Archive of "Marketing" Category
February 23, 2010
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Today’s economy is hitting small businesses hard. It’s dog eat dog out there and if you want to survive, your business has to stand out. Taking into consideration cutting overhead, laying off employees, doing more work yourself and the pressures of everyday life, you may be thinking that it’s easier to close up shop. Wrong. There are people still spending money out there, you just have to get noticed so they are spending it with you.
Set Goals
I don’t know how many times I’ve read or heard the phrase “set goals for yourself”. Most people shrug it off, but if you are going to run a business you can’t afford to. One of the most important things you will do is set goals for your business. Start simple, goal number one should be your start date. Sounds easy and it may be, but keep setting goals and they will get harder and harder to reach, the satisfaction and profits will be well worth the effort.
A System
One major thing small business owners forget to do or get so busy they forget they did it, is implement a system. Many small business owners, even big business owners don’t have a business or accounting degree. What they have is determination and that’s great, but if that determination doesn’t have a goal or a road to follow on the pursuit of that goal, then it’s wasted. Get a system in place, stick to it and keep track of what you’ve accomplished. If you’ve set the goals this is the map of how to reach them.
Partner with a non-profit
Locate a local non profit in your area, for example find your local Breast Cancer awareness group and ask what kind of events they have going on in your area. Depending on your business you could increase sales by offering up a pledge for certain items sold, this not only raises money for the cause it also gets more people through the door. It’s never a bad thing to be socially conscious or donate to a cause.
Press Releases
Send a press release to your local newspaper about special events, business news or anything exciting you have planned. Starting with a grand opening or even a re-grand opening, don’t stop there, keep going with employees of the month, anniversaries, sales or new products. Your community won’t know what you’re up to unless you tell them.
Website
The internet has put small businesses on the map, saved many from ruin and it can help you too. Create a dynamic and informative website, put your products online, hit the free advertising sites and springboard into the world wide web. Get on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and the dozens more networking sites out there. With the potential to reach millions versus hundreds, creating a website is a no-brainer.
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Clients, Marketing, Small Business
January 7, 2010
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Now that the new year is here and most businesses are formulating their business strategies for the year…are you putting your attention on marketing or advertising? I ask because there is a difference. According to Dictionary.com advertising is: the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, need, etc. And marketing is: the act of buying or selling in a market. So what’s the difference? There are a lot.
If you start an advertising campaign you may start by putting an ad in the newspaper or on the radio. You may even have a budget big enough to afford a commercial or billboard. While these are great strategies, they only work if you are targeting the right people. The average person may not be interested in the fact that you offer copywriting services to the technology sector, rather you would have more success from a marketing strategy rather than an advertising campaign. On the other hand, are you a dog groomer in a small area that has no other dog groomer, then these traditional methods would make more sense. Just make sure before you jump into a “big expense” advertising campaign that you look at your key demographic not the frills and want to be in the spotlight.
Let’s go back to the copywriting scenario for a moment. A marketing campaign would be ideal for this type of business. You could create a better more “targeted” campaign that is also easy to follow up on and track its progress. Go to your trade magazine or yellow pages and think about what type of companies could benefit from your services. Now from that targeted list send out your marketing materials such as postcards, emails, or faxes. Quickly track your responses and change what may not be working in your campaign before you continue. You can also taper the campaign; say sending out 15 postcards at a time instead of 100, saving you both time and money.
Getting a business up and running and keeping it running is a gigantic task and expensive to boot so make sure that you research the best ways to get your name out there for your business to make sure that you get the best bang for your buck. You don’t have to go it alone, have a virtual assistant help with the marketing plan and getting everything set up, you will see return on your investment!
Posted in
Marketing
October 17, 2009
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Sell a Painting of Your Services
Have you ever watched a really great commercial that makes you want to run out and buy that product right away? Or have your child run up to you after seeing a toy commercial and say “I need that now!”? Of course we all have that is the power of advertising. So why not use those same concepts when promoting your product.
Paint a Picture
Just like the title states, paint a picture of your service for your clients. Paint a physical picture using descriptive words. Just because I can’t “see” your service in front of me I can “imagine” what it will look like when I am using it.
Believing Is Achieving
Before you try a product or service you want to “see” that it works. Seeing testimonials, reading stories about someone using it, you the owner talking about how great it is these are all great ways to let people know that you and your customers or clients believe in your product.
Make Customers & Clients Have a Graphic Memory
Just because you get the initial sell don’t stop your customers and clients from coming back. Keep drawing them back with the same techniques when updating them about new products or services.
Using these simple techniques can help you get and keep clients coming back to use your product or services time and time again.
Posted in
Marketing
September 28, 2009
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Are you missing out on one of the best marketing tools out there because you think it’s going to be hard to set up? It couldn’t be easier to set up and send out an email newsletter campaign. Here are some tips on getting your message out there and getting readers to come back. Exposure to your target audience helps to establish your brand and increase sales.
Have a Great Format
Making your newsletter look good is easy today with the different programs that are out there to help you build and send out your newsletter. With programs such as iContact, Aweber, 1 Shopping Cart and Constant Contact it couldn’t be easier.
Create Readable Content
We’ve all done it, you sign up for a newsletter and then inevitably you read it once and then either unsubscribe from the newsletter or you just delete as soon as you receive it. To make sure that you keep readers and grow your list make sure your write about what your target audience is interested in, make sure it’s fun and informational and make it personable so that readers can connect with you and your brand.
Leave Your Calling Card
At the bottom of each article make sure that you offer readers a short biography, your website address and all contact information. This way you can make sure that if they like your stuff they can contact you.
Let Readers Be Heard
Make sure you let your readers let you know what they think. Making sure that your readers know that they are valued for their opinion is a great way to keep loyal followers.
Offer The Reader Something
Leave the reader with something, a coupon, a discount or a promotion. No matter how small the offer, you will be surprised how many readers will save your email and actually use it! You can also track how well certain coupons an promotions do and improve or change future newsletters.
If you aren’t doing a newsletter and would like too but too busy, you can always turn to a virtual assistant to set up, maintain and even write them for you. So what are you waiting for?
Posted in
Marketing, Small Business
July 19, 2009
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Are you thinking about becoming an affiliate for products and services that you like? Are you the developer of a product and you want to get it on the web and generate buzz? Then affiliate marketing is a way to do both.
There are several different types of affiliate programs and Pay-Per-Click is just one of them. Google AdSense is a hugely popular program. It is free to start and easy to use. Along with Google’s tools and support starting your own AdSense campaign is super easy. Combining links from Commission Junction saves time by providing affiliate advertisers for you instead of you having to spend lots of time finding them yourself.
Having the right tools can also help you along the way. By using keyword tools like Google AdWords which is a free service or a pay for service like Word Tracker. Search engine monitoring tools are also helpful at giving you a snapshot of all the different analytical that you’re marketing efforts are making. Try a program like CleverStat which is easy to use and offers a free monitor for Google.
Affiliate marketing can be a tricky to get into and may take several tries to get it right so don’t get discouraged. Make sure you do a lot of research before jumping in and make sure you don’t give up too easily.
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Marketing
