Business Marketing - The Top 10 "Game-Changers" to Boost Sales in Any Economy

By Taylor Hunt

1. Over deliver -- In a world filled with businesses who have a "whatever" attitude, if you deliver more than you promise you will stand out. Give a little unexpected bonus or gift with their purchase. You will attract loyal customers like teenagers to an iPod sale.
2. Increase customer service -- After purchase follow-up with your customer. Think of your customer service department as a marketing center. How many businesses even send a follow-up email or note to their new customers or check in with them? Do it. Your customers will love you for it. How do customers show their love? The buy, stay and refer other customers.
3. Move your marketing budget to measurable methods -- Online marketing can be laser targeted, trackable and provides more bang for your buck. The Direct Marketing Association reports email marketing returns $50.45 for every $1 spent. This means if you only have $100/month to market, you could see sales of $5,045 if you spend it on email marketing.
4. Re-contact previous customers -- Failure to follow-up with contacts and customers is the number two reason businesses fail. The average business loses 50% of their customer base every year. It costs 5 times more to sell to a new customer than an existing one.
5. Build relationships with your contacts and customers -- When someone contacts your business for information or makes a purchase -- be sure to keep in contact with them. Sign them up for your newsletter, collect their email address and continue to provide them with valuable information to position yourself as the one they talk about when they say "I got a great person for that".
6. Ask current customers for referrals -- You do not have to rely on organic referrals. Ask for referrals. Make it easy. Put a "forward to a friend" link on your website. Put up a sign all your customers see that says: "Know someone else who needs a great _________? Let them know about it and you both get a $50 Best Buy card when they become a customer." This is just an example, you can tweak it. The key is to make it so great your customers start thinking hard about all the people they could refer to get a bunch of those great gifts.
7. Joint venture with other businesses to create offers to customers no competitor can match -- What businesses could you team up with who offer products or services that complement yours? If you are a plumber or a home service business how great would your customer feel if you left a wrapped sample brownie from a local baker or a single flower and card from a local florist on the counter when you are done? You could arrange with one of these kind of local providers to get these free or at cost in exchange for leaving their card with the little gift. Might cost you $2 at most per customer. What might that generate in goodwill, future business and referrals?
8. Run a contest for customers and contacts -- You can run a contest to draw in customers. Use the joint venture idea above in #7 to get a bundle of prizes from other local merchants and create a win-win all the way around. Build the contest around your business. Own a small retail store or restaurant? Build the contest around your "solutions". Have your customers and contacts interact with what your products and services: a simple quiz about the products you offer, or a recipe contest to create a brand new desert you name after them.
9. Write articles to establish you as a expert in the solution your contacts care about -- Use your articles to distribute them on your website, the Internet and in your print newsletters. Over time you build up a reputation, and a bank of quality content you can reuse to create booklets and helpful tip sheets your customers refer to again and again (don't forget to put your business information on them!)
10. Give your marketing copy a makeover - Great copy increases sales, period. You cannot go wrong studying copywriting or hiring a professional copywriter.

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Growing Your Construction Business Through Effective Marketing

By Jassen Bowman

If you are a trades person, then you most likely think that you first and primary line of business is the trade that you are in. However, whether you are an electrician, a plumber, a handyman, a remodeling contractor, or anything else, it is important for you to realize that your first and foremost job in business is being a marketer and a salesperson. This may seem strange, but think of it like this: If you don't make sales, you don't have anything to work on.

So how do you go about doing inexpensive but effective marketing for this type of business? Let's discuss three methods that are inexpensive and will work in any area for any construction business.

Bandit Signs
Bandit signs, or yard signs, are commonly seen items for real estate investors and politicians, but they work just as well for the home repair business of any sort. The key to using yard signs is quantity. When you order yard signs, order laminated paperboard or corrugated plastic signs that are weather resistant. With metal sign holders, you'll spend $5 or $6 per sign. Get yourself 100 or 200 of them. Then, put them everywhere. Put them in the yards of the homes you're working on, put them in friends yards, put them anywhere you can get permission to do so.

Yard signs are what we call disposable advertising, because they will get stolen and destroyed by people. But if you have an effective marketing message on them, you will get phone calls.

