Why Promoting Your Small Business Is So Important

business promotional tacticsIf you think you have achieved success when you saw your business up and running, you are wrong. You are   actually just starting. You are not really considered successful yet if you have just started your business. Your greatest challenge comes when you have to make your business available to the public. You still have to find who is going to buy your products.

This challenge could never be boring. You can be creative and organize fun stuff to promote your business to the public. Well that sounds easy and fun, but the truth is, you have to know something more about promotional campaigns before you can be successful on that end.…

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The Truth About Marketing

marketing truth Gone are the days where marketing can be done by just buying a small ad. Business cards are no longer attracting customers and sending mail or postcards may not get you new clients. These are traditional marketing strategies. We used to witness how these strategies helped entrepreneurs to manage their business. But this is no longer the case.

We may say that all these traditional models of marketing are obsolete. If you are aspiring to get high profits, more clients, or to establish more sales, or generate a lot of money; then it’s time for you to move on to higher levels of marketing.…

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13 Mistakes That Can Jinx Your Business

13 small business mistakesDespite a modest-to-invisible economic rebound in the U.S., conditions remain precarious for millions of small business owners in all areas and industries. With economic headlines shouting one big problem after another, we’re conditioned to think about economic dangers in grandiose terms – the calamity that cripples and possibly sinks a business, whether it’s a giant oil company, or a local restaurant.

But the path to ruin is more often paved with small missteps, rather than a single cataclysmic event. Here are 13 mistakes that individually might not be life threatening to your business, but together can be terminal:

1. Hoarding Information.

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How To Get Your Proposal Accepted

business proposalsThe commercial cleaning industry is a tough business to get started in. There’s a lot of competition for very few clients, and the work is incredibly hard & unglamorous. But if you stick with it for a long time, you’ll find that it can be a very rewarding career.

Although most of our business now comes from word-of-mouth, it wasn’t always this easy for us to attract new customers.   Early on, we had a lot of trouble getting our proposals accepted.

We’d spend a fortune on advertising… just for the opportunity to bid against 20 other companies.

And bidding often meant taking 2 hours out of my day to drive over to the prospect’s site, talk to them and look over their office.…

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A New Way To Think About Bribery-Based Business Models

bribery based business modelsIt seems like every week, I hear about another start-up with a bribery-based business model. Some genius decided that they can pay people to visit their web site, and that this would somehow evolve into loyalty. But sure enough, a few months later, they all vanish just as quickly as they appeared.

The simple fact is that bribing customers works about as well as paying money for genuine friends.

If you’d asked me to help paint your house this weekend, I’d say yes because you’re my friend. But if you offered me $25 to come help you, I’d probably feel insulted and decline your request.…

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Your Customer Is Not A Computer

treating customers like people not just a computerSometimes Internet marketers seem to do everything right tactically… but they can’t seem to get the sales they’re after. Whenever I see this, especially with extremely hard-working entrepreneurs, the problem is usually one of those “big picture”   strategic issues that can be easily missed when you’re caught up in the work.

It’s easy to forget you’re working on a car when your head is under the hood and all you see is engine.

In the bricks-and-mortar world, sales are made based on relationships. Customers can easily visit your place of business and see your employees face-to-face. This goes a long way to build the kind of trust and comfort that accelerates the sales process.…

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Paper Marketing is Not Dead

direct mail marketing with postcardsJudging by the tone of most marketing blogs, you would guess that all business was either conducted on Google or Facebook. But it’s easy to forget that many of the tried-and-true methods of the past are still just as valid today.

Take postcards for example… they’re fantastic!

You can just load up your prospect list in Excel, run the stack through your ink-jet printer, and you’re ready for the mailbox. There are no letters to fold, no envelopes to stuff, and (for large volumes) no stamps to peel.

Postcards also work great in tandem with your online efforts. If you record a different themed webinar every month, you’ll have a new reason for prospects to engage with you in each mailing.  …

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