5 Tips for Keeping Your Contacts Straight
No matter what business you’re in, you need to know people. No matter how detailed your marketing or public relations plan is, there are times that you will need contacts who can help you promote your business. A reporter at the local newspaper or a blogger who covers your niche is a contact worth cultivating: these are the people who can help your company become a success.
But not all contacts are so clear cut. Maybe you have a list of past clients or sales leads that you want to use for marketing. You might have a list of local companies that might be interested in your product. All of these contacts, plus your friends in the media, make for plenty of names and email addresses to juggle.
Managing all of these contacts can be a major endeavor, but there are a few ways to simplify the process.
5 Tips for Successful Long-Term Marketing
We all try to convince people to buy on first contact, but the reality is that this situation rarely occurs. Some report that it takes about seven or eight points of contact before you convince someone to buy
This is why taking a long-term view, and marketing consistently, matters so much. The more a person sees your logo, your name or your product, the more likely that person is to move from prospect to buyer. Exposure counts and you need to do everything you can to make that exposure happen.
Most people make half-hearted attempts at marketing. They skimp on expenses and advertise only every now and then. It's true that it can get expensive to continually buy ad space or maintain marketing campaigns.
But if you don't have the consistent exposure, you're losing out on sales.
Focusing on the short-term immediate costs isn't the way to go;. Marketing is a long-term affair. Its goal is to increase your sales over time and grow your business from a clientless entity to one with a solid base of customers.
Here are five tips to help with your long-term marketing ventures:
The Secret to Getting Exposure on Blogs
Blogs are an advertiser’s dream. Some get millions of readers, and the ones that don’t get millions at least have readers that are highly targeted. Blog readers are typically looking for specific information and are great for getting exposure in a given niche. If you get a blogger in your niche to write about your company, you’ll be getting your message to people who are already interested in your product.
But winning over bloggers isn’t like convincing a traditional journalist to respond to a press release. There’s a different tactic that you need to take in order to get a blogger to cover your company.
Read on to see how.
The Hidden Costs of Cheap Branding
Branding a business can be an expensive proposition. Logos, websites and marketing materials often have hefty price tags.
It’s only normal to want to save some money on branding your business — but saving money on branding in the short-term just isn’t worth it in the long run.
There are plenty of ways to save money on branding your company. You can print your own business cards, use an automatic logo creator and generally find plenty of short-cuts.
But these options only save you money now. They cost you a lot more in the future…
Are You Marketing Confidently?
How confident is your marketing? Are you the enterprising person that boldly tells people you have something they need? Do you jump up and tell the world your business is great?
Probably not. Most people have a genuine dislike of blowing their own horn or crowing about their accomplishments and self-worth. No one likes arrogance, after all, and no one enjoys listening to someone go on about how wonderful they are. We don’t want to be seen as that person, so we play it safe. We try to be quiet and modest, doing unto others as we would have done to ourselves.
Or maybe you’re just not that type of person. We’re all unique, each in our own way, with different personalities, behaviors and fears. One person might be bold and able to socialize easily; another person might be the wallflower, quietly enjoying the party from the sidelines; yet another person might be very humble and never speak up much at all.
Self-worth comes into play too. Many people feel they aren’t good enough or that others are better or even more, that they don’t deserve to succeed.
The closed-mouth wallflower, the modest marketer, and the quiet promoter all have a real challenge to face: Being quiet doesn’t do much for increasing business.
5 Rules for Writing an Exceptional Elevator Pitch
For a small business owner, a simple chance conversation can be an opportunity to drum up new business for your company. Asking what someone does for a living is part of a polite conversation, and it gives you the opportunity to give your elevator pitch. If you aren’t familiar with the terminology, an elevator pitch is just a brief explanation of what you do — and how you can help your audience.
For those of you who are just creating an elevator pitch, or for anyone who wants to improve their current version, we’ve put together a list of 5 rules for creating an elevator pitch that rises above the rest. Here’s the list:
Marketing Essentials Part 6: Getting Exposure
So far in our Marketing Essentials series, we’ve covered discovering your brand, creating a marketing message, your web presence and business card strategies.
But none of these marketing essentials will help you earn clients unless you have this final element — exposure.
Exposure is key to growing your business. The more people that know about your services or products, the more chances you have to make a sale.
Strangely enough, though, too many people still think that by just launching a business they will get clients. They invest their time, money, and energy, and then throw open the figurative doors. Unfortunately though, if people don’t know about the business there is no way they’ll be able to buy anything.
You need to make your small business visible. You’re the one who has to spread the word.
And even if you have the best store location in the world, you still need to show people that you exist. Why? Because when people travel, they look straight ahead at where they’re going. Unless your business is smack in the middle of their path or unless they turn their head to look, they won’t notice you. Period.
So what can you do?