Classified Ads
Classified ads are another inexpensive, but highly effective marketing method for construction trades. In particular, check out the service directory section of your local newspaper classifieds. For people that are specifically looking for a handyman or other contractor, they are most likely to look in this section. Also, check out your local Penny Saver, Thrifty Nickel, or American Classifieds. These classified papers are usually published weekly and are very inexpensive to advertise in, but can be very effective for the small contractor.

Business Cards
You may not think of business cards as a marketing vehicle, but they can be used very effectively. In particular, have business cards printed with a marketing message on them, rather than just your business name, address, phone number, etc. You can then use these business cards to network with, but also, more importantly, you can leave them in random places. Leave them on the counter at businesses you frequent. Leave them in telephone booths. Leave them as free bookmarks in home remodeling related books at your local bookstore. Simply developing the habit of leaving them everywhere you go will eventually get you business from this extremely cheap marketing method.

Remember, these marketing tips are only effective if you actually use them. So, start putting together some headlines and marketing messages, and get to marketing to grow your contractor business.

Jassen Bowman is a speaker, trainer, and writer in the field of how to earn extra money. The How To Earn headquarters site provides you with the resources to earn extra money in your spare time, reduce debt, and get your financial house in order. If you are a contractor or handyman, learn more about growing your construction business.

Introduce Yourself to Booklets

By Charen Smith

How much do you know about booklets?

I come across a lot of people who have never really put much thought to this kind of marketing, and I suppose it really shouldn't be that surprising.

It's kind of a catch-22 where not enough people use booklet printing because they don't know about them, and they don't know about them because not enough people use booklets.

Well, let's start discussing booklets.

A booklet is exactly as the name would suggest: they're a small book meant for detailing more in-depth information about something specific to your field. Sometimes they focus more on the industry itself and sometimes they focus more on an individual person. It just depends on who's getting the booklet printing done and what purpose they have with it.

Let's first go over the more personal booklets.

These ones help to show how experienced a person is in their particular field. They usually discuss different details about a person's past to introduce people to who they are, including how they got into their field, and they often go into a bit of detail about what the person knows about their industry.

The purpose is to help a person get to know who the business owner is, and by getting to know them, they're able to trust them.

The next type deals more with general information about an industry, and is often used between different company leaders. Let's say you want to sell your services to another company. You create a booklet talking about what you do and how both companies can benefit from a partnership.

Because the head of a company is going to be on the lookout for ways of improving sales, he'll be more willing to listen to what a booklet has to say, and sit down to read through the whole thing. You can't always be guaranteed that when dealing with the general public.

Another use for booklets is when you have an expensive item and you know people are going to need more details about it before making a purchase. While brochures can be put to good use here as well, sometimes you're going to need more room to talk, especially if you're dealing with something very big.

This will once again probably come in handy more when dealing with another company. If you're trying to sell your services to them the money involved will probably be a lot higher, and the company will certainly be more willing to step back and listen to all of the details.

They aren't as flashy as a lot of other types of marketing, but don't let that fool you into thinking that booklets don't serve a very distinctive purpose. Sometimes you just need to have room to speak, and a brochure doesn't contain enough space to give your full message. That's when you know you need to start taking advantage of booklets to get your next sale.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit Booklet Printing

Charen Smith writes articles about Internet Marketing. She has an extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to business strategies, techniques and business solutions.

Know How to Grab Someone's Attention

By Kaye Marks

What good is any kind of marketing if no one actually sees it?

Marketing needs to be visual. Here's the thing to know about marketing: people aren't trying to see it.

I don't sort through my mail expecting to pick up a postcard and look at it. I don't go to a store expecting to run into a nice poster I can read through. I'm not trying to find the best flyer to fold up and take home with me, just like I rarely go out of my way to try reading through every brochure that happens upon my way.

Aside from rare occasions like TV commercials during the Super Bowl, people need to be caught by surprise. They're not going to help you out by trying to find your advertisements in order to see what they're all about. All of your color printing is only going to go to waste if you aren't getting anyone to look at anything you do.

Ask yourself what jumps out at you the most. What things have you seen that you just had to stop and look at a little closer? If you want advertising that work you need to be able to answer these question, or know what will work best for your customers.

