This article is all about strategies on promoting your business.
As just about every business person knows,
you can only get
so far on price alone. When you allow your sales strategy to
revolve around being the least expensive option on the block,
you only end up having to work that much harder to make a
profit. Instead of driving down the price, why not employ
other methods to get the name of your company in front of
potential clients?
One great way to introduce you to a market sector is to write
articles that speak to that particular industry type and relate
back to possible applications of your products or services
within that industry.
As an example, let's assume you sell ribbon cartridges that are
used in transcription devices. A natural fit for those cartridges
is the legal industry, as court transcriptionists and also
persons who do medical and legal transcriptions can use them.
This identifies two markets to go after, and both of them
happen to have trade magazines and nation wide associations
for persons engaged in those types of careers.
Because you know your product so well, you can easily put
together a helpful hints style article for inclusion in each of
these two industry magazines. Keep it around two to three
hundred words, as editors often are looking for filler and that
word count is ideal to finish out a page.
Of course you will include hints two in each that refer back to
the ribbon cartridges like the ones you carry. Make sure you
can get a byline that includes your name, your company
name, and the web site address for your company.
The interest that you will generate among targeted audience
members will make your efforts well worth the time, and will
allow you to introduce them to your product based on quality,
not price.
As an added bonus, you will also have created a new publicity
tool, as you can get permission to republish the tear sheet of
your filler article and include it in your sale and marketing
materials.
If you want to grow your business and not rely on price alone
to get you there, it is a good idea to mount a direct campaign
to a target audience. There are several ways you can carry
this campaign to the type of clients you are seeking and do so
very effectively.
Trade magazines are a great way to go for your target
audience. This can be done with ads or if you can entice one
of the staff writers into doing a piece on you and one of your
products or services as they relate to that particular industry
type, then you will be able to reach a lot of decision makers
very quickly and easily.
Remember that whatever you include in the ad or the article
needs to be related to everyday use in that industry or
profession if you are to keep the interest that is generated by
the fact you are in the magazine in the first place.
Newsletters may be an option as well, especially if you are
going for non-profits organizations as your target audience.
Follow the same strategy as with the trade magazines, and be
on the lookout for one other way of getting your name in
front of the customers you are seeking.
Many non-profits will hold conferences from time to time and
need sponsors or guest speakers. Offer your services and
you will have plenty of chances to speak with all sorts of
people about what you and your company have to offer.
Direct mail campaigns have been around for some time and
they do consistently yield some results.
