These Powerful Small Business Marketing Tips Are Guaranteed
to Dramatically Increase Your Sales!
If you are like many entrepreneurs, you are looking for
small business marketing tips that not only work, but work
consistently. If you're ready to take the your small
business to the next level, you need to look at marketing
differently.
This may seem obvious but, over 97% of the time, your small
business marketing should have one of two goals: 1. Result
in a sale. 2. Result in a lead or prospect.
The other 3% of the cases include your community service
marketing like memberships in Rotary, Kiwanis and
organizations to which you belong.
Marketing Shouldn't be a Mystery!
Small business owners often see marketing as a mystery and
don't know what works for their business. Not knowing what
to do leads to either copying competitor's poor marketing
or their falling prey to media and agency reps who often
know less about marketing than them! The reps are taught to
tell you, the small business owner, the goal of your
marketing is to build your brand.
The ground is littered with failed small businesses who
fell for this brand-building fallacy. Don't misunderstand
me here. I strongly believe in advertising as a pillar of
your marketing system but you must view all your marketing
as an investment, not as a trial to see what works if
people know your name.
Another Small Business Marketing Tip:
Look at advertising as you would a sales ep. Would you
hire a sales rep to build your brand and "get your name out
there?" If they never close and sale and you're losing
money, do you keep them on board? Of course not! You don't
keep them around longer or pay them more money. You make a
change.
Do you see the analogy? Your sales people and advertising
are both marketing investments. Why continue advertising
that doesn't generate profits?
Remember that everything in your business is part of your
marketing. You either move clients and prospects towards or
away from a buying decision. When you look at everything
you do as part of your marketing investment, you begin to
consider how to leverage it in every possible way to
increase profits.
7 Powerful Small Business Marketing Strategies That Will
Grow YOUR Business!
1. Develop a powerful (USP) that gives prospects a
compelling reason to buy from you now. Your USP must scream
a powerful reason to do business with you. It motivates
your clients to send friends in droves to buy your product
or service! This small business marketing tip has built
small companies into empires! Remember the little pizza
company that guaranteed fresh hot pizza in 30 minutes or
less - Or it's free?
Make an outrageous and exciting claim that shows that you
are better than anybody else and the best thing for a
prospect can do is buy from you now!
2. Learn selling and customer service skills. Advertising
legend Clyde Bedell taught us "That all good selling is
service." Service and sales go tightly together. When you
cross-sell, you provide a tremendous service. You save
clients the time and aggravation of having to search
elsewhere to complete the purchase.
Marketing legend Dan Kennedy sums up this concept
beautifully by saying "People are walking around holding an
umbilical cord and saying, "Tell me what to do." Your
clients and prospects need and value your recommendations
and will follow them so make a habit of providing them!
3. Capture client and prospect information and create a
database. Take a moment to ask yourself the last time a
retailer or restaurant asked you name or asked you to
return. In general, it is NEVER! Think of how far ahead of
your competition you can be by capturing this information
to build a relationship with your clients.
4. Use your database to keep in touch. Send thank you
notes. (Super car salesman Joe Girardi is in the Guinness
book of records for selling more cars than anybody. His
secret? he sent all of his clients monthly greeting cards
and thank you notes.) Send special offers, discount gift
cards, birthday cards and invitations to "special client
days." Always thank them for their past business and give
them a special offer as a reason to return and always have
a deadline for your offer. 5. Start a newsletter,
which is THE most powerful small business marketing tip to
build a fence around your clients. The added advantage is
that you are marketing to those most likely to buy -
Current and past clients!
6. Create a referral and reward program. Unfortunately,
most people are afraid to ask for referrals even thought
clients are happy to give them. The easiest strategy is
to simply ask for them and reward people who send you new
clients. It can be as simple as giving coded coupons to a
client in your store. For each one that is redeemed, the
referring client gets a gift. It can also be as involved as
asking a good client to lunch or dinner for the sole
purpose of asking for referrals. If you are living up to
your USP, clients will gladly refer others! Don't be shy
about asking for them.
7. The final small business marketing tip is so powerful
that you must insure you have the capacity to handle the
additional business! It's called a Joint Venture or
Strategic Alliance.
Identify non-competing businesses that serve a client base
similar to yours. Approach the owner and propose a joint
venture or strategic alliance in which you are going to
endorse their business to your list and vise-versa. As
mentioned earlier, consumers are constantly asking "Who
should I buy this product or service from?'
This powerful small business marketing tool leverages the
trust you and your alliance partner(s) have built with
their clients and, when properly structured between two
good companies with quality products and services, is as
close to a guaranteed success as you will ever get.
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For information on a guaranteed system to gain exponential
sales increases in your small business in as little as 90
days or to view a powerful online marketing seminar, visit
http://www.paulfloodmarketing.com
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