How to Choose The Best Marketing Tactics For Your Business?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by anna

With so many marketing strategy options to choose from to market your business these days, it is challenging knowing where to start and which strategy is best for your business.

It’s somewhat like going to a restaurant with an unlimited menu. It can be hard to separate the best from the rest.

A great marketing tactic meets three criteria -

  • It reaches your most qualified prospects.
  • It puts your message in the right context.
  • And it gives you enough space/time to tell prospects what to do.

For achieve real success with your marketing tactic make sure you include a call-to-action. This can be as simple as a special offer in an ad, or as complex as a direct mail package with multiple offers. The most effective tactic always tells prospects what to do next.

Tactical Ideas

If you’re struggling to come up with tactics, here’s a virtual smorgasbord of ideas to get you started:

Online Advertising – Display ads on targeted sites, including skyscrapers and the new half- page ads, and ads in online newsletters that reach qualified opt-in lists are often affordable options.

Direct Marketing – Try direct mail, whether individual pieces sent to a targeted market or targeted areas. Email opt-in lists are a lower-cost alternative to traditional direct marketing and work best in combination with an effective Web site.

Print Advertising – There are many options for display and classified ads, depending on where and what your target market read.  You can advertise in trade, local and industry specific magazines.

Non-traditional Media – From stickers on fruit in supermarkets to your message on stadium snack trays, here’s your chance to be highly creative.

Shows and Displays – Consumer expos, trade shows and conferences provide one-on-one
time with prospects. For manufacturers and distributors, retail displays make products stand out from others on the shelves.

Public Relations – There are many forms of PR, from media relations, special events to promotions. Lower-cost tactics include articles written for targeted Web sites and participation in discussion lists frequented by your target audience.

The list can go on and on. The most important strategy you can take is action. By implementing one strategy at a time, testing and measuring you will soon start to see success in your marketing results.

Posted in Business Coaching, Business growth, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Use Social Media to Build Your Business?

Posted on March 29, 2011 by anna

Let’s face it social media is here and it would appear it is here to stay. Everyone is part of it – and if you’re not you’ll be missing out on what is happening in the world. This huge wave of interest at a personal level has also created a massive buzz in the business world as well.

So businesses are now becoming curious as to how they use social media to help grow their business. And most importantly generate another stream of clients and profits into their business.

Let’s take a step back first……What is Social Media?

Social Media is a website that allows you to share information and to connect people from all over the world in a collaborative environment. There are an abundance of social media websites, however the five most popular sites are:

  • YouTube where you can upload videos and share them to the world
  • Twitter which allows you to blog and post 1-3 lines about your life
  • Facebook where you can play games, post in your friends’ profiles, and comment on their updates anytime
  • LinkedIn a social networking site devoted purely to business-related social networking
  • Flickr where you can post and share interesting photos of yourself as well as anything else that catches your eye.

Plus so many more…….

The Big Question………….How to I use social media to build my businesses?

What makes social media so good, well everyone is on it. From kids, teens, adults, the elderly to people’s pets. A vast majority of the population is actively logging on everyday to update and connect with friends, family and the world. What is means for business is that there is a lot of information about people and in particular their target markets all in one place.

In saying all of this, for business there is so much to take advantage, advertise/promote and connect with an audience that they would otherwise have never been exposed too.

So if you’re ready to take advantage of social networking I suggest you read on.

  • Pick a niche or a product that your target audience would want or would be interested in. Start by choosing a product or a topic that would appeal to your target market.
  • Create your own accounts in your chosen social medium so that your customers can access information about you, your products/services and your offer directly.
  • Utilize the social media website’s tools and features as much as you can. Upload videos, post photos, update your statuses, and of course, get to know your interested customers by replying to their questions and thanking them if they give you positive or critical feedback.
  • Look into the advertising opportunities within the social networking sites, and design a pay-per-click advertisement targeted at your target market’s interests. The procedure for advertising varies with each social networking site, but all sites feature comprehensive instructions to make it easier for you. NOTE: Make sure your ad charges per click rather than per impression. That way, you’re paying on results not on the hope that someone has noticed your advertisement.
  • Use social media to advertise your products/services/free offer. This forms part of your lead generation strategy. You need to entice your community into your marketing funnel by offering free giveaways and good quality information.

Finally, you need to have a consistent presence. People need to hear from you regularly and you need to provide good quality information. Social media is just another means to get people to Know You, Like You and Trust You. So do what you can to make that happen through this platform.

