21 Ways to Promote Your Business Successfully
by Andre Plessis
I always feel sorry when I am approached by
someone who has no clue on how to advertise his or her business. For me there
are
three components to succeed in business:
You MUST have passion for your business.
How can you possibly succeed in your business if you do not love what you do.
Not everybody was born lucky as Pete Sampras,
Leonardo DiCaprio or Tiger Woods who found something they loved very young and
quickly became highly successful.
Most people may have to wait longer to find something they really love and hope
to find the success they expect. It took me 6
years to find what I like and that was being a marketing consultant. Before that
I tried many things, but I was never
successful because I did not have any passion for those business. The biggest
challenge is to quickly realize if you like
that business or not. If you do not have the passion for it, you'll never be
successful. If you are passionate about what you
do, you will most likely work long hours, have fun and help a lot of customers
with your business. Please be smart and if you
are trying to launch a business you may want to avoid starting an online
business where you will be selling items like gifts
baskets.
Just think about it. How many people go online and buy gift baskets online? What
are their chances to find your site among
billions of other sites? The Internet is a place where many people go to find
information. So if you decide to sell selling
gifts baskets online you may want to think twice. Another type of business I
would probably think twice before I start that
type of business is if you have to compete with big chains, such as The Home
Depot, Pizza Hut, WalMart etc...
You need to have a little budget to advertise your business.
Well I guess you probably realize that you need some money to advertise your
business. You do not necessarily need a lot of
money but you need some if not the phone will never ring. I say you do not
necessarily need a lot of money as you may think
because I started my business from home with no money. I was doing cold calls to
businesses. During the first three months of
my business I did a little online advertising and believe or not but after only
3 months my business kicked off and I never
had to make a cold call again.
Conclusion: There are many forms of advertising you can use to grow your
business and you do not need to spend a lot of
money.
Marketing your business.
That is not an easy task when you are just starting in business and there are no
mentors to help you. Many people feel
hopeless
When they first begin to devise a marketing plan for their business. One of the
most important factors is deciding how you
will get potential customers' attention. Here are some tips to make them notice
you so you will standout from your
competition.
There are many forms of advertising your business.
a) Flyer distribution
b) Direct mail advertising
c) TV advertising
d) Radio advertising
e) E-mail marketing
f) Banner advertising
g) E-mail co-registration
h) Pop advertising
i) Pay per click search engines advertising Cost Per Click (CPC)
j) Lead generation - Cost Per (Lead CPA)
k) Keyword advertising
l) Newspaper advertising
m) Affiliate programs
n) Yellow pages/online yellow pages
o) Viral marketing
p) Coupon advertising
How do you attract new prospects or get more sales from past clients? Here are
21 techniques that will help succeed in your
efforts to market your business.
1) Offer what your competitors don’t!
Study your competitors to see what benefits your competitors are (or are not)
offering their customers, and see if your
business can offer an added benefit such as free consultation, free delivery,
free upgrades, free information booklet, free
sample(s) etc. -- to your customers to help increase the value of your product
or service to prospective clients.
Announce this new "benefit" in your promotional materials. This is probably the
most important of the 21 techniques to
increase your sales and learn how to market your business. Ask yourself the
following questions:
WHAT DO I OFFER THAT NO ONE ELSE OFFER?
WHAT CAN I OFFER THAT WILL MAKE MY OFFER SO IRRESISTIBLE THAT IT WOULD BE
FOOLISH TO REFUSE IT?
Once you answer those two questions you won’t have anymore problems with
competition.
2) Study your customers
As you get clients, invite them to share their
feedback. Use this information improve your business but to also send reminder
notes, thank you letters, and even birthday
cards. That will demonstrate to them how important they are to you.
3) Special offer!
Send a notice to your clients and prospects and let them now you have a special
deal for them. Let them know as well that
this is a special for them only and no one else can get this deal.