Great marketing is a surprise to people. It makes them turn their head to see the poster or pause while sorting through their mail to read your postcard. It catches them off guard and makes them want to read more.

There are typically two good ways of achieving this. The first is strong visuals. The right kinds of images are always going to be eye-catching. They're usually colorful or unique in some way, something most people don't see everyday, or immediately interests them. Each person is going to be intrigued by different things, so know your audience before doing anything.

The second thing is a large proclamation. This single statement will likely need to only be a few words long. If you go any longer than that you'll risk having it be too complicated for someone to easily pick up. You need them to understand what it says in only a few seconds, because that's all the time you'll have.

Typically this message will be the primary purpose of your advertising. Save Money or Great Service are both basic, easy to understand messages that anyone can take in quickly. Having a good font or colorful print will always help with this as well.

Vibrant colors and words should always be the focus of any color printing you need to get done. Break through a person's attention and make them want to read what your marketing has to say. You have to give people something interesting if you want them to take the time to read what you have to say.

Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in the color printing industry and its benefits for small to medium-scale businesses.

Follow Up - Administrative, Provide Information & Sales

By Jody Gabourie

There are 6 main areas, or reasons, to employ follow-up tactics in your day-to-day business life: thank you; personal; gather information; administration; provide information; and product and service sales.

In a previous article I talked in detail about the first three and now I'm going to examine the remaining three areas of follow-up. I've listed the marketing strategies you can use under each key area and also examples of the type of content for each of these follow-up tactics.

1. Administrative

There will be many times that your follow up communications will deal with administrative information. Don't dismiss these opportunities - they provide you with a reason to touch base with your list and show your attention to details and support for their success.

Examples of follow-up regarding administration:

Provide Details about Upcoming Events --> when people have signed up for mastermind groups, membership groups, workshops, teleseminars, client meetings, etc. your follow-up will include details about phone-in lines, private email addresses, passwords, dates and times, and the like.

Confirm Sign Up --> use a follow-up email to confirm a person's sign-up (to teleclasses, groups, mastermind calls) and use the opportunity to insert a quick tip to reinforce that you are an expert and they've made the right decision to sign up.

Reminders of Deadlines --> a great follow-up marketing tactic is not only necessary (to remind busy people about important deadlines) but also a chance to re-iterate all the reasons why they should meet the deadline - for things such as: ending of special sales and promotions, registration is closing, send in their answers to a survey, last chance to participate in a fun contest, and so on

2. Provide information

In addition to providing administrative details to your list, you should also make a point of consistently following up to provide information that helps people solve their problem or issue. You want to ensure that all of your follow-up provides valuable and need-to-know stuff, but this is where you can really demonstrate your expertise and build respect and credibility with your prospects and clients.

You need to be constantly on the look-out for great things that you can share - whether it's from you or other reputable companies and people. Use your follow-up marketing to give your list no-charge, indispensable and relevant information such as:

• Articles
• Ezines
• Links to other Sites
• Case Studies
• Link to Ebooks
• Success Stories

Other People's Teleseminars, Workshops, Bbooks, Products

3. Product and service sales

Of course talking about follow-up marketing strategies wouldn't be complete if we didn't talk about sales follow-up.

Many companies only follow up with their prospects and customers when they want to sell them something. I hope that after reading all the material prior to this section that you realize that follow-up needs to be so much more than that.

How often do you think people want to be contacted and asked to buy something? How about a big fat zero! But people do want to be kept informed of your offerings so that if they decide to purchase a product or service, they have all the details.

So when you're sending out sales follow-up communications forget the hard-sell and view it as just another opportunity to give people on your list valuable and important information.

Below are a few of the reasons you would follow up with prospects and customers regarding products and service sales:

Up-Sell --> Let them know about a great add-on to the product they just purchased - and offer a special price or bonus for them if they buy it.

Cross-Sell --> Tell them about a new service, product or VIP program that builds on the knowledge and expertise they've gained from the previous offerings they purchased.

Affiliate Products and Services --> Keep your list in-the-know about other people's products and services (your affiliates) that may be of assistance to them.