Good luck!

Posted in Blog, Business Coaching, Business growth, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Build a Money Making Database?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by anna

Did you know that your database is Gold!

If you haven’t heard this yet, then you need to listen up.

Your database is your business, if you have no database or a limited qualified list of prospects and clients on your database you will find your business will plateau.

To have a successful business, doesn’t mean you have to have access to a huge database list. While big marketing databases are great if they are well managed, clean, active AND interested in your products and services, the sad fact is that often with size comes neglect or poor management.

Most businesses take the easy route, because they know no other way, to build their database fast, like buying lists, this is a sure-fire way to put a massive number of contacts into your database fast, however the return on investment is usually so poor, that it’s not worth the effort.  Think about it, how often have you been contacted by a company via email, only to wonder… who is this and how did they get my details? Chances are, you’ll either not open it, hit delete, or unsubscribe immediately – therefore all the effort has been wasted.

In comparison, consider the business with a smaller database of active contacts who are interested in what you have to say. And most importantly Know You, Like You and Trust You. These contacts enjoy receiving and reading your emails, they click on your offers, take the time to digest your information, respond, refer friends and most importantly buy.  So tell me now which type of database would you prefer?

So how do you build a database with clean and active contacts?

Firstly it is important to realise that you need to constantly build your database, as over time there will be a natural attrition – an ebb and flow of interest in your business.

So I’m about going to share with you effective ways to increase the number of contacts on your database daily…

1.     Become familiar with popular social networking sites such as Facebook, You Tube and twitter.  Join groups and meet people that are interested in your niche or better still set up your own  group directing people to your website or give them the option to sign up to your email list.

2.     Advertise on social networking sites, using Pay Per Click, to generate opt-in subscribers from a specific demographic. Make sure your ad appeals to them, and that the information their receiving lives up to their expectations of you.

3.     Use forum or blogs to spread the word about your products and services.  There are literally thousands of forums you can target that are in line with your business and then simply start participating in the discussion.  The key is to use ones that are interested in your topic or subject.

4.     Take advantage of the fact that you are an expert in what you are selling or the services you provide, so start letting people know.  You can do this by writing articles and marketing to them. To make your articles go viral you can do this by using article repositories e.g. www.ezinearticles.com, on your website, in your eNewsletters, in other people’s eNewsletters, forums, blogs, noticeboards, PR, in magazines and newspapers and other offline media.

5.     If you have a product, set up a classified ad on ebay.  People spend hours surfing ebay, it is a great way to target visitors and show them what you have to offer.

6.     It is essential that you have a sign-up box on your website, make sure you have something really cool to give away for Free that you target market want and will benefit from.  Add this to every page of your website.

7.     Advertise, Advertise, Advertise. Cheaper than traditional media, the owners of email newsletters often allow advertising or cross promotion within their eNewsletters at cost-effective prices. This is a great way to get specific and target your demographic in a database that has not seen your brand before. Make sure, however, that your ad links to your opt-in form and response email to ensure smooth and automated communications.

8.     On your website have a “contact us” form.  If visitors choose to contact you and ask a question or provide feedback, they need to input their contact details – these details should be added to your database.

9.     Ensure your website is well written, the content is interesting, well laid out and appealing. This will encourage visitors to check you out, read what you have to say and sign-up to your email list so they can be kept updated about your products and services.

10.  Utilise your online strategy offline. For example, “advertise” your Freebie item on the bottom of your email, back of your business card and other printed material, ask people at Networking functions if they’d like your free information, have a hard-copy opt-in form at your cash register, run competitions and/or surveys etc.

Building your database won’t happen overnight but it will happen as long as you take action to build an effective database.  Make sure as your database grows you provide your users with quality content that keeps them coming back for more.

Posted in Business Coaching, Business growth, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Try this Simple Exercise to Help with Your Marketing!

Posted on March 3, 2011 by anna

Marketing is no different do many other things you do in business. If you do it right, you will get want you want and see results.

It comes back to having your clear vision, if have a clear picture of precisely what you want to attract, the easier it is to attract them.

This is a simple exercise that will help you focus on the types of clients you most want to attract.

I know you’ll probably do this exercise reluctantly because you don’t have time, you think you already know or you don’t think it’s important for your business right now.

However I’m guessing you will actually find it an eye opening experience.

