The Great Business

What have you done today to market your business? Most business owners are so focused on the day to day activities of a business that they are not able to focus much on marketing. The problem with that is that marketing is the most important part of growing your business over time. Without marketing your business will begin to grow static and slowly grind to a halt. Here are some quick and easy ways for you to market your business this month.

Think about giveaways, everyone likes Ito get something for free. Try an email marketing campaign where you tell everyone that responds that you will be entering them into a drawing for a free gift. This gets your customers used to hearing from you and the gift doesn’t have to be expensive. Just think about the difference you could make in your customers communication if you gave away a fifty dollar gift once a month.

Similar to giveaways are coupons. One great way to use coupons is in Google Places. They have a part of their system in which you can center what they call an “offer” you can limit it by the number of days it is valid. You can enter any type of offer you want (i.e 10% off this week, Free Estimate, etc.). This is a very effective way to get people to choose you instead of your competitors.

Another great way to market yourself is to offer a referral fee or bonus to customers who refer their friends. I offer a free month of service to my customers when they refer a friend who signs up for my expert package. If they sign up for the beginning package they get half off of one month. Many fitness companies use this same model of giving you a free month if you refer a friend who joins, think of ways you can work on a referral program for your customers.

Your business is something that will require work and time, and if you are stuck on some things, small business coaching can help you. The good news is that no matter where in the world you live, there are business coaches simply waiting for you to take your service to their door. But don’t make the mistake of hiring the first coach you speak to. Aside from limiting your options, that also happens to be a recipe for future disasters. There are a few things you should keep in mind, as well as ask any coach you are looking into working with about.

What Type of Personal Experience Do You Have?

You should always aim for finding a coach that has practiced what they are teaching you. They should also be able and willing to open up as to how they used the skill or tip and tell you what the end results were. They don’t need to have an Internet business such as yours, but they should at least be able to tell you how they applied concepts.

What Are Results From Your Past Clients?

You do not need to ask for specifics, but the coach should be able to explain what results their past clients have achieved over time when applying their tactics. They should be able to talk to you about their success as well as how the tactics were applied. Your coach should be able to offer more than just helping you get “unstuck.”

Can I Contact Past Clients?

MingleSticks are small, keychain-sized devices that can help you make valuable connections at places like trade shows, business conferences and conventions. These connections can be between you and other attendees, or they can be between your company and those who showed an interest in your products and services.

Network with Other Attendees

If you’re headed to a trade show or conference, you can make instant connections with other MingleStick users without having to carry business cards or find a place to put all the business cards you collect. Business cards, unless they have the person’s photo printed on them, don’t help you connect a face with a name, which can be a big drawback in business situations.

But if you make a fast connection with a MingleStick, you’ll be able to see that person’s public profile in the MingleManager later, and most will have a photo so you can remember the face of the person you connected with. You’ll have access to any information that person has in his or her public profile so you can connect with them via social networking, the MingleManager or by downloading information into your Outlook or other contact manager.

For Trade Show and Conference Organizers

Business conferences and events are difficult to organize and make memorable for attendees. But you can make your event stand out from the crowd with MingleSticks and the Mingle360 website. By providing a MingleStick for each conference attendee, you not only give them a fast and fun way to connect with other attendees, but you get to keep in touch with them through the tools available at Mingle360.