Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses - A Beginner's Guide

You've set up your business, you've got a great product or service

, you've got your first customers, but you need to get a lot more. You know that good marketing ideas are what you need, but you think marketing will be:

- Complicated

- Expensive

- Difficult

- Specialist

- Scary

- Not for beginners!

Worst of all you have no idea where to begin. Read on for some free marketing ideas.

What is marketing?

- Marketing is the way you create value for your customers and build strong customer relationships, so that you can get value from your customers in return.

- You can have the best product or service in the world, but if no-one will pay you for it, you can't succeed - so to drive up your sales, you need great marketing ideas.

- Innovative marketing will attract customers' attention to YOUR business and YOUR products or services.

- Successful marketing will help those customers make a conscious decision to buy from YOU. But how can I afford to advertise? - Marketing is not just about advertising. Creative marketing ideas need not be expensive. - The best marketing ideas may be those which cost you the least. - You can build awareness of your brand by providing your customers and potential customers with benefits which cost you little, but which are valuable to them, for example:

1. Offer a discount for repeat purchases, or for introducing another customer.

2. Launch a competition (with a prize from your own product or service range) and advertise it heavily on your website.

3. Make sure your "give-aways" are unusual and memorable - not just a pen which will languish in a drawer, but something to make the customer smile each time they look at it - and see your company's name.

4. Give a guarantee and stick to it - "money back if you are not 100% satisfied". You believe in your product or service, so you should be prepared to stand behind it. Very few people will try to claim unreasonably.

5. Provide free information on your industry and technical information on your products - this should be easy for you to do, but very helpful to your customers. Make sure your website and your literature explains why your product or service is so good - what makes it better than the competition?

Why not get together with your key employees (or your friends or family if you are a one-man-band) and brainstorm some marketing ideas?

- Think about who you are targeting (existing clients or new clients? what age range, what social group? individuals, or other businesses? etc.) - Think about how you will reach them (what medium, what gimmick? person to person or on the telephone? point of sale or mail shot? etc.) - Think about what you will offer them (what is there which means a lot to the customer but can cost you as little as possible?)

Once you start thinking outside the usual boundaries of pure advertising, you'll be surprised what great marketing ideas you can come up with!

by: Simon Lovell

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