Have you ever imagined promoting your business at some remarkable place? Maybe you envisioned yourself on top of the Empire state building or underneath the Eiffel tower.
Many had such aspirations really. Yet, everyone knows that its impossible. That kind of costly and demanding task could be undertaken probably only by the rich and successful.
Dont worry though. There are many techniques that demand little resource for promoting your business. Some of them might cost nothing. In fact, Alex Goldfayn suggests 22 ways of increasing profit.
Effective marketing doesnt require a lot of time, effort or money.
It has happened to the majority of us: you are flicking through channels when this high-class commercial gets your attention, yet afterward, youve got no idea what it has been promoting. Then, you are left wondering about the effectiveness of the investments spent on those colorful and costly ads.
Its commonly believed that the more you spend on your marketing, the more you are going to earn. However, there is no connection between the input and the subsequent sale levels.
You are more likely to earn greater profits if you concentrate on your customers. Therefore, do not waste your time on everyone, but rather focus on the already interested parties or potential buyers of your products.
It has become popular to puzzle the target audience with ambiguous ads hiding the product itself as we as the business name. However, it doesnt mean you should jump on the bandwagon wasting your resources. In fact, good marketing is about identifying and presenting the pros of a product plainly.
It is also popular to use social media for marketing. However, its not as great a practice as it might seem in terms of productivity. Facebook or Instagram followers do not contribute with their likes and reposts to the actual profit, which is particularly true when you want to connect to other businesses.
Marketing through emails proves to be simpler and more straightforward and allows you to receive great profit from your shares not forcing your employees in the marketing departments to work day and night.
MailChimp and other similar platforms for email marketing are ready for use even now. With their help, you will be able to email all of your customers at once and alter some details of your email using special software to attract certain groups of people.
Many companies cannot promote themselves properly believing they need much money and time. However, messaging your target audience what products and services you have is free.
Now, lets examine another major marketing technique: the testimonials of customers.
Testimonials are an easy way to get unbiased praise for effective marketing.
Surely, ads increase your sales. Yet, try imagining yourself a customer, who, for instance, wants to buy a new computer. You are less likely to believe the manufacturer than a friend or relative, arent you?
A lot of managers go into explaining all the details of what they offer and how it all functions and why they are better than others. Yet, its all unimportant since good marketing provides the description of a products idea and use.
Therefore, demonstrating the benefits of your services or goods for your customer is a great marketing tool. You can do it by providing testimonials.
The testimonials of consumers have many advantages. Apart from costing nothing, they allow satisfied customers to enjoy public attention by providing impartial overviews of your products.
Getting the most suitable testimonials is also quite easy. You just need to have a set of particularly designed test questions.
Asking those questions may be done the following way. Having sold a product, merely contact the customer and inform them of the significance of their contentment and evaluation.
You will also need to inquire about the effects. Ask How has it changed your business?, for example. Such how questions usually result in the particular individual responses that make testimonials seem better.
How have our services been helpful? and other inquiries like that can also help by prompting customers to leave helpful, eloquent, and constructive opinions.
Apart from such confirming questions, there are the probing ones that begin with why and emphasize the aspects crucial to your business, for instance, Why does shipping availability matter to you?
Therefore, dont stress over thinking of new ideas, your customers will present you with the suggestions to improve your company. You might be surprised by how effective a well-placed testimonial can be.
Phone calls and handwritten notes can strengthen relationships with your customers.
Even though we know that marketing through emails produces good results, we shouldnt forget about other types of communication, which are just as productive and helpful.
Using telephones and various types of writings is another tool of marketing.
Calling your clients can also let them know that you value them, which is particularly true if an official or one of the leaders contacts them.
Email marketing is quite easy, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the one hand, it might seem unfriendly and detached, particularly in the case of using mailing lists. In contrast, calling a customer is straightforward and special, and it is a sign of attention.
Even though you put more in a phone call than email, it is not a difficult and demanding process. Several minutes are all that it takes to convince a customer that they are more than figures in someones report.
For example, a call from a hotel manager would amaze and delight a resident. Mere five minutes would contribute greatly to solidifying the bond between the manager and the customer, which, in turn, helps to ensure that the clients come back.
Contacting your customers in writing is yet another useful, though not used anymore, communication tool, which solidifies the bond between you and your clients.
Talking to customers in person and using handwritten notes demonstrates that you worry about them being content and want to maintain your relations. Consumers generally value such tokens of attention; even though these signs are quite basic, they do help to maintain your client base.
Therefore, try to evoke the best feelings in your customers: show them you care on paper. Quality materials will help you to produce a great impact. In fact, fancy paper and expensive ink contribute to your companys success and are worth the future income.
Imagine the reaction of your customer, who is not used to handwritten letters anymore, when they get your message: you will definitely stand out.
