit more often is easier than you think. This is because, unlike a prospective customer who has never dined at your restaurant, your existing customer has already tried your food and service and therefore trusts you. Here are seven strategies for getting your customers to come back again and again.
Beyond Fear And Greed: Emotions That Sell
Fear and Greed. The stock-in-trade of sales. Appeal to them, and your success is assured. But isn't there more to life than those two emotions?
Have Something Good To Say
If you don't get this right, you can just forget about everything else...your advertising will fail miserably if you don't have something good to say. The great business philosopher Jim Rohn probably summed it up best in his lecture about communications. He was talking about personal communications, not about advertising, but I think the principle holds true. He says to be a master communicator, all you've got to do is follow this three-step process: First, have something good to say. Second, say it well. And third, say it often.
Unique Marketing Ideas That Generate Cash!
First of all - keep in touch with your customers! One of the best ways to do this is with a newsletter. Today it's easier than ever to have a newsletter ? use email. If you don't have your customer's email addresses already, start asking for them when they pay for something at the cash register. Give them an incentive for signing up for your free newsletter ? maybe a free gift or a small discount or even a prize draw they can be entered into.
Whats In a Business Card?
Over the years as I have attended trade shows, networking meetings, chamber events and more; I have noticed a few things about the successful and the not so successful. First of all, do you have a business card?
If you belong to a large corporation, you were probably issued business cards as a matter of course, almost as if it was a company perk. If you are in a small or home-based business, chances are you, personally, made the effort to get business cards, which entailed design, print and distribution. So if you went to all of the trouble of acquiring them, you should use them to your advantage. Here are a few tried and true rules for marketing with your card.
1. Never leave home without the cards. I have stopped for coffee already and had someone ask me for a card because they saw my car sign as I pulled into the local coffee shop lot. If you want people to discredit you as a businessperson, all you have to do is say "Oh sorry I forgot my cards today." I have even been to trade shows and fellow exhibitors were walking around without cards. You have not only lost an immediate opportunity to market your business, but you look like an amateur who doesn't deserve the business.
2. Is the information correct? The reality is that sometimes we change our contact information. If you know that there will be changes in the near future, then limit the number of cards you have printed. Do not, scribble out and hand write information on your card. Back to "Can anyone say amateur?" I said that to someone once and his reply was, "yes but business cards are expensive." That says two things to me: 1) he didn't shop around for a good price and 2) AMATEUR! The idea is to attract business not scare it away.
3. Does the card say what you want it to say? What message are you trying to get across? When designing a business card, think about the placement of information on the card. Is the key information in a prominent place on the card? Does the design work with the rest of your company image? Your business card should be an extension of your company just like your logo, stationery, checks, signage, website and more. They should all get across the same message and design.
4. Can prospective clients contact you easily with the information provided on your card? This is a big one!
Is your website up to date?
Do you check your email at least once a day? (and respond!)
Is your email address professional (not mycompany@genericfreeemail.com)
Is your voice mail message clear, concise and professional?
In this day of technology everyone assumes you must have email and a website for your business to be successful. This is not necessarily true. If you do not conduct business via email or internet then do not put that information on your card. No matter what you use, the key is to be accessible.
5. Are you marketing with your business card? Keeping them in your pocket is a waste of time and money. Be clear about who your target client is. When you see an opportunity slip in your business card. Do not be rude and pushy, but confident that the person could benefit from your services.
If you are not sure that your business card is getting you where you want, market test it. Give it to some friends and colleagues and ask them for their opinions. If your friends are not going to be honest with you, then try "strangers." At the next event you attend ask some people what they think of your design.
Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
This is a pretty tough global economy and it is critical for a company to leverage every bit of their marketing resources. So, if this is the case, why are so many companies shooting themselves in the proverbial foot by breaking some of the most fundamental rules of marketing? It's a very simple question with complex answers - here are some of the pitfalls to avoid:
Step by Step Guide to an SMS Campaign
SMS is good for:
11 Ways to Turnaround a Cash-Strapped Business or Practice
This past weekend I received a disturbing message from a dear friend. His business wasn't generating all the income he needed. He's exhausted all savings, started depleting credit card reserves and badly needed money to pay this month's mortgage... Ouch! I wish I knew sooner...
How to Add Warmth, Color & Texture to Your Advertisements
"?A powerful agent is the right word?" --Mark Twain
Moving a Business Relationship from Free to Fee: Power of Freebies - Part 2
In the last issue we looked at 5 reasons why giving stuff away is a great tactic for filling your pipeline.
Promotional Magnets: Promotion that Sticks
Some people are happy with just a business card. For others it's not enough to be glanced at once and packed away. They want to be attached to something that you have to open in order to eat and therefore live.
Pay for Performance Pricing Models for Search Engine Optimization
I do think that it is entirely possible for an SEO and client to work out a pay for performance pricing structure that is fair to both. Logistically, though the tracking involved to this would add additional layers to the total process of ranking and reporting. If both the SEO and the client are willing to take that on and set parameters that are agreeable between them then by all means a fair agreement can be reached.
Joint Venture Marketing: What and Why
What is a Joint Venture? A joint venture is an agreement
in which two or more businesses work on a project for a
set period of time. Usually with a specific project or
goal in mind. Joint ventures can be long-term, like
promoting a product together, or some can be short-term,
like bartering or trading products and services. Ideas on
how to joint venture ideas are boundless.
Second Dose Of Marketing Vitamins
Organizations often get stuck in neutral when it comes to marketing. Sometimes, you just need a kickstart. Here are 14 ideas to push you into high gear.
Have You Captured Me Today?
There are many Web sites I visit every day and will probably never return to again. It's not that I didn't like the site, or that I wasn't interested in the topic, services, or products offered. It's just that I wasn't ready to take action right now. So I clicked away and will probably forget about them.
|
