Often times when women go into business for themselves, they don’t have enough financial resources to give them a fair start. But according to Business Expert, Dr. Stan Fine, if you know how to promote your business effectively, you may not need a lot of money to work with. Here’s his take on promoting your business on a shoestring budget:
Sooner or later you find yourself trying to figure new ways to get more business. We think we have done everything we can and yet something is missing. So before panic sets in I recommend that you give yourself a steroid injection of a few ideas that may help you along in getting more business.
BUSINESS PROMOTION TIPS
Research your market before committing to any promotion. What may be good for someone else may not work for you.
Plan your promotions. Don’t just throw together advertising and hope for the best. Develop promotions which take advantage of seasonal and economic changes. What worked last year may not work today, and what works today may not work tomorrow.
Evaluate your promotional program periodically. Get rid of some of the less successful promotions and replace them with other programs you feel will produce better results.
Follow the lead of the major corporations and distribute your promotional dollars between several different promotions. In small businesses this usually means 5 – 10 different promotions.
Develop promotions which communicate to the prospect what you can do to help them with their need or want. Entice prospects by offering a free estimate, special, trial period, money back guarantee, buy 1 get 1 free etc.
Budget a specific percent (%) of your projected gross income to promotion. In most businesses this averages to about 10% in new businesses (i.e. businesses less than 3 years old) this averages to about 15%.
Have a realistic ideal of what a successful promotion is. Many businesses expect a $10,000 return off a $500 investment or a new customer who will spend $50 per month for the next year.
Compare promotions like any other investment, by the percent (%) of return. Don’t expect $500 of print advertising to bring in the same amount of new business as $5,000 of radio or television advertising.
Change ad copy periodically. Different messages appeal to different customers.
Develop a habit of determining where new business is coming from. A good tracking system would allow the employees to distinguish what promotion the customer was responding to.
Dr. Stan is the author of the book Business Boot Camp for Women, available on Amazon.com
September 7, 2008 at 11:30 pm
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