Marketing Secrets for Small Business Owners
Marketing Secrets for Small Business Owners
The good news for today's small business owner is that the Internet and local advertising can provide targeted reach at a reasonable cost. In particular, email, Internet marketing, and classified advertising, can generate huge returns for your business.
1. Email Marketing. Each year, nearly 20 billion emails are sent to consumers and businesses. As many as 60 percent of these emails are considered SPAM and about 20% are automatically tagged as such making their way into the SPAM mailbox of your everyday email client.
However, what most email marketers fail to tell you is that the most productive email solicitations don't come from businesses, they come from word-of-mouth or viral marketing. Viral marketing is the practice of telling others about a positive experience with a brand, product or service.
As a small business owner, you can take advantage of email marketing by simply encouraging those who receive your emails to forward them to a friend. Also, tag your web pages with a "tell a friend" button which allows for easy emailing of a web page, URL, PDF, or related document. These features cost little or nothing to implement and can generate impressive results.
2. Internet Marketing. Often the topic of Internet marketing scares off small business owners. However, Internet marketing itself can be an effective tool if leveraged appropriately. There are a variety of Internet marketing mediums. These options include "pay-for" Internet marketing options such as Google AdSense, the Yahoo! Directory and so on as well as free or cost neutral options.
In Internet marketing, there are a couple of techniques that are highly effective and cost little or nothing to implement. The first and most popular is article marketing. Are you a subject matter expert? If you are, provide articles to other well known websites that can get your company name and URL out there. This can be done for free and provides the added benefit of having other sites link to your website, increasing your site's link popularity scores.
The second Internet marketing strategy that can drive you business is an affiliate program. At its most basic level, an affiliate program allows other website or companies to sell your products and receive a commission. Explore affiliate programs that can help distribute your products or services.
3. Classified Advertising. Still one of the best and most affordable ways to sell your product, classified advertising can be effective if you run your ad for multiple weeks. For as little as $30 per week or less, you can get your company name, product, website, or other unique identifier in front of a local audience.
Weekly papers are especially good if you are targeting a small area. These local papers are also well read often cover to cover. So, if you want to advertise, forget the large display ads, magazine ads, or anything that costs more than $100. Spend your money on classified ads and measure the response.
Marketing doesn't have to break the bank for the small business owner. In fact, it should be seen as an important way to drive revenue for your business. If you have little or no money to spend on marketing, be sure to take advantage of email marketing, Internet marketing, and classified ads to drive the success of your business. Also, make sure that everything you distribute (letters, invoices, business cards, and even your voicemail mentions your company name and website.
Marketing Secrets for Small Business Owners - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Fleischner's Website.
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If you're a small business owner, you're probably wondering where you can get the biggest bang for the buck with your marketing dollars. As a veteran marketing professional and small business owner myself, I understand the importance of making the most from a limited marketing budget.
The good news for today's small business owner is that the Internet and local advertising can provide targeted reach at a reasonable cost. In particular, email, Internet marketing, and classified advertising, can generate huge returns for your business.
1. Email Marketing. Each year, nearly 20 billion emails are sent to consumers and businesses. As many as 60 percent of these emails are considered SPAM and about 20% are automatically tagged as such making their way into the SPAM mailbox of your everyday email client.
However, what most email marketers fail to tell you is that the most productive email solicitations don't come from businesses, they come from word-of-mouth or viral marketing. Viral marketing is the practice of telling others about a positive experience with a brand, product or service.
As a small business owner, you can take advantage of email marketing by simply encouraging those who receive your emails to forward them to a friend. Also, tag your web pages with a "tell a friend" button which allows for easy emailing of a web page, URL, PDF, or related document. These features cost little or nothing to implement and can generate impressive results.
2. Internet Marketing. Often the topic of Internet marketing scares off small business owners. However, Internet marketing itself can be an effective tool if leveraged appropriately. There are a variety of Internet marketing mediums. These options include "pay-for" Internet marketing options such as Google AdSense, the Yahoo! Directory and so on as well as free or cost neutral options.
In Internet marketing, there are a couple of techniques that are highly effective and cost little or nothing to implement. The first and most popular is article marketing. Are you a subject matter expert? If you are, provide articles to other well known websites that can get your company name and URL out there. This can be done for free and provides the added benefit of having other sites link to your website, increasing your site's link popularity scores.
The second Internet marketing strategy that can drive you business is an affiliate program. At its most basic level, an affiliate program allows other website or companies to sell your products and receive a commission. Explore affiliate programs that can help distribute your products or services.
3. Classified Advertising. Still one of the best and most affordable ways to sell your product, classified advertising can be effective if you run your ad for multiple weeks. For as little as $30 per week or less, you can get your company name, product, website, or other unique identifier in front of a local audience.
Weekly papers are especially good if you are targeting a small area. These local papers are also well read often cover to cover. So, if you want to advertise, forget the large display ads, magazine ads, or anything that costs more than $100. Spend your money on classified ads and measure the response.
Marketing doesn't have to break the bank for the small business owner. In fact, it should be seen as an important way to drive revenue for your business. If you have little or no money to spend on marketing, be sure to take advantage of email marketing, Internet marketing, and classified ads to drive the success of your business. Also, make sure that everything you distribute (letters, invoices, business cards, and even your voicemail mentions your company name and website.
Marketing Secrets for Small Business Owners - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Fleischner's Website.
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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