Marketing Help For A Small Business
I am always on the lookout for good ideas to market my small business.
One of the first thing that I advise my clients is to start a mailing list. When I first started this business all I had was a list of names of people that I had kept in touch with through e-mails. My family was mostly across the country, so I started writing weekly e-mails describing the exploits of my over 30 (now over 40) hockey team.
Over the years I have added names from all walks of life and work to my address book. When I realized I was going to start a business I wanted to try to contact all of them and start a friendly conversation to tell them about my business. I also included some of them in on my hockey updates and others just occasionally sharing some good information just to keep in touch. I also attached a small signature file to every email asking people to visit my site. This has helped me get several referrals. You never know who will pass on your email.
Keep in mind that your own mailing list is ALWAYS your most valuable marketing tool. These people are your friends who are inclined to listen to you. Don’t abuse this privilege.
No matter what form of marketing that you are using the most important thing to do is to test the results. Maybe you could tweak your signature file a bit or vary what you are sending to who, but you need to know what is working so you can do more and what is not working so you can stop wasting your limited resources.
Craig Valine has a good article on his site called “Marketing Insanity: Stop the Madness!” he has some good thoughts on the matter.
