Monday, July 30, 2007

From Citibank: 8 Ways to build your business without breaking the bank

Are you looking for maximum marketing results for your dollars? It may be time to go guerilla. “Guerilla Marketing” is a term coined by author Jay Conrad Levinson to describe creative marketing tactics that deliver big impact for little cost.

Read the following 8 guerilla marketing ideas for imaginative new ways to stand out from the competition and connect with potential customers.

1) Start a Blog—Gain exposure as an expert in your field by starting a blog. A blog lets you interact with your customers and prospects. You can share your expertise and get valuable feedback from the marketplace. Best of all, setting up a blog is easy and free. Visit
Blogger to set up a free blog and get started.

2) Offer Incentives—Give away a gift card or prize every week. Consumers respond well to the chance of winning something and a fun prize offers an extra incentive to buy today.

3) Be Charitable—Offer to donate a percentage of sales to a worthy charity during a defined promotional period. Your customers feel better about their purchase and you get to associate your brand with a good cause.

4) Give a “Customer of the Month” Award—Recognize your customers and show how much you appreciate them by honoring a “Customer of the Month” with an inexpensive certificate or prize. These awards can go a long way toward building relationships.

5) Create Your Own Holiday—Start a holiday that ties into your business and make a real event out of it. Celebrate “National Muffin Day,” “Sofa Appreciation Day,” or something similar and promote the occasion with publicity and special deals.

6) Get Out and Speak—Volunteer to give free seminars for local organizations on a topic related to your business. You’ll get more exposure in the community and establish a reputation as an expert.

7) Use Mobile Advertising—Put your business name and contact information on your vehicle and on your employees’ uniforms. You never know who might see your logo on the back of a t-shirt in the street or on the car next to them when they’re stuck in traffic.

8) Sponsor a Community Event—Find a local event that your customers attend and become a sponsor. There are sponsorship opportunities large and small. Support the local Little League, the community theater or trivia night at the neighborhood pub.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Brand yourself like Paris does

Paris Hilton is a brand name. You can be, too.

It's important to brand your product, business or self in the business world. People need to know your name or business name in order to feel comfortable doing business with you.

Get your name out there. Join link exchanges or banner exchanges if you have a website. Purchase ads in local school publications like sports journals or yearbooks. Hand out business cards, pens with your message or brochures often. Make your name or business name a household name. Let people know who you are.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Attract more clients with brand identity

You've probably heard that people buy products and services from people they know, like and trust. And, as I have done, you've probably wondered how you can foster more of this "Know-Like-Trust" factor in your business relationships.Pictures are tied to our emotions in powerful ways, so strategically using your logo and brand identity materials (business cards, letterhead, brochures, website, etc.) to enforce this connection is a great idea.

A brand identity kit contains many of the attributes that contribute to the "Know-Like-Trust" factor, in the following ways:

- Know - A creatively designed set of materials will make you stand out in your field. Symbolically designed materials, where the graphics are designed to communicate and tell your story, can lead to the prospect feeling that they understand who you are and what you do, helping them to form a connection with you and your business. This contributes to your memorability and breeds a feeling of familiarity. Through the consistent, repetitive use of a logo and the supporting visual elements in your marketing materials, people will feel as though they "know" you and your business, even if you have never met face-to-face.

- Like - If you look at a business's materials, and you like their look and feel, you would probably find it easier to like both the business owner and to like doing business with them, as well. A logo with an icon attached to your company name can also make your company seem more approachable, friendly and fun. It can even endear your company name to your potential clients. Cartoon logos are highly effective in this capacity, though not appropriate for all professions. You can also foster a feeling of compatibility through clear information in your designed materials-both in the type of information that you provide and the way that it's laid out and presented. People like to read text that is straightforward and well written.

- Trust - A high-quality, professionally printed brand identity kit can make you look capable, established, and enduring. Professional materials also impart an air of integrity to your business. If your materials look polished and put together, they lead people to believe that working with you will be similarly pleasant.

All of these factors compound to give you-and your business-greater credibility, which leads people to trust you and to give you more and bigger projects, sales, and orders.

About the Author: Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients design effective websites that help them extend their brands, bring in new clients and make sales.
http://www.elf-design.com

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Gateway pages will bring you visitors

Using gateway pages is the one main way to get your web site to the top of the search engines.

Gateway pages are pages that people use to enter your site other than through the home page. They are dedicated to one subject or item. From the gateway page you can send visitors to the home page, but the gateway is used to get them to the site to begin with.

