Every small business has a set budget that they use to market and build their business.  Here are some cost-effective methods that will help you to get your new customers and grow your business.

1. Everyone has a strip shopping center or mall near them.  Wherever there is a grand opening, attend the opening and talk with the business owners and staff and hand out your business cards.  Remember to have your Unique Selling Proposition stated clearly on the card to tell them how they will benefit by doing business with you. Even if it’s an established shopping center, do the same thing. Use this method to introduce yourself and your services to them.  With the Banks I started, each time we opened a branch, I had our various staff members visit with all of the businesses within a 5-mile geographic area of the branch.

2. Create flyers with your business information on it and place them at the grocery store, coffee shops, library, or other places people meet. Always carry them with you so that you never miss an opportunity to place them when you come across an opportunity to do so.

3. There is a place called www.VistaPrint.com, where you can obtain free or low cost business cards. Make sure you add your USP, again to let everyone know how you can benefit them.  While you are out running errands, drop off a business card at every business you see, such as Restaurants, Medical Professional Offices, Gyms and Health Clubs, Drycleaners, and even gas stations.  You never know when someone will need what you have to offer.

4. Getting back to # 2, you can do the same flyers with Door Knob Hangers.  Go into neighborhoods and put the flyers on the doorknobs of the residents.  You can even hire a high school student to do this as a part time job.  I used this method also with the Banks I started. It is very cost effective.

5. Put together a presentation that is very informative about how your product can benefit others then contact organizations, such as your local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, etc., and offer to speak at their monthly meeting.  They are always looking for speakers to educate and inform their members.

6. Develop a press release announcing something that is currently an important topic that you can attach your information to, and offer a free report that reveals the 5 items that will help them solve this problem. Then send it to your local newspaper and other free area publications.

7. Always ask for referrals.  Give your business cards to your family members, neighbors, wherever you shop, and ask them to pass out your cards to their patrons, or whomever they cross paths with.  Offer an hour of free service or a free product to anyone who refers a client to you.

OK.  That’s just a few ways to market your business frugally.  I’m sure if you put your mind to it, you can think of others.   Let me know in the comments section other ideas that you think of.

Technorati Tags: business cards, cheap ways to market, flyers, frugal ways to market, inexpensive ways to market, word of mouth advertising, word of mouth marketing

Yesterday I got to thinking about the many times I’ve been interviewed, or the times I interviewed someone, and I began to think again about how profitable it could be. 

Here’s the advice I want to give you in this blog… 

Every day, and I do mean every day, in spite of what might stop you, make it a point to reach out to at least one other business, newspaper, or trade association like the Chamber of Commerce to set up an appointment to get interviewed.

Naturally, these interviews are to promote you and your business.

Here are some of the benefits that interviews can bring to your business.

#1.  It can generate very responsive leads.  If you have a website, you can set up an opt-in system to generate leads.  Giving access to these interviews via your web site is a great way to have individuals opt in.  This also works very well for interviews done in magazines and newspapers.

#2.  Naturally, you can make immediate sales.  When someone listens to your interview or reads your interview in a newspaper, the leads captured this way are some of the hottest ones you’ll find anywhere.

#3. When you interview experts in fields that your people find can help them, you are bringing value and cementing your relationship with them.  It tightens the bond you have with your existing list of clients and prospects.

#4. Last but not least, it builds your brand and your own personal credibility. 

Since your time is very valuable, you don’t want to do interviews just for exposure.  Get a feeling for the size of your audience before committing to be interviewed.  But be sure that you will have some time to talk about your business and what you are selling during and at the end of the interview.

If you also interview others, you must be sure that the subject matter is consistent with what your subscribers expect from you.  Does it compliment what you are already giving them? Is it quality content that they will value?  These are a few of the questions you should ask.

And here is what I feel is the most important part of it all…ask your listeners what they thought of the interview and set up a mechanism for receiving their comments. 

Technorati Tags: gettting interviews

Here are a few ways I’ve used to make my competition irrelevant. 

Focus on the moment of truth, the place or position that your products or services will be offered to the customer.  For example, if you have a retail establishment, this may be a wall display or a counter display.

On the internet this may be an on-line store, E-bay if you have an account with them to offer your products, or your own personal web site.  Sometimes the moment of truth may be in the form of a bid or proposal after several months of working to convert your prospect into a client or customer. 

The moment of truth is the moment that the customer has an option to make a purchasing decision, to buy your product, or to invest in your services.  This is the moment you need to put your best foot forward.

Each time you present something to your prospect or customer, provide a value proposition to them.  Your value proposition should be something that can be conveyed in three to five precise and succinct statements. 

A value proposition should contain the essential elements of feature, advantage, benefit, and offer.  This is a reference to a specific important feature of your offer, the advantage as compared to the competition and what’s in it for your customer. 

The other thing you can do is to differentiate yourself from the competition.  Common examples of differentiation for products may be size, speed, color, or accessories.  Examples of differentiation for services would be performance, quality, availability, or ease of use.  Show how your product or service is better than the competition.

In today’s world, our clients and customers are bombarded with so much information, advertisements, and commercials that it is sometimes impossible to keep the attention of your prospects focused on what you are saying to them. 

If you focus your methods on the Moment of Truth and create a differentiation, you will leave your competition in the dust.

Technorati Tags: differentiation, differentiation and positioning, differentiation of products, differentiation of service, value proposition, winning against competition

When I had my 35 companies, I created ways to be in touch with my customers constantly.   At least once a month.  With the advent of the Internet, I was able to communicate with them on a weekly basis simply by pushing a button.  

One of the companies I had insured over 600,000 Nurses for malpractice insurance.  I bought my first computer in 1974 from a company called Nixdorf.  The discs themselves were so large in size, that in order to do a backup, we had to use 4 of them daily.

Anyway, the reason I’m mentioning this now is that I struggled for a few years trying to figure out a way to get to my potential customer before my competition.  That’s when I hit on an idea.  Every student Nurse has to take a course called “Legal Aspects of Nursing” in their senior year. When I interviewed a few of the instructors, I found a way to help them, and also a way to be in front of my potential market on a weekly basis.

I created a ”Malpractice Case of the Week” in which I would outline a real case in Malpractice, then list three questions for the students to answer for the Instructor.  In essence I was doing the work of the instructor.

The most important part of this was that it gave me the opportunity to be in front of my potential customer before my competition.  

I also was able to get from each school, the graduation date of the student.  Approximately three months before graduation I sent an email once a week, alerting them to the fact that when they graduate, we would be sending them an application for enrolling in our malpractice insurance. I also explained the many benefits they would receive from us when they became our customer.

Think of the many ways in which you can get to students to promote your company and products.

If you are in the auto products business, you can give a talk to the students before they get their drivers licenses, and create a data base to be in touch with them constantly before their birthday.

If you are a florist, you can speak to seniors about the health benefits of flowers and/or other products.

If you are in the insurance business, you can set up a talk with high school seniors, before they take their driver’s license, and communicate with them via email before they take their drivers test, and the products you offer.

What I’m saying here, is that you should think of methods and ways to get to your future customer before they need your services, and to create a bond with them, so that when they need your product or service, you will be first in their mind.

Technorati Tags: customer acquisition, reaching prospects

Whenever I go to a Chamber meeting or a networking function, I’m always astonished at the way individuals meet.  When I’ve gathered the business cards that were handed to me, they all looked alike and none of them jumped out at me.

The reason I’m writing about this, is that I just came back from a Chamber Networking meeting that was designed to put everyone in front of each other over an hour period of time.  You should have seen the “off to the races” scenario.  A bell rang every 30 seconds, so you only had 30 seconds to give your card and say something.

Everyone who gave me their business card told me their name and the company they worked for or owned.  None of them prepared an “Elevator Speech” to fit into 30 seconds. And, most importantly, none of them had their USP or Elevator Speech on the back of their business cards.

Look at your card and the cards you’ve gathering over the years.  Are any of them unique?  Do any of them motivate you to call them or to do business with them?

Within the hundreds I have accumulated over the years, they are all the same size.  Nothing is different about them.

Why not be creative. 

Let’s assume that you want your business perceived as being on the cutting edge.  What could you do? 

How about a business card that looks like a razor blade with your information on it and also your USP and/or Elevator Speech on the reverse side.

What could you do if you owned a restaurant?  How about an irregular card that looks like someone took a bite out of the corner?

For insurance agents, or really for anyone, create a free report.  You can get the facts on how to do this by reading a copy of ”How to Print Money Legally”.  You received a free copy if you recently bought my book, “How To Get Customers To Call, Buy & Beg For More”.  

Have the front of your card say the following:

FREE Report Reveals How You Can Protect
Your Family’s Dreams and Future.
(See back of card for details)
         Your Name
“Your Dream Protector”
ABC Insurance Agency
Address
Phone #

The back of the card could read something like this:

Dear Friend,
For many families, an unfortunate event, such as a fire,
earthquake, flood, hurricane accident, can wipe out
everything they now own…overnight!
Imagine losing your home, your car, your savings, your
business and having to start all over from scratch.
To help you protect yourself, your family’s dreams and
future against any unexpected disastrous event, ask for your FREE special report called “How to Protect Your Family’s Dreams and Future from Unfortunate Events.”

Call the 24 Hour Recorded Consumer
Awareness Hotline at 222-2222 Today.

Now, let me give you some more examples.

Here’s a message I created for an Accountant to put on the back of this business card. 

“How Much Money Would You Take Out of Your Business
If you Didn’t have to pay Tax on it?”

Or this one I created for my Loan Officers in the Banks I helped start.

“In the business of Friendly and Superior Banking Services
And Giving you Ideas on how you can Grow your Business
And Get more Customers.”

What do you think of that one?

With the next printing of my business card, here is what will be on the reverse side:

…helping businesses increase customer acquisition by up to 32.7% in as little as 3 to 6 months, and increase customer retention by up to 90%.

I’m sure that if you brainstorm long enough, you can come up with a unique design, for your business card, and make sure that your USP and/or elevator speech is included on the reverse side. 

And one more thing…make sure that when you hand the card to someone, it’s reversed where the back side is what they see immediately.

Technorati Tags: business card design, Business card marketing, designing a business card, marketing with business card

When faced with a downturn in the economy, there are a couple big mistakes a business can make:

1. Do nothing

2. Do the wrong thing.

Doing either of these can put the nails in your coffin.

The problem is that the fear of doing the wrong thing often
causes many business owners to do nothing. This often leads them to stop or cut back on their marketing. This is the worst thing a business owner can do.

But if you want to give yourself the best chance of making the right decision, what can you do?

Well one smart thing would be to pick the brains of successful business people and model what works.

What if you could have 38 of the top marketing experts tell you what they would do in a recession to keep their business growing? Do you think that you might be able to pick up at least one thing you can do to help you prosper in this shrinking economy.?

Recently, I was interviewed by Scott Aughtmon about what I would do in a recession to make sure my business continued to thrive. Scott also interviewed Jay Levinson, Seth Godin, Michael Gerber, Yanik Silver, Alex Mandossian, and 32 other top experts in business, sales, and marketing about how they would survive in a recession.

To see what these experts said they would do, and to learn what you can do to prosper in this recession, GO HERE. It is definitely worth your time to check this out.

Technorati Tags: experts on recession, growing business during recession, Recession, survive the recession

Postcards are wonderful ads for your business.

We all know that direct mail, is one of the most effective advertising methods that is available to any business…large or small.  A way to make direct mail even more successful is to put your message on a postcard. 

I’ve used them in various stages of building my companies.  Here are a few reasons why I recommend them.

1. They are small enough, that your customers will keep them, especially if you give them a coupon or other discount.
2. They are easy to read. And since they are small in size, you are forced to rework your message, until it will fit in such a small space.
3. There isn’t an envelope to come in between you and your message, so your message will be read immediately.  You aren’t putting the individual in a position to have to open an envelope.
4. Since postage has been increasing over the years, marketing with postcards lowers your cost to reach a prospect or customer. Therefore your ROI is much higher.
5. Here’s the best reason.  They are personal. 

Here are some tips to have a successful Postcard Marketing Program.

1. Make sure that your postcards are to prospects and customers that are likely to be interested in your offer.
2. Create a postcard that looks like a personal message from a friend, instead of a printed ad.
3. Get to the point to capture the recipients attention immediately.
4. Try not to make it a sales pitch.  Remember that I always say to create a relationship with your prospect and/or customer.  So don’t try to sell them immediately.  Offer them something, so that they will respond.
5. Here’s something I learned by reading someone’s statistics.   Send the postcards so they arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Why?  Because the volume of mail that the post office is delivering those days is lighter and your postcard won’t have to compete with other mail.
6. Always send them First Class.  If your postcard is 3 ½ by 5 inches, it costs about half of what a regular first class envelope would cost.  If you make your postcard larger, than the cost will be higher.  There were times when it was very cost effective for me to send large postcards.   I did this to catch their attention. Sometimes I even created postcards that were not rectangular, but were round, or looked like characters. 

Experiment with Postcards.  Remember the prime objective is to get the individual to read it and respond to your offer. 

Technorati Tags: postcard marketing

Here’s a very interesting question.  How does being an author help you promote a business, and what is the best way to market and promote a book?

The answer to the second part depends on the topic of the book and the information that is within its pages. You must determine who the audience is that you are trying to reach with your book.  I’m assuming that your book is not a novel, but that you are using the book to promote yourself and your products. 

Let me say this…I feel that writing a book, about your business, your products, or any profession you are in, is the best way to create that ”You are the Expert in your field.”

You market yourself, with the book, by offering it to your prospects, and setting up a system to create a relationship with them. 

The book itself doesn’t have to be 100 or more pages.  It could be in e-book format, where it can be printed out from your website. You would then collect the data visitors leave in order to print the book.  Or you can have it printed up and mailed, or personally handed out. 

I used this concept at a few of my local chamber of commerce networking meetings some time ago. I printed up 1,000 copies of my then “10 Most Common Marketing Mistakes” book, and handed them out as a gift from me to them.  I stood out amongst the crowd, because everyone else was selling themselves and/or their services, and I was the only one who had written a book, and was giving a gift at this meeting.  Try this with your book. 

Or if you don’t have your own book yet, you can use my “10 Marketing Mistakes That Steal Your Cash” e-book for FREE, while you work on your own book.  I’ll even customize the title page for you, for FREE, so it can say what you want it to say to your customers and prospects. For instance, you can add wording to say that the book is a gift from you.  You can even add your company logo—all at NO CHARGE.  This is my gift to you. 

If you are interested, go to www.kenvarga.com/report.php where you can learn more about how you can use it to promote your business. 

Each of you, at some time in your business life, have been a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, or attended a networking event.  Here is what you can do now.  Find out where a similar event is going to occur over the next two months in your area.  Then go to www.kenvarga.com/report.php and order copies of the book, have me customize the title page for you, and gift the books to the participants at your upcoming events. 

Imagine what a difference that would make for you.  It will help you stand out in the crowd.

After you’ve done that, please let me know the results you get. In the future, I’ll produce other free tools like this that you can use to help you build your business.  If you have any suggestions about what might work for you, let me know and I’ll add it to my list.

Technorati Tags: business promotion using a book, chamber of commerce, network meeting, networking event, using a book to promote a business

Here are some questions I received: 1. How to find “suspects” to talk to (i.e. senior Managers/execs? 2. How to discover/confirm their pain formulate/refine our “mafia offer” addressing that pain? 3. How to repeatedly find lots of suspects to put the Mafia Offer in front of?

In reference to question 2, for those of you who don’t know what a Mafia Offer is, “It is an offer that your customer can’t refuse and that your competition can’t or won’t offer.”   The offer is created based on the internal capabilities and constraints of a company, often making it hard for other companies to follow.  I’ll discuss that in another blog post as it is a whole topic in itself.

Let’s start with # 1&3.  You should make a list of the companies you want to have as your customers.  If you have a list of customers presently, you should then ask your present customers if they know of any of the executives at those companies. I used this concept in the financial planning arena, where I purchased a list of dentists in a set geographical area, then asked my present dentist customers if they knew those other dentists, and naturally they knew all of them. 

I then created a letter thanking them for answering my question, and included an autographed copy of my book, “How to Get Customers to Call, Buy and Beg for More” as a gift for them. Then I asked them to call the dentists they knew and mention that they asked me to call them. 

The door was opened immediately when I called and an appointment was set to see me.  Massage this concept for yourself.

Also, on May 28, I wrote a letter for all of you to use to get to see the decision maker of any company.  Try that letter on a dozen or more suspects on your list. See my blog post titled “How to Get a 95% Closing Ratio” for this letter.

You should already know what their pain is and how you are going to solve it.  If not, I suggest that you start asking suspects.  You should have a list of questions you want to ask, and approach them as if you are doing a survey.  This is marketing to it maximum.

Another way of creating potential customers is by writing an e-book, a short book that can be printed from your web site in PDF format, and by submitting articles to the magazines that they read. 

At the end of your articles, offer them your free e-book and send them to your website to get it.
On your web site you must have what is called a “Squeeze Page”, where they enter their name and email address, or any other information you need, in order to contact them later. After they enter this information, they’ll be able to download the book.

There are some additional steps to follow to make sure that you have permission to email them after downloading the book and to make sure that your email is not blocked by the Spam filters.  If you need more information on this, I can get into it in another blog post.

This gives you some steps for finding “suspects” and putting your Mafia Offer in front of them.

Depending on how high a ticket item it is that you are offering, you should spend some time creating a relationship by gifting information items, as I’ve mentioned in earlier blog posts.  You can get some of those free items from my website by visiting www.kenvarga.com/report.php .  Contact reggie@kenvarga.com if you need more information on using the free e-book as described on that page.

Technorati Tags: Finding Prospects, Finding Suspects, mafia offer, manager prospects, senior executive prospects