Small changes to your marketing mix can have a big impact -- especially if you tap the wealth of low-cost tools available to you online.
Here are seven small marketing changes that you can make now to boost your sales in 2011:
- Put a Twitter link in your e-mail signature. By including a link to your Twitter page at the bottom of the signature file in your e-mail messages, you can spread the word about your business every time you hit the Send button. "I use Twitter religiously to promote my company and my clients," says Stacy Kelly, CEO of Mobile Previews LLC, a New York City company that promotes movies and other products by creating engaging experiences that consumers can access on their mobile phones. "I also link to it to help build up my list of followers. The cost is nothing but a little thought power."
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Turn the back of your business card into a promo. Can't afford to advertise in print or broadcast? The back of your business card is advertising real estate that you own, and, best of all, it's free. By featuring a photo of yourself, a picture of your product, a 10 percent off coupon, or a list of services that your company provides, you can turn your business card into a powerful marketing tool. "That extra info can be a great conversation starter," says John Fletcher, president of Johnny Agency Inc., a New York City graphic design firm that creates marketing materials for growing businesses. "It also allows you to convey important facts about your business during those precious moments when you have someone's attention."
John Fletcher
President of Johnny Agency Inc. -
Revamp your website. If you've already spent the money to build a website, it may be time for a facelift. Rather than spending big dollars to redesign your home page, try creating a series of low-cost "landing pages" to test different ads and offers for your products and services. "Your website is not a brochure," says New York City consultant David Ronick, co-founder of Upstart Bootcamp, an online school for startups. "Most people today come in through the back door and through blog posts." Be sure that your site is easy to read -- not only for people browsing the web through their computers but accessing your site through their iPhones and BlackBerrys, too.
David Ronick
Co-founder of Upstart Bootcamp - Position yourself as an expert. There's nothing that builds your brand faster than free advice. Whether you're a landscaper, a handbag designer or a dog walker, your expertise will have customers knocking at your door offering to pay you to help solve their problems. "The key is to give away thought leadership to build an audience," Ronick says. Once you find out what works, go out there and replicate it." One of Ronick's clients, a luxury outsourced concierge service, regularly tweets about hot, new restaurants, clubs and bars, generating new leads from prospects who need the company's service.
- Swap lists with sites that have similar demographics. There's no reason to pay big money to rent a mailing list when you can get sites that attract a similar audience to let you borrow theirs for free. Ronick says that one of his clients, a site that publishes a newsletter about women in finance, used this technique to build a list of 50,000 subscribers. "They did lots of trades that didn't cost them anything out of pocket," he says. "The key is to create great content and give it away for free on the web." Be careful to respect the privacy of the subscribers whose e-mail addresses are on the lists you swap, or you may get labeled a spammer by your ISP. To avoid trouble, ask the site whose list you're borrowing to handle the mailing itself and to include a link to your site that their subscribers can click to sign up for your newsletter.
- Get a vanity phone number. Just because the phone company stuck you with a random number when you signed up for their service doesn't mean that you're saddled with it for life. Torya Blanchard, a former French teacher who opened Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes LLC in Detroit two years ago, was looking for ways to bring customers in the door when she found Ring Ring LLC, a company that provides small businesses with vanity phone numbers. Blanchard picked 1-877-PARISCREPES, and her phone has been ringing off the hook every since. "I'll never give up that number," she says. "That's how people know us." The cost: approximately $25 a month, says Aaron Beals, Ring Ring's CEO.
- Test, measure and test again. Just because you've found a marketing strategy that seems to be working doesn't mean that you should blow your entire budget on, say, business cards or vanity phone numbers. Test, measure and test again before rolling out your campaign. Google Analytics will measure your traffic for free and tell you where your site visitors are coming from and which search terms they're using to find you. "Test every piece of your marketing campaign," Ronick says. "Once you've found the right formula, follow it."
The bottom line: You don't need to have a big marketing budget to make a big splash. A tweak here, a tweak there, and soon your phone will be buzzing with new business.
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Comments:
Awesome ideas to revamp a business. I love how all of the marketing techniques you have listed in the post are simple to implement and also affordable. It shows that even slightly tweaking a business's marketing strategy can bring an increase in sales and customer awareness as well. Thank you for the insight!
All great ideas. In my opinion #7 should be #1. Implementing, testing, tracking and measuring campaign results is the only way to know where your money was best spent and to know where to reallocate that money next time around. Think about it. Would you want to go to a big lake and throw a hook out and hope for something to bite, or would you rather know what rod to use, what bait to use, what depth to fish at and what time of day? If you want to uncover something new about your business look us up at Callcap. Scott Walker 316.858.0760
Well, small businesses and entrepreneurs must make the most of free apps, especially for marketing. One such app is the iTouch Catalog app that helps you create, edit and share your online catalog on the iPad and iPhone. Visit http://www.itouchcatalog.com to start the catalog for free. Download the app for free at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itouch-catalog/id430561473?mt=8.
I think fresh content is key to being at the forefront of the organic section, but I believe that back links are just as, if not more important to getting exposure on the web. If you are relocating to Texas, you can go to http://www.cashbackapartmentlocating.com and search apartments for free.
