Hi, A lot of business owners will be tempted to cut back, especially their marketing. This is a mistake. If anything, you should increase your marketing now. However, by increasing your marketing I don't necessarily mean increasing how much you spend. It's perfectly acceptable to find low-cost or no-cost marketing methods to still keep the momentum going. One word of warning -- there's no such thing as a free lunch. Chances are you're going to pay somewhere, and that payment could very well be your time. Before you rush into doing something you end up regretting, take a hard look at the real cost. Would you be better off doing something that might cost more but doesn't suck up time you could be using to make money? Here are some tactics you can do right now to increase your exposure without necessarily costing you much (if anything): a. Start an email newsletter, or if you already publish one, increase the frequency you send it out. (Weekly is best. The more often your list hears from you, the more responsive they'll become.) b. Hold a free telecast. Make sure you come up with a really great special offer to turn your listeners into customers. c. Go buy a new dress and hang out on the social networking scene. Okay, I'm kidding about the dress. But if you aren't making the social networking rounds, you're missing major business opportunities.
Social media are getting popularity among the small business owners. It gives opportunities them not only promote their products but also increase clients list.
I think you are on the right track, but I don't think a newsletter works unless you have a lot of people signed up to it first.
Does anyone else have thoughts on this? I send my email newsletter out monthly - personally if I start getting weekly newsletters from companies I will tend to unsubscribe as my inbox gets too full! Rob
Hello friends, Since the topic sounds interesting to me therefore I would like to add in few points: firstly when we talk about how to increase your business then it purely depends upon the nature of your business. Newsletter in some cases is eagerly awaited while in other cases you are least bothered. if you are a designer and you are showing your latest designs or sharing valuable information via newsletter to your clients then it makes sense to increase the frequency. If you deal with real estate then weekly newsletters might not be a good idea. i 100% agree that you can also increase your business via social networking. this is the best tool to use for online business. blogs these days have becoming important. many companies be it of any nature prefer to have their corporate blog where they provide useful information to their customers other than their service. if you can convince the client that you can provide them with much more than just service then you are sure to get customer satisfaction. lastly you can also increase your business by targeting new segments. just take wall mart for example. their services keep on increasing. although i'm not saying that you should compare your small business with them but its an example. try to find out what more relevant stuff can you provide to your customers or what other segments can buy your products that you haven't reached before. I hope this will help you out! **SNIIP**
I agree about not sending out newsletters too often - mind you, we're probably a bit slack at the moment and tend to do one for each season unless we're running a special offer. Having said that, I subscribe to Early to Rise which comes nearly every day, and sometimes more than once in a day! I stick them all in a folder to read when I've got time as they contain really useful business advice (as well as adverts for expensive courses, which I just delete). I guess you must just give people something interesting so they actually look forward to reading it.
Hi, My view is that sending out email newsletters weekly is too much and monthly is better. I get fed up with companies sending out too much. Saying that .... we do send out every two weeks to our customer base but its segmented into different products people have bought, so one person only receives an email each month if that makes sense.....
I totally agree with Mr.jackwilson. There is nothing like free lunch and each business should invest more in advertising and marketing because you are investing in a business to attract customers and make profit. Marketing is a way to reach out to customers and in a way investing in marketing is like investing in customers. Even well established businesses have to market themselves in a new way every now and then so that they give a view to customers that they are new and fresh. SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE THINKS THAT MARKETING EXPENDITURE NEEDS TO CLIPPED, THEN GO AND TRY TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT ANY CUSTOMERS. Have a smashing day, Regards, Amber Mason.
I don't think sending a newsletter every week would be a good idea. Only well established companies can get away with this frequency. The content of you e-mail newsletter is more important than the frequency. Do you give your subscribers tips and news that will benefit them? Try to focus on that and your subscribers will be more involved and maybe want to follow you on Twitter, Facebook or another social media channel that is comfortable for you and fits into your daily working day.
I cant stand the news e-mails that come in every week I too delete them once a month is enough for anyone!!
Coming up with useful content weekly I think would be a big burden. Even monthly newsletters are hard to fill and have quality information.
@promatt Coming up with new and quality content every week is a burden but still it needs to be done as any site that wants to attract visitors or potential customers have to update their website every week so that visitors keep getting fresh content. Only then a website is worth marketing in any way. Try to produce and sell a butter without salt because you are tired of buying salt for the week. Have a rocking day, **SNIP** Regards, Amber Mason.
networking Just to add to this post, networking has been invaluable for my business. There are some great networking events and groups out there, you just need to find the one that's right for you. It is worth investing time and money in it networking - you will reap much bigger rewards.
@amber I agree just a lot of hard work. Infact I've seen many of my websites (online communities/blogs) decline because of me not updating them as often as I should. **SNIP**
@promatt Well then you should learn a lesson from it and start creating "ATTRACTIVE CONTENT" for your users. Google is not famous because of its backlinks. Content is the KEY. I hope we continue this interesting argument. Have a thoughtful day. Regards, Amber Mason.
@Amber Mason Thanks for your concern. Can you give examples of your websites or newsletters so that I can see what works?
Amber cannot posts links, etc. There are plenty of websites out there giving information on what makes a successful newsletter or email campaign, both are different anyway. Go do some research and follow examples from peole have established themselves as leaders in the field. It's a matter of following good practice, just like anything else really. Ther is a proper way to do things and a wrong way that makes a hash of things.
Free lunch or severe spam? I once built a website for a lady who ran a virtual assistant business. Soon after I built it she asked me about doing an email newsletter. I asked her honestly to telll me what she could write that people would want to read? The proposition of getting this sort of stuff is less interesting than reading the free papers they leave on buses and trains - at least you may be bored there. :yawn:
That is also how I feel about newsletters - especially when finding the time to publish great content on a website is tough. @Amber Mason feel free to PM me your web links