4) Frequent-buyer program
Create a frequent-buyer program that let your clients use points or credits to
get products for free or get discount towards
future purchase. (i.e) buy 9 coffees and the 10th one will be Free).
5) Product combos at special pricing
Put together product combos at special prices. This not only sells more
products, but also may help create loyal customers by
including a product they might not have thought they needed. Make sure your
combos represent great value.
6) Web deal
Have special Web-only deals. This works well if you also have a retail shop, but
it will work either way. As long as
you have information available that allows customers to buy by phone or fax, you
can have specials for those who use the Web.
7) Free shipping or delivery
Offer free shipping or handling within the country or a certain geographic area.
8) Introductory offer
Create a higher "perceived value" for your customers by adding free samples,
introductory offers, coupons for future
discounts, etc.
9) Price
Price your products competitively. Remember, people shop around. Make sure you
don't price your product
too low, or people might think it's of a lower quality; but price your products
too high, and people won't buy at all. The
moral here: Do your pricing research on your Web competitor's products before
you price your own products/services.
10) Upsale your customers
Use the Amazon.com technique of adding a "Customers who purchased this product
also bought these items...." section to
encourage customers to buy additional related products. You can also offer a few
upgrades and make higher sales.
12) Call to action
With any advertising materials, it's crucial that you get potential customers to
act. Now! Use the following techniques to
create a call to action that will increase your sales:
GIVE A DEADLINE FOR ORDERING
We've all received some sort of promotional material that has a deadline for
ordering. The offer could end on that date.
Or you could use the deadline in conjunction with an upgrade or free gift. For
example, order by the 15th and receive....
Also, try to make the cut off date in the same month as your materials will be
received. That way, your potential customers
know they only have a limited time to respond and they won't fall victim to the
"I'll do it later" syndrome.
ADVISE OF A PRICE INCREASE
People want to get in on a good deal. If your price is going up on a specific
date, let your customers know. They'll want to
buy before your product's price increases.
13) Create a newsletter
You need to create a newsletter to stay in touch with your past clients and
prospects to remind them about your offering.
Your newsletter should be very valuable if not you will lose all credibility and
all possible chances of doing business with
them in the future. It is very important to Write articles that demonstrate your
expertise in your field.
14) Cold calling
Get on the telephone and make "cold calls." These are calls to people who you
would like to do business with. Briefly
describe what you do and ask for an appointment to talk to them about ways you
can help them meet a need or solve a problem.
16) Free samples
Get samples of your product or your work into as many hands as possible.
17) Free quote
Offer a free, no obligation consultation to people you think could use your
services. During such consultations offer some
practical suggestions or ideas -- and before you leave ask for an "order" to
implement the ideas.
19) Referrals
Learn to ask existing customers, prospects and casual acquaintances for
referrals. When you get them, follow up on the leads.
20) Use other people to sell your product or service.
Look for existing mail order companies that would be willing to include your
products in their catalogs, or for distributors
or sales agents who would be willing to sell your products or services. If you
have a website get affiliates to sell your
products and services. An affiliate program is any type of revenue sharing
program where an affiliate web site receives a
portion of income for delivering sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant web site
21) Get noticed by "revitalizing" your business
If you have been in business for awhile, see what you can do to inject some
excitement into your business (i.e.) "New and
Improved!" You can re-invent your logo; get a Website or update it be more
interactive; announce a new "mission statement,"
for serving your customers with improved services or products, or other ways to
let people know you are progressive with your
business to better serve them.
Anticipating future market needs and changes is as important as satisfying
current markets. New technology, growing
international trade, improved communications and increasingly sophisticated
buyers have all increased the pressures on
suppliers to make continuous improvements in their products and services.
A world of continuous change means markets grow, mature and disappear much
faster now. Companies must continually assess the
value of the markets they are in, planning, if necessary, to enter new ones for
growth or survival.
Author & Marketing Consultant
Savings4Merchants
http://savings4Merchants.com
Big
Marketing Ideas Without The Big Spending!
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