November 3, 2009

Marketing your small business doesn’t have to be expensive or a long drawn out process.  In fact, it’s never been easier to build your image or your customer base on little or no money.  The most you’ll have to invest on this list is about 30 minutes of your time and some bold and creative thinking. 

Here’s how to get started:

Focus on customers critical to your success.  We’re often so busy serving the customers we have and selling to new ones, that we often don’t take the time to put our customer list into perspective.  As you go down the list write down those customers that could be critical to the growth of your business in the next year.  If you haven’t seen them in more than 90 days, if they haven’t heard about any new changes, products or services, if you don’t know what the most important projects for them are – put them on the list and start making appointments to see them. 

Creating the list will excite you about the new opportunities, calling these customers to set an appointment will be an additional personal touch in your sales and marketing program.  Having the meeting is touch two,  following up after the visit with a thank you is touch three, actually doing something with what they’ve said is touch four and more.  Simply focusing on those customers that can make all the difference is an easy, natural and inexpensive way to grow your business.

Set a marketing theme and follow-it with every customer interaction.  A really fun way to build your brand is to create a fun and versatile theme and then apply it to all your customer communication.  For example, if your product is easy to use, then focus on that attribute.  You might decide to create an article entitled “101 Reasons [Your Product] is Easy to Use”  you could have serious reasons such as ”24/7 live online support”, or funny reasons like “You can use one hand to use the product and the other to eat an ice cream cone.”  Either way, take a simple competitive advantage and keep repeating it in as many communications as you can.  You will save money and your customers will remember you and what sets you apart.

Celebrate unusual holidays.  There are a variety of fun, creative holidays that you can celebrate and adapt to feature a product or a service.  No one takes the time to do this – and your customer will get a kick out of it.  Send a Thanksgiving card or gift with a special offer if they display it at their office.  Some creative days of the year include Elvis’ Birthday on Jan 8, National Hat Day on January 15, April 22 on Earth Day, and of course there are the standard Independence Day, and St. Patrick’s Day.  The point is to actually MARK these holidays and use them to promote your small business.

Build a customer community.  After you’ve developed your list of targeted customers, keep the communication lines open by giving them a space to connect with you.  If you haven’t already, start a blog.  Wordpress.com is free and you can set up a blog in as little as 5 minutes.  Give the blog address to your customers and spend the first 30 minutes of your day writing something to them.  In the beginning, you’ll have to remind them to visit and see what’s there.  But if your content is good enough, you’ll soon have a loyal following AND get inexpensive and valuable feedback to your ideas.  Think of a blog as a publication.  It’s like creating your free advertising that goes direct to your customer’s mail box!  Move your online community into the real world and schedule customer events.  If your customers are scattered across the country, make a point to visit each region and schedule a customer event focused on helping them do their jobs better.

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive.  In fact, the best and most effective marketing programs come straight from the heart.  A couple words of advice; have fun!  People make decisions, not buildings, industries or titles.  So try these low-cost, high impact marketing strategies for your small business and you will find yourself having fun getting and keeping customers.

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About the Author: Ivana Taylor is CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer.  She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a site for in-house marketers.  Her blog is Strategy Stew.

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Join the conversation ( 3 )

• Andrew Samuelsen 2 months ago

  

  Check out Coupon City ( http://www.couponcityapp.com ). Its 100% free to publish coupons online... its like a traditional do-it-yourself coupon system on tech-steroids. We integrate with your Facebook Page, standard website, mobile phones. We also provide tools to publish to your Facebook Newsfeed (where you'll really attract people to use your coupons) and Twitter feed. As well as a QR code generator you can use to print QR codes your customers can scan in the store (put it next to the cash register!) or in print ads.Coupon City is free and gives you total control over your coupons including content, value, amount distributed, and expiration date. Give it a shot http://www.couponcityapp.com

• Scott 2 years 6 months and 25 days ago

  

  The perfect business relationship is when the business owner and customer both realize that a disruption in or loss of the relationship will be harmful to their separate goals and objectives. Maintaining lines of communication by both sides will ensure it remains strong. Your comment demonstrates this very clearly.

• Jill Fehrenbacher 2 years 6 months and 26 days ago

  

  There are some really great points in here! I especially like the first part about discovering which of your customers are most important and maintaining a truly engaging relationship with them. I've always found myself much more interested and willing to work with partners who stay in touch, and I can't emphasize the value of the trust gained by ongoing conversations. There's nothing worse than only hearing from a friend when they need something and the same is true in business.