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The New Year has brought a number of inquiries from smaller companies asking for help with social media marketing and marketing in general. For those of us in the marketing field, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that not all businesses see things from a marketing perspective. Example: we had an end-of-year meeting with our CPA firm and will be doing some marketing consultation for them, I'm happy to say.
This is a women-owned firm, brilliant in the world of finance, tax prep and financial planning, but not big enough to warrant an in-house marketing expert. We mapped out an initial strategy, to capitalize on the lowest hanging fruit, and I thought I'd recap our discussion for the benefit of other small companies.
1. Know who your customers are so you can find more like them. Conduct a survey to find out what industry they are in, how many employees they have, general geography (how close or far away do you want to service a customer?)
2. Establish some initial objectives. Are you prospecting and looking for new leads? Introducing new products or services to current customers, asking for feedback on current performance?
3. Initiate an ongoing conversation with your current customers. Start a monthly e-newsletter, and before that, start gathering email addresses from everyone you do business with to that end. Assuming you have a website, start a blog to post updated information about the company more frequently and to start that dialog with your customers
4. Start gathering testimonials. You will find many uses for them as your marketing evolves. As soon as you have completed a job or transaction with a happy client, ask if they will provide you with a few sentences of testimonial, and confirm that you can use their name and company. If they can provide a headshot, or if you can video the testimonial, that's all the better. To make it very easy, you may want to write the statement yourself and send it to them for approval or changes.
5. Social Media Marketing. If your customers and prospects are participating in social media networks, pick an objective for your social media presence, and get started with a well-thought-through SM plan and schedule.
6. Create online visibility with geo specific websites. Yelp and others like them are great not just for restaurants and retail stores, but for professional services, consultants, service providers, coaches; in fact any business that would benefit by customer reviews.
Establish the initial strategy but make it simple. If your marketing plans are more complex than your company can handle, then nothing can succeed.Small companies don't have marketing departments, so be sure the objectives are manageable. Decide on tactics, the person or people who will be actually doing the work, and set a schedule. Then keep it.
Topic starter
Posted : 31/03/2010 6:03 am
Re: Small Business Marketing Tips
Hello,
Thanks for sharing these nice and wonderful tips. keep sharing your information like this,
Thank you
vanny
Posted : 31/03/2010 8:14 am
Re: Small Business Marketing Tips
Hi
# Seminars/ open house
Hosting an event is a great way to gain face time with key customers and prospects as well as get your company name circulating. With the right programming, you'll be rewarded with a nice turnout and media coverage. If it's a seminar, limit the attendance and charge a fee. A fee gives the impression of value. Free often connotes, whether intended or not, that attendees will have to endure a sales pitch.
# Bartering
This is an excellent tool to promote your business and get others to use your product and services. You can trade your product for advertising space or for another company's product or service. This is especially helpful when two companies on limited budgets can exchange their services.
# Mail Outs
Enclose your brochure, ad, flyer etc. in all your outgoing mail. It doesn't cost any additional postage and you'll be surprised at who could use what you're offering.
Thanks
Posted : 31/03/2010 10:00 am
Re: Small Business Marketing Tips
Market research indicates a specific and growing need in the area for the products and services Interior Views offers in the market it serves. The market strategy will be based on a cost effective approach to reach this clearly defined target market. The three-phase approach will utilize resources to create awareness of the store and encourage customers to benefit from the convenience and services it offers. Interior Views will focus on its selection, accessibility of product, design services, and competitive pricing.
Have a nice day
Posted : 06/04/2010 6:24 am
Re: Small Business Marketing Tips
Setting up your business on the Internet can be a lucrative way to attract customers, expand your market and increase sales. View SBA's free Online E-Commerce Course to learn how to build a website and manage an online business. For the most part, the steps to starting an online business are the same as starting any business. However, doing business online comes with additional legal and financial considerations, particularly in the areas of privacy, security, copyright, and taxation.Rules and regulations for conducting e-commerce apply mainly to online retailers and other business that perform consumer transactions by collecting customer data. However, even if you do not sell anything online, laws covering digital rights and online advertising may still apply to you.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the primary federal agency regulating e-commerce activities, including use of commercial e-mails, online advertising and consumer privacy. FTC's E-Commerce Guide provides an overview of e-commerce rules and regulations.
Posted : 08/04/2010 7:17 am
Re: Small Business Marketing Tips
There are many ways that you can market your business without spending any money. While it might be difficult to do an entire no-cost marketing plan that is effective and efficient, many of these ten ideas will definitely help stretch your marketing dollars. While free, some of these tips do require effort, and you may have to learn new skills, but others are so simple everyone can and should be doing them.
1. Say “thank you” to your customers. This is rather obvious, but many businesses do not have a “formal” process in place for saying thank you or showing appreciation to their customers. Say it verbally if possible, send an email, pick up the phone. Let your customers know you don’t take them for granted.
2. Free online classifieds and link listing. Don’t get carried away with this, but do take advantage of some of the free ad space online. Typically if you search one of the major search engines for “Your industry + add link you can find a few decent sites where you can list your business for free.
3. Article submission. There are many, many online article submission sites. The deal is that you write an article that others can use in their ezines or on their websites and in exchange, they give you “credit” at the end of the article in the form of an “author bio” or credit paragraph. Search for “article submission.” The more closely related the article is to your industry, the better. And, please triple-check grammar, spelling, and logic.
4. Publicity. This one has been around forever. Write press releases, and submit them to the local media and to online press sites. Learn about press releases first if you do no know how to write them. Press releases should be “newsworthy” and properly written.
Posted : 14/04/2010 3:45 am
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