The best methods of marketing your business in the beginning will tend to require a lower cash outlay in exchange for a bigger investment of time and energy.  Until your business is a little more mature, you should be willing to spend at least 40% of your time and money on marketing. When your business is more successful and busy,you should at least maintain 20 to 30% of your time to maintain you sales.  Too many times I have seen businesses get successful and the owner slacks off too much on marketing, thinking he has enough business, only to find his […]

And is it working?  If they continue to use one or two methods consistently, it is generally a sign  that these methods are working.  This can save you a lot of time and money.  Instead of experimenting with unproven methods for your industry, look at what both local and national companies are doing.  If you look deeply, you may find that some of their most successful methods are the less expensive ways. 6. Track your marketing efforts.  One big mistake that a business will make in marketing is not tracking their results.  Many times when clients come to me and […]

Putting all your marketing eggs in one basket can be dangerous.  Over the years, I have seen many business owners put all their efforts in one method to market their business only to find that that method didn’t work for them.  By that time they had run out of money and had no way to continue on.  Almost every one of them went out of business! Allocate what money you have to several methods at the same time to find out which ones produce the best results. Remember, if money is limited, use your other marketing asset… your time. 4. […]

Here are a few guidelines for finding a marketing mix that brings you the most business for the least money. The measure of a successful marketing campaign is the extent to which it reaches at the lowest possible cost the greatest number of people who can and will buy your product or service.  1. Choose methods that you will look forward to trying out.  Don’t force yourself to use methods that will be excessively stressful.  You will probably just end up abandoning them. You need to enjoy the tasks involved.  For example:  if you hate speaking to groups of people, […]

Successful marketers feel compelled to let people know about what they offer, even if they are shy.  It is this drive that spurs their creativity to find imaginative ways to get the word out. Without the funds to pay for elaborate marketing efforts, your own compelling sense of passion becomes the essential element that will attract business.  That kind of passion will show through all your spoken and written communication from simply introducing yourself to describing what you do in a classified ad or website.  That drive will propel you to find the best marketing methods available to you and […]

Why would someone buy from you instead of your competition?  Stand out from the crowd by finding what is unique and let your customers know and how it makes you better. I mentioned in a previous post about a printing company I bought that was just like all the other printers in the area.  I created a new division of the company called Medi-forms.  This company specialized in printing medical forms for hospitals, doctors and other medical facilities.  When I called a medical related company, just by telling them that that was all we did (even though the parent company […]

How are your customer’s lives or business improved by your product or service? The procedures, materials, formats and other features of your product or service are important to you.  But those who need your product or service only care about what those features will do for them.   Your job is to answer your customers question: What’s in it for me?  (WIIFM).  Clients want to know that what you provide will meet their needs; what they can count on from you; and what improvement or benefit to their life, job, or business will they get for the money they will spend. What benefit […]

If you have a product or service that solves a problem, you have customers trying to find you right this minute!  But they don’t know where you are and you probably don’t know where they are!  Somehow you must find each other.  This is where marketing comes in.  It shows those who need you where to find you. There are probably a lot of other businesses that have similar products or services as yours, so marketing also helps distinguish you from your competition.  It allows you to stand our from the crowd. The successful marketers I have talked with are […]

Very few of the successful small business owners I have worked with were expert sales people, however, most were excellent marketeers in that they used a variety of methods to attract new customers. They didn’t run a normal ad, their ads sparkled.  They didn’t have the normal brochure, their brochures had unique colors and folds.  Their mailings weren’t normal, they included gifts.  They didn’t simply attend a lot of network meetings, they spoke engagingly before those groups.  If there were no networking groups that fit their needs, they started their own. The only difference between a great marketeer and other business owners […]