Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!

Thursday, October 22, 2009  //  0 Comments  //  Blog, Uncategorized

Happy Thursday!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Tip sheet on Turning Admin Nightmares Into A Dream! I have to say that I am sorry – I forgot to include the download link – so here it is!

Our Retweets continued – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Check out today’s article to learn about proven tips, must haves and Must NOT do’s for Marketing Your Biz!!

Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!

Many Business owners have been conditioned to believe it takes tons of money to successfully market a business! The time has come to be “re-conditioned” – to KNOW that you don’t need money! We’ve rounded up some of the best Proven Tactics and Must-Haves for a Cheap Campaign as well as pointed out what NOT to do when marketing your business! Grab a pen, a pad of paper and get set to market!

Proven Marketing Tactics

Make Google Do the Work
Take “Google Alerts” out for your name and company and also on “keywords” that target your marketing niche. I have Google Alerts on “kindergarten” and “Let’s Get Ready for School”. Everyday Google sends me a list of free leads that tag all the stories and blogs that include my key word(s). Those leads are for journalist and bloggers who tell you amazing details – like a school just received 1 million dollars for their early education program!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing, www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Network
Creating relationships with other small businesses will fuel you forward. Think of companies or products your clients might also be interested in and develop relationships with those business owners. Offer coupons to their customers or a referral bonus to the business.
Laurie Davis, Founder, eFlirt – www.eFlirtExpert.com
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Give ‘Em Something for Free
Offering a free resource related to your business, such as an e-book that guides your prospective customers through a particularly difficult part of the purchasing process, can be a way to attract attention within your industry. Such an approach does require you to spend a little time promoting that resource (as well as creating it), but the monetary cost is negligible – most business owners know more than enough about their businesses to effectively educate clients.
Thursday R. Bram – www.thursdaybram.com
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Enter a Contest
I entered every entrepreneur contest I was old enough for and some that I wasn’t. At age 11, I wanted to enter the Young Entrepreneurs of America contest but the minimum age was 16. I entered anyway and in my entry essay explained why I thought they should consider me. I was told the judges were so impressed with my creativity that they created a new category for kids under 16 and I was the first recipient to win.
Jason O’Neill, Creator, Pencil Bugs Plus, Forbes Top 10 – www.pencilbugs.com
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Establish Yourself as an Expert
Answer questions on appropriate online forums and groups (such as LinkedIn, MarketingProfs, etc). Being helpful establishes you as an expert and keeps you top of mind when members of the forum have a problem you can solve
Jodi Kaplan, Principal, KaplanCopy – http://www.kaplancopy.com
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Pick Up the Phone
I know its old fashion but a new start up cannot be afraid of using the phone. Creating a script, a sales letter and looking up suspects online doesn’t cost anything. Instead of waiting for social media (blogging, tweeting, answering questions online) to get results take a proactive approach and this will result in uncovering qualified contacts.
With the $500 spend it on creating a website that reinforces the message that is being said during the phone call.
Ceri Ruenheck, It’s Your Call – www.itsyourcall.com
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Beg, Borrow & Sell
Borrowing someone else’s audience is all about finding a win-win. For example, I wanted to produce seminars but with no list, no facility and no built-in audience, it would be expensive and difficult to get started. Instead, I joint ventured with local organizations to put on seminars for their audiences. Leisure Learning Unlimited hosts a variety of classes on everything from computers to dance to goat farming (Really!). Getting my courses into their catalogues meant that they handled the marketing, registrations and other administrative tasks, while I could just show up to speak.
Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady – http://IdeaLady.com
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Show It Off
One of the best ways to market start-up small business on the cheap is by attending live networking events—and paying for a display table. The key is to commit to attending at least 2 per month, and making sure you have some helpful, fun or interesting freebies on your table for people to take away. This works whether you’re selling products or services. When I launched my last business as a small business marketing copywriter I did it exactly this way. Even though I was selling a service, I had writing samples, one-page tips sheets people take-aways, a promo letter explaining my services and business cards. Together these made a nice little display. And within 6 months I was very busy with new clients.
Stacy Karacostas, Practical Marketing Expert, Success Stream – www.success-stream.com
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Put It On The Map
Set up a profile in the Local Business Listings on Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local. It’s free, it doesn’t take too long and will give them a presence in the Local search results for the area in which they do business. It will also serve as a mini website where they can give details about their business, themselves and their products and services, offer coupons, post photos and videos and get reviews.
Mary Bowling – http://www.seoverflow.com
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Pay For It
Offer finder’s fees/commissions to people that refer you business.
John Schulte, President and Chairman, National Mail Order Association (NMOA) – http://www.nmoa.org
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Have an Open House
If you are lucky enough to have a retail location use it to your marketing advantage. Invite speakers, have distributors give product demonstrations. Then serve tea or wine & cheese and invite your customers & prospects. Tell them to bring a friend. You’d be surprised how well this can work for you.
Randye Spina, Chief Solutions Officer, Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC – www.myaffordablemarketing.com
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Get Media Coverage
Belong to all the free sites for media leads: www.helpareporter.com; www.pitchrate.com; and http://www.reporterssource.com to name a few. I have been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows, over 30 parenting magazines, over 30 television segments and 15 newspapers! Can you say free publicity and free credibility?
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Reach Out

• Change your voicemail monthly – have you listened to your voicemail lately? If not, try it.
• Give one referral away every day – who will you recommend today? I believe the more you give out the more it comes back to you 10 fold! It works, try it out.
• Write one thank you note every week – there are so many reasons to thank people but few people take the time to do this, it will make you more memorable.
• Invite someone to a networking event with you – help them expand their network while you get to increase yours too.
• Conduct a tele-coffee – (this is where you make a coffee, and I make a coffee and we talk on the telephone!) I do tele-cocktails on Fridays! These take no more than 15 minutes and they are very productive!
• Ask your network for help – reach out, you will be so glad you did. People want to help you but maybe they don’t know what you need? Choose to reach out to one person today.
• Join a non-profit Board – giving back in your community will increase your brand and your network and feels great too!
• Donate your time – give to a cause you are passionate about i.e. read at your local school, volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit aged care facilities where you live, and offer to shop for someone – there are so many people who could use your time and talents.

