| | Marketing your business is of high importance in increasing your customer base and product/service sales. There are many ways you can market your business and receive results. Keep in mind that the average return on your efforts is 1%-3% return for the contacts made. Therefore, the more contacts the more responses you'll receive.
Letters to your prospective clients is one of the best ways on communication. It gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself and your products/services to the prospect, with information on why they should respond to your letter. You want to keep your letter brief and to the point. You can lose the prospects' interest if you use too much language. Be concise and to the point. Use nice stationary and matching envelopes when using this method of contact. The more professional your letter appears will ensure that the recipient will at least look at it and read the content. Plain white paper and cheap regular envelopes do not generate the same interest. Use light gray or ivory as statistics show these are the best colors for business letters.
Faxing letters of flyers is another method of marketing. There are laws regarding this method. You need to have permission to fax which you can get by calling and asking permission. Make sure you document who gave you permission to fax. When you call for permission, identify yourself, your company and briefly what type of information you want to fax. If your prospective client is interested in your product/service, they will usually give you the needed permission to fax it to them.
Telemarketing is another source of marketing. When telemarketing, make sure you are not aggravating your prospect when calling. The best method we've found is to introduce yourself and your company, briefly tell the person answering the phone what your call is regarding and ask for the owner, manager or decision maker to call you back. If your subject matter is of interest to your prospect, they will call you back. Telemarketing is more cost effective today due to the phone companies that offer unlimited long distance rates.
Brochures are a more expensive way to market although you can get a wealth of information regarding your product/services out to your prospective client. You need to make sure that your brochure is attractive on first sight using color and art work that depicts what you are selling. Additionally, you want to give as much information about your products/services as possible, but at the same time, you don't want to give all of your information away. You want to leave a few unanswered questions to generate an interested response from the prospective client.
Internet marketing in today's world is an effective means of marketing. You can build websites at little or no cost. If you choose this method of marketing, you'll need to get your website submitted to as many search engines as possible for it to be effective. Even if you are not exposed on the internet, it helps to have a website to direct potential clients to.
Additionally, in all forms of communication, make sure you have all means of contact printed on all materials including your phone number, fax number, email address, physical address, and web site address. Do not use a P O box as an address. With all of the scams today, a physical address gives more credibility to your business marketing efforts.
In summary, what ever means of marketing you choose, be consistent! Even if you only contact 25 new prospects a day, daily marketing is critical to building your business. | |
