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The Top 10 Simple, Effective, and Affordable Marketing Solutions for Professionals

Guest post by: Sandy Barris

Article Overview: 10 Simple, Effective, and Affordable Marketing Solutions To Start Using Today including: Targeting clients, customers and patients better. Focusing. Doing the two-step. Dropping notes. Stopping No-time excuses. Building Trust. Compelling urgency. Promote, Promote and promote again. Join up. Getting buzzed. What IS working? Go fish. Ten people and one hour. The excitement is building...

The Top 10 Simple, Effective, and Affordable Marketing Solutions for Professionals

Your Top 10 Simple, Effective, and Affordable Marketing Solutions To Start Using Today...

These ten marketing ideas promise to help jump start your marketing and help you get everything you can out of all you’ve got:

1. Target the customer most likely to buy your product. Don't waste your money by advertising on mass media that targets anyone who is reading or watching There are too many ways these days to identify media that target your ideal customer - you know the ones I am talking about - they are the 20 percent of your customers that make up 80 percent of your profits. Learn as much about them as you can and focus your marketing budget on them.
2. Focus your marketing on your prospects not your company. Too many businesses create marketing materials that are all about them. Anyone who reads these materials will quickly throw them away or ask, “What's in it for me?” Don't put your prospects in that position. Make sure your marketing messages are full of the benefits, reasons why and proof you will deliver to them what you promise.
3. Use more than one-step to turn strangers into prospects. A lot of professionals use their marketing budgets on advertising and direct response marketing that takes time to work, but they'll only run it or mail it once or twice. Most people need to see your message a number of times before they are ready to act, so concentrate on strategies that let them gradually get to know your business.
4. Follow-up. Many small business owners do all the right things, but fail to follow-up. Develop opportunities to stay in touch with your customers. Call them to see how they are doing without mentioning your product. Drop them a note or send them an article that relates to an issue they are facing. Do everything you can to get them to see you as a valuable advisor.
5. Write articles, guides, reports and book on subjects relating to your services and send them to your clients, prospects, and the local media. No time to write? Then speak your ideas into a digital recorder when you have down time, or driving, then have them transcribed, edited and created into a distributable document.
6. Develop a relationship with your prospects before you try to make them customers. Build trust by giving something a way like a newsletter, free tips or other information about your product or service tied to their needs
7. Develop a compelling offer. Focus on what your product will do for the customer. Always stress the benefits and a few specific features that set you apart. Include a call to action to tell the prospect what to do next. Include a sense of urgency or encourage them to act with in a limited time-frame.
8. Promote your product or service in a variety of ways; don't just rely on one strategy. If money is in short supply, try sending press releases, write articles, or volunteer to speak. You also should ask current customers for a referrals Start a website and blog to build a list. Your website & blog may cost you money, but it will open up many lower cost ways for you provide information to prospects about your products and services. Get the word out in other ways too. You can join industry associations where you can network with prospects or sponsor a sports team in the community where your business is located. Get your company name and product or service on something that people will keep and create a giveaway with another company if you can not afford it alone.
9. Offer great customer service. One of best ways to create buzz is to wow your customers and turn them into ambassadors for your business. You can also take the risk out of doing business with you by providing guarantees and warranties.
10. Track the response to your marketing so you can do more of what is working and eliminate measures that don't bring a good return on your investment. Set up benchmarks so that you can measure every marketing method you use. Test your marketing materials to determine if they are effective.

BONUS

Low Cost Marketing Ideas.

• Network at events. Go to Chamber of Commerce meetings, BNI or LBN Group meetings, and other organizational meetings that will be attracting your "ideal" client. Give your business card to get a business card. Follow up by phone, mail or email immediately while it's still fresh in yours and their mind. Remember, not everyone will be a good fit for your services, ask them if they know of someone who is and get their contact information.
• Produce Seminars. In this information-hungry age, people love to receive advice, especially about their personal needs. Perhaps you can offer legal advise seminars during lunchtime to your area's business community. Maybe you can offer one-hour workshops to any group of ten people who will gather at your office or local restaurant.

Now, promise to commit yourself to using a few of these ideas you have learned today.

Next, use two more in the next 30 days and enjoy what happens.

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Article Tags: affordable marketing, building trust, business plans, excitement, low cost marketing, marketing plans, marketing solutions, planning, urgency



Related Forum Posts
Re: Website Name Help - Its good that you have come up with the idea of setting up a website for your business. Now As it is into Business Solutions, I would recommend that you also include this into the name of the website. This will help you getting better results as far as SEO is concerned. You can start building a brand with this name. As you have already got the name booked, you can try changing it to something on the lines of Business Solutions as in azimabusiness or azimabusinesssolutions. Its a long name but still is good from the SEO point.
Help me name my moms business - I think Infinity Cleaning Services sounds better than Elite Cleaning Solutions... Why the Solutions? What is there to be solved? You simply get a rag with some Windex on it and wipe away.... plug the vacuum and Vac Away, get a mop and mop away. Stick to Infinity Cleaning Services... ICS sounds cool...
Re: My 3 best business books - 1. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey 3. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin Think and Grow Rich seems more powerful each time I read it or dip into it. The 7 Habits not only offers some very effective ways to organize your life (which I have yet to master!), but also some great quotations and thought provoking statements including this by Nazi concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: [i:2naxzsom]Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.[/i:2naxzsom] Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a good read for anybody seeking to understand how to approach doing business on the Internet in the right way with regard to winning people's trust.
Check References! - Make sure you always check references before hiring a consultant to help you out! Also make sure that they have experience in your field? If you're a software company have they ever raised $ for software firms before? Professionals should have no problem giving a list of references that you can call on.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.


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