You are the owner of a great business. You’re convinced it’s a great business because everyone who has used the products and services you told you it’s a great business. There’s only one problem — “everyone” is such a small number that your business is struggling.
To get from where you are to where you want to be you need to expand the quantity in “everyone.” More — much more — people need to know what you sell, how your products and services will help them, and how you and your staff will help your customers buy the right products and services via the excellent advice you and your employees provide.
In short, you need to market your business. The best ways to market your business include:
Get Your Customers To “Sell”:
No, I don’t mean that you should actually hire your customers as paid salespeople. I mean you should seek to utilize them as de-facto salespeople and markets by persuading them to tell others about your business. It’s plausible that you only know your customers via business-related conversations and don’t know them at all personally. You should change that by talking to them more as people you are friends with rather than people who are your customers.
What can these satisfied customers do for you? They can tell friends, family members, and others about your business. Word-of-mouth marketing is generally one of the most effective ways to market a business as well as one of the most cost-effective. People are more apt to talk to others about your products and services if you encourage them to.
Seek Endorsements:
Those loyal customers who are now helping you via word-of-mouth can also make a more permanent contribution — written testimonials that you can post on your website. You should also seek endorsements from experts in your industry. They might not necessarily be customers, but they might be willing to use your product and review it — especially if you are willing to endorse their product or service.
A Marketing Land article entitled “21 Ways To Market Your Business Online On A Shoestring Budget” points out another advantage to this testimonial tradeoff — the expert you are seeking an endorsement from could post a link to YOUR website if you endorse its product. Imagine what could happen if you endorse several companies’ products or services.
Seek Joint Ventures:
Of course, offering discounts is a great way to market your product or service, but you knew that already. Your problem might be getting word about the discounts to prospective customers. Here’s one solution to that problem — market your discounts to other companies’ existing customers.
A joint venture with a large company might let market your business to people you have never communicated with. Why would a large company do that? Frequently, large companies seek ways to reward loyal customers. Your discount could be their reward. The Forbes magazine article “Five Ways To Market Your Business On The Cheap” explains one way a joint venture works. Basically, the small company pays for access to the larger company’s customers. Thus, the larger company might also favor the venture because it doesn’t cost it anything.
Create Innovative Messages:
Hiring a creative writer could really help you build your brand. Think about all the famous television commercials that vaulted unknown companies into the nation’s consciousness. Forty years after the fact, people still associate the “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” slogan with Alka-Seltzer. Using a creative slogan could really help you market your business — particularly if you use it over and over again.
You could put the slogan on signs, your website, and your social media pages. You could also play it on your phone message machine. Do you have a receptionist? You can instruct him or her to greet prospective customers with your new slogan. If you can’t afford a receptionist, you can hire a company that provides virtual office services such as answering phones and taking messages. Servcorp provides such services as well as other virtual office services such as meeting rooms where you can meet prospective clients and market your products and services.
Be Active In The Community:
Joining the local Chamber of Commerce and other local business-related groups will give you an opportunity to meet local business owners and local business executives. In fact, some of them will give you a chance to address them at an event with a lot of people — if you volunteer to give a speech and convince them that you have expertise in some aspect of business that its members are interested in.
The Entrepreneur magazine article “Operating on a Shoestring? 20 Inexpensive Ways to Market Your Business” recommends checking Meetup.com for a schedule of local business networking events.
There are many other ways to market your business. Keep trying until you succeed.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