Contests --> Keep your list engaged and show them your fun side by holding cool contests that provide an opportunity to win something if they demonstrate what they've learned, provide the best testimonial, refer 3 friends, answer a quick survey and so on.

Check in with first-time customers --> Use follow-up to find out if they're happy with their purchase and to see if they have any questions or need anything else - of course, don't forget to tell them about another products they might like.

Bonuses --> Why not surprise your list with a follow-up that holds a surprise bonus for them - something like a digital goodie, bonus report, online coupon, resource list, consultation, and the like.

Special Promotions --> Let your prospective and current clients know about any special promotions or sales you are having - in honor of Christmas, 1st day of summer, your birthday and so on...be creative.

Take some time today to look at where you could fit some of these follow-up strategies in your business and marketing activities. Utilizing follow-up marketing can make a huge difference in your success.

Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, teaches simple, innovative and powerful marketing strategies to help business owners find and keep their most profitable clients. To learn more about how she can help you take your business to the next level, and to sign up for her FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com

4 Ways to Leverage Your Marketing Effort

By Andrew Carlson

In today's competitive economy and globalisation, we must be better equipped to create successful businesses. Consumers nowadays, armed with the internet, are more informed than any other periods in human history. Therefore, for any business to succeed, understanding how to deal with these market changes are essential skills to learn and the following are some recommendations as to how small businesses can thrive in this economy.

1. Branding of the enterprise. Many small companies are great at branding their products and services but not enough is done on a macro scale. They must evolve their companies into brand names so as to have a much more powerful market presence.

2. Use the internet as leverage to advertising, reducing costs and reaching to new markets. What you can do is to set up a mailing list to put your products to potential and existing customers.
This not only creates loyal customers who like your products or services and come back for more but also reaches out to new customers who might like what you offer. At the same time, you are strengthening your brand name and public recognition.

3. Re-furbish your homepage. A new and improved homepage creates the impression that your enterprise is growing and constantly improving as time goes by and not falling back. Also, take this opportunity to fix bugs and other technical issues because a homepage full of bugs will lead to people not to want to deal with you and increases their annoyance so they will not visit again.

4. Collect information such as customer feedback and click through rate of your website. Are you wasting virtual space on redundant products? Looking at the click through rate will tell you that.
Are your products or services inferior to competitors or is very hard to use? Use customer feedback to find out about that. You can also consider setting an automated system to collect all these information so as to reduce costs.

Sredael.com scans the internet for smart business ideas around the world. We bring inspiration for entrepreneurial who are looking for an idea to start a business or small business owners who wants to change the way they run the business. On top of that, we also include How-To Guides to grow your ideas and turn them into a money making machine.

The Secrets of Successful Marketing Campaigns

By Andrew Carlson

The secret of a successful marketing campaign is to do a proper testing of the market. It can help you identify the other essential factors of the campaign, such as the timing of the campaign, the deliverance of the message across etc. One can find the answers through rigorous market testing.

Testing requires a study of previously done campaign and evaluates the effectiveness of each. Is an email campaign useful? Can an SMS campaign reach the market effectively? Is putting ads on the newspaper good enough? Will advertising on TV achieve what you want? Once you decide on your baseline, continue to test the results. Is the wording of the campaign ok? Will it cause controversy? Only then can you define what is it that you want to be included in the campaign.

After designing a campaign and deciding which medium to use, you can go on and experiment on subject lines and how different subject lines will impact the success of the campaign. Subject lines are important because they are usually the first and most prominent thing that viewers see. A strong subject line will lead to strong sales! Remember that the data you record must be of a big number so as to increase the accuracy of the results and that even this does not guarantee anything because everyone has their own tastes. However, the variance can be reduced by testing a lot of times.

Another thing to note for email campaign is to make sure that your links are working so that the customer can reach you easily. A spoilt link creates the impression that your credibility is low and leads to people not wanting to buy from you. Also, there must be technical support provided so that your customers will not be driven off because of technical difficulties.

Sredael.com scans the internet for smart business ideas around the world. We bring inspiration for entrepreneurial who are looking for an idea to start a business or small business owners who wants to change the way they run the business. On top of that, we also include How-To Guides to grow your ideas and turn them into a money making machine.

