More Low-Cost Marketing Ideas for Your Business in 2009

As I discussed the other day, your marketing efforts in this down-turn economy must be supported by a simple but vital three-legged stool:

1. Excellent customer service
2. A customer-appreciation and retention program
3. A customer referral program

Once these three vital elements are in place, any other marketing ideas you put in play will have a far greater chance of success.  Now, based on your particular business, your past marketing successes, and your personality, take a look at the brainstorming list below to consider what other free or low-cost marketing ideas may get the word out about your products or services.  Feel free to mix and match, using as many of these concepts as you can (in a synchronized, non-competing way) to build your brand, bring in customers and explode your profit!

Note: The $ indicates this method will require some cost to implement.  A method is noted as free if you can implement it for no more cost than the time and supplies you use to create it (i.e. a flyer is called free because it costs you nothing to hang it up on a bulletin board, but you will need to pay for the paper and ink to print it up.)

• Flyers/coupons hung on local free announcement bulletin boards
• Eye-catching signs outside your shop
• Local Pennysaver ads ($)
• Local classified ads ($)
• Cold-calling to former customers you haven’t seen in a while
• An e-mail newsletter
• A print newsletter to hand out…
• …or mail ($)
• Ultra-targeted direct mail (i.e. mailing a circular to everyone within a mile of your retail location) ($)
• You do have a website, don’t you? ($)
• Blog posting
• e-newsletter
• Forum conversations
• Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc., etc. etc. ad nauseum.
• Print circular
• Free consultations
• Public Access infomercial ($)
• Press releases to local newspapers
• Web press releases
• Search engine optimization
• Search engine submission
• Online classifieds
• www.Craigslist.org
• all the Craigslist wannabes
• Write articles on your specialty for online and offline submission
• Business cards to hand out everywhere ($)
• really, anything at all that you can think of that keeps your name and product or service in people’s minds constantly.

If you have any questions at all about how these suggestions can be molded to fit your business, contact me at copyghost@copyghost.com and I’d love to discuss it with you.

What Will 2009 Mean For Your Business?

In 2009, the economy is making your decision-making process a heck of a lot harder than it was in 2007, or even 2008.  Obama is in the Oval Office, and he has some grand plans, but it’s going to take a long time for the benefits to trickle down to you and your customers.

Have you considered what you need to do as a small business owner, a department head, or a front-line supervisor?  How do you keep your profit-margin respectable when your customers have less money to spend and so do you?

The key in a down-turn economy is marketing.  It may seem counter-intuitive, especially if you are used to marketing being expensive.  But the fact is, if you allow your marketing program to suffer the same cutbacks as some other extraneous business expenses, you’re going to find your revenue tanking faster than it should, AND when the economy starts turning around, you’re not going to recover as fast. 

This is an age-old paradox that businesses of all size have wrestled with for centuries, but it especially effects the smaller businesses who don’t have millions in cash reserves to feed the furnace while you wait for the oil truck to show up.  All too often, an otherwise savvy business owner will hunker down in a down-turn economy, saving every penny, cutting back everywhere in an effort to stay afloat.  The trouble is, customers have a pitifully short memory, and chances are slim they’ll know who you are by the time you see the sun again.

So how do you maintain a progressive marketing plan that is financially responsible in 2009?  Here are a few low-cost or free suggestions for maintaining your marketing in a down-turn economy:

1. Develop and push a customer-retention and appreciation program:  You need to maximize the value of every single customer you service.  Make sure you have valuable information and/or incentives waiting for them to enjoy in exchange for their contact information.  Send them newsletters with special promotions.  Send them greeting cards, thank you cards, call them on the phone if it’s appropriate.  Anything that tells them you’re not just a business person, you’re a valuable and friendly member of their community.
2. Set up a customer referral program:  Closely connected with the paragraph above, start letting your loyal customers bring you more loyal customers.  I don’t need to preach to you about the value of word-of-mouth advertising.  Give away discounts on future purchases, rewards, a logo baseball cap… anything to make your customer WANT to tell their friends, their family, their workmates!  Everyone knows a hundred other people that may never even realize you exist unless they hear it from your customer!
3. Make sure your customer service skills and quality are top notch:  This should go without saying, regardless of the state of the economy.  But without good customer service and a quality product to offer, you shouldn’t be in business in the first place.  You don’t have to worry about retaining customers or asking them to refer others, because your business isn’t worth it.  It’s THAT important.

In future posts, I’ll discuss some more practical ways to maintain your marketing plan in the current economy, but these three items form a vital cornerstone on which all your other efforts should be built.  By focusing first on these three items, your plan builds constant momentum that will eventually sustain itself.  These three items will also help cushion you against deep downturns, or against marketing ideas that don’t pan out for one reason or another, giving you the opportunity to regroup and try something new.

A New Blog for Resumes and Job Searches

I’m proud to announce that I have started a new blog as an official entree into the field of resume writing.  The blog is hosted on Blogger, for ease of startup, and can be found here: http://resumesandjobsearching.blogspot.com. 