Neen James CSP – http://www.neenjames.com

Must-Haves for a Successful “Cheap” Campaign

Get A Signature
One of the biggest returns is to put testimonials in your signature lines on email.
Colleen Francis – www.engageselling.com
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Have a Website
The most important marketing tool a startup needs is a website and it doesn’t have to cost you. You can have a website that works for you and one that is cheap; about $8/month for hosting. My website is not the most fancy but it does what it’s supposed to do.
Tina Hill, Owner, Kidzsack – www.kidzsack.com
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Use Postcards
They are cheap (both to print and to mail) and they are colorful and eye catching.
You cannot NOT read a postcard; If an envelope comes in the mail you look at the return address and decide to pitch it in the garbage right then or look at it (usually later) with a postcard, by the time you look at it – you’ve pretty much read it
They allow you to send small bits of information to your target base on a regular basis –staying in front of your clientele rather than doing a big push and hoping it hits.
Nanette Miner, Ed.D., The Training Doctor, LLC – www.trainingdr.com
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Send a Greeting Card
Use greeting cards to market your service…they are affordable, effective and boast a 99% open rate. They must however, identify and relate to the problem your target is experiencing and include a strong call to action.
Donna Pullan, MAKE CONTACT MARKETING – http://www.MakeContactMarketing.com
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Have a Writer in Your Corner
If you’re starting a new company, I also strongly urge you to hire a talented writer. Tweeting about something timely, interesting and newsworthy will certainly help you acquire Twitter followers and drive them to your website, but you’ve got to have something attention-grabbing on your site to keep them there. Write a monthly newsletter or a blog – again, both free. And don’t boast. Write about things that are affecting your market. Think outside of the box.
Jessica Knott, Marketing Coordinator, Mary Kraft Staffing and HR Solutions – www.marykraft.com
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Use Creativity
During a conference a few years back, I went to the Dollar Store and put together “survival kits” for all attendees, which included an assortment of goodies – pens, doodle pads, post-it notes, breath mints, a highlighter, paper clips, and a piece of chocolate. I put them in quart size Ziplock bags that had my photo and contact info on them.
After the conference, I sent a pair of Dollar Store flip-flops saying, “It was great to get my foot in the door. I can’t wait to meet you.”
In the end, 4 business owners each gave me $3500 sponsorship packages, which totalled over $14,000.
Nancy Michaels – www.GrowYourBusinessNetwork.com
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Give Incentives
We are currently around 1000 fans on both Facebook and Twitter. We feel that creating a community is key to maintain a customer base and have it grow quickly. We currently are running a tee give away promotion on twitter where we give away a free tee each week to a follower who tweets a phrase mentioning our name. In the past 10 days that has reached over 4800 people. Facebook is great because our new design shows up in the news feeds of our fans each day. If they comment or “like” the design this is then put on their friends news feeds.
Matt Ingleby, RIPT Apparel – www.riptapparel.com
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Make it Visual
Create a home grown video and put it on You Tube and your website.
If you don’t have a camera you can get an inexpensive flip camera for under $165. Provide information that’s of real value to your prospective clients or customers.
Make it short, sweet and pertinent.
Lisa Tener, Author, Book Coach – www.LisaTener.com
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A Social Profile
Create social networking profiles on all the sites that match your target market as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I am on over 40+ sites. Even the sites that I am not active in get traffic. I have one that has over 24,000 page views, another over 5,000, 6,000, 150 — now times that by 40 and that’s free exposure for YOU! The more people that know your name, the bigger you will be! The best compliment I get is – I see you “everywhere”!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com

Do NOT Attempt These Marketing Snafus

Inconsistent Branding
Make sure that your company brand is consistent across all of your marketing mediums. If you have a social profile, ensure that the look is in line with your website and print marketing collateral. If it is not consistent, you run the risk of confusing potential clients and making yourself look unfocused.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – http://www.foundationstudio.ca
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Don’t Buy It
The most expensive and least effective thing you can do as a new business is to pay for advertising. It will suck up your budget instantly and rarely has the desired result. Come up with your own “advertising”…it could be as easy as printing out handouts and distributing them at a local Farmer’s market.
Dick Barnes, The Freeland Group – www.freelandgroup.com
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No Pushing or Bribery
Do not try to push journalists and bloggers who are not interested in writing on your topic and do not offer payment for PR people to do things for you.
Danny Wong, Director of Marketing, Blank Label – www.blank-label.com
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Don’t Forget to Follow-Up
Most sales are lost because no one bothered to follow up and no one asked for the sale. Don’t leave money on the table.
Deb Kolaras, Small Business Coach – www.bizcoachdeb.com

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Here is the link to today’s tip list! Go forth and MARKET! and don’t forget -Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Have a great day!!
Ariane