Small Business Marketing

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Small Business Marketing

What’s the Best Way to Expand My Small Business Marketing Locally?

By Charlie Cook | June 22, 2005

“Up until now I have used my business website as a way for referred customers to view my work. I would like to expand my client base by marketing to people in my surrounding area for commissioned work. What’s the best way to do this?” – Kathy Swantee

Currently your web site features your artwork but does little to explain the problem you help prospects solve or why prospects should contact you. You need to start by adding some marketing copy to your web site that details why people might be interested in working with you, taking your classes and how you can help them. You also need to give them a reason to contact you. You might offer some free postcard samples of your work in return for people within your surrounding area filling in a request for a more information about a commissioned work.

Once you have your business web site set up to explain what can do for your prospects take this same marketing copy and put together a one page business marketing handout/ mailer. Then take an edited version of it and create a postcard to use in marketing your business. Of course if you want help with putting together your marketing information let me know.

Call each past client, let them know you are seeking referrals and that you’ll be sending them some information sheets to share with their friends. Then send them the information. Want to discover how to put your referral strategy into gear? I’ve detailed the whole process in The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing for small business .

Do the above and you’ll have a low cost small business marketing strategy which will bring in all the clients you want.
– Charlie Cook

Which Are the Best Low Cost Ways to Market Your Small Business?

By Charlie Cook | June 20, 2005

I grew up with a father who turned the heat down to 50 degrees at night, shut off lights practically before you left the room and took great pride in seeing how many miles he could get out of a gallon of gas even when it was only a dollar a gallon. Like my father, I don’t like to waste money on marketing my small business when there is a free or cheaper way of doing it.

Here are a couple no-cost, low-cost small business marketing ideas you can use to grow your business.

1. Get publicity for free
I write marketing articles regularly and then send them out to over 800 online and offline publications. This gets me a ton of free publicity, not to mention traffic back to my web site. You can use the same marketing strategy to get slightly famous, become known as an expert and generate traffic and leads.

Find out how you can get publicity for free.

2. Get web site traffic for free
I get almost a thousand visitors each day to my web site and that number grows each month. When I first launched my site I didn’t want to spend money on advertising I couldn’t afford and didn’t use pay-per-click at all. Instead I used a few simple search engine positioning techniques to move my site to top ten and top twenty positions in the search engines for dozens of keywords. This along with the strategy of writing and distributing articles brings me tens of thousands of visitors each month for free.

Discover how to get traffic for your web site without spending a fortune on advertising.

from the Small Business Marketing Expert– Charlie Cook

How Often Should I Advertise My Small Business?

By Charlie Cook | June 13, 2005

“What is the critical frequency for running ads? My own opinion is that a prospect needs to be exposed to the ad at least 3 times per month. Is that right?” – Samuel Bernard

While frequency is important in advertising the first step is to make sure the ad you are using is written correctly to get prospects to contact you and buy from you. Most ads miss the mark and don’t do what they are supposed to do. It doesn’t matter how frequently you run them. Secondly timing, is everything. Run a B-to-B ad on Saturday or Sunday and you’d be wasting your money.

1. Start with an ad written to generate a lead and then a sale.

2. Run it when your target audience is paying attention.

3. Run it at least six to ten times. Better yet, run it twice a week all year long.

Find out how to write ads that sell and use them to generate leads and grow your business with More Sales with Less Selling. Better yet, have an expert write an add for you that sells. – Charlie Cook

Who Uses Your Marketing Manuals and Your Marketing Services?

By Charlie Cook | June 7, 2005

I get calls from a huge range of interesting people looking for help with their marketing plan and their marketing strategy, and people interested in my marketing services. In addition to VPs of marketing at Fortune 500 companies, typical types of small business owners, service professionals and marketing professionals, my customers and clients include some of what I think of as unusual occupations. For fun I’ve listed a few here.

If you ever questioned whether the ideas in my marketing manuals and marketing services could you help you grow your business, take a look at the range of people, below, who have used these ideas to grow theirs. Here’s the list:

A bush pilot in Alaska looking for ideas on selling ads during her traffic reports

Santa Claus. A jolly fellow in Utah (no not the one at the North Pole) who looks like Santa and changed his legal name to Santa Claus.

A cemetary plot salesman in Georgia.

A wholesale flower business importing roses and carnations from Columbia by overnight air.

A West Texas agriculture equipment salesman.

A consultant providing drumming workshops for corporate retreats (yes he lives on the west coast).

A kite store owner in Colorado.

The General Manager of an independent resort in Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia.

A fabricator of granite countertops.

A franchise consultant.

… more coming.

Have an unusual business that’s not on this list? Buy one of my manuals or use me as your marketing coach and I’ll add it.

– Charlie Cook

What Is A Landing Page And Will It Help My Internet Marketing Strategy?

By Charlie Cook | June 6, 2005

“I’ve heard the term landing page in regards to web sites. What are they and do I need one?” – Margaret F.

Landing pages are an internet marketing strategy some people use to increase sales. They are specialized web pages you can use for visitors to “land” when they link through from an ad or even somewhere else on your site. In general they include limited links and are designed to help your prospects take the action you want them to take, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. You’ve probably linked through to a few that consist of a long page of marketing copy where your only option is to buy the product.

For example you might use a Google Ad for your product or service. When prospects click on the ad instead of taking them to your home page where they have lots of options, you could send them to a product page that lacks any links to the rest of your site where the only option is to make a purchase. Some people even use separate URLs for their landing pages to keep visitors from finding their primary site.