What I am going to help you create is your Prospect Profile.

All you need to do is fill in the blanks. WARNING, this does require some thought.

__________________________

John (or Jane) is your ideal prospect. He is ___years old.

His three biggest frustrations are _____________, ________________ and _____________.

He is afraid of ______________________________________.

Sometimes he even wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about_________________.

What three specific outcomes does he want immediately to happen?

1.

2.

3.

His biggest concern about hiring a company to solve his problem is ___________________.

When he goes to the Internet to find a solution to this problem, he’ll most likely enter the keywords into Google such as __________________, __________________, and _______________.

The biggest reasons he would not buy from me would probably be ____________________, __________________________, and _________________________.

Right now he gets most of information about the services/products I provide from such as _____________________, ________________________, and ________________________.

In trying to solve his problem, he’s not able to_____________________________________.

To help him achieve his specific outcome #1, I will offer him_________________________.

To help him achieve his specific outcome #2, I will offer him_________________________.

To help him achieve his specific outcome #3, I will offer him_________________________.

________________________________

I’ll admit that these are not the easiest questions to answer, and it will likely take some thought, reflection and even some research. But I am a big believer that when it comes to marketing, we get what put out there.

Good luck!

Posted in Branding, Business growth, Business mindset, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

13 Ways To Grow Your Database!

Posted on February 23, 2011 by anna

Your database is the core of business and the holy grail of marketing – whether online or offline marketing.  Your database consists of people who have said Yes, I want to “follow” you and I’m interested in what you have to say.

Remember though: not everyone in your database will buy from you, however that is where 99% of your sales will come from.  If you keep in regular contact with the people in your database via some kind of marketing communications such as ezines, newsletters, emails, direct mail, phone calls, etc then you more likely to be top of mind for them.

Many small business owners and solopreneurs do not spend enough time or allocate enough marketing tactics to continually building their database.  This means as a business owner you have to be doing things that are reminding people to sign up for your newsletter, ebook, product etc so you can add them to your database – in return for some valuable content and information.

Here are some ways that you can be using to let people know about signing up for your database:

  1. Put your newsletter/email sign-up form on the top of every page of your website.
  2. Include your website/blog/podcast website address in your email footers and signatures.
  3. Do a joint venture with other newsletters so that when people sign up for that person’s newsletter, your newsletter is also listed for them to check off if they’d like to receive it.  
  4. Make sure that your shopping cart includes a way for people to opt-in after they’ve purchased something.
  5. Be sure to give value when talking to prospects and at the end of the conversation, give them an option to sign up for future mailings and communications.
  6. Place your website address in large letters on your product packaging.
  7. Allow people to pass along your electronic communications with a “Forward this to a Friend” button.
  8. Include an opt in your client monthly billing.
  9. Put your newsletter opt-in website address on the footer of all your marketing materials ie brochure page.  If your catalogue/brochure is electronic make the opt-in box “live”.
  10. In your voice mail and any hold message announcements include an option for people to go to your website and/or opt in to your free stuff.
  11. With any direct mail campaigns invite people to visit your website to sign up for your free-giveaway.
  12. At any events you hold, have a business card bowl at the entrance, to collect people’s business cards so you can send them cool free stuff later on.  Or even better have a computer for them to sign up “live”.
  13. Develop joint venture relationships with other businesses to promote your products and/or services to their database.

Where to from here……

Take a look at this list and pick out 5 things you can start implementing right now.  Then next week pick another 5 and so on.  Remember that your database is like gold – so keep adding prospects to it and your “gold mine” will never run dry!

Posted in Business growth, Lead Generation, Marketing, Sales, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Are you Making the Most of Facebook for Your Business?

Posted on February 15, 2011 by anna

There’s a lot of hype around at the moment regarding the recent changes to Facebook. It’s all in an aim to make Facebook work better for us the end user, however keeping up to date with the changes is the biggest challenge.

Today I thought I would share with you how you can get more out of your Facebook page. A lot of it has to do with what tools you choose.

It would appear that uploading videos, check in with Facebook Places, share some photos — hitting the Like button isn’t enough. Facebook assigns the most weight, or value, to these kinds of content types, roughly in this order:

1.       Video

Facebook definitely favours video. With Facebook members sharing more than 10 million videos a month, Facebook believes that video increases engagement of its users and most importantly time spent on the site. And therefore Facebook has made it super-easy to post a video.

