Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls posted by admin on August 23, 2011

Ten Marketing Pitfalls
By Stuart Reid

If you want to make it BIG in Internet Marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here’s a list of the top ten Pitfalls that catch out beginner Marketers (and many established ones too!).

The problem is you don’t realise you have fallen into one of these holes until someone points it out. Marketers tend to be stubborn and suffer from tunnel vision – hopefully these may help you kick a few bad habits…

1. Procrastination

Putting things off is a killer where this career this is concerned. You NEED a plan and some kind of time management system in place. Prioritize your tasks and keep lists of everything that needs doing. And no matter how much you don’t feel like doing something just get it out of the way and NEVER leave it untill the next day!

TIP: Use post-it notes. They are low-tech but work great :-)

2. Striving for Perfection

You’ll likely never have a “perfect” website or product but you know what? It doesn’t matter! It’s important you get started as soon as you can and make your site “live”. You can tweak things as you go along and improvements WILL come later – but if you try to get everything “right” before you start then you’ll never start.

TIP: Update your site daily in little ways, it saves doing everything at once and the search-engines it too.

3. Wasting Money

This one is important. Especially if you don’t have money to burn! Don’t get caught up jumping from opportunity to opportunity or buying everything that lands in your inbox. You’ll be surprised how much you can get for free. Trust me – you don’t need half the stuff you see online. Try to control your emotions and think before you buy. Write a list of pros and cons, and make sure that the product or service is essential to YOU.

TIP: Look for reviews by people without a vested interest in the product and ask questions in forums.

4. Not Spending Enough

Unfortunately you have to spend a little. It won’t be much starting out, but you will need more as you grow. For a start you’ll need a domain, a host, an autoresponder – but these are pretty affordable these days. The bulk of your expenses will be on promotion, usually ezine ads or pay-per-click. If you’re paying someone to create your product or you’re buying resell rights then this is another expense (but you can start with free affiliate programs).

TIP: Keep your “Internet Income” separate and re-invest. You’ll be glad you did later.

5. Wrong Markets

This is a tricky one. If you are dead set on conquering a certain market you could end up on a long and expensive journey that is doomed to failure. Do some research first. A so-called “niche” market is a good find but only if this niche will spend money! Other markets, like Internet Marketing, are very busy BUT Internet Marketers spend money – and the drive to make money is a strong human emotion. There’s a lot of them around!

TIP: Find something that interests you and use a site like nichebot.com to see how many searches there are for that subject. High Traffic and Low Demand are your goal.

6. Lack of Growth

You must continuously grow yourself and expand your mind. Learning is essential. If you don’t you’ll be stuck with the same skills and ideas and you’ll never even notice when you are bogged down in complacency and routine.

TIP: Put some time away each day to read a few articles and browse some sites. Learning just one new idea a day can increase your potential rapidly.

7. Doing It Alone

You can do it alone but it is harder, and without support you are more likely to fail. It doesn’t have to be much. On-line forums, for example, are an amazing source of ideas and encouragement. And with other people, by forming Joint Ventures or starting your own affiliate program you can really leverage your efforts and do FAR MORE than you could ever do on your own.

TIP: Visit forums, messageboards and maillists. Lurk for a while until you’re ready.

8. Going For The Small Money

You aint ever gonna get rich selling $20 items. Seriously, include some higher priced goods and services in your marketing. You’ll get less sales, but more profits. You won’t know if they sell until you try! But don’t fall into the trap of selling any old thing because you get a high commission. Integrity is important, too.

TIP: High ticket sales work better with existing customers who you already have a relationship with. Try them as a back-end.

9. Separating Life and Work

One of the biggest pitfalls when working from home is the fact that life can enroach your activities – simply because you ARE at home. Try to separate the two and have fixed times when you work, and a set area to do it. Work doesn’t have to take over your life, but neither should you let life interfere with your work.

TIP: Use a spare room or a spare corner and ONLY use it for work.

