21 Ways to Promote Your Business Successfully

I always feel sorry when I am approached by someone who has no clue on how to advertise his or her business. For me there are three components to succeed in business:

You MUST have passion for your business.

How can you possibly succeed in your business if you do not love what you do. Not everybody was born lucky as Pete Sampras, Leonardo DiCaprio or Tiger Woods who found something they loved very young and quickly became highly successful.

Most people may have to wait longer to find something they really love and hope to find the success they expect. It took me 6 years to find what I like and that was being a marketing consultant. Before that I tried many things, but I was never successful because I did not have any passion for those business. The biggest challenge is to quickly realize if you like that business or not. If you do not have the passion for it, you'll never be successful. If you are passionate about what you do, you will most likely work long hours, have fun and help a lot of customers with your business. Please be smart and if you are trying to launch a business you may want to avoid starting an online business where you will be selling items like gifts
baskets.

Just think about it. How many people go online and buy gift baskets online? What are their chances to find your site among billions of other sites? The Internet is a place where many people go to find information. So if you decide to sell selling gifts baskets online you may want to think twice. Another type of business I would probably think twice before I start that type of business is if you have to compete with big chains, such as The Home Depot, Pizza Hut, WalMart etc...

You need to have a little budget to advertise your business.

Well I guess you probably realize that you need some money to advertise your business. You do not necessarily need a lot of money but you need some if not the phone will never ring. I say you do not necessarily need a lot of money as you may think because I started my business from home with no money. I was doing cold calls to businesses. During the first three months of my business I did a little online advertising and believe or not but after only 3 months my business kicked off and I never
had to make a cold call again.

Conclusion: There are many forms of advertising you can use to grow your business and you do not need to spend a lot of
money.

Marketing your business.

That is not an easy task when you are just starting in business and there are no mentors to help you. Many people feel hopeless. When they first begin to devise a marketing plan for their business. One of the most important factors is deciding how you will get potential customers' attention. Here are some tips to make them notice you so you will standout from your competition.

There are many forms of advertising your business.

a) Flyer distribution
b) Direct mail advertising
c) TV advertising
d) Radio advertising
e) E-mail marketing
f) Banner advertising
g) E-mail co-registration
h) Pop advertising
i) Pay per click search engines advertising Cost Per Click (CPC)
j) Lead generation - Cost Per (Lead CPA)
k) Keyword advertising
l) Newspaper advertising
m) Affiliate programs
n) Yellow pages/online yellow pages
o) Viral marketing
p) Coupon advertising

How do you attract new prospects or get more sales from past clients? Here are 21 techniques that will help succeed in your
efforts to market your business.

1) Offer what your competitors don’t!

Study your competitors to see what benefits your competitors are (or are not) offering their customers, and see if your business can offer an added benefit such as free consultation, free delivery, free upgrades, free information booklet, free sample(s) etc. -- to your customers to help increase the value of your product or service to prospective clients.
Announce this new "benefit" in your promotional materials. This is probably the most important of the 21 techniques to increase your sales and learn how to market your business. Ask yourself the following questions:

WHAT DO I OFFER THAT NO ONE ELSE OFFER?
WHAT CAN I OFFER THAT WILL MAKE MY OFFER SO IRRESISTIBLE THAT IT WOULD BE FOOLISH TO REFUSE IT?

Once you answer those two questions you won’t have anymore problems with competition.

2) Study your customers

As you get clients, invite them to share their feedback. Use this information improve your business but to also send reminder notes, thank you letters, and even birthday cards. That will demonstrate to them how important they are to you.

3) Special offer!

Send a notice to your clients and prospects and let them now you have a special deal for them. Let them know as well that this is a special for them only and no one else can get this deal.

4) Frequent-buyer program

Create a frequent-buyer program that let your clients use points or credits to get products for free or get discount towards future purchase. (i.e) buy 9 coffees and the 10th one will be Free)

5) Product combos at special pricing

Put together product combos at special prices. This not only sells more products, but also may help create loyal customers by including a product they might not have thought they needed. Make sure your combos represent great value.

6) Web deal

Have special Web-only deals. This works well if you also have a retail shop, but it will work either way. As long as you have information available that allows customers to buy by phone or fax, you can have specials for those who use the Web.

7) Free shipping or delivery

Offer free shipping or handling within the country or a certain geographic area.

8) Introductory offer

Create a higher "perceived value" for your customers by adding free samples, introductory offers, coupons for future discounts, etc.

9) Price

Price your products competitively. Remember, people shop around. Make sure you don't price your product
too low, or people might think it's of a lower quality; but price your products too high, and people won't buy at all. The moral here: Do your pricing research on your Web competitor's products before you price your own products/services.

10) Upsale your customers

Use the Amazon.com technique of adding a "Customers who purchased this product also bought these items...." section to encourage customers to buy additional related products. You can also offer a few upgrades and make higher sales.

12) Call to action

With any advertising materials, it's crucial that you get potential customers to act. Now! Use the following techniques to
create a call to action that will increase your sales:

GIVE A DEADLINE FOR ORDERING
We've all received some sort of promotional material that has a deadline for ordering. The offer could end on that date.

Or you could use the deadline in conjunction with an upgrade or free gift. For example, order by the 15th and receive....

Also, try to make the cut off date in the same month as your materials will be received. That way, your potential customers
know they only have a limited time to respond and they won't fall victim to the "I'll do it later" syndrome.

ADVISE OF A PRICE INCREASE
People want to get in on a good deal. If your price is going up on a specific date, let your customers know. They'll want to
buy before your product's price increases.

13) Create a newsletter

You need to create a newsletter to stay in touch with your past clients and prospects to remind them about your offering.
Your newsletter should be very valuable if not you will lose all credibility and all possible chances of doing business with them in the future. It is very important to Write articles that demonstrate your expertise in your field.

14) Cold calling

Get on the telephone and make "cold calls." These are calls to people who you would like to do business with. Briefly describe what you do and ask for an appointment to talk to them about ways you can help them meet a need or solve a problem.

16) Free samples

Get samples of your product or your work into as many hands as possible.

17) Free quote

Offer a free, no obligation consultation to people you think could use your services. During such consultations offer some practical suggestions or ideas -- and before you leave ask for an "order" to implement the ideas.

19) Referrals

Learn to ask existing customers, prospects and casual acquaintances for referrals. When you get them, follow up on the leads.

20) Use other people to sell your product or service.

Look for existing mail order companies that would be willing to include your products in their catalogs, or for distributors or sales agents who would be willing to sell your products or services. If you have a website get affiliates to sell your products and services. An affiliate program is any type of revenue sharing program where an affiliate web site receives a portion of income for delivering sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant web site

21) Get noticed by "revitalizing" your business

If you have been in business for awhile, see what you can do to inject some excitement into your business (i.e.) "New and Improved!" You can re-invent your logo; get a Website or update it be more interactive; announce a new "mission statement," for serving your customers with improved services or products, or other ways to let people know you are progressive with your
business to better serve them.

Anticipating future market needs and changes is as important as satisfying current markets. New technology, growing international trade, improved communications and increasingly sophisticated buyers have all increased the pressures on suppliers to make continuous improvements in their products and services.

A world of continuous change means markets grow, mature and disappear much faster now. Companies must continually assess the value of the markets they are in, planning, if necessary, to enter new ones for growth or survival.


Andre Plessis
Marketing Consultant
http://smartbizconnection.com