To add to that: Even if you DO have a great website, blogging still allows your company to have a forum where you can communicate with your customers and gain their feedback. Search engines pick up on CONTENT so make sure that your presence on the web isn't just a bunch of pictures--make sure you have something to say and you will be heard. www.theremarketables.com
If you can't afford a site refresh, consider implementing an open source blogging platform. By adding this functionality to your site, you benefit both from the additional functionality that enhances your presence in search engine results and from the power of a tool that makes updating and keeping your content fresh simple and affordable. A blog also offers integration with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter - and opens up new marketing frontiers to tap into for potential new clientele. Regards, Melanie EWORLDWIRE(R) Press Release News Wire Service (http://www.eworldwire.com) VOXSI(R) Video Production Service (http://www.voxsi.com)
Good that you shared. These points have been covered in Guarilla marketing of 1994 Kevin Covy.. 1. Biz Cards.. True. - But you should have said have 5 differnt cards for you 5 top customer demographics. 2. No advise on pricise technique for the X generation. How do you reach them? 3. All fine an good to say measure.. but many methods fail to have acurate measurement tools.( From my view as an Auditor. 4. Webpage stategies are fine for Business who want to sell to the world. But for biz that are focused on local Customers.. The stategy might be somewhat different. That's why advertising consultants are still in business.
Some very good ideas here. So true that often very small changes can have a huge impact for small businesses, especially with things like including the Twitter handle in your email signature, and using your business card as a promo--highlights the importance of consistency in making sure your message gets conveyed in all forms of communication. For startup/small business folks looking to build up their sales and marketing practices, here is a great article and set of slides detailing the steps to "Building a Sales and Marketing Machine," from successful VC and former entrepreneur David Skok: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/sales-marketing-machine-webinar/
Welcome Wagon is a great marketing source that markets to new families/homeowners moving into the area. As part of their Marketing Package you get the lists of new homeowners emailed to you each month to do any follow up marketing of your own. Welcome Wagon is an inexpensive way to reach a GREAT MARKET- New families = New business. Welcome Wagon is also exclusive in each category. Welcomewagon.com for information. I love them!
Timely tips as we begin to enter the new year and new marketing season. And item # 5 might better have been lableled "Collaboration Marketing" - connecting with similar businesses and cross selling. It Works, even with consulting, coaching, mentoring because some people "resonate" or connect better with a male, female, young, older etc. Live with Intention, DrBillToth.com/blog
Sites that target similar demographics absolutely will let you mail to their lists if you respect their users' privacy. Why? Because they want you to let them contact the people on your list so that they can make their lists bigger. That said, it's a bad idea to give another site your valuable list of email addresses and let them send offers or promos to people who haven't "opted in" to receive their email messages. Likewise, you don't want to risk the wrath of the other site's users by sending unsolicited email messages to people who haven't opted in to receive email from you. That's why the best way to reach out to another site's list of subscribers is to let that site handle the mailing for you and insert a promo blurb about your product or service along with a link that their users can click on to check out your site.
these ideas will be useful to us youngs that will enter the society after graduation.
All great suggestions...go ahead try 1 or all of them!
One of my favorite low cost ways is to simply ask existing customers to refer me clients. If my customers are happy, I find they are always willing to refer me. The trick is that you have to ask. When they refer me, I always thank them personally and give them additional message credits to use for their text message marketing campaigns through momares.com to show my appreciation.
Nice article. Nothing new, but a good summary of basics not to forget about:)
"To Avoid trouble ask the site who's list your Borrowing to do your Mailing". Lol is this a joke? Try this One out and let me know how it goes. Contact a another website similar to yours. Ask them for all their data they have worked hard for and then on top of it ask them to mail their list to benefit you. What type of BS tip is this? You clearly have never done any type of Internet marketing
nothing great. These are all copy book ideas.
Thanks Rosalind - great to have a snapshot in one article. There's always a gem in there - perhaps we've heard before - but reading things when you're ready to do them - priceless. The swap lists is on my action list now! Thanks
Thanks for a great post. My favorite change is measurement! I believe it is crucial to measure impact of your efforts. Anu Reddy (www.terametric.com)
All good ideas for "passive" advertising. The most inexpensive way to go "intrusive" is with a good, responsive local radio station.
To further expand on promoting your website through link building some possible avenues to explore may include: *Go to amazon and rate books or products relevant to your business and in your comments/rating them put a link back to your website. *You can check out sites like alexa.com or epinions.com, where you can use a similar methodology to post links to your site. *You can use yahoo or google groups to get the word out. There are many other ways to do link building if you are willing to get creative.
Some good points. One of many ways to get exposure especially when first launching a website is to comment on popular articles. You can add value for readers and generate a buzz for your site. Most important it is free, which is especially important when you are not selling anything and there is no profit to recoup costs. You can use comment features as I am doing here. You do not necessarily have to plug your site in the content section of your comment, as some moderators may find this obnoxious and inappropriate. As I have done here you can simply make your user name an active link to your site. Generally it is good to tie in to your comment how your site is relevant and how it relates to the topic at hand. But on occasion mystery may be more intriguing to visitors. For instance I bet many of you are wondering what is his website all about. Many of you will not be able to resist the temptation to take a quick look. Then it is all a question of does your site provide value. Are you filling a need that exists. We welcome your feedback. Good Luck!!
I don't think that any of these ideas are unique in any way. Article just seems like fluff content really. Like for example you could have added that you should use wisestamp in your email signatures to link to all of your social profiles.
Getting a vanity number for your business can definitely help generate more business, as they are generally much easier to remember than the 10 digit number you were assigned. However, there are some things to consider before picking your vanity number. At Grasshopper, we wrote a blog post a few months back on the art of picking a perfect vanity number. Might be helpful to those looking into getting a vanity number: http://bit.ly/fVXL8K
thats hot
Very inquisitive, Kudos to the writers! WG4L!!!
Great marketing ideas to implement whether you are a young CEO Kid or a seasoned adult entrepreneur!
Excellent tips. We are finding our blog a great way to test ideas... http://www.Offgrid-Living.com
Uh you can't just 'borrow' someone elses list of subscribers. This is VERY VERY BAD. Anyone on your email list should be opted in to accept YOUR messages, and no one elses. Why even have that point on there? Love the sentence crammed in at the end with the 'opt in email'