10. Be Ambitious

You won’t know unless you try. Assume you can do *anything* – because you can! You may not be ready to do it yet, but don’t set up mental blocks in advance. You can create your own profitable items, sell them well, and have others selling them for you. You can operate a range of websites, even host seminars, or teach others. YOU CAN.

TIP: Recognise excuses for what they are. If you need help, invest in a good self-help book.

I hope identifying these pitfalls help you look at yourself differently. Contrary to popular belief internet marketing is not an instant path to riches, but it is an achievable one.

You are free to use this article in any format without restrictions except the resource-box at the end MUST be included. Please use a live link if possible :-)

 

Posted in Marketing |

Your Web Design Company Should Deliver on User Expectations posted by admin on August 23, 2011

Strong Websites Deliver On An Expectation, Reinforced By The Experience.

Steady streams of traffic are meaningless if the on-site experience is poor.

Having a good website experience is satisfying and memorable. Isn’t that what you want for your visitors? People who have a difficult time navigating your site, who aren’t engaging with information, who are bombarded with wildly abundant advertising, or getting time-crushed by a slow website will do very little to escalate a website owner to market-share success.

You don’t want to just occupy the Internet, you want to dominate it. Make it happen through a valued, positive experience, and your stories about the road to success will be rich with tales of visitor happiness (and who knows you could get a nice testimonial to use on your site).

Think about it, you have your own experiences on the web that help distinguish clarity from static, as do your website visitors (those of today and the potentials waiting to find your website tomorrow).

In a world where the average attention span is less than two minutes we need to eliminate waiting. Are you waiting for your audience to visit your site or are potential visitors waiting to find your website? If you’re the one waiting, be prepared to keep waiting. Waiting is a good indicator of the need for improvement. Waiting is also a warning sign of being reactive rather than proactive.

Let’s not get all philosophical about it, but the bottom line is if you are not sending out strong web signals, your audiences is definitely not finding them. Instead, they are finding your competitors, and well that is not good for you. I mean surely you think your product or message is better, right? Treat it so!

But my competitors suck!

Okay, so your audience have found your competitors and have run into a poor experience. In that case, your potential audience is actually waiting to find you. In the meantime, they’re engaging with second or third best (or worse and trust us, they aren’t at all happy about it). This then is your opportunity to shine, so partner with an agency to make it happen. But remember, the more they are frequenting your competitors’ websites, you’re more you’re missing out on the opportunity to deliver meaningful experiences and negating your chances for success. It’s like a war for traffic and brand loyalty — let’s win it and move on, shall we?

You have questions, we know you do

Is your website frustrating visitors? Do you know? Are you making people want to leave and resulting in being a testimonial for your competitors? Is there too much content? These are questions you need to ask both web professional and your visitors. You’ll read more about reading data (through analytics), but know that data collection and a professional agency like will help answer these questions in a constructive, success-driven manner.

Posted in Marketing |

Link Building Methods posted by admin on July 23, 2011

Your link profile is a big deal to your search engine optimization campaign. The likes of Google and Yahoo view the number and quality of links that your web pages receive as being an indication of whether or not those pages provide genuine benefit to the visitor. Building links over a long period of time will help you to enjoy the benefits of search optimization for years to come. Link building should, therefore, be considered a part of your monthly marketing campaign.

Link building can take many forms and they all offer different benefits to other techniques. Article marketing is a widely used technique and it offers the benefits of being scalable and sustainable. What’s more a single article can generate literally hundreds of links, many from directories that are crawled very frequently too.

Social bookmarking is another useful form of link building and it incorporates elements of social media optimization which is becoming an increasingly popular and beneficial means building your visitor base. It is a quick and simple process and there are hundreds of well established bookmarking websites – you can also submit a number, or even all, of your pages to each of the bookmarking sites to help drive traffic to every page.

