Find Your Hidden $$$ in Your Business

Guest Contributor: Shannon McCaffery
Shannon's Posts - Shannon's Site

It's a brand spanking New Year and I'm proposing I take you back to marketing lesson 101- "Find Your Hidden $$$." And no I'm not talking about money that maybe you hid in your mattress or put somewhere in a safe place for an emergency (or in the case of the markets melting again.)

I'm talking about the money that you have no idea about that's buried in your business. One of my favorite things to do with my new clients is really dig deep into their business. I do a marketing assessment and can literally find the hidden money in their business.

You're in luck this month because I want to share with you two of my marketing secrets to help you find the hidden money in your business:

Current Clients- This is the best way to find hidden money- because they already know you and hopefully had a great experience buying your product and/or working with you.

- Are you communicating to your current clients on a regular basis? You need to communicate with them at least 12 times a year as a minimum. Communicating with them 24 and even 52 times is even more beneficial.

- How are you communicating with them? Via email? Printed newsletter? Electronic newsletter? Via direct mail? By phone? There are several ways to stay in touch with your clients. Remember, you're in business not just to make money, but to make the sale to get a new client that you will keep and market to for life.

- Is your communication interesting, informative, entertaining and valuable? It needs to be at least informative and entertaining. Give them valuable information that can help them.

- Are you creating new products or services and subtly selling them in your communications? This is key- tie your communications into subtly promoting products or services. Constantly come out with new products/services or updated and revised ones to keep the pipeline fresh.

Referrals- This is tied to the point above about your current clients. Asking for referrals from your current clients is huge. The best time is when they are gushing tons of praise for something you've done for them. This is when they want to help you. Another thing you can do is simply email or snail mail them a nice letter asking for referrals and rewarding them with a gift card to Amazon, Starbucks or possibly donating money to their favorite charity.

These are only two ways to find hidden money, and there are so many more. In this economy, start with these two inexpensive things to get your business moving. If you're interested in discovering more, you can always contact me, I'm happy to help you.

Here's to an incredibly prosperous '09 for you!

Shannon.