That's a considerable promise, I know, but it's a promise I stand by and aim to keep. But there is one warning: simply flipping through this article and "knowing about" these tips won't do a thing for you. You actually have to roll your sleeves up and put them to work for you.
Small business marketing doesn't have to be complicated, but you do have to do it.
Tip No 1: Increase your fees Fact -- almost no one buys just on price. For most people in most circumstanceses, it's frankly not a significant consideration. Far more important to most people are things like reliability, convenience, quality, level of service, and so on. As my mum frequently opined, "buy cheap, buy twice". A few words of wisdom from the old lady.
If you add 10 % to your prices from this moment on, I would be amazed if you saw any drop in sales whatsoever. What you WILL see, though, is a substantial boost to your profits (because that 10 % increase is all profit). Sure, it's possible the odd client or two will grumble and put on the weeps about it and maybe even go somewhere else ... but if they do, then they've done you a kindness. Price buyers are terrible to deal with and will in due course push you to a very early grave.
Tip No. 2: Get referred business.
Referred business is the most profitable business to get, and the easiest to close the sale on -- because all the hard work of cultivating trust has been done for you by whoever referred the business to you. In my own business, I don't take on private clients from anything BUT referrals, because the business is such top quality.
Problem is, most of us don't do anything to stimulate or encourage referrals. Like sunny days, we're just happy when they come along.
Yet we can easily turn this situation about by having a scheme of asking customers and clients one easy question: "whom do you know who needs the same kind of help I've just given you?". You could pick up the telephone and ask your top 20 % of clients that question right this minute.
You can perhaps go beyond this and set the scene for referrals at the start of your relationship with a new client: "I expand my business with referrals. And so if I do a great job for you I hope and expect you will refer at least 3 people to me whom I may be able to help". The majority of business owners are too timorous to make this a qualification of doing business with customers ... but that's their problem.
Tip No. 3: Get yourself in the media.
Look through any periodical, local or national, and you'll find "specialists" holding forth with theories varied and diverse from haircuts and horticulture, and bread making and billiards. Just who are these people and just why does anyone concern themselves anything they say? Well, they're simply just individuals much like you and I -- business owners with specialized information of their area of expertise. And the sole difference is... they're in the paper and you are not.
Why?
This is all a hell of a lot easier than it seems and a lot less scary, too. Some years ago I had a regular column in my town's monthly freebie newspaper. It amounted to approximately 30 minutes' work a month to create, and produced thousands of Euro in business.
See? Three free small business marketing tips that can be bringing in extra money by the end of the working day. But the responsibility is on YOU to take action and make them work for you -- they won't do it by themselves.
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Jon McCulloch is Ireland's leading direct response expert. Visit his website and take just three of the 52 FREE small business marketing tips he's giving away today, and actually put them to work in your business and you'll be delighted by the results.
They've all produced significantly improved results for businesses just like yours in the last two years.
Your tips are here: => http://www.small-business-marketing-tips.com/52-small-business-marketing-ideas
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