Posted in Advertising & Marketing, Franchising, Internet Services, Marketing, tips business, Uncategorized |

Give me a Referral any Day – the Power of Networking posted by admin on June 1, 2011

I nearly panicked recently! Well, maybe a slight exaggeration but here was a situation I had not been in for some time. The freezer had broken down and the dilemma I faced was – a speedy solution was necessary BUT I did not know anybody who repairs freezers. For the first time in some years I nearly reached for the Yellow Pages – a pristine copy that never sees the light of day – but sense prevailed and I consulted my wife. She rang her friend who works in a local hospital. They have an internal communication system for the employees to ask questions or post messages and within 30 minutes we had the choice of three prospective service engineers and one name had been suggested by three separate people. The choice was simple and – yes Mr Freezerman turned up and was superb!

The point is that we prefer to buy from traders who have been recommended and preferably from people we know and trust. Business networking is all about trying to address this situation by ensuring that business owners meet each other frequently and build relationships and trust first, long before any deals are struck. Networking is fast becoming the primary way of sourcing new business, but and this is a big BUT – you have to go about networking with the right attitude or it will not work for you.

I have been a member of BNI (Business Networking International) for nearly three years and know first hand that it can work for you as I have had many thousands of pounds worth of business as a direct result of being a member. And yet I did not get one meaningful referral for the first few months and was about to give it up as a bad job. I have also seen many new members give up in the early days saying it wasn’t for them. The thing is that we were all making the same fundamental mistake – we were too concerned with what was in it for us – and not thinking how can we help our fellow members.

The strapline of BNI is ‘givers gain’ and the moment I adopted that as my focus everything changed. If I give business to you will want to give me business to me is the message, but the emphasis is on the giving. Referrals are the currency and actively seeking help and support for fellow members becomes second nature after a time. It’s simple – it works.

Now, BNI is not for everyone and I can understand some of the reasons. The procedures are quite rigid and attendance and time keeping are essential. How many times have I heard new members say it is like being back at school. The vast majority though accept and understand why this disciplined approach works.

A newer breed of virtual networking is emerging on the Internet and although there are quite a few large networks, Ecademy is emerging as one of the best business to business websites. It is even more important that the right attitude and approach is adopted if you want to achieve anything for your business through using Ecademy.

Ecademy members are encouraged to put 50 keywords describing themselves, write a profile and to submit a photo. The mistake many make when they first join is to use their keywords and profile simply as an advert for their business. The successful networkers have interesting profiles about themselves, their interests, travels, family and amusing anecdotes. Are they missing out by not pushing their business interests? Not a bit of it as there is a link to their website – what is the point of another sales pitch. People buy from people they like and trust and the social side of the Ecademy is the important additional ingredient on offer.

Within Ecademy there are hundreds of special interest clubs and regionally based groups that give the opportunity for physical meetings to be arranged. It is incredible to be able to go to a meeting with people that you already know a great deal about before you actually meet them. It all leads to a much more honest and open relationship from the off.

Posted in Marketing |

The Silver Bullet For Success: Revealed posted by admin on May 12, 2011

Looking for the magic formula or the whiz-bang approach that will unlock your
business success? Are you willing to pay hundreds for it? How about thousands?

Guess what, you are not alone.

Just as people, for ages, have searched for the fountain of youth, entrepreneurs and
small business owners around the world are looking for the silver bullet for success: that one sure-fire way to achieve the success that they want without doing a thing.
This demand for this magic “success” pill has grown even more desperate and confusing. This need, especially for entrepreneurs, is understandable; time is limited, budgets are not yet created and… lives are at stake… yours.

Well you can rest easy.  Your search is over.  Are you ready for the answer? There is
no silver bullet…. or is there?

While speaking at seminars around the country with dozens of other experts in their
field, I’m amazed at the amount products that can… and will…help business owners
create more successful businesses. I mean we’re one of them.  The plethora of
information available today is astounding and often… overwhelming.