Sharing a link to a YouTube video or embedding a YouTube video definitely increases your visibility?

2.       Facebook Places updates.

If you’re a mobile user of Facebook, you probably have already got into the habit of checking in with Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places. You can use Places on most mobile phone and is now awarding members using geolocation updates.

It would also appear that Facebook Places gives more weight than to its competitors such as Foursquare and Gowalla.

3.       Photos and photo tagging.

The next best way to improve your Facebook views is to upload photos to the site. Facebook members today upload more than 4 billion photos per month, making Facebook by far the largest photo sharing site on the Web.

Adding a photo tag will immediately get your photo noticed, assuming the person is one of your friends or you have their email address.

4.       Share.

Fascinating as you are, it’s not all about you. Use the Share button to share interesting updates from friends and Pages you follow. But don’t overdo it, and be sure to add your own personal twist or insightful, provocative observations.

5.       Link.

The Link option allows you to share content from the external sources and adding your own comment.  It seems there is no difference in results between directing users to an external site vs. embedding YouTube videos on your Facebook Page. So Facebook doesn’t reward people for remaining within Facebook.

6.       Status updates & Wall posts.

Let your friends now what you are up to. If you are in business it’s about providing education through tips, blogs, sharing information to build your credibility. Facebook is it not the place for selling, remember it’s a social community. If someone wants to know more about they will can check out your website.

7.       Comments.

If your posts attract comments from your friends, it raises your visibility, because your comment will be seen in their NewsFeed.  Remember comment in a helpful way, it takes time however it is a great way to build authority.

8.       Likes.

Like away — it’s an incredibly powerful tool.  Like news articles, updates and comments on others sites.

Using lots of Likes doesn’t mean you’ll appear in others’ news feeds, however start to solidify your reputation as a peer and supporter. Let loose and pass out Likes in your own comment threads.

When you Like the comments of the people who comment on your postings means you potentially draw them back to the thread (by sending them a notification), helping to keep it alive and growing, and you also encourage them to comment on your postings in the future.

That’s a rundown how you can now take your Facebook to a new level for your business. Schedule time in your day and start commenting, posting, reading, liking it all helps to build your community of people you would never have been exposed to if it weren’t for the world wide web.

Posted in Business growth, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

10 Killer Sales Tips For Your Business

Posted on February 10, 2011 by anna

We have been getting feedback from clients that they are having problems converting leads into sales.

Some people get confused when it comes to the difference between sales and marketing. Both marketing and sales are vitally important to your business but there is a difference between the two.

Marketing is what gets people to WANT your services. Sales are what get people to BUY your service.

If you’re having trouble making sales you need to see whether you have a sales or marketing problem.

Today we are going to talk about lead conversion.  How do you convert leads into sales?

Here are the Business Bootique tips for converting more leads into sales: 

1. Obtain leads from anywhere you can. The more leads you obtain, the more sales that can occur. Everywhere you go, talk to people and hand out business cards. Everyone is a potential lead, or may be able to refer you to a potential lead.

2. Have a strategy. Make sure you are talking to, handing out your business cards to and networking with the right people. Learn to work smarter and not harder, you will reap the rewards.

3. Categorize each lead into three categories, “A” category are the ones most likely to purchase something very soon, “B” leads are those that are most likely going to buy, at some point. And “C” leads are the ones that you are not sure about, but want to keep in touch with just in case. Contact your “A” leads the most often, perhaps weekly, while “C” leads may only get a monthly newsletter.

4. Keep a blog, or an updated website. Updating often is the key. This keeps your clients in touch with the industry, and they will turn to you as the professional. Update on all current information, trends and/or news within the business. This is a quick and easy way to stay top of mind with your potential clients.

5. Follow up instantly it is often the differentiator between one business and another.

6. Do something special for your lead and never let them forget you.  Make it a priority to do something special right away.  Send them a card, invite them to an invite, take them out to lunch. Make a list of things you can do for your A list prospects and take action.

7. Get some training in sales – If you are serious about growing your business you need to take sales seriously. 

8. Learn effective Rapport Building skills- Get some rapport building training.  Rapport is essential and the No 1 skill for effective selling.

9. Learn how to handle objections – When someone says to you “you are too expensive”.  What do you say? Overcome objections. If a lead is threatening to walk away, you need to find out why. Can you overcome their objection? Often times a lead may have more questions or will let you know why they are saying no at this time. Is it cost? Can you offer them financing or another option? Whatever their objection, work on overcoming it. Never forget – the key to overcoming objections is to make it about them and not about you.

