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You don't need big bucks to promote your business, all you really need is some good ideas and the willingness to think outside the box. There are lots of low-cost, but very effective ways to market your business without a big bankroll. Here's an article that tells you how to put some of these inexpensive techniques to work for you now.
Marketing your business without breaking the bank
by Marcia Yudkin
When
you're hunting online for a roofer, bicycle repair shop or optometrist,
one of the first screening criteria you use when looking at web sites
is "Are they nearby?" You want that question answered in the first five
seconds after landing on a company's site.
Sounds obvious, right? Yet during my judging of sites for the Webby
Awards this year (my eighth time), failing to state clearly and
prominently where the business operates is a common error, made by
architectural firms, real estate developers, a one-state restaurant
directory, a regional chain of hospitals, environmental engineers and
others.
If you work nationally or internationally, web visitors might not
realize that unless you say something like "From our headquarters in
St. Cloud, Minnesota, we work with clients throughout North America and
Europe." Or, "Thanks to telephone conference calls and web-based
collaboration tools, we can serve you regardless of where you live."
Specifying your location and service area also helps you rank higher
when shoppers search for a provider via geographical words. When you
have a location-relevant business, don’t use only one geographical
phrase, use many of them.
Continue reading "Location, Location: Geography in Web Marketing and SEO" »
By John Jantsch
Understanding your customer lifecycle and mapping every
customer touch point is key to generating a consistent flow of
referrals.
Referrals happen, thank
goodness, but for too many, they happen randomly, almost
accidentally.
One of the keys to tapping the systematic generation of referrals is to identify and address the customer touch points that add up to lead a customer to the logical and emotional decision that your organization is referable.
I say this often, but it's worth repeating - every person, place and thing in your business that comes into contact with a prospect or a customer is performing a marketing function. Your organization's referability is being decided by the sum total of those contacts.
It's so important to figure out the critical stages involved in developing a customer and then fill the gaps in every contact - by fill I mean, make sure that every contact is a marketing contact - and that includes things like delivery, customer service, even billing.
The 7 Stages and logical touch points along this customer referral life cycle look something like this.
I suggest creating a diagram consisting of the stages above and mapping out every touch point you have or should have before you ever start dreaming about a world flooded with referrals.
Related article - Keyword research
for websites
John Jantsch is a marketing and digital
technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape
Marketing. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing
system. You can find more information by visiting www.ducttapemarketing.com
If you are thinking about using social media to build your business, check out this great resource from the Ideamarketers.com blog.
Read the article and then listen to the podcast here:
Using Social Media to Build Your Business
Enjoy!
Linda Locke
MLM Marketing Blog
