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Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith Become an Author

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If you are a small business owner, your biggest problem is getting customers. To secure new customers requires that you share or deliver your message to the market place. If you don’t believe that marketing is essential to your business, then don’t read any further because this article will have no value for you.

However, if you understand the importance of marketing, maybe now is the time to check out your marketing tool box and assess your marketing tools to ensure that they will deliver you sharp sales in 2006.

Your marketing tool box much like a traditional tool box and has 2 sections. The top section sits on top of the bottom section. Within the second section of your tool box or the bottom is the "heavier" marketing tools. Each tool has a cost and an estimated range has been provided.

Top Section – Lightweight Tools

Business Cards – $20 to $200 for 1,000 cards
Brochures – $.50 to $2.00 for 100 brochures
Flyers - $.25 to $1.00 each
Letterhead - $.05 to $.20 each
Envelopes - $.05 to $.10 each
Post cards - $.05 to $.50 each
Postage - $.25 to $.39 each piece
Giveaways - $.10 to $10,000 for 100 to 5,000 quantities
CD’s or DVD’s - $5.00 each to $2,000 for 50
Referrals – Free however in many cases there is an indirect cost

NOTE: If you as the small business owner contributed to the design, development and production of any of these tools, remember to estimate your time at $100 per hour.

Bottom Section – Heavyweight Tools

Speaking Engagements – Usually free, sometimes can generate income (Does not include time to write or practice the speech. Estimate $100/hour.)
Printed Book - $3,000 to $10,000+ for 1,000 copies (Does not include time to write the book. Estimate $100/hour.)
Articles – Free submission to sites such as Evan Carmichael Articles (Does not include time involved in writing. Estimate $100/hour.)
Paid Media Advertisements including Radio, TV, Newspapers, Trade Journals and Internet Adwords – Cost .05 pay through click to $10,000 plus per advertisement
Website - $100 to $10,000 development cost with monthly hosting from $10 to $30
Chamber Membership - $200 to $1,000 per chamber
Professional associations - $100 to $500 per association
Networking groups traditional – BNI, Leads, LeTip - $1,000 to $2,000 per group includes breakfast or luncheon fee
Networking groups non-traditional – Fast Pitch -- $20 online or $40 on site with no annual membership fees

If you begin to add up the costs of all of the tools within your Marketing Tool Box, you can easily accumulate a value in excess of $50,000 or more on an annual basis. As a small business coach, my clients are always amazed when they start listing their tools and costs. When doing a simple strategic plan, there is always a tendency to lump marketing costs with other fixed costs such as rent, telephone, etc. By breaking out the marketing costs, you, the small business owner can determine what you need to do to work smarter and not harder.

Finally after this activity is completed, I ask them this two-fold question:

If your marketing is costing you $25,000 to $50,000 on an annual basis, what is your conversion rate or how much money is it costing you to acquire each and every client?

Then, what tools are sharper or giving you a higher conversion rate and why are you keeping any tools that aren’t effective?

Word Count: 618

Copyright 2006(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.processspecialist.com

This article may be freely published. Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

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