Building Upon Your Marketing

By Janice Jenkins

The best kind of marketing is the type that works in conjunction with other marketing efforts you embark on. If you play your cards just right, you will be able to improve each form of marketing by playing the different forms of marketing off of each other, and thus getting stronger results.

While this can be done in a variety of forms, I am going to focus on one area in order to explain exactly what I am talking about here.

Ok, say the focus of your marketing deals with improving your image as an expert in your field. You work in a service industry and you need to prove to people that you know what you are doing and can be entrusted with their time and money.

You have two good ways of accomplishing this. The first is through booklet printing, where you create booklets that deal with you discussing your experience in your field along with the different things you can do for people.

The second way is by going to various events and giving speeches. This can be at local organizations or this can be things you organize through your company. It does not really matter where it is, but rather than it gives you a chance to let people see what you know in a way that can grab their attention.

People going to an event like this will be inclined to have interest in what you have to say; after all, they chose to come, which by default means they had interest.

Now you combine these two different formats in order to gain stronger results from both of them.

Before going to those conferences or seminars to give a speech get your booklet printing taken care of. Be sure that the topic of your booklet is similar to the topic of what you'll be discussing at the conference.

Now when you give your speech you can also pass out a booklet to everyone there. Maybe you can have them on a table for people to take on the way out. What this does is gives your booklet an added air of credibility. Furthermore, because people have just listened to you speak they will be more inclined to read carefully through your booklet, which will expand on the ideas you were discussing in your speech.

What you have done is improve both forms of your marketing by combining them together.
While I am using booklets and speeches as a good example of this, these are hardly the only ways you can go about making your marketing stronger by combining multiple forms of it. Look at the various marketing campaigns you have planned and see which ones might be improved if you work them together.

Sometimes two things that might seem completely different work wonderfully together and improve your message. Take a hard look at your marketing, and see what you can accomplish.
Janice Jenkins is a writer for a marketing company in Chicago, IL. Mostly into marketing research, Janice started writing articles early 2007 to impart her knowledge to individuals new to the marketing industry.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Booklet Printing

Putting the Marketing Basics in Place (Part 1)

By Helen Dowling

The other day, I was working with a client and talking about their marketing. All the questions that I asked, they were able to answer and I realised that they had all the marketing basics in place and they were ready to move onto the next level. That gave me an interesting thought - THEY might have the basics in place, but do I - do you?

So, I thought I'd write this two page article about the basics of marketing to see if you've them in place in your business - and it also makes me think about whether I've got them in place too.

And by the way, I'm sure everything I've listed below you're already aware of. But do you really apply it to your business? I think there's a real difference between knowing things and actually doing them - and even if you checked something when you first started your business, things might be completely different now!

So, let's look at what the basics of marketing are:

1) Who are your customers?

When I ask you this question can you tell me exactly who your customer is; their likes and dislikes and everything about them or is your answer "anyone" or "everyone"? The first basic of marketing is for you to be able to say in detail who your ideal customer is. You see, you can't possibly appeal to "everyone" - they'll always be someone who won't be interested in what you do. So, why waste your time trying to find people who don't want your product or service?
Wouldn't you rather find people who want your product or service and want to buy it now? If the answer is yes, who are these people? What can you tell me about them? Nothing? Well, you need to go and find out!

2) Why people buy

Once you've defined who your customers are, the next step is to work out why your customers buy. And the reason THEY buy might not be the reason that YOU think they buy. Let me give you an example. Let's say your company sells printers. Why might customers buy printers? Now as a customer, I probably won't buy a printer unless there's something wrong with my current one. I might:

• Not currently have a printer and decide that I need one
• Find my current printer doesn't work with my new computer
• My current printer may have broken down and I've decided to replace it
• My current printer may have broken down and I've tried to repair it, but can't

In other words, there's a reason for me to go and buy a new printer now, as opposed to last year, last month, last week. It's not that I WANTED a printer; it's that I felt I NEEDED one and this is what prompted me to act.

So what makes your customers buy your product or service? What makes them act now (as opposed to last year, last week or last month)? Understanding this is vital so that you can push the right buttons and find these customers and is the second basic of marketing.

3) What do you do?