If you are selling real estate, for instance, how you could set up a page on real estate insurance questions or mortgage questions or other related things that people are interested in. From there, people will link to your main real estate page.

If you sell pet supplies, you can up pages dedicated to each type of animal. Set up one page for cats, one for dogs and on and on. The advantage to this is that every page is a gateway page and the more gateway pages you have, the more visitors you will have to your site.

Each page should have navigation bars to allow the visitor to find the rest of the site. But getting them to the site is the main thing.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Email accounts do matter

When doing business, it's a good idea to have your own personal email account, with your own personal URL. Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail just don't do it.

To be taken seriously, get your own domain. They aren't that expensive and the money is well worth it if you want to be taken seriously in the business world.

I can't tell you how many business emails I receive from
kittycatlover@aol.com or bigboy1@yahoo.com or jasonlovesmelissa@hotmail.com .

Saturday, July 21, 2007

How good is your marketing?

See how good of a marketer you are. How effective are you when it comes to promoting your products and services? Are you doing all you can to drive sales?

Take this quick Citibank quiz to find out how your current marketing efforts measure up.

(Score your answers as follows: 1 = Yes, 0 = No)

1) Do you have a marketing plan?
2) Do you dedicate time each month to review marketing efforts and plan future promotions?
3) Do you look at your competitors’ advertising and marketing to see how yours compares?
4) Do you have a line item in your budget for advertising and marketing?
5) When you have to cut expenses from your budget, do you ensure that there is still money left for marketing?
6) Do you measure your marketing tools regularly to gauge their effectiveness?
7) Do you conduct research to help identify new markets and better serve current customers?
8) Do you have a professionally designed web site?
9) Do you send press releases about your business to trade publications and the news media?
10) Do you make an effort to keep up-to-date on marketing trends?

Know Your Score:

8-10: Well Done: You know who your customers are and how to reach them with your marketing messages.

4-7: Take Some Notes: You have a little room for improvement. By increasing your focus on marketing, you could see big improvements in the bottom line in 2007.

1-3: Start Marketing: Marketing your business could help you better stand out from the competition.

Friday, July 20, 2007

It's important to freshen up your website

If you have a website it's a good idea to update it often. Even if it is just changing the homepage, that makes a big difference, it freshens up the site and lets people know you are still in business.

You'll notice simple things are done even with your own bank's website. They may not change the whole page around, but they will update a photo every once in awhile, which freshens up the site.

You could easily make a change every season, in the fall add a couple of pumpkins, near the holidays add a wreath, for labor day or memorial day, add a flag. Let people know you are still there and freshen up.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

A fast way to add pages to the search engines

A great way to get new web pages onto the search engines is to make sure they are linked to your home page and any other pages you have on any other sites.

Constantly, the search engines "re-crawl" each web site to make sure pages are current and up-to-date. They will pick up any new pages if they are linked to your home page.

Your Toll Free Number Could Be Turning Customers Away

Copyright (c) 2007 Bill Lampton Ph.D.Championship Communication http://www.championshipcommunication.com/

When I launched my company, Championship Communication, ten years ago, a veteran entrepreneur advised me, "Get your toll freenumber right away." He argued that I would attract more clients and keep ongoing clients happy if they could call me at nocharge. "But," I asked, "isn't that quite expensive?"

"No, Bill, it's surprisingly reasonable, and it will be wellworth the moderate cost because of your increase in customers." Following his advice, I got an 800 number and displayed it on my stationery, Web site, business card, and E-mail signature. For adecade, I mentioned that number when I was leaving a voice mail message for an out of town contact I had called and missed.

Then not long ago, I started rethinking whether my toll free number was gaining business for me. Discussing this with a professional speaker colleague, I was surprised to hear him say, "People who want you to have a toll free number, so they can save three or four dollars when they call you, are unlikely to beable-or willing-to pay the professional fees your experiencemerits. If they are so cost conscious that they don't think they could afford to call you, then how will they change that mind set to invest in your services?"

His idea startled me. At the same time, his logic seemed sound. Over the next few months, I started looking at my monthly telephone bill to see who was using my 800 number to reach me. The answer: mostly friends and relatives.

Welcome

We have decided to blog daily rather than send out our periodic newsletter. More people will be able to see the blog and we can have up-to-date news and views on business marketing and promotional ideas.

We would love to hear from you and know some of your marketing tricks that help you promote your business on and off the internet. Feel free to email us any time, our email address is right up there to the upper right.

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