I’ve been writing resumes for friends and family for years, but have done little in the past about advertising it as an official service through CopyGhost.  I have come to realize, however, that effective resume writing actually dovetails very well with many of my other copywriting and ghostwriting services, because a resume is truly nothing more or less than sales copy intended to “sell” the individual as the best possible solution to the prospective employer’s “problem.”

In that respect, it actually meets both of my working definitions for copywriting and ghostwriting.

Please pass the blog link along to your friends and family if they need assistance with their resume or cover letter package, and let them know they can contact me through my website at http://www.copyghost.com/resumes.html!

New Special Report Available!!! – INSTANT EXPERT!!!

I’m taking this opportunity to announce the completion of a brand new Special Report entitled “Instant Expert: How to “Write the Book” On the Topic of Your Choice and Make a Killing At It”, and to make it available FREE OF CHARGE to all my valued blog readers. 

I think you’ll get some valuable information from this report, which helps break down the sometimes-complex world of self-promotion into some manageable chunks, and also helps explain how a hard-working, high-quality ghostwriter can help you get to where you want to be professionally.

If you’d like to get your FREE copy, please click here: http://www.copyghost.com/Expert.html

An Example of Why We Need the Public Speaking University!!

I laughed outloud when I stumbled on this video at YouTube.  I don’t mean this in an insulting way, and I apologize in advance to those who put it together, because I know it’s not intended as a joke.  But, the problem is, a 90-second video proports to tell you what you need to know to succeed speaking in front of an audience. 

As much as I believe anyone can learn to become effective and comfortable speaking publically, it’s a much bigger deal than this video makes it sound.  Enjoy!

Some More Gems from “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins

I hate to bore anyone with this book, but I am on my fifth or sixth re-reading of “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins, and I still enjoy it every time.  Of course, it was written ages ago and his application is dated, but the principles he discusses are timeless, and still as valid in today’s net-friendly, media-saturated world as they were then, in the hey-day of mail order catalogs and newspaper display ads. 

See what you can glean out of this lengthy excerpt from Chapter 22, The Conclusion:

A rapid stream ran by the writers boyhood home. The stream turned a wooden wheel and

the wheel ran a mill. Under that primitive method, all but a fraction of the streams

potentiality went to waste.

Then someone applied scientific methods to that stream – put in a turbine and dynamos.

Now, with no more water, no more power, it runs a large manufacturing plant.

We think of that steam when we see wasted advertising power. And we see it everywhere -

hundreds of examples. Enormous potentialities – millions of circulation – used to turn a mill

wheel. While others use that same power with manifold effect.

We see countless ads running year after year which we know to be unprofitable. Men

spending five dollars to do what one dollar might do. Men getting back 30 percent of their

cost when they might get 150 percent. And the facts could be easily proved.

We see wasted space, frivolity, clever conceits, entertainment. Costly pages filled with

palaver which, if employed by a salesman, would reflect on his sanity. But those ads are

always unkeyed. The money is spent blindly, merely to satisfy some advertising whim.

Not new advertisers only. Many an old advertiser has little or no idea of his advertising

results. The business is growing through many efforts combined, and advertising is given its

share of the credit.

An advertiser of many years standing, spending as high as $700,000 per year, told the writer

he did not know whether his advertising was worth anything or not. Sometimes he thought

that his business would be just as large without it.

The writer replied, “I do know. Your advertising is utterly unprofitable, and I could prove it

to you next week. End an ad with an offer to pay five dollars to anyone who writes you that

he read the ad through. The scarcity of replies will amaze you.”

Think what a confession – that millions of dollars being spent without knowledge of results.

Such a policy applied to all factors in a business would bring ruin in short order.

You see other ads which you may not like as well. They may seem crowded or verbose.

They are not attractive to you, for you are seeking something to admire, something to

entertain. But you will note that those ads are keyed. The probability is that out of scores of

traced ads the type which you see has paid the best.

Many other ads which are not keyed now were keyed at the beginning. They are based on

known statistics. They won on a small scale before they ever ran on large scale. Those

advertisers are utilizing their enormous powers in full.

Advertising is prima facie evidence that the man who pays believes that advertising is good.

It has brought great results to others, it must be good for him. So he takes it like some secret

tonic which others have endorsed. If the business thrives, the tonic gets credit. Otherwise,

the failure is due to fate.

That seems almost unbelievable. Even a storekeeper who inserts a twenty-dollar ad knows

whether it pays or not. Every line of a big stores ad is charged to the proper department. And

every inch used must the next day justify its cost.

Yet most national advertising is done without justification. It is merely presumed to pay. A

little test might show a way to multiply returns.

Such methods, still so prevalent, are not very far from their end. The advertising men who

practice them see the writing on the wall. The time is fast coming when men who spend

money are going to know what they get. Good business and efficiency will be applied to

advertising. Men and methods will be measured by the known returns, and only competent

men can survive.

Only one hour ago an old advertising man said to the writer, “The day for our type is done.

Bunk has lost its power. Sophistry is being displaced by actuality. And I tremble at the

trend.”

