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Small Business Marketing: 10 Simple Things You Can Do to Market Your Business for Less Than $100
Times are tough and many businesses are struggling to generate new clients through the door. The temptation is to cut the marketing budget as a way of making ends meet. Cutting back your marketing is a recipe for long-term business disaster. But with some clever thinking, you can still market your business and keep your books in the black.
Here are 10 simple ways you can market your business for less than $100 each (and most are free!)
* Buy a pile of thank you cards at a discount shop. Send them to your best clients or just to clients at the end of each job. Hand-write a note of gratitude and your wishes for their success.
* Capitalise on your success. If you are in the paper or a magazine, get copies of the article or story and send them out to your clients or prospective clients with a "With compliments slip" and a handwritten note sharing your news.
* Share information. If you read a great article, copy it (with appropriate referencing of course) and send it to clients/prospects who you think would also appreciate the information with a "Thought this may interest you". It shows you remember their interests enough to keep in touch.
* Polish your autoresponders. If you have an autoresponder system for your business, adding in new ones or polishing the words of the ones you already have is a great investment for your future.
* Call people. Yes ... pick up the phone and touch base with your favourite clients of the past year to see how business is going for them and the results of any past campaigns you did for them. Many times you will generate new business from the contact.
* Go to a networking event. Networking is not about grabbing as many cards as you can, but forming relationships with people. Some may or may not turn into clients. Be friendly and give with no thought of reward. Not all networking events need to cost and arm and a leg be selective and find the ones that you want to attend regularly.
* Create something unique about your business. Most businesses have something that is unique to them how can you leverage your uniqueness?
* Record a training session. You are an expert at your business. You know more about your particular patch of the world than anyone else does. Record a 15-20 minute MP3 about the facts on roof insulation, or how to maintain your forklift or whatever you particularly know about and give this to your clients or prospective clients. While professional sound is ideal, you can still get a good result with a quality computer headset and free software such as Audacity. Good printers allow you to print directly to disc so you can create a professional looking CD-Rom to mail it out as part of your proposal pack.
* List your business on Google Maps & online directories. Many online directories are free to list your business. Find the best ones and include full details of your business. Google maps is essential fill in all of the details about your business so you can be found in search engines.
* Get Twittering. Twitter is free to join all it takes is time to learn what to do and how to do it. Use Twitter as a form of online networking forging relationships and sharing information rather than as a form of online store "buy this ... buy this". If you use it correctly you will get some great results in terms of growing your business. So there you have it 10 simple things to market your business that are free or very low cost. Now, there's no excuse not to be marketing your business!
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More small business marketing articles Successful Networking Strategies Ten Top Tips for the Perfect Business Card 5 Secrets to Attracting More Business Whenever You Open Your Mouth |
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