Home
Can You Do This?
Start Here
What's Your Name?
Sole Proprietorship
Partnerships
Incorporation
LLC
Hiring Forms
Hiring Employees
Marketing
Hiring Salespeople
Payroll
Hiring Contractors
Interview Guide
Make a Website
Promote Your Site
Bookkeeping
Health Insurance
Entrepreneur Blog
About the Author
About This Site
Resources
Sitemap

Small Business Marketing

Home » Small Business Marketing

In order of importance, next to sales, I rank marketing as a close 2nd. With the right small business marketing you can make your phone ring.

These are the best sales leads. The reason is because these people got your message picked up the phone and called you. They must be motivated and interested in order to do that.

In contrast, when you create a lead using outbound calling tactics, I find that in general the quality of the opportunity tends to be lower. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of outbound calling and discuss that elsewhere. It’s just that outbound lead generation can get people interested in what you have to offer but sometimes they are just being nice, trying to get you off the phone, or are basically not as interested as those who were motivated enough to research, pick up the phone, and actually call you.

Your small business marketing approach depends on what you are selling and who you are selling too. Sometimes a certain marketing approach will be more effective than another based on these factors.

Small business marketing takes many forms especially in our new-fangled, internet-driven society. Here are some key small business marketing examples.

  • Word of Mouth – A guy was over my house this morning to install a new fence. This guy is the king of word of mouth because he has done many of my neighbors’ fences. While we were talking in my front yard, one neighbor came riding by on his bike and decided to stop to mention what a great job they did on his fence. Now that’s nice! Who wouldn’t want to use a vendor like that? You have instant trust and confidence in what you will be getting.

  • Direct mail – In particular this is the variety where you send a letter to the prospect with our without collateral, sent inside an envelope variety.

  • Postcard marketing – This is a card that you specifically design with the graphics and messaging that you are trying to get across. I’m a big fan of this for small business marketing.

  • Trade Shows – Having a presence at trade-shows builds awareness and trust in your firm. Clients like to think that you are firm that has been around a long time and will remain around. Trade shows help to build that view of your firm. Also, you can be a sponsor of events and get your company name and logo around. This can be helpful even if you do not have a booth necessarily at the trade show and will get some value from the fact that you are associated with the show.

  • Press Releases – This is a great way to get some notice for your company, product or service. You can get an added boost if it turns out to be interesting news to someone writing a story as they will call you for their story in order to get your opinion or a quote. Also, when released properly it will get picked up all over the Internet

  • Telemarketing – I know we all wince when we think of getting phone calls at home by people who don’t speak clearly and are on a bad phone. There is an important place for this however in your small business marketing.

  • Magazines – Obviously you can place ads in magazines which is helpful for building awareness and getting the image across that your firm is a substantial player in the market. Even better in my opinion is the value of writing articles for magazines and getting the free publicity.

  • Website – This is a number one priority in my opinion. This is really an expensive option to get the word out about your business and you can direct clients to your website for all of the information they seek. In terms of cost, building and hosting a website is now super cheap. The real only expensive thing is the time you will need to spend to write the verbage and come up with a good design.

  • “Organic” Website Optimization – This has to do with making your website able to be found by search engines without paying any special money for key words or key phrases. Getting free traffic to your website is an very valuable way to get sales leads because after you create the website the only cost involved is a very nominal hosting fee.

  • “Pay Per Click” Search – This in contrast to “organic” website optimization mentioned above. Paid Per Click also known as “Paid Search” is when you select particular key words or key phrases and pay money to search engines to have your website appear in the top of the listing when the particular key word or phrase is searched.

  • Collateral – Depending on your business you may need to have color brochures and other hand outs to use. Also, I consider some of your electronic materials to be electronic materials that you send clients such as PowerPoint or PDFs.

  • Flyers – The type that are placed on your car or in your mailbox or even handed out. For certain businesses that are heavily based on local markets, collateral is a key way to build awareness and get people to call or visit you.

  • Newspapers – Also, the website Craigslist.org has become a major force in classified ads. You can get a lot of free exposure by listing your business on Craiglist.org under their services offered and other business listing opportunities.

  • Email / e-newsletters / Ezines – Email is a great way to reach people quickly and inexpensively. Unfortunately SPAM has become so overwhelming that emails have trouble making it through, they get quickly deleted, and we all have very little tolerance for them.

From Small Business Marketing back to Home


footer for Small business marketing page