So do hundreds tremble. Enormous advertising is being done along scientific lines. Its

success is common knowledge. Advertisers along other lines will not much longer be

content.

We who can meet the test welcome these changed conditions. Advertisers will multiply

when they see that advertising can be safe and sure. Small expenditures made on a guess

will grow to big ones on a certainty. Our line of business will be finer, cleaner, when the

gamble is removed. And we shall be prouder of it when we are judged on merit.

 

The Definition of Advertising

The following is a brief excerpt from a timeless classic in the copywriting and advertising field, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.  I wanted to post this excerpt because it really lays a nice foundation for where I’m going with a series of Connexion articles coming up on writing more effective ads. 

I’m sure I’ll be exerpting more from this great book in future posts as well.  If you are interested in copywriting or advertising, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy of Scientific Advertising and reading it through.  The ebook version is available for free because it’s old enough to be public domain, so you can search for it on Google, but it’s been reprinted enough to be found cheap on Amazon too.

 

“To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman’s standards.

 

“Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

 

“It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.

 

“The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.

 

“A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.”

The Reintroduction of the Connexion Newsletter!

As part of my new and improved marketing process, I am reintroducing the Connexion Newsletter into my overall plan.  The Connexion Newsletter focuses on tips and tricks to improve your ability to communicate, with focus on written and verbal communication skills.  In other words, how to make your thoughts understandable to others, no matter how or why you’re spreading them around!

This blog will serve, at least temporarily, as a means of previewing the articles and concepts that will be explored in greater detail via Connexion.  Over the next month or two, I’ll be setting up the means by which the ezine version of Connexion will hit the Net. 

If you’d like to be among the first to obtain the new and improved Connexion Newsletter, simply write me at connexion-subscribe@copyghost.com.  As a special thank you for being one of my first subscribers, I’ll send you a free copy of my Special Report, “Ten Ways to Spruce Up Your Copy – Even If It Doesn’t Need It!” 

Public Speaking University – Class Three – What’s Your Problem?

In Class Two, we discussed one powerful means of introducing your speech that will grab your listeners’ attention: telling a story. This method will not, however, work in every case. Depending on your audience, and the purpose of your speech, you may choose instead to engage your listeners with a problem.

Basically, this involves laying out a real or fictional conundrum, and involving your audience in the solution. The problem may be as simple as a frightening statistic that impacts your audience personally. For example:

“127,000 people died last year from lung cancer because they couldn’t quit smoking.”

This is a powerful introductory statement because many in the audience are likely smokers, or at least know and love someone who is. So this problem automatically involves your audience. They realize something is wrong, and they can be part of the solution, as long as they listen to what you have to say next.

Or, the problem you use to introduce your speech may contain more mystery. Perhaps:

“127,000 people died last year who didn’t have to.  Any idea why?”

This way, you’re not only engaging the audience by letting them know a problem exists, you’re also engaging them by asking a question that requires them to consider an answer.

If you’re speaking to a group with a lot in common, such as at an employee meeting or a convention for members of a particular club, you may be able to bring it even closer to home:

“Last quarter, XYZ Industries lost over $14 million to shoplifters and other illegal loss.  We need to discuss security matters…”

In this instance, you have (hopefully) grabbed your audience’s interest with a problem amplified by a statistic, then engaged them directly in discussing the solution.

These examples are only a few of the many ways you can work a problem into your introduction.  No matter how you do it, though, there are a few points to keep in mind:

• If your problem has an established solution, (i.e. we have already given our store managers permission to shoot shoplifters on sight,) it is best to communicate this early so the audience is not distracted by considering their own possible solutions as you continue to speak. 
• If the problem you choose to present has no recognizable or realistic solution, (i.e. 437 planes have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle since 1935) be sure you explain the reason you presented it.  There’s nothing wrong with using an unsolvable problem to introduce your talk as long as the audience understands why that problem, or the fact that it’s unsolvable, matters to them.
• If you are seeking a solution to the problem from your audience, be sure to have some means of obtaining their feedback.  Perhaps passing out a comment sheet will suffice, or supplying them with your contact information to discuss the matter later.  If you plan to entertain a panel discussion or Q&A after the speech, let them know early on so they can begin to prepare their questions and comments.

As PSU continues, we’ll come back to “problem introductions” again, approaching them from a different angle.  Before that, however, for the next few classes we’ll be discussing the all-important conclusion.  Stay tuned!

I Am Convinced I am Going Insane.

Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme.  And maybe this post is a bit off the beaten path for copyghostblog.com, but it’s tangentially related and that seems to be all I need at 12:12 am.

I worked at my “other” job from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm today.  During that time I developed and forgot at least three excellent blog posting ideas for this blog.  Surrounded by paper, a computer with e-mail, phones galore… and these ideas just zapped out of my mind an into the eternal ether without so much as a hesitation.

And now, here I sit with no clue what it is I want to write even though I know for a flipping fact, as soon as I power down my laptop, something’s going to zing in there.  It’s just the way my right-brain works when my left brain is struggling to handle the real world. 

Learning to control this fiasco is very high on my priority list.  Until then, I will slowly go insane.