Are landing pages a good idea?

It depends. Take out all the links to the rest of your site for a page and you may be able to force some people to make the decision you want them to make. The risk is that many others may want to explore your site in order to get to know you and trust your company prior to commiting to making a purchase or even signing up for a free newsletter. If you’re not careful your landing pages could result in a high cost, low return advertising campaign. Not what you want.

Your results will depend on what you’re marketing online, the price, the content on the page, and whether you know how to create instant crediblity and prompt prospects to buy.

Find out how to Create a Web Site that Sells your products and services with this step-by-step manual.

Add a comment and tell me what’s your experience with landing pages as a site visitor and as a site owner.
–Charlie Cook – Use this link to signup and get the FREE Marketing Plan Ideas Guide immediately.

What Type of Web Site For My Business?

By Charlie Cook | May 31, 2005

“I’m a motivational speaker and trainer and work with community groups, churches, voluntary and professional organisations and individual clients. What type of web site should I build to attract clients worldwide?” – Trevor Carter, United Kingdom

The best type of web site to attract your prospects is one that your prospects will seek out and want to read. Instead of focusing your site on yourself and your services, focus instead on what the information your prospects want and are looking for.

Then when visitors come to your site give them helpful ideas they can use and they’ll want to learn more about your services. Of course you’ll want to use your site to help you with lead generation and to increase your sales. Learn which type of site to build to grow your business and how with Creating Web Sites that Sell– Charlie Cook

Is All This Marketing Information Free?

By Charlie Cook | May 24, 2005

“Is this all free? If so, how come? What’s in it for you?” – Neva

Yes, the marketing blog, the marketing guide “7 Steps to Attract More Clients and Grow Your Business” the marketing articles on this site and my marketing newsletter “More Business” are all free.

Why?

I want to help you grow your business. My goal is to help as many marketers and business owners improve their marketing so they’ll be more successful.

What’s in it for me?

Every time I share an idea with you that helps you attract more attention, improve the response to your marketing efforts and get more clients I’ve shown you how I can help you. Each time you read an idea of mine, try it and find out that it works I consider it a success. Why?

At some point you’ll get serious about your marketing and want more than just a tip here and there, you’ll want a better marketing message or better networking strategy, you’ll want to create a marketing plan that helps you build your business, or you’ll want an online lead generation strategy that works to increase your sales. Or you may want to work with me directly to show you how to grow your business .

When you do get serious about growing your business, if you enjoyed my free marketing guide and weekly marketing tips, there is a good chance you seek out the marketing resources I provide.

Does this give to get marketing strategy work?

Each month I have more subscribers to my marketing ezine, more sales of my marketing manuals and more marketing coaching clients. The more ideas I share, the more my readers buy my marketing manuals. – Charlie Cook

Finding the Best Small Business Marketing Opportunities

By Charlie Cook | March 31, 2005

Finding marketing opportunities is like finding the best places to ski for me. Let me explain.

Five years ago we had the good fortune to buy a ski condo at Sugarbush in VT, a mountain we had only occasionally visited. The first couple of years I headed for the trails, skiing where everybody else was. I found lots of great terrain, but also lots of others competing with me for the same runs and the same snow. With lots of people covering the same ground, the condition of the trails often became less than ideal fairly quickly.

Once I knew the mountain and had found the ski trails I liked best, I started exploring the spaces between the trails, in the woods. With the help of friends and family and my increasing abliity I found hidden paths through the trees where fresh snow lingered untouched just waiting to be skiied.

With new confidence in my ability to navigate the unmarked and unexplored parts of the mountain, I spent much of this year skiing the outback. Starting from the top of the lift, with friends I explored headed out beyound the area limits to enjoy the fresh snow and the solitude of skiing the backside of the mountain. So how does this relate to marketing your small business?

The most obvious place to look for marketing opportunities is where everybody else goes. The problem is you’ll find yourself competing with lots of other people for the same space, just as I was on the ski trails.

Instead of focusing all your time on marketing in the same places as all your competitors, look for marketing opportunities in between the common areas others sell their products and services and you’ll be pleasantly suprised to find many untapped sources of revenue, often untouched by your competitors. Learn how to discover all the small business marketing opportunities you’ve been missing.- Charlie Cook

Are Postcards A Good Way to Market Our Small Business?

By Charlie Cook | March 28, 2005

“Do you suggest post-cards being sent out to other businesses?” – Lisa Welch

Postcards can be used successfully for lead generation and to attract qualified prospects or they can be a big waste of money. To make sure your postcard campaign is successful make sure to include a marketing message that gets the attention of your prospects and prompts them to contact you. – Charlie Cook

Why an eBook Can Help You Market Your Business

By Charlie Cook | March 15, 2005

According to research by Bersin & Associates In 2004, the e-learning market grew 30 percent to a $14 billion dollars. Sent by colleague Kristie Tamsevicius .

$14 billion dollars and growing by 30% a year! What does that tell you?

Individuals and corporations are looking online for basic information as well as in-depth training resources. If you are an expert or want to become one, you can benefit from this to attract attention, position your services and grow your business. Learn how to get a piece of this fast growing e-learning market with “The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing” and “Creating Web Sites that Sell“. These manuals detail the marketing plan and web marketing strategies I’ve used to get a share of the e-learning market and how you can do the same.My Marketing Manuals and Marketing Tools sell well here in the U.S. and Canada as well as overseas from Australia to Germany to Sweden and parts of the mideast.- Charlie Cook

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