1. Create quality-marketing tools. "Sit down and make a list of everything you're going to need each time you make contact with a prospective customer or client, including a stationery package, brochures and presentation tools if you can't [afford] to print it all at once, at least work with a designer and a copywriter to create the materials so you have an e-file.Try Hiring an art or marketing student from the local university, or barter your services with other entrepreneurs.
2. Greet clients with style. Voice mail may not seem like a component of your marketing plan, but if a potential client calls and your kid answers, that client will be gone before you can even technically call him a client. So get yourself a professional voice-mail system with several boxes, so callers can press "1" to hear more about your services, "2" for your web and e-mail addresses, etc.
3. Focus as narrowly as possible. Instead of trying to reach all the people some of the time, narrow your target audience to highly qualified prospects. Instead of going to seven networking groups once every two months, go to the two groups with the best prospects every week. "Instead of marketing to 5,000 companies, [find] several dozen highly qualified companies and make regular contact with them. Call them, mail your marketing materials, and then ask to meet. It'll save you money and time.
4. Make the most of trade shows.
If you don't get a booth beforehand, try to find someone who might want to share their space with you. You help them run the booth.
If you decide not to get a booth, go anyway. You can always do business with the exhibitors--just be sure to respect their time with "real" customers before you approach them as a peer looking for some B2B action.
After the seminar, be absolutely, positively sure that you follow up on your leads. What's the point of attending if your leads end up in the trash
5. Conduct competitive intelligence online. Find your competitors' are doing - check out their web sites...
6. Offer your help. Volunteer - People should know you are a good businessperson as well as an all-around good person. One of the biggest business-getters for your business is word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth can be generated by not only your good work, but also your good deeds. I will be offering my know how for free at the Florida Women Business Center.
Another way to help out your community and your business is to align yourself with a nonprofit organization. Patrick Bishop, author of Money-Tree Marketing, offers this idea: "Set up a fund-raising program that benefits a school, like a discount card. At the same time the kids [are selling them, they are] promoting your business."
7. Offer work samples. for example, you're a web designer, find a potential client and send them a few tips they can use to improve their site. Or offer a small job for free just to show the potential client the quality of your work and to get them used to working with you.8. Network. If this piece of marketing advice sounds like something you've heard before, there's a good reason: It works. Join your local chamber, leads groups like LeTip International Inc. or Leads Club, your industry association, etc. When you go, ask the people you meet what leads they're looking for--and really listen to what they have to say. They'll repay you in kind.
9. Cross-promote with other businesses. Whom do you share customers with? Find them and figure out how you can promote one another. If you're a PR person, hook up with a copywriter or graphic designer for client referrals. Another option is to add a brief note at the bottom of invoices or newsletter referring your accounting clients to "an excellent computer consultant," and have that consultant do the same for you.
10. Go where your best prospects are. This is called play-space marketing. If you have a pet-sitting business, ask your local vet office and groomer if you can display brochures. Are you a landscape artist? Offer to do a display for the local nursery. Do you throw children's birthday parties? Buy a slide at the local movie theater to be shown before their family films. Just be sure the environment is appropriate - If you're a business consultant, you're not going to run ads on the movie screen. [Advertise somewhere] where people are [likely] to be thinking about what you're selling.
11. Become an expert. Write articles to show your talents and give them as filler to any Web site owner that you feel is fitting. Not only does it bring you more traffic and potential customers, but it provides you with an international business portfolio to demonstrate your business sense [and your] product or service. Answer questions in online forums; get yourself listed in a directory like Experts.com, Profnet.comor The Yearbook of Experts; send tip sheets to local media outlets; write a book or pamphlet.
12. Gracias, merci, thank you. Shower the top 20 percent of your clients who yield you the most sales (either in volume or dollars) with thank-yous, whether it's gifts, personalized notes or lunch. It doesn't cost a lot of money, but it's a great way to let your best customers know they're special.
13. Offer a guarantee. More people will be willing to try out your business and recommend your business if you offer "satisfaction guaranteed."
14. Get them talking about you. Word-of-mouth marketing is just about the cheapest thing you can do to boost your business. The main way to attract referrals is to just do a great job: Impress your clients, and they'll tell everyone they know. But there are more aggressive tactics you can use as well. Ask everyone you know to evangelize your business. Hand out several business cards to people rather than just one so they're more likely to pass them on.
15. When in doubt, pick up the phone. Instead of lamenting your lack of business, drumming your fingers on your desk and forming new worry lines on your face, call a customer. Touch base, see how they're doing, visit their office when you're running an errand, see if there's anything you can do for them, even if it's not a paid piece of work. It'll improve your relationship, and you may jar their memory. After all, you'll never hear "I've been meaning to call you!" if you don't pick up the phone.
9. Cross-promote with other businesses. Whom do you share customers with? Find them and figure out how you can promote one another. If you're a PR person, hook up with a copywriter or graphic designer for client referrals. Another option is to add a brief note at the bottom of invoices or newsletter referring your accounting clients to "an excellent computer consultant," and have that consultant do the same for you.
10. Go where your best prospects are. This is called play-space marketing. If you have a pet-sitting business, ask your local vet office and groomer if you can display brochures. Are you a landscape artist? Offer to do a display for the local nursery. Do you throw children's birthday parties? Buy a slide at the local movie theater to be shown before their family films. Just be sure the environment is appropriate - If you're a business consultant, you're not going to run ads on the movie screen. [Advertise somewhere] where people are [likely] to be thinking about what you're selling.
11. Become an expert. Write articles to show your talents and give them as filler to any Web site owner that you feel is fitting. Not only does it bring you more traffic and potential customers, but it provides you with an international business portfolio to demonstrate your business sense [and your] product or service. Answer questions in online forums; get yourself listed in a directory like Experts.com, Profnet.comor The Yearbook of Experts; send tip sheets to local media outlets; write a book or pamphlet.
12. Gracias, merci, thank you. Shower the top 20 percent of your clients who yield you the most sales (either in volume or dollars) with thank-yous, whether it's gifts, personalized notes or lunch. It doesn't cost a lot of money, but it's a great way to let your best customers know they're special.
13. Offer a guarantee. More people will be willing to try out your business and recommend your business if you offer "satisfaction guaranteed."
14. Get them talking about you. Word-of-mouth marketing is just about the cheapest thing you can do to boost your business. The main way to attract referrals is to just do a great job: Impress your clients, and they'll tell everyone they know. But there are more aggressive tactics you can use as well. Ask everyone you know to evangelize your business. Hand out several business cards to people rather than just one so they're more likely to pass them on.
15. When in doubt, pick up the phone. Instead of lamenting your lack of business, drumming your fingers on your desk and forming new worry lines on your face, call a customer. Touch base, see how they're doing, visit their office when you're running an errand, see if there's anything you can do for them, even if it's not a paid piece of work. It'll improve your relationship, and you may jar their memory. After all, you'll never hear "I've been meaning to call you!" if you don't pick up the phone.
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