This hit home a few weeks ago while I was speaking at a multi-day seminar for
small business owners. I was honored to be among a select few outstanding experts
speaking about marketing for small business owners. I watched the confusion grow
in the audience as program after program (mine included) was rolled out throughout
the three days, as the business owners tried to determine which product best served
their need at that particular moment.

I watched them.  No, I studied them.  And, my heart went out to them… mostly
because I’m just like them.  I’m just like you– a small business owner with a vision
for my business and looking for help to accomplish it.  While some people at this
seminar invested in a product that met their biggest problem at that specific time,
some didn’t at all. Often these purchased products are listened to for a short period
of time; some are even applied… for a short period of time. These tools are often
relegated to a closet or bookshelf– abandoned for another new tool at another
seminar at another time. Thus begins a vicious cycle that leaves the purchaser
feeling empty, without the business power they were looking for in the first place. I
refer to this to as “shelf-help”–serving only the shelf that these products sit on.
Watching and talking to these business owners… no wonder they wanted the silver
bullet.

And even though my business success tool, BrandU, breaks down the powerful
brand development process into a easy to follow step-by-step system, once in a
very blue moon one of my students finds themselves sitting with the power they got
from creating their brand asking “Is this it?”  ”Am I done?” “Where’s my success?”
While they carefully chose, and found value in, BrandU what they really wanted
was… yep that’s right… that darn silver bullet.

The bottom line is no matter how much external work you do, learning and
application, emulating and testing, there is no single silver bullet to assist you
reaching your success goals.  Success is more like silver buckshot– a shower of
focused impact full hits. These focused efforts can be distilled down to four major
“pellets” or keys of success:

o Deliver Value.

This may sound overtly obvious for most of you, however you must always think of
your customer first and be sure that you are delivering the most helpful and
valuable content.

o Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

You just can’t get away from this key– and you shouldn’t.  Everything you say,
write, show and do must support your vision and your… brand.  In your
presentations, your e-mails, your web site, your content, your marketing materials.
The ability for your customer to completely experience your brand depends on
consistent communication from you. Only then, will they value you.

o Finish What You Start.

Once you commit to yourself, a partner, your staff, a client or customer always
follow-through– to a fault. The corollary of follow-through is under-promise and
over-deliver.  Set and keep expectations where they belong– calm, reliable and
consistently in-favor of the other party.  You will be rewarded.

And finally,

o Own Your Power.

Now for the most misunderstood key. You’ve heard it stated in a number of ways.
To us it means know your power and own the path you travel on and the results you
get from it.  If your “inner house” is built on a solid foundation, it is imperative that
your own the power you know you have. No confusion, no avoidance, no
‘victimhood’ and no excuses.  Be a voracious learning sponge. Stand strong, watch
for helpers, take bold steps, lovingly adjust and stand ready to reap the rewards!

With these pellets in your shell, your silver buckshot is sure to hit your target.

Come to think about it, the four keys do have one thing in common: they are all
completely in your control.  Could that mean there really is a silver bullet for
success after all? There is one true, fail-proof thing that you can depend upon for all
your business success and that thing is… you.  Weld yourself wisely; your success
depends on it!

Make a plan that is supported by your vision, surround yourself with the right
people and tools that specifically support that plan and put the silver bullet that is
you in action.  You will experience all the success than you can imagine.

Posted in Marketing |

Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls posted by admin on May 5, 2011

Ten Marketing Pitfalls
By Stuart Reid

If you want to make it BIG in Internet Marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here’s a list of the top ten Pitfalls that catch out beginner Marketers (and many established ones too!).

The problem is you don’t realise you have fallen into one of these holes until someone points it out. Marketers tend to be stubborn and suffer from tunnel vision – hopefully these may help you kick a few bad habits…

1. Procrastination

Putting things off is a killer where this career this is concerned. You NEED a plan and some kind of time management system in place. Prioritize your tasks and keep lists of everything that needs doing. And no matter how much you don’t feel like doing something just get it out of the way and NEVER leave it untill the next day!

