Marketing TipsTop 10 Website Marketing Tips
1. Make Your Advantages Easy to Understand.
For instance, Computer Resources International AS originally sold consulting, for which they used proprietary software. Only when they started selling the software first, and then customization and consulting as extras did their business take off. Buying software was easier to understand than the more intangible consulting. LifeUSA insurance, and many other businesses, focus on speed in every aspect of their business. They make fun of the slower industry standards and provide a simple advantage clients understand. Other ways to set yourself apart are through great service or association with worthy causes.
2. Don't Try to be Everything to Everyone.
Just as customers screen you, you should decide who you want to serve. Printing Resources originally took any printing business that walked in the door. When they realized which kinds of customers they worked with best, they were able to cut down their marketing costs and make more money. Some computer consulting firms only work with one customer per industry so they will have no conflicts of interest. You can bet they select customers carefully, and that customers are flattered by the partnership approach. Consider creating a checklist of who shouldn’t hire you! It will help you focus, and may impress the right customers if you share it with them.
3. Work for Referrals.
Word of mouth is the least expensive, most effective way to get new business. Barry Farber has new customers write on the back of their business cards why they bought. These become mini-testimonials. Bob Brassard calls at least one client a day just to keep in touch. This builds the relationship by showing he doesn’t just care about them when he wants something, allows him to update files, and generates referrals. One upscale dentist put up a Web page. He got about six extra referrals a month because his clients thought it was cool that their dentist had a Web page.
4. Use Online Marketing.
You don’t have to have a Web site like Eastern Mortgage Services to do business online. You can send personalized e-mail like Michael Swartz of DNA Software. You can pay only for the leads generated for you by advertising on many sites. You can research potential clients for better presentations. You can gather customer input inexpensively as Ritchey Design does. Or you can post free ads in discussion groups.
5. Don't Sell, Help People Buy.
When you truly put the client’s interests above your own, you will become a consultant, a team member, and a partner for your client. When you’ve earned trusted advisor status, doing business is no problem. For instance, computer consultant, Amadaeus Consulting Group, helps its customers make more money by using computers to help their clients sell more. Of course, the extra business comes around as the client grows. A small accountant’s client felt they needed a Big 5 firm to handle their audit because they wanted to go public. Instead of resisting, the accountant helped the client select a Big 5 firm, thus maintaining and extending the relationship with the client. Conrad International added warehousing services near overseas clients so they could afford to buy in bulk for a lower price. When you put the customer first, you earn long-term loyalty that is more profitable than a larger quick sale.
6. Partner With Other Companies Reaching Your Market.
This might be neighborhood merchants cooperating on a sidewalk sale, or Digital Equipment partnering with Infinite Technologies to better serve the Bank of New York. Or it could be you partnering with a charity to create a fund raising event that brings attention to both of you, like Service Merchandise and Goodwill did.
7. Shift the Risk to Yourself and You Will Profit.
A believable guarantee makes it safe for prospects to give you a try. Very few people will exploit a generous guarantee compared to the extra business it generates. YoyoDine is one of many companies that guarantee you results from their online advertising. Even Kaiser, the big HMO, found a money-back guarantee to be successful.
8. Be Personal.
To build relationships you have to build a personal connection. A handwritten invitation pulled great for Frank Candy, president of the American Speakers Bureau and for restaurateur Murray Raphael. Internet consultant Dan Janal gives clients links from his page. One nursing home created a waiting list through great referrals by greeting visiting relatives by name and filling them in on their loved ones at the start of each visit.
9. Create Free Publicity.
Our old Construction Computer Applications Newsletter had a hard time finding reviewers for computer programs of interest to readers. Our reviewers not only got publicity from their reviews, but we gave them referrals. A large CPA firm specializes in citrus growers. Every year they do a survey of their clients’ costs of operations. The survey data helps their clients benchmark their operations, positions the CPAs as the experts, and gets the CPA firm publicized in trade articles. Inquiry Handling Services gets regular publicity from newsletters and articles, as well as a book they wrote for their industry. And Luxury Limo received major coverage about a special rate created to allow three regular women to share the commute in a limo at about the cost of carpooling.
10. Integrate Your Marketing.
This means that everything you do should convey the same message and represent what you stand for. Putnam Investments manages $150 billion in assets. All their literature, and even their office, conveys the same message. Viva Knight, a script consultant, rents mailing lists from the same magazine he advertises in. If he also wrote articles for the same magazine, it would add to the integrated approach.
Tips to Brand Your Business Online:
1. Protect Your Name:
As an entrepreneur, your name is vital to your brand & the identity of your business. Be sure to secure a domain name in your name. For example, www.myname with .com, .net and/or .biz. It's usually a good idea to register multiple domains in case someone types the wrong extension, that way you can be found.
2. Create a Founder Profile Page:
Brand yourself on your Web site. Create a profile about you to build trust with potential clients. Make it easy for visitors to find information about you. Clients and prospects want to know who you are in terms of industry, experience and personality. Personalize your Web site and share info to build a relationship with visitors to your site.
