In order to sell your services or products it is crucial that your customers know that you exist, where they can find you, what you are offering, and why they should buy from you! “Becoming an effective marketer is simpler than you think,” says Louise Johnsson Zea, a small business marketing consultant at ACCION. “Even small business owners on a budget can increase their sales by utilizing a few low-cost marketing techniques. “ 1. Word of mouth. Ask your clients to mention your business to their friends, family, and anyone else they know! 2. Make your customers feel special. Include something very inexpensive with a purchase -everyone loves to get something for free. 3. Order business cards online for free at www. vistaprint. com (you have to pay $5. 95 for shipping and handling). These are perfect to give to customers and to hand out at networking events and meetings. 4. Host an annual event and invite your customers. You could organize a baseball game or a pot-luck picnic. 5. Keep a customer birthday list. On their birthday, send them a card and give them a discount enticing them to buy from your business. 6. Be kind to your customers. It is over five times more difficult to acquire a new customer than to keep an old one. If a customer suffered a bad experience pick up the phone and acknowledge what happened, and offer them a discount on their next purchase. 7. Hand out brochures and fliers. 8. If you have a small store – visit larger companies selling similar products and see how they market their products. 9. Advertise in the yellow pages or in local newspapers. 10. And last but not least, Network, network, network! Johnsson-Zea recommends that small business owners write down all their marketing ideas and strategies, share them with employees to get them excited and involved, and set aside some time weekly to adjust the marketing plan. In no time, you’ll see that by investing (a little) money and time in marketing, your profits will soar!
Posts Tagged ‘Local Newspapers’
Marketing On A Shoestring Budget
December 16th, 2009Home Based Business – Offline Marketing Strategies
October 10th, 2009The Internet has become the largest medium of communication; and has presented a lot of business opportunities.
Online home based business owners tend to limit themselves to online marketing methods. Nevertheless, there is a huge potential to promote your home based business through some cost effective offline marketing strategies.
So what are the most effective offline marketing strategies for your home based business?
1. Word of mouth in your circle of influence Word of mouth is one of the best free advertising channels. We all have people we interact with on a daily basis, and these are potential customers. Make a list of all the people you know or interact with and how can you best tell them about your internet business. Be passionate about your internet business and always be prepared to tell someone about it when an opportunity to do so presents itself!
2. Mail-out newsletters and flyers Mail-out newsletter or flyers can be effective if you target it to a specific ‘group’. You could create one to distribute to local day care centers just as an example – and in your newsletter or flyer, highlight the benefits of an online business to the targeted group, for example earning money at home for stay at home moms or dads. Posting your home based business URL on bulletin boards can also be effective.
3. Use and give away free branded ‘stuff’ You can promote your business by having your URL on all your stationery, all written communication and other items you can give away for free. If you want to get a lot of people to know about your home based business, you will need to come up with some creative ways of promoting your URL. You can be limited only by your imagination. Have your business cards with your home based business URL. Give them out to people you meet, leave them about where you can, such as in your local coffee shop.
4. Newspapers and magazines Local newspapers are good for advertising your online business. Most local papers have ‘home business opportunities’ section, so you run a regular classified advert. In addition, contact your local newspaper or business-oriented magazine and let the business editor know you have a new business and web site and what you offer. Local newspapers are frequently interested in featuring local business people and their accomplishments. This is free advertising and should always be used. You can also contact your local magazine and offer to write a monthly or weekly guest column for them, and include your ‘author bio’ and home based business URL.
5. Joint ventures with offline business You can get into a joint venture partnership with an offline business which sells a complementary product or service to your home based business. If you can identify a partner that best fit your business, this is an important offline marketing strategy that can help you succeed in your home based business by enabling you to reach potential customers that you could not reach before. As an example, if you have a website selling fitness/health products or tips, you could prepare a leaflet and make a deal with an offline local fitness/health shop where they giveaway your leaflet to their shoppers with each purchase. The offline marketing strategies strategies outlined above can help you grow your home based business.
By: Jeff Casmer
