The only thing better than marketing is saving money. What say we combine our two favorite things and do some cheap marketing. For this you will use the online world and the offline world. Not much of a surprise there. Here are some things you can do on the cheap.
- Invite your customers over for a free lecture, or a lecture series, at your place of business. Talk about something interesting to them.
- Write and send a press release about the meeting you're having. Send it to every paper within a 50 mile radius. If you do business nationally send it country wide. If you are have national or international clients, do a Webinar series, and look into Web TV, or an Internet Internet radio show. Please don't get all jammed up in the details. The thrust here is to provide a service to your customers that they can take part in.
- Run a contest. Give away something like an iPad, a tablet computer, or other prize of acknowledged value.
- Partner with another company that has complementary products. Think ice cream and the ice cream cone. Those products made money for each inventor and everyone else in the chain of events from manufacturing to sales.
- Write a social networking policy for you employees that tells them what they can do on company time. Do not tell people what they can't do. Smart management takes advantage of all that free training and knowledge. You do that too. Let your people Tweet, Facebook, and blog your products. They know the online world and your products and services. A perfect combination. Think ice cream and cones. Don't waste it the opportunity.
- Have a party. Don't wait for the holidays, but don't neglect them either. Businesses in trouble have used a party to garner enough work to keep them afloat. Have the party at your place of business. It works. Invite us, we love parties.
- Use Cause Marketing. That means you get together with a cause you believe in and work together for each others mutual goals. You now have a joint advertising partner. Each of you now have access to each others customers, contacts, online and offline marketing, and advertising activities. Look around. Pick a cause you believe in. Help each other and work together.
- Give free lectures, programs, seminars at your local library. Speak at networking events, Chambers of Commerce, The Better Business Bureau. This is an excellent way to meet people and make business contacts. We know this from personal experience. Very, very effective.
- Establish yourself an expert in your field by speaking, publishing articles in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and e-zines. Write and give away handouts at all your public appearances. And please, please use both sides of the paper because that wasted space could be marketing for you, selling for you. We do this, in face on November 10, I'm on a panel discussion at Central Connect State University in their Institute of Technology & Business Development. Please attend and say, "Hello."
- Promote community involvement by your employees.
- Promote high quality presentation skills buy joining Toastmasters. Also, attend networking events to keep your 30 second speech sharp.
- Speak at major business events near you. This pays vast dividends as you are seen by thousands of people from hundreds or thousands of businesses. We do this too. In June 2011 I was on a panel discussion at the CT Business Expo in Hartford, Connecticut.
- Put videos on YouTube. As you can see below, we do that too.
| View our videos at YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman. |
