What’s Your Favorite Small Business Marketing Tool?

If you could pick only one way to market your business, what small business marketing tool or technique would you pick?

This seems like an easy question to answer, but then when I started to think about having only one tool to recommend to people to market their small businesses it gave me pause. There are a bunch of ways to market your business which would be on the top of my list including:
– Making it rain referrals
– A web site
– Direct mail
– Free seminars
– A free report
etc.

I’m sure you have your own list of small business marketing ideas you use, but is there one that you like above all others?

My hands down favorite is using articles to market my business.

Why do I think articles are the top small business marketing tool.

1. When you write an article it helps to focus your own ideas.

2. The act of writing forces you to think about how to create a conversation with your prosects. If you can get your prospect’s attention in an article, and get a virtual conversation going, when you need to do it in person, it will be easy.

3. Every article your write helps to position you not just as another competitor but as “the expert”.

4. Each time you distribute your article on the internet you generate both traffic and links back to your web site.

5. When others use your articles on their sites or in their publications, it’s like an instant recommendation or your expertise.

6. Compared to advertising writing and distributing articles as part of your small business marketing strategy provides a huge return relative to the cost.

7. It works!

Yes, articles are my top small business marketing strategy, one that I’d recommend to anyone to use to market their business.

– Charlie