Public Library
The library has a comprehensive collection of business books. Although their list is not exhaustive, at least ou have got somewhere to start if you needed to learn something that can help you in your business. You can also save time in research because you can ask librarians for the information you need and they will find it for you. Not all the books you loaned are suitable for your business. Read over the books and then select and buy the ones you want to add to your own business library.
Use One Media to Direct Your Customer To Another
If your target market research told you that the most popular channel to reach your target audience is through one media but your product or service works better on another media channel, use the media popular to your target market to direct your
potential clients to the other media channel that is more effective in sending the message of your product or service.
Invite Complaints About Your Business Or Product
This point concerns after-purchase customer service. Call your customers after the sale is made or send them a post card to ask how is the performance of your product or quality of your service. If there was any problem, at least you can rectify it with immediate promptness, rather than hearing the complaint from other channels
Sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity
Your communications materials will never be 100% perfect. It can always be improved on or revised. There’s a saying that goes “Sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity”. When you have a product that can save the world, it is more important to get the message out there as fast as you can. The more you delay, the more chances you are providing for fellow competitors to latch on your idea and reach your customers faster than you can.
Swipe Files
Collect and compile a list of good ads and brochures into a swipe. Use this file as a form of inspiration when you experience a creative block when designing your own advertising. Don’t copy them entirely but adapt the use of it to your own business.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
Don’t assume something to be important to you works the same for your customers. Always put yourself in your customers’ shoes and look at it from your customers’ point of view, not the company’s. The rule is “take care of the customer and he’ll take care of the company”.
Go the extra mile – give your customers more than they expected Go the extra mile to surprise your customers with more value beyond what your product or service offers.
Talk to suppliers and vendors
Get competitor information from your suppliers and vendors. By building a relationship with them, they might, unknowingly, give you crucial information about your competitors’ future plans through casual talk. Alternatively, you can buy the stocks of your competitor’s company if it is public-listed. As a stockholder you will receive all their annual and quarterly reports.
Know the demographics of your sales area
Knowing the demographics of your target audience is important because only then will you get ideas about how to market your product or service to them. You can get such information from local newspapers by asking them for an advertising rate kit. Some other places you can research are the local chamber of commerce, the city planning commission, the public library or local TV and radio stations.
Subscribe to industry magazines
Get a list of magazines from your public library. Subscribing to trade magazines related to your industry help you keep up with the what’s happening in your
industry
Subscribe to magazines that help your business self-esteem
Immerse yourself with positive business messages by subscribing to magazines that help build your business self-esteem. Read the success stories of entrepreneurs and business people.
Join organizations that can help you
Join organizations that support your industry. You can find the list of such organizations at your local public library or online. Go for conventions organized by
those organizations and network with the people who are in the same industry as you to exchange business promotion and marketing ideas or strategies. There is always someone at these meetings who can help you succeed
Matching a competitor’s offer
Offer a better deal for a shorter time. Limit your irresistible offer and you will still drain off a lot of his customers on a busy sale day and you will be perceived as a better place to do business.
Have the knowledge of your clients’ special needs at your fingertips
Have a spreadsheet to keep track of clients’ requests for special services and products and whether you can meet these requests. With this information, you can track interest in new products or services that you should offer.
Be reachable
Be sure to include you contact details on every single communications collateral your
company sends out so that customers can easily search for your contact when they need to. You can print your company name, address, and fax number on all materials including, packing slips and invoices.
Find out more about your customers
Having that personal touch beyond business always puts you advantageous in the minds of your customers. Learn more about your customers beyond just the
business they are in. Pay attention to news about your customer and let them know you read about them.
Be an expert
Becoming an expert positions you as an authority in your field. That may significantly decrease your competitors’ strength. You can offer seminars that establish your company as an expert on the topic. Seminars also help you build better relationships with your current customers, attract more prospects, and increase your company’s exposure. The strategy is to choose a topic with broad appeal among your client and prospect base. After the seminar, follow-up with attendees by mail or in person.
Sales letters
In this technological age, most of us don’t write letters anymore. However, truth be told, letters are still as effective as a means of communication because they always reach the intended audience. Sales letters actually help to enhance a company’s professional image, help avoid misunderstandings and often make a sale.
Listen to your customers
Your customers can give you the best information you need to know about them by asking questions. Therefore, pay close attention to the questions new customers ask you. Armed with the knowledge about what your customers’ questions are, you can let these customers know that you will solve the problem ith no hassles or problems.
Use personalized post-it notes to promote your company
Design and create personalized post-it notepads to promote your company. Every office uses post-its and they stick them to verything. Due to the fact that they use your post-its everyday, it is the case of repeated advertising. If they have a problem you can solve, your name and number are right there stuck to the page for them to contact you.
Categories of customers
Categorize your customers into different groups. The criteria to include is profitability; time spent handling orders and special requests. With these categories you can develop a plan to focus much of your time on the most profitable customers.
Marketing – The battle of perceptions
In the battlefield of marketing, perception of your company, brand, product or service wins over everything else. Therefore, it is more important to work on the branding of your company, product or service than on the product itself. Don’t get me wrong, your product does have to deliver good value but more time should be spend on marketing the product to increase sales for your business.
Ignore the competition
Sometimes, we are too concerned about our competitors and we forget about
everything else. Believe first, with confidence in your vision, don’t worry about your competition.
Be tenacious in your vision
The only failure is when you quit. Setbacks are the necessary evils in every business, they aren’t failures. Be determined in whatever you are doing by keeping your eye set on your vision.
Tips for magazine advertising
It is proven that a two-page spread attracts about one-quarter more than a one-page ad. A full-page ad attracts one-third more readers than a half-page ad. With regards to illustrations and photos of the product advertised, people tend to respond better to images showing the product in use rather than those that show the product only. Pictures of people in ads attract more attention than those without.