3. Prepare for the Future:
Millions of people use mobile devices to connect to their business, when they are out of the office. Make sure your Web site is accessible to these devices and will load quickly and easily.
4. Protect Yourself from Spam:
Search bots troll the Web looking for email addresses. This can lead to spam emails to your inbox. Protect your business email box. Use email addresses on your Web site.
5. Considering joining LinkedIn or ZoomInfo:
These popular, social networking sites give you a free way to post a biographical profile. Be aware: everything you post is public information. You give up some privacy when you post info. The sites can provide connections between people with similar interests. The sites add to search engine results for your name & your company name.
Tips for Getting Noticed Online
1. Write articles. Make them about any topic with which you are comfortable and about which you have knowledge. Distribute them massively throughout the web.
2. Make sure not to forget to create profiles on all of the main search engine and directory pages. Some basics to include are : Google, Yahoo, Lycos, and MSN.
3. Write Blogs and update them regularly. Write one for your business and at least one for a hobby or another interest. Promote them by listing them in blog directories as well as in the search engines.
4. Submit your website to directories. The higher traffic they receive and the more specific to the topic they are they better. Avoid ones, which require a reciprocal URL. All these do is distract your visitors from your site.
5. Join networking sites and then show up and participate actively share your knowledge and get to know other people. Establish relationships and then share what you have to offer.
6. Post free classified ads to websites offering listings in your local area. 5 Tips on Advertising Basics:
1. Be consistent in your ad message and style including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, signs and banners.
2. Newspapers, radio and TV stations are helpful in producing the advertising that you will be running with them.
3. While word-of-mouth advertising has been around a long time, it usually falls short of being able to attract the number of customers needed to be successful in business.
4. Promote benefits rather than features. A benefit is the emotional satisfaction your product or service provides, or a tangible performance characteristic.
5. Know your competitors. Knowing everything about your competitors is just as important as knowing everything about your own business.
5 Tips on Developing a Marketing Plan: 1. Determine specific goals and the time frame in which you want to achieve them. Communicate the goals to your employees.
2. Decide what tools can best help you meet your goals and how they will be used. These can include the Internet, newsletters, direct mail, special events, trade shows, advertising, and more.
3. Come up with a budget that reflects your goals.
4. Delegate responsibility for implementing each segment of the plan.
5. Monitor the results and make adjustments as necessary. 5 Tips on How To Advertise, Cheap!:
1. Advertising is expensive, so know why you are advertising and what you want to accomplish. Evaluate your advertising carefully and measure its effectiveness.
2. Develop appropriate sales promotion tools such as flyers, brochures and signs. Carefully review each item for its effectiveness and evaluate what these tools say about your business.
3. Signage should be a major part of your marketing strategy. Signs are a vital part of small businesses and can be the most efficient, effective and consistent device for generating revenue.
4. Every small business should be listed under the appropriate heading in the Yellow Pages, but not every business needs to buy expensive display ads. Be judicious.
5. Get involved in your community. Join the chamber of commerce, business organizations, service clubs, and charities. Network yourself and keep your antennae up. 5 Tips on Building Customer Relationships:
1. Make sure your employees know that courtesy and friendliness are not enough. What customers really want is effective, efficient help.
2. Introduce your clients to your customer service representatives. Meeting a customer face-to-face instead of just on the phone can motivate employees.
3. Thank customers for their referrals. One real estate agent sends a fruit basket to clients who refer other home buyers or sellers to him.
4. Encourage employees to go the extra mile. One dry-cleaning employee couldn’t find a customer’s garment because it was missing the usual identification and price information. To make up for the inconvenience, she let the customer have the order free.
5. Don’t lose the human touch. If most of your business is done via technology, you have to try even harder to make customers feel valued. 5 Tips on Ways to Sell Your Products or Services
1. Try direct mail. Buying or renting a good mailing list helps you reach the people most interested in your product.
2. Partner with another business and sell each other’s products or services. If you’re a caterer, for example, join forces with a wedding planner.
3. Use your Web site as a marketing tool. Sell items directly on the site or use the site to educate customers about your product or service.
4. Test coupons—in the Yellow Pages, in your local newspaper, or on your web site. Or, participate in a cooperative direct mail program like those offered by Val-Pak, Carol Wright, and other advertisers.
5. Offer a seminar and use it to sell—such as a cooking class if you make food products, or a meeting on long-term care insurance if you are a financial planner.
5 Tips on Superior Customer Service
1. Educate your customers about your products and services. If you own a hobby shop, you can keep customers coming back by helping them develop knowledge of their own hobbies.
2. Make sure items are delivered in good condition. Call the customer after delivery and if a piece is not right, offer to fix it or replace it.
3. Offer your customers personal attention, even if they don’t buy anything. Engage them in pleasant conversation and find out why they’re not buying. Make use of what you learn.
4. Go out of your way to meet customer needs. One interior designer got draperies made for a client in a hurry so they would be ready for an at-home wedding.
5. Show appreciation. Make sure employees always thank customers for their business. Consider sending occasional handwritten thank-you notes.
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