Truly, its a great chance to go to another level leaving your rivals behind.
Newsletters can increase revenue by raising awareness about your companys offerings.
To succeed in marketing, you dont need any intricate schemes devised by professionals, which you have to pay way more than necessary. Keep in mind that the only thing that matters is to inform people of your existence and what you offer.
Now, its time for the next tool, which is ensuring that your clients know the entire range of your offers and their benefits.
Often, being content with a company and maintaining long-standing relations with it doesnt guarantee that you know every single product or service it provides. In practice, the most content clients know about 25% of what a business offers, despite being potentially satisfied with the rest of products and services.
In other words, you might increase your profits four times, and the only thing that you need is to raise customer awareness of all your offers!
Moreover, if you harness that business potential, your sales are likely to rocket.
The question is how to make your customers aware and make sure they go to you first choosing you over your competitors in the field? A newsletter is among the greatest marketing techniques that help you achieve this goal.
Consistency in sending newsletters with an article and testimonial as well as promotion will guarantee your leading position in clients top lists.
The content of an article needs to be topical and related to the current global tendencies that may influence a customers life. Thus, you give your clients useful information for free, which together with a consumers testimonial attached to the newsletter connects the importance with the impartial promotion of your business.
In the end, when youve captured their attention, conclude with a promotion regarding a product or service you offer, then relax and enjoy your profits increasing.
Enhance your exposure and highlight the value of your products with webinars and events.
By now, everyone should have learned that there is more to online videos, including YouTube, than fun and kawaii animals. In fact, they are remarkably useful for addressing great numbers of people and demonstrating them the benefits of various services and products.
You might have guessed that the next effective marketing tool is a webinar.
Basically, a webinar is a presentation of your products characteristics to your customers, which is done online. This way, you are able to demonstrate proper use of your product and allow the consumers to enjoy every available feature.
The presentation itself is helpful, but a chance to share and download its recording is remarkable, especially if you take into account that it does not require you to spend more money. In fact, recording a good webinar doesnt necessarily mean the acquisition of special costly equipment. You can even use the cameras on your phone or computer to make a quality recording, which you can upload to YouTube afterward. You only need good lighting and an appropriate location.
Social events and corporate parties are the next great tool. With its help, you can show the importance of your services.
In fact, your profit may be increased if you ask some of your older customers as well as the new ones to your event. Including people who are likely to choose your business also help to establish lasting relationships, which in turn contributes to your revenue.
For instance, an author doesnt need to promote themselves and sell when they invite their valuable customers as well as the potential ones to their annual party. In fact, those people do that for them by sharing their positive views among themselves.
Sometimes, a business can spend thousands to fly their most valuable customers to their various sights or plants. Usually, such trips include guided tours and expensive food. However bizarre it may seem, the guests are likely to remember the event and spend more compared to a one-time deal, which proves that such effort is worth it.
Dont delay! Act now!
Owning a business, you should ask yourself one extremely important question: What do I do to attract more clients right now?
Each passing day, you need to devote some time to generating new ideas regarding what you do to increase your profit.
Instead of being initiative and striving for progress, you can get stuck in the daily cycle of solving issues and become half-aware of whats going on. Just bear in mind that today is the day to implement new unconventional ideas.
Change isnt really about extreme deeds. You already know that doing little things today contributes to your success in the future.
Yet, you must remember to develop a strategy before you do something. Therefore, map out the route you want to take. Knowing the stops or steps will evoke the feeling of responsibility in you, thus prompting you to adhere to your plan.
Contact your sales team right now if youd like to begin using newsletters and emails as your marketing tools. Moreover, compose those confirming and probing questions to pose your previous customers in order to create a set of testimonials in the future.
Perfection is not the major concern here, but time is of the essence.
In other words, if you strive for perfection postponing the actual implementation, you might end up never taking action whatsoever. You might devote several months to the design of your newsletter or the form of your webinar. In the meantime, all that money you could have earned would pass you by.
Basically, if your plan lacks something or is partially completed, no one will know except you. In fact, your customers will perceive your work as a 100% of solid devotion, which is at least something.
Therefore, build a plan and announce your idea as soon as possible. All that potential money is out there to be earned.
Final summary
A great productive marketing plan isnt expensive and doesnt require much time. In effect, letting people know what you offer and do is enough to increase your income. Determine which marketing tool is the best for you by using them separately instead of all at once.
Follow up with customers!
Typically, you lose most of your potential clients staying in touch with only the fifth part of them. Therefore, if some of them actually reach out to you, keep in touch! An email or two or a call once a week for a month or until they respond is a good place to start. A small rise in profit, whether its 1% or 10%, because of few calls or letters is a positive result following your spent effort.