Are You Making These Common Small Business Marketing Mistakes? (Part 4)

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, read a little bit about Marketing Results, check out my recommended resources, or read some of my best posts. Thanks for visiting!

This mini-article is one of a series aimed at helping you avoid common small business marketing mistakes.

Many businesses only generate a fraction of sales and profits that they’re capable of because they limit the number of different marketing methods that they use.

In fact, most businesses use exactly the same marketing methods as every other operator in their industry – in effect, they focus all their energies on the areas where they have maximum competition!

On the other hand, many small businesses have grown their profits by adapting the successful marketing practices of other industries to their own situation. By simply using a greater number of successful marketing methods, they’re able to do achieve excellent results.

Here are a few examples of slightly unorthodox marketing methods that some of my marketing consulting clients are using with good results…

1. A sticker printer sends direct mail to targeted industries, offering “Full-Color Promotional Stickers at a 1-Color Price”. None of the competition are doing it, so he mops up!

2. A proofreading business hands out flyers at local universities, and gets a huge amount of interest from students who want help checking their essays.

3. A rubbish removal contractor has a very profitable website, which they use to get new business – while their competitors slog it out in the overpriced and hyper-competitive Yellow Pages. Who would have thought people are looking for rubbish removal on the web? But they are.

4. A counsellor uses an active referral program to generate many new clients from a tighly-knit social group.

5. A professional services firm gets highly qualified prospects by offering a free informational report, then converts prospects into clients using a sequential sales process.

My point is – there are a huge variety of marketing methods at your disposal. Do you know what they are, or how to get the most out of them? As a first step, you can subscribe free to our “Results-Driven Marketing Secrets” Newsletter, where you’ll learn how to implement effective low-cost and no-cost marketing strategies in your business.
Sign up here…

Add Your Comments »