10. Make more calls and keep in touch with warm leads. Again make the most of your time and only call warm leads rather than cold leads. A sale then becomes about building a relationship rather than forcing a sale. Less scary.

You now have simple, effective and proven tips to improving your sales. Either learn how to get better yourself or get trained in Sales.  Getting better at selling is a MUST for nearly all businesses.

Happy Selling!

Anna and Kim

Posted in Business growth, Business mindset, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Getting New Clients Boils Down to TWO Things!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by anna

You might be familiar with them already, however how effectively do you use both of these strategies.

In marketing circles they’re known as “Push” and “Pull”. Let me explain these to you more and how they apply to you and your business.

A “Push” marketing strategy involves pushing yourself onto your prospects, this is in the hope that you can convince them, that you have a service or product they should buy. The classic example of the push strategy is cold calling.

Does it work?

Sure. However you need to be weary of its pitfalls.

It’s labor intensive…not a whole lot of fun…and you get lots of rejections.

On the positive side, it relatively cost effective, doesn’t take a lot of time or thought, so is you have a lot of time on your hands, it’s something to do.

Who knows you may even get something from it.

For most business owners, with limited time and who offer high value services, the “Push” marketing strategy just isn’t effective business.

So let’s look at – “Pull” marketing.

Pull Marketing is all about attracting clients to you by offering prospects something interesting for free, which enables you to stay in touch-building trust & credibility-and eventually turning prospects into paying clients.

It’s all about getting your prospects knocking on your door for business rather than you knocking on their door asking for their business.

It’s hard to argue against a strategy that basically says, “Give prospects something interesting for free and then stay in touch with them.”

Because many business undertake this strategy and still don’t work, while others don’t believe it will work.

What makes this strategy successful, what’s the secret?

When this “Pull Marketing” strategy doesn’t work, it’s got nothing to do with the strategy.

It’s all about the message you’re communicating.

The reality is that most people’s marketing messages are…

*Just like their competitors…and/or
*All about them and not about their prospects….and/or
* Incredibly boring.

You need to be unique, have a unique story to grab your prospects attention.

Think about it, we are flooded with advertising, marketing and sales marketing these days how do we filter them out. One way is to be unique.

Unfortunately, most people don’t give a lot of thought to their unique sales stories. They use whatever first pops in their head, or copy what their competitors are doing.

Which means their marketing message gets ignored.

The fact is many businesses use the Pull Marketing strategy, but few are successful. And I’d guess that 99% of those who aren’t successful, say “The process doesn’t work.”

The process works-it’s the messaging that’s off.

To be successful you need to come up with the following answers to these questions, specially for your business…if not, yep it probably won’t work.

*What are your unique advertising, marketing & sales stories?

*The ones only you can tell?

*The ones that gets prospects interested in learning more about who you are and the value you bring to your clients?

If you haven’t developed those yet, it’s time to start. Join us for your Kick Start Your Marketing Program to determine your Uniqueness and how to incorporate them into a marketing system that will bring you consistent streams of brand new business.

Cheerio

Posted in Business growth, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Four Easy Steps to Get Results

Posted on January 19, 2011 by anna

Most business owners have had an experience with marketing, whether it be good or bad. What it all really comes down to was whether it was worth your time and money for the results you achieved. And these may not always be related. You can pay the same price for poor results as you would for great results.

It all comes down to the effort you put into your marketing even before you take any action.

By planning your marketing well, you can plan where, who and how you will target your marketing which means you will inevitably get better results.

Here is an easy and effective method to plan your marketing so you can see better results without spending more money.

  1. 1.     Understand your strengths

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Why do people buy from you?
  • What do you really do for your clients?
  • How are you better than your competition?
  • What special skills or advantages do you have?

Once you answer these questions you will identify your competitive advantage or unique selling proposition. They could relate to price, location, professional skills, attitude, responsiveness or your own personality.

People buy from you because you do something for them no one else does. Understand this and you’ve taken the first step to better marketing.

  1. 2.     Identify your customers (your target market)

To promote your business you should focus on people who value what you do. Your strengths (or competitive advantages) will help you focus on who will most value your service or product.

To get an idea of who your target market is, look at your current clients. Or, look at your profit margins to decide which type of clients to focus on. You might have several target markets because you have several products or services and a variety of strengths.