I've lost count of the number of businesses that I've met who tell me they do x, and they also do y and sometimes that they also do z too. Usually these products or services are all different from one another too. Now as a potential customer, how do I know what you really do and how you can help me and also why should I have the confidence that you can do a job really well for me, if you're not confident enough to tell me that you specialise in just one thing? If you're currently running two or more different businesses, you need to look at this and come up with ONE thing that you specialise in.

The main problem that people find with this is that you'll need to let go of some of the areas that you've built up and there's a real fear that one business won't give you the income you want or that you won't have enough clients.

Actually, the opposite is true - if you focus on just one business, you'll find that you get more customers and more income because you'll be spending all of your time concentrating in one area and customers will see and respect that. Plus, they'll be able to refer customers to you because they know what you do!

Next week, I'm going to talk about the other three things you need to have in place in order to know your marketing basics. See you then.

Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides support and advice on marketing to small business owners and help to set up a new business.

Proven Formula For Setting Your 2009 Income Goals

By Karen Scharf

I just finished up my business plan for 2009 (and if you haven't updated your 2009 plan yet, I urge you to get started soon!) and I'm working with several clients to update their plans also. One of the roadblocks many of clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives. It's easy to say "I want to earn $350,000 in 2009" but breaking that down into actionable steps is where most of my clients struggle.

I use a very simple system with my clients that has proven to be successful. It's not unique; in fact, I think many goals setting programs teach a very similar approach. But I want to share it with you today anyway so that hopefully you can get started planning for 2009 while this information is still fresh in your mind.

You've probably heard of SMART goals - that's the idea that all of your goals need to be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

Problem is, most goal authorities advise that your goals should be a little lofty - they should "scare" you just a little bit. So it can be difficult to determine whether your "scary" goal fits into the SMART category.

Here's how I work through this with my clients - let's take the $350,000 annual income as an example:

First, we break that goal into its smallest parts. So a $350,000 annual income would become a $6,731 weekly income. I'm using 52 weeks a year to make the math quick, and I'm factoring gross income, not net. You'll need to adjust for vacation time and taxes, if you'd like.

Now we run through the SMART system. Is $6,731 weekly income specific? Seems pretty specific to me. And it's definitely measurable (numbers make great goals since they are so easy to measure).

Sure the goal is attainable. Plenty of people are currently earning $6,731 each week, so we know it can be done. I've heard it said before that there are no unattainable goals, only unattainable timeframes. Which brings us to the next criteria - and here is where most of my clients struggle...

Is a weekly income of six thousand plus realistic? Obviously, this is going to be subjective, but here's a good rule of thumb that I like to use: Take a look at your current income and add 20%. By making several very easy tweaks to the current operations and marketing program, most entrepreneurs can realistically expect to increase their income by 20%. So, if you're earning $5,609 per week in 2008, you can realistically earn $6,731 in 2009.

But what if you're not earning $5,609 right now? What if you're only earning $4,000 each week? Here's where it gets a bit tricky.

To go from $4,000 to $6,731 would require more than a 68% increase in your current income. By making "normal" changes, you can expect a 20% increase - so how would you earn a 68% increase?

Here's a formula that I've found to work in most cases: for every 20% increase in income, you need a 20% across the board increase in successful marketing activities. For your 68% increase, you need to do almost 70% more of what you're successfully doing now (successfully doing is the key here.)

So, if you currently attribute a sizable portion of our website traffic to article marketing, and you're currently distributing 20 articles each week, you now need to distribute 34 articles each week.

And if a good portion of your prospects are coming from your speaking engagements, and you're speaking twice each week, you'll need almost 4 speaking engagements each week.

If you are now selling 50 info-products each week, you'll need to sell 85 info-products in 2009.
And on and on and on. Run these numbers for all of your successful marketing activities and decide whether or not they're realistic.

If you haven't been keeping good track and measuring along the way, it might take some time to look back through the year and figure out what was actually working for you. But don't skip this step! There's no point in increasing unsuccessful activities. If you've sent out 20 articles each week and saw no traffic from them, why would you waste your time sending 34 articles?

Keep in mind, we're looking at income only here. This does not take into account expenses and profits. Don't be surprised to find that an income increase actually reduces profits as your expenses go up also. You need to run an entire cash flow and P&L projection in order to verify that your goal is actually desirable.

