Now a days it can take upwards of 12‐15 touches with a prospect before they choose to buy your product or service. You must be persistent and consistent in your message without being a pest. Most small business owners will give up after three. Be prepared for this and develop a series of touch points that will continue to nurture your relationship with this prospect at every touch point. You want to be adding lots of value at ever touch point, thus raising the “temperature level” of a prospect until they decide to buy. Obviously you cannot just keep calling them or leaving a voice mail every few days. One of the most effective methods is a weekly e-Zine, Newsletter or a Blog. Make sure your target audience wants to receive your communication by having them opt in to receiving your message. They’ll buy when they are ready, not when you are ready. Your job is to cultivate this relationship with the value of what you do until they say, “yes, I’m ready”. Remember: everyone wants to buy something to solve their pain, but nobody wants to be sold.
Here are 2 of the latest marketing tip submissions from our contest. You can get more tips, or enter your own for the chance to be published in our upcoming book ‘Small Business Marketing on a Milk Money Budget’ 365 Powerful, Cutting-Edge—and Affordable—Marketing Tactics
Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know. Watch this video and find out!
Enter this contest for a chance to be published in the upcoming book ‘Small Business Marketing on a Milk Money Budget’. And be eligible to win other prizes, like a social media makeover or your very own podcast!
Let’s face it, with everything that’s going on in business today getting some FREE marketing and publicity would be pretty cool don’t you think? Well, here’s your chance!
Get connected with other entrepreneurs and small business owners by contributing to Small Business Marketing on a Milk Money Budget! Stepmom moveMiddle of Nowhere move This guidebook is full of free & low-cost marketing tips. Just click here to get started and learn about all the other prizes you could win for your business, like a social media make over or you own podcast!
You’ve heard the saying, ‘treat something like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby’. If networking is going to be one of your strategies to growing your business - treat it like a strategy! Don’t be an amatuer…
BNI founder and chairman, Dr. Ivan Misner, leads the world’s largest referral organization for business owners, and professionals. It’s sole purpose is the referral network strategy.
The key to networking? You MUST set obtainable goals and objectives. Often times, people attending a networking event will set the objective of ‘what time am I going to leave…’ Well, your results will reflect that - so make a change! Be specific, put some measurable numbers to it…how many events will I attend per week, how many people am I going to meet, what type of contacts am I looking for.
In a recent interview with Dr. Ivan Misner, he reveals the top 10 traits of a master networker;
10. Dedicated to working in their network; be an expert and effectively work your network.
9. Sincerity; be completely sincere and connected with the people in your network.
8. Helpfulness; enact ‘givers gain’ or ‘the law of reciprocity, be willing to give before you receive.
Have you ever picked up one of those neighborhood rag newspapers and seen all of the small business owners that advertise their business? These folks obviously see the value in advertising and have some sort of a marketing budget–even though its probably shoestring. How many of them are trying to get the attention of the same type of client as you?
Ever thought about partnering with one of them? Since you’re talking to the same person, competing for the same dollar, why not put a partnership together, offer something that leverages the value of both of your offerings and halves your advertising cost?
And the right relationship is not always in what you think is the ideal partnership. The massage therapy center partnering with up with the beauty salon is an obvious one, but what about some more untraditional pairings? For example at the shopping center by my house I saw that the nail salon had partnered up with the dry cleaner to offer incentives to their clientelle. Brilliant idea: the customer is already in the shopping center doing one errand, why not make it more convenient and easy for them to accomplish two! These opportunities are everywhere. Just pick up one of these papers and get a sense of what others are offering.
You might even partner with the publisher of the publication and offer their advertisers something of value from you if they resign for another period of advertising.
