free (or almost free) ways to shamelessly promote your business

Free (or almost free) waysto Shamelessly Promote

your Business

What We’ll Cover Today:1. What to do before you start shamelessly

promoting

2. How to do the traditional basics

3. How to build business using your existing customer database

4. How to use social media

5. How to leverage your website

1. What to do before you start shamelessly promoting

Know your goals.

Sample goals Expand into a new market Grow your customer base Promote a new service

Think about your brand. What is your value statement? Why should potential customers buy from

you? What makes your company different? S.W.O.T. Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities, Threats Your marketing has to convey your brand

through how it looks and reads

Identify who you are targeting What types of customers are most

profitable? What types of customers are easiest to

get? What are other target groups you haven’t

approached yet? Think about how you can reach each type

of customer and what you want to say

Write your key messages for each target group

People don’t read Bullet lists, not paragraphs Include differentiators Come up with an elevator pitch These messages need to be integrated

everywhere you shamelessly promote yourself.

2. How to do the traditional basics

Create a professional handout People don’t read – stick to your short

statements

Rack cards are nice

Build your own with VistaPrint.com templates

Include testimonials

Hundreds of designs by industry

Very low cost

Send out Press Releases Search “How to write a press release”

online

Has to be newsworthy – launch new products, announce events, new staff, new account, big project

A few times per year, if you are lucky

Networking Don’t heavy sell Be interested, ask questions then watch for

openings to share info about yourself and your business

Don’t worry about how many people you talk to, just make sure they are good conversations

Work the room, don’t stay with one group

Networking Try to identify the people who seem to know

everyone and get introduced so you can get to know them

Get involved in your customers’ trade associations

If you have a guest list beforehand, research and target contacts

Try to identify potential customers for follow up

Speaking Engagements Become an expert in your field

Pay attention to what topics people are talking about at seminars or tradeshows

Participate in associations and suggest speaking topics that would benefit them (and you)

It has to be educational – not a sales pitch

3. Work Your Customer Database

Your customers are important It can cost 5 to 7 times more money to acquire a

new customer than to retain an existing customer

A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%

Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer

How to make your customers feel special

Quarterly phone calls

Welcome notes, thank you notes, holiday cards

Purchase level recognition with gifts

Customer of the quarter gift cards

Set up quarterly calls in SalesForce.com

Referral Programs Define how referrals must be made in order to

effectively track them Only give reward if a referral actually purchases Decide what is appropriate gift level – will you

give something small for every referral or do they get their name put in a hat for a larger gift on a quarterly basis

Referrals are the best way to grow a service business – ask for Testimonials!

E-newsletters Only send to existing customers and

contacts, not purchased lists

Monthly or quarterly or as things happen

Educational or big news

Drive traffic to your website

Trackable

4. Use Social Media

What’s the Big Deal? 500 Million People Use Facebook

Average Facebook Users Have 130 Friends

190 Million People Use Twitter

100 Million People Use Linked In

Social Media Basics It’s all about sharing.

Think conversations; not sales pitches.

Listen.

Think before you type.

Have fun!

Widely used Leverage your existing

personal social network Has great tools for

businesses Don’t use as a sales pitch –

keep it friendly and informal

Facebook

It’s made for business. Opens your networking circle. Helps others find you. Identifies shared contacts for

getting introductions to prospects.

Has niche groups for sharing and learning.

Testimonials

LinkedIn

Put on print materials, tshirts, business cards, anything in print

People take a picture of it with their smart phone

The code is linked to a specific online company resource and takes them there

QR Codes

QR Codes can be used for: Taking you to a website Displaying some text SMS (text messaging) Email messaging Taking you to a Google maps location Taking you to a PayPal Buy Now Link Taking you to a Facebook page… …or even taking you to a YouTube Video.

Where to Get QR Codes Do a google search on “where to get QR

Codes” myQR.com – codes for maps, URLs,

Vcards Free to get the codes

Be creative in how you use them

Put one on your business card and link to a vcard so people can save your contact info to their phone

Put on direct mail to send to landing page or product page

Put on tourism materials as part of walking tour and link to different videos highlighting different places

5. Leverage your website

Put search words and phrases in your content

Make a list of 10-20 search phrases Use these (and variations) throughout

site, combine with location Put in page headers too Bullet lists, not paragraphs

Create a Google Maps Listing

Create a Google Maps Listing Go to Google and search for your town, state

and industry. Example: Decatur, AL web design

Does this have Google Map listings at the top?

Are you listed? If not: Create a Google Account Create a Google Map Listing for your organization Select up to 5 categories for your listing

See if there are free industry directory sites and create a listing

Search for “your industry” huntsville al (ex. Attorney huntsville al)

Look through the search results on pages 1-3 for any site results that look like directories

Go to these sites and look for a link to create a free listing

Blogging is great for SEO Short articles – very personal,

conversational – your thoughts on your business, your industry, your life

Cross link with all other social media and feed into your website

According to emarketer, 53.5% of internet users read blogs

Best Low Cost Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Search engine optimization (SEO) Social media and blogs Permission-based email newsletters Press releases Business cards and marketing materials

No website? Look at “build your own” Web Sites

GoDaddy.com, NetworkSolutions.com, 3dcart.com, Homestead.com, Officite.com

Benefit: low cost and can include applications like photo galleries

Drawback : depends on your time and writing skills, cookie-cutter design

Look for Industry Specific CMS Sites

Search for “(your industry) websites” in Google (ex. “church websites”)

Examples:• ChurchSites.com

• SchoolSites.com

• AdvancedAccess.com (real estate)

Make your site Mobile friendly

Mobile shopping stats 13.1 million consumers access retail content via mobile

phones with 8.2 million of those visiting mobile commerce websites (comScore, 2011)

58% of mobile shoppers are age 18-34 and 34% of mobile shoppers make $100,000 or more a year (comScore, 2011)

74 million consumers in the United States already shop from their mobile devices (inMobi Study, 2011)

Making your sitemobile friendly

Best option - build a separate mobile website that can detect access by mobile phones

Avoid flash, large photos and complex layouts

Features typically include Optimized for 5,000+ phones Google Maps & Analytics QR code marketing Social media integration Coupons Request reservation Tell a friend button – automated text message

Review1. Plan your approach

2. Don’t forget the traditional basics

3. Work your customer database

4. Use social media

5. Leverage your website

Thank you!(256) 560-0098

www.redsageonline.com

Ellen Didieredidier@redsageonline.com