Hope this helps as your put your 2009 plan in place. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business and marketing plans. Don't forget your mission and vision statements, your target market profile, your marketing message, etc.

Now, go find some more clients!

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who helps small business owners attract and retain more clients. Karen coaches and trains website owners on various tricks and techniques that have been proven to increase website conversion. She offers coaching programs and a Marketing Makeover to turn your ineffective advertising into a profit-pulling system. Grab your FREE checklists, whitepapers and reports at http://www.ModernImage.com And learn the professional secrets to successful web site marketing at http://www.SuccessfulSiteSecrets.com

Health Club Marketing and Attracting and Keeping Members

By Chris McCombs

When it comes to health club marketing, all too often personal trainers and business owners make the grievous mistake of spending too little time in this department, if any, and as a result, their business inevitably suffers. Don't keep your club's services a secret any longer by making it a point to vamp up your marketing efforts and start enjoying the plentiful rewards.

Here are a few simple, but rather important health club marketing strategies you won't want to overlook in your own business endeavors, whether you're just starting out, or you're looking to expand and increase your existing revenue.

Direct Mail
Marketing via direct mail should be one of the top marketing strategies just waiting in your arsenal for you to put everything into motion. Simply include a brief letter or flyer stating what your club is all about, the type of equipment it has, the hours of operation, and of course, the location and contact information.

If you aren't exactly comfortable looking to your current clients for referrals directly, starting a direct mail campaign is always an excellent way to achieve the very same results.

Reconnecting With Previous Clients
Pull up the database of previous clients and get to work inviting them to reacquaint themselves with the club. Consider offering an incentive, such as a percentage off their membership renewal fee, or a free week to ease them back into the idea being a paying member once again.

Hopefully you'll have made updates since the last time most of the members were there, giving them yet another reason to sign on again.

Increasing Presence Within the Community
Nearly every town, large or small, has some type of festival, fair, or annual gala with local merchants coming together to increase their awareness in the community. Sponsor a booth at your next local event and provide people with information about your business, perhaps even handing out promotional materials such as pens, notepads, stickers, and key chains. Or, even better, water bottles printed with your company's name, address, phone number, and web site listed.

Remember to introduce yourself and network with other merchants and propose a brochure exchange in which each entity displays flyers or brochures about other respected businesses in the area.

Besides making an appearance at community events, consider running a small advertisement on your local community television statement that lists public service announcements. Or, take out a small ad in the local Yellow Pages, small because although many people do still search for new businesses and services this way, a growing number rely upon the vastness of the internet for finding what they need.

When working to increase your presence within your local community, don't overlook the all important aspect of doing the same thing in the online virtual world in your health club marketing plans. Developing a web site that provides pertinent information about your club as well as useful tips and facts about health and exercise that prospective clients can use is an invaluable way of promoting your business as a reliable and knowledgeable source in the health and fitness industry.

If writing isn't your forte, hire someone to craft articles and information that you feel clients, current and future would find useful and also send out press releases announcing special discounts, new equipment, a reopening, or anything you can think of that's newsworthy and will draw people in.

While it's certainly true that successful health club marketing will indeed take some effort on your part, the outcome is worth far more than initially invested, in both terms of time and money. Businesses don't market themselves, and although word of mouth from existing clients is always needed, it's not enough to remain lucrative in the competitive world of today.

Chris McCombs is a health club marketing specialist. Chris teaches Internet marketing to personal trainers, health club owners and fitness entrepreneurs.

Promotional Sweets - How Sweet it Is!

By Matt Franks

Everyone knows that people like to eat sweets and that is why a lot of companies are ordering promotional sweets as part of their advertising campaign. But they are also looking for new and different ways that they can promote their business with promotional sweets instead of simply giving them out.

Here are some new ways that a company can use promotional sweets to get their business noticed.

Coupons
This is something that a lot of stores do around Christmas time. They give out promotional sweets, such as chocolates, with discount coupons inside the wrapper on certain days. It gives the person a discount up to 100% off their purchase. This is especially a good idea to send to people who are new to the area - a piece of candy with a coupon attached. You send them the promotional sweet with the coupon in it and you get a new customer.