TIP: Use post-it notes. They are low-tech but work great :-)

2. Striving for Perfection

You’ll likely never have a “perfect” website or product but you know what? It doesn’t matter! It’s important you get started as soon as you can and make your site “live”. You can tweak things as you go along and improvements WILL come later – but if you try to get everything “right” before you start then you’ll never start.

TIP: Update your site daily in little ways, it saves doing everything at once and the search-engines it too.

3. Wasting Money

This one is important. Especially if you don’t have money to burn! Don’t get caught up jumping from opportunity to opportunity or buying everything that lands in your inbox. You’ll be surprised how much you can get for free. Trust me – you don’t need half the stuff you see online. Try to control your emotions and think before you buy. Write a list of pros and cons, and make sure that the product or service is essential to YOU.

TIP: Look for reviews by people without a vested interest in the product and ask questions in forums.

4. Not Spending Enough

Unfortunately you have to spend a little. It won’t be much starting out, but you will need more as you grow. For a start you’ll need a domain, a host, an autoresponder – but these are pretty affordable these days. The bulk of your expenses will be on promotion, usually ezine ads or pay-per-click. If you’re paying someone to create your product or you’re buying resell rights then this is another expense (but you can start with free affiliate programs).

TIP: Keep your “Internet Income” separate and re-invest. You’ll be glad you did later.

5. Wrong Markets

This is a tricky one. If you are dead set on conquering a certain market you could end up on a long and expensive journey that is doomed to failure. Do some research first. A so-called “niche” market is a good find but only if this niche will spend money! Other markets, like Internet Marketing, are very busy BUT Internet Marketers spend money – and the drive to make money is a strong human emotion. There’s a lot of them around!

TIP: Find something that interests you and use a site like nichebot.com to see how many searches there are for that subject. High Traffic and Low Demand are your goal.

6. Lack of Growth

You must continuously grow yourself and expand your mind. Learning is essential. If you don’t you’ll be stuck with the same skills and ideas and you’ll never even notice when you are bogged down in complacency and routine.

TIP: Put some time away each day to read a few articles and browse some sites. Learning just one new idea a day can increase your potential rapidly.

7. Doing It Alone

You can do it alone but it is harder, and without support you are more likely to fail. It doesn’t have to be much. On-line forums, for example, are an amazing source of ideas and encouragement. And with other people, by forming Joint Ventures or starting your own affiliate program you can really leverage your efforts and do FAR MORE than you could ever do on your own.

TIP: Visit forums, messageboards and maillists. Lurk for a while until you’re ready.

8. Going For The Small Money

You aint ever gonna get rich selling $20 items. Seriously, include some higher priced goods and services in your marketing. You’ll get less sales, but more profits. You won’t know if they sell until you try! But don’t fall into the trap of selling any old thing because you get a high commission. Integrity is important, too.

TIP: High ticket sales work better with existing customers who you already have a relationship with. Try them as a back-end.

9. Separating Life and Work

One of the biggest pitfalls when working from home is the fact that life can enroach your activities – simply because you ARE at home. Try to separate the two and have fixed times when you work, and a set area to do it. Work doesn’t have to take over your life, but neither should you let life interfere with your work.

TIP: Use a spare room or a spare corner and ONLY use it for work.

10. Be Ambitious

You won’t know unless you try. Assume you can do *anything* – because you can! You may not be ready to do it yet, but don’t set up mental blocks in advance. You can create your own profitable items, sell them well, and have others selling them for you. You can operate a range of websites, even host seminars, or teach others. YOU CAN.

Posted in Marketing |

Stretch Your Marketing Budget posted by admin on April 8, 2011

Sometimes the marketing budget can seem like a frightening thing because of how small it is. You see all those orders of color printing you’d like to do, and then you see how much it would cost to do them. That can have a way of taking the wind out of your sails.

But the thing to remember is that there are a lot of cheaper ways to get marketing taken care of that extend beyond the normal color printing, and ways to make those brochures and postcards do the most that they can.

