Community Joint Ventures - Marketing Your Small Business
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Hi gang, Rick Ostler from Community Joint Ventures with an interesting article by Valerie Khoo. When it comes to marketing your small business, you need ensure your marketing pie is divided into the activities that are going to attract the most customers. If you’re relying on a Yellow Pages advertisement or placing the occasional advertisement in the local paper, consider whether you need to re-allocate your marketing resources.
This doesn’t mean you have to spend more. You can still use the same budget but try different methods of marketing. That’s the only way to find out if another method of marketing is going to work for you. You have to experiment.
Fortunately, there are many marketing methods that don’t cost a lot of money. So what are they?
Speaking
Find out about events or functions where your ideal customers are going to be. Determine a useful message or an informative/inspirational talk people will want to listen to. Approach the organisers about speaking. When you get there, don’t do a hard sell. Instead, offer genuine advice and information.
I was at a business expo last year where the speaker was supposed to talk about creating and managing virtual teams. Instead of speaking generally about this topic, she simply reeled off a list of her own company’s services. She was in the business of providing virtual assistance. It wasn’t anything people couldn’t read for themselves off her website or brochure. So many literally got up in the middle of her talk and walked out.
Online tools
One of the cheapest and quickest online tools to implement is Google Adwords. A friend of mine recently started her own Google Adwords campaign and within a few days she received new business from it. I like Google Adwords because it’s pay-per-click, so you only pay (sometimes as little as a few cents) if someone clicks on your ad to get to your website.
Other online tools include blogs and podcasts. While a blog can direct traffic to your site, I wouldn’t bother with it unless you plan to blog regularly. There’s nothing worse than having a customer arrive at your blog only to find that your last post was a few months ago. The same goes for podcasts. And while it’s relatively easy to create and upload a podcast onto iTunes, you need to ensure you’re able to create one that sounds professional and has meaningful and relevant content.
Email newsletters are also a useful and low-cost option. I’m a big fan of email newsletters because they are an effective way to communicate with customers who have asked to receive your newsletter. You have to ensure that your email newsletter is not just a big promotion about your products. Again, offer useful and relevant content so that your customers can learn something from your communication.
I use NewslettersOnline for my business. (And no, I don’t get anything out of mentioning them. I just think they’re a good, easy-to-use product).
Create Joint Ventures
Can you create joint ventures with people who share similar ideal clients? If so, you may be able to cross-promote each other. For example, a personal trainer and a nutritionist. A plumber and a dishwasher repairer. A dog walker and a dog groomer. A financial planner and an accountant.
You want to create a joint venture with someone who shares your clients but who isn’t competing with you.
Marketing doesn’t have to cost the earth. Add some new ingredients to your marketing pie and you might be surprised by the result. Thanks to Valerie Khoo, blogs.smh.com.au for this.
Join other entrepreneurs like yourself and increase your sales without spending a dime!. Were all about doing joint ventures with others that requires No Money, No Risk and very little time spent. That’s what a TRUE joint ventures is, a WIN-WIN for all parties involved. Sign up, our membership is always FREE.
Also we value your comments, if you can add more info in regards to this article please do so. Thank you. Rick Ostler, Community Joint Ventures.
Please consider joining our new joint ventures group on google.