Prizes
Remember the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory? The same thing can go for promotional sweets. If your company is having a function such as a picnic, or you are sending a representative to an expo, you can use promotional sweets to give out prizes. There can be a system, such as bars with certain coloured stickers on them get a certain level of prize.

Advent calendars
There are advent calendars that have promotional sweets in them. These can be given out to employees when the advent season begins and that way they can have a chocolate each of the days that are leading up to Christmas. They are also a great item to present to the children of employees to help them mark off the days that are leading up to Christmas.

Simply because your name is put on promotional sweets, it doesn't mean that you can't be creative with the way that you use them. They are a great item that you can use to welcome new people to the neighbourhood and to get your company and products noticed. They are also a way to entice people to come back to a booth when you give them out a conventions and expos with the possibility of winning a prize.

Promotional sweets are an item that you can use to promote your business in many different ways and to make people excited about your company and products. It's true that you can hand promotional sweets out, but everyone does that. People who do something new and different with their sweets are the ones that get noticed and remembered.

Promotional sweets are something that everyone likes and enjoys. Use your company's sweets the right way and you will find that the time and energy that you spent on thinking of new ways to use them will be well spent.

Seal your next business deal with a kiss - a chocolate kiss that is, and you will find that your customers keep coming back for more. Promotional sweets can lead your company to a lot of sweet deals and sweet dreams.

Matt Franks is director of Fluid Branding, the UK's leading online supplier of promotional sweets and other Promotional Products. You can also find a wide range of Eco Friendly promotional products, including Recycled, Organic and Sustainable items at Eco Incentives.

Personal Trainer Marketing Tactics

By Chris McCombs

Why is personal trainer marketing said to be a vulnerable area of proficiency, where mistakes are committed more often than not? The mistakes are such that you can make a list of all those and jot down using a pen and a paper.

To begin with, let's start talking about the first of those mistakes; the general trend that is being followed these days is the ownership model of running a business. A business that is entirely reliant upon the owner, where he keeps every responsibility to himself, the owners do feel the heat for working all the seven days of the week and finds himself fully engrossed, unable to take time and mind off his work. The result is there to be seen, weariness creeps in and the owners lose their focus on the job at hand. It's important that you keep yourself rejuvenated; a fresh mind always comes across new ideas. He is more likely to achieve desired results.

The second prominent mistake that you will see is irrelevant marketing strategy, the personal trainer marketing industry has suffered because of the fact that, the concept of promotion has been misunderstood for the word 'marketing', where fitness owners had the notion that attaching popularity to their businesses will guarantee them a success. Personal trainer marketing is not one of those campaigns where advertisement works; it has finer working details and those could be found out in fitness related websites.

Third, most of the owners these days live on the belief that profits only originate through sale. It could be true to an extent but there's something more important than sales, it's your existing client, keeping him happy is part of a foreseeable business plan. One must look to add value to each of your clients, if you have a superior product or a service, you could charge a resounding fee and people will readily cut their pockets deep, in other words they would be willing to pay an added extra for an improved service, that is a quality way to earn quality profits because many of these guys are on a look out to get their problems solved and they could shell any amount of cash to get it flat.

People who are not willing to pay higher fees, are the one's difficult to deal with, they are a nagging lot who are on a look out for a cheap price, they just don't value the significance of service. Therefore it is advisable to pick your clients carefully, only those people should be accepted who are hassle free payers because fitness trainers need payments on a continuous monthly basis, they need to be paid properly so they could focus on the job at hand. You could bring in a selling technique, for instance, those being followed by big food joints where if you want a cheese and a coke, they will ask you to go for a bigger one on a discounted price.

Then there's another prominent blunder that gets committed more often by business trainer marketing, you will find business owners putting in a lot of onus on hard work without desired results and that should be attributed to mismanagement of time, time management techniques should be roped in and combined with energy management plans to continue his business operations.

Finally, most of these business owners lack basic knowledge of how to achieve the desired results they intend to, and plans should be put in place to manage things on a daily basis.

Slacker Chris McCombs is a fitness marketing expert and a personal trainer marketing specialist.