First, delving into the inexpensive styles of marketing, have you ever considered joining up with a local charity? Now, the point of this is to first help your community, and second gain the news and attention a good charity drive will bring. You’re improving your image while at the same time gaining free publicity from helping people out.

Another method to cut down on your costs is by finding a good, strong local partnership. Odds are good there are plenty of other companies out there willing to partner up with you and share the burden of the marketing costs. If you get your printing done jointly you can cut your costs down considerably, and you get the benefit of both parties promoting the other.

Focusing on a smaller, niche market is another good means of getting more out of that marketing budget. The more focused a brochure or poster is the better chance there is you’ll have some success with it. Niche markets allow you to design marketing material with a much greater focus than you’d be able to pull off if you were attempting to target a diverse pool of people.

Going along the same line of improving your materials, make sure that what you are having done looks as good as it can be. Often taking additional time out to design the materials can help you generate more business, which makes up for the costs of the marketing.

If you’re designing the stuff yourself than the only thing you’ll have to lose is a little bit of additional time rather than money. Time might not be the easiest thing to come by either, but odds are good it’ll be easier to get extra time than it will extra money if you don’t have marketing to begin with.

Figure out what all resources are available to you. You never want to waste a great opportunity for free or cheap marketing simply because you didn’t know it was there. Also be sure to take advantage of every style of marketing you can. Don’t shun the effective methods of brochures, postcards, and so on just because you have to spend extra money on color printing to make them.

Ultimately if your marketing is as good as it can be it will make back all the money you had to put into it.

Posted in Marketing |

Long Sleeve Polos Are a Top Promotional Apparel posted by admin on April 6, 2011

An embroidered long sleeve polo shirt is one of the best promotional apparels for any company. There are a number of reasons for this, but the clear edge of a long sleeve polo over other embroidered promotional shirts is its versatility. There are few promotional apparels that can offer the versatility of long sleeve polo. This is because an embroidered long sleeve polo is the only personalized apparel that you can comfortably wear in most occasions. From your office to a social dinner followed by a casual late night drink, you will never feel awkward wearing it.

Long sleeve polos embroidered with your logo are also more appreciated by your clients than other promotional apparels. The reason is that these shirts make your customers feel more appreciated than any other embroidered apparels. These classy shirts also reflect a positive image of your company, delivering a corporate image of success and profitability worthy for your customers’ trust. The dressy feel also ensures that your clients will give more value to your embroidered long sleeve polos wearing them during social events and other special occasions that will deliver quality impressions to your embroidered logo or a new product you want to promote.

Your employees will also make a lasting impression during trade shows and other marketing events when they are seen wearing long sleeve polos with your logo distinctly embroidered on them. With your company represented by dashingly outfitted employees, your target market will easily be convinced that your company is top choice, because the dignified appearance conveys knowledge and success, two important traits that people look for in doing business.

so what are you waiting for? Nothing will happen to your business if your products have no promotional marketing efforts. If you think your business needs to use promotional apparel to make your products known, make sure you get the best deal in the market for custom personalized apparel like logo long sleeve polo with your company logo or product brand. With this, you are assured that your product will get the exposure it needs and will eventually lead to sales and profit.

 

Posted in Marketing |

Customized Marketing Solutions posted by admin on April 2, 2011

If you own a business, you know that without proper marketing your business will go nowhere. Of course, there is no one size fit all type of marketing. Every business is different and, therefore, every business needs its own unique marketing plan. If you are looking to start marketing your business or your business’ products, make sure that you look into customized marketing solutions.

Know Your Business
In order to know how to best market your business, you must know your business. You should be familiar with all the unique aspects of your business. You should be familiar with your business’ revenue streams and the business’ profit margin. You should know your competitors and their products, and what makes your business different, and better.

Where to Find Marketing Help
There are many marketing firms out there that will offer customized marketing solutions; however, not all firms are the same. Some will say that they will customize their marketing plans for you, but really make no effort to do so, and instead just give you the same marketing plan that the firm gives everyone else.