Bottom line: focus on people who will place a high value on what you can do for them. These people will be your most loyal and profitable clients.

  1. 3.     Create a meaningful message

The key in successful marketing is to deliver the right message to the right people as often as your budget allows. You need to create a message that tells your target market why they should do business with you.

Your message should reflect your strengths because those are what you do best. And, your message should specifically relate to your target market and their problems, interests and challenges.

In other words speak in their language and say what they want to hear.

Example:

You’re a Realtor and your strength is that you sell houses fast and your target market is people who want their houses sold fast, then your message might be:

“I sell houses fast!”

And you can give them some details to demonstrate how you sell houses faster than anyone else (such as statistics and testimonials).

Another example:

If you are a chiropractor and your strength is that you help get rid of back pain and you help your patients prevent it from coming back, then your target market might be people with chronic back pain who want it to stop, forever.

Your message might be:

“We get rid of back pain now and we prevent it from coming back later.”

Your message comes directly from your strengths and your target market. The three work together naturally and simply.

You can have more than one message. Each marketing focus (based on a product or service, a target market and a strength) should have its own message.

To get you started, work on one message. Then as you develop a system that works, add other messages to your marketing system. Don’t overwhelm yourself right away by trying to do too much.

  1. 4.     Deliver your message as often as your budget allows

Now you have to find the most appropriate delivery vehicles (or media) for your marketing messages.

There are three things to remember as you plan how to deliver your message:

  1. Set a budget
  2. Get the most exposure possible for that budget
  3. Focus your exposure on your target group

Unless your budget is unlimited, you need to choose delivery vehicles that focus your message.

For example, if you majority of your clients live within two kms of your business, then you might focus your message delivery on people who live within two kms of your business. This gives you the ability to repeat your message to them multiple times, putting the power of repetition to work for you.

There are many ways to deliver your message: advertising, direct mail, networking, phone calls or personal visits. Some less direct ways might be to teach classes or offer seminars on topics that relate to your product or service. Other ways might be to sponsor events or partner with a non for profit organisation.

Whatever you do, try to achieve a balanced mix of media when delivering your message. This increases awareness of your business and multiplies the impact of your message.

Happy planning!

Posted in Business Coaching, Business growth, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Small Business, unique selling proposition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Do You Play A Small Game Yet Expect Big Results?

Posted on January 11, 2011 by anna

Does this sound like you?

You’re a business owner. You wear many hats and fulfil many roles. Yet all you want to do is focus on what you do best and that’s run your business.

When you went into business, did you realise that you needed to dedicate time to get clients, grow and marketing your business? As you thought it would all just happen, isn’t that how it happens for other businesses?

Mmm, you soon start to realise clients and new business don’t come knocking on your door. This is when you start to hear the word, Marketing, and are asked how, when and where are you marketing your business.

Simply stated, marketing is everything you do to find and place your product or service in the hands of your potential clients. Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) so that you can achieve your objectives (greater profits).

First step is to take the time to consider what role you want to play in marketing your business, products and services.

  • Do you have the time and expertise to create a marketing plan and implement it throughout the year?
  • Are you well-versed in creative copywriting and graphic design for your promotional materials, such as postcards, direct mail letters, signage, or flyers?
  • Do you know the ins and outs of online marketing and email marketing? Do you know how to gain new leads through offline and online marketing?
  • What about search engine optimization for your website? How much time do you have to devote to this on a regular basis?
  • Have you ever been involved in managing a marketing campaign and all of the various elements that support it?

There’s definitely more to marketing a business than meets the eye.

Coupled with all the other functions and roles you must address each day, it’s a good idea to map out your Marketing Strategy early on in your business development or yearly for more established businesses.

Perhaps, you set boundaries.

You might only tackle so many hours each week to more simple marketing activities, while the other, more complex, services are outsourced. For instance, maybe you handle the local print advertising each quarter, while you outsource the search engine optimization services for your website. You could also outsource all your marketing to a company that is an expert in this area to get your marketing on track and get results.

Alternatively, you can undertake all of it on your own, if you have more time than budget. There’s a wealth of information available to you on the Internet regarding the topic of marketing a business. Keep in mind that that the more targeted effort you put into marketing your business the greater your bottom line!

Happy Marketing!

Posted in Business Coaching, Business growth, Business Planning, Lead Generation, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Small Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments