Sunday, 17 February 2013

How to Use Marketing to Expand Your Small Business - Three Things You Can Do Right Now

By Diana Lee


Expanding and growing your business might be simpler than you realize. You've got a base of existing customers and this means that you will automatically have an easier time growing your business than you would have if you were starting from scratch. You'll have more time and money to spend getting newer customers.

If your business has been operational, it's time to shake things up and try to find some new methods and places for doing things. This means that it's time to start looking into new markets and finding ways to work within them. In the United States alone there are millions and millions of businesses. If you're primarily a local business, then find out how you can move beyond your town or city.

Getting your buyers to give you feedback can provide you with plenty of fantastic insights into your business. You are going to find that the very best feedback comes straight from asking the important questions. Do not just give people a card and ask something vague or general. If nothing else, refrain from asking the now cliched question of "how am I doing?" You need to put some thought into the feedback that you are asking people to give you; there are some specific pieces of information you need to get from them. Write out a short list of between five and ten questions that all require at least short answers. In order to improve your response rate to these questions is to explain your motivations and to ask your buyers and clients to help you. This is a workable method because it calls a person's empathy into play. If nothing you do seems to work and you feel as if you are spinning your wheels trying to grow your business, then maybe you need to look elsewhere. Discovering your company's strengths is essential to success, which also means looking at every product and every process. If this is the first time you are running this type of analysis, you will probably be quite pleased with the results. You will have to write everything down and the result may be a pretty long list but it doesn't matter because that's where you should be focusing your efforts. If they're not in your marketing messages, then put them in there even if it means re-tooling your website. You will be able to get more attention and improve your results with certain things that will warrant more focus than others.

You can find some on the web who say direct mail is dead and a waste of time. The web is filled with false or misdirecting information and perhaps they don't want you to use it because they don't want to compete with you. You can still accomplish your goals with direct mail; in fact, some are able to use it to rake in tens of millions of dollars every single year. Your goal, however, as a small business entrepreneur, is to get your customers' contact information. Then you'll be able to use direct mail to promote pretty much whatever special offers you are hoping to promote. You've got a business website so use that together with your direct mailings to get more eyes on to your website. Online coupons offered through your website are a fantastic way to get more traffic flowing in to your business.

Build a marketing plan if you don't have one already; it doesn't need to be complicated. In your plan, you can include all of the different projects you want to take on during the year so that you'll always know what it is that you should be doing to expand your marketing reach. And don't forget that it's very common to discover new opportunities along the way.




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