You should do your research before deciding on what marketing firm to hire. Make sure that you are familiar with some of the firms other clients. If you can, try and get the opportunity to talk with the other clients and see how satisfied they were with the marketing firms work. Also, do an Internet search regarding the marketing firm and see what comes up. Many times, you will find reviews, either good or bad, regarding a marketing firms work.

Be Involved
The person that knows your business best is you. It is important that you be involved in the making of the customized marketing solutions. Take the time to answer all the marketing firms questions. If you have any ideas, make sure that the firm knows about them. Share the goals of your business, as well as the business’ past performance.

The marketing firm should want you to be involved. If the firm shows little interest in your input, then the firm may not have your best interests at heart.

Even though you should be involved in the process, remember that the marketing firm has the expertise, and that is why you are paying the firm. Give your input, allow the marketing firm to analyze the input and decide what is the best course of action for you to take, and then follow through.

Marketing Plan May Change
It is important that you be flexible with your marketing plan. As your business changes, you may need to make adjustments in your marketing plan to account for those changes. Talk with the marketing firm about what steps to take when changes in your business occur.

See What is Out There
Now that you are a little more familiar with customized marketing solutions, go out and see what marketing services are available for your business.

Posted in Marketing |

Marketing Diversified Reaching to Your Targets posted by admin on March 18, 2011

Small and medium sized manufacturers need to diversify their reaching to the customers. Traditionally, there are few ways: trade shows, yellow pages, etc. And many ones put their eggs in just one basket.

Trade shows have been very useful and for a quite long time before new media through which manufacturers reach their customers was invented. However, with connections between buyers and sellers created and tightened, trade shows become just shows and no trade. People are just roaming amongst redundant manufacturers and traders to see big shows being on stage. And that is why you get hundreds of name cards but can not even build relationships with more than 10. Actually the majority of them will not answer your e-mail/call/fax.

However, I’m not here saying that trade shows are not good or they are very bad. We need to find new ways to count on. We need to diversify our reaching to the targets.

Below are my suggestions.

1. Website. A well designed, SEOed and marketed official website will be very useful for a small and medium business. With such a site you may, drive internet attentions to your company, give confidence to your buyers and keep them coming back to you.
2. Newsletters. A routinely issued promotional material will help reminding people to remember you and get new customers.
3. Search engine advertisements. You may choose one or all from Google’s Adwords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or other products of major search providers.
4. Ads on general and industrial websites. Ads on industrial (niche) websites will drive more targeted traffics to your company websites and hence higher possibility to generate sales.
5. Yellow pages. Traditional but useful.
6. Forums. Attend as much forums as possible. There are a lot of industrial buyers and sellers and experts in the forum.
7. Posts. They need to be placed at proper sites. For example, if you are selling industrial tools or machines, putting posts at public parks will not help. Instead, you should put them at sites such as industrial markets, forums, etc. Currently, a lot of posts can be seen in China by the sides of high ways.
8. POP, or Point of Purchase ads. Industrial goods will also need POP ads to help impress end users and assist them in their buying decision.
9. Packaging. Packaging itself is also a form of advertisement telling people what you do and how you are doing.
10. Promotional e-mails. You must pay attention to such e-mails and do not let them be junk.
11. Phone call.
12. Fax. This is the least cost effective, however, I’m still listing it here.
13. Word of mouth. Yes, industrial goods can be promoted via word of mouth ad.
14. Articles. Industrial buyers tend to go to niche websites to get idea of the currency in the industry. Good articles may draw their attentions to your company and your product offerings.
15. Blogs. Useful blogs will drive traffic as well as draw attention from the web to your company.
16. Trade shows. The reason why I still list it here is that the shows are becoming an ad media rather than a trade market. It is still very important for small and medium businesses to get into vision or more exposure to the industry.

Posted in Marketing |