Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Sales Conference Speaker

Marketing immediately conjures up huge expense lines for many business owners, but there are methods to maximise your marketing budget without sacrificing on exposure.  New businesses often don’t have a lot in the way of extra funds to offer marketing services and established businesses may not be doing all they could to effectively market.  Below are a few tips that cost little to nothing beyond time.

Create Partnerships

Working with businesses that are in industries that compliment your own can be a good way to generate new business.  Consider all the other products or services that customers who buy your products would be interested in.  For example, a hair salon might want to start a referral service with local nail salons or spas.  All three are in the beauty industry without being in direct competition.  By referring customers back and forth all of the businesses benefit.  Combining marketing funds to produce joint materials can also help get the most out of a tiny budget.  When two companies share the cost of a bulk mailing it reduces the overall expense for each.  Every industry has the potential for creating a referral network, so start building yours today!

Create Coupons

For service industries, the only cost associated with what you sell is time.  If you offer a deep discount for first time customers, you have the opportunity to build a clientele base.  Going back to the hair salon example, you might offer a free cut with any colour or 20% off on a service of their choice.  Offering free consultations or a package deal can also be helpful.  When you give these types of discounts you get the opportunity to show clients your skills first hand.

Getting the coupons out to the general public can be the difficult part, but approach other local companies and see if they will display them for you.  Providing you are willing to return the favour many other businesses are usually happy to let you set up a small display.  Give family and friends a stack with the request that they pass them out.  Leave some at your church or community centre, and always carry a few with you so that you never miss an opportunity to advertise.

Reconnect with Current Clients

Generating new customers is always nice, but it is far easier to convince old clients to return.  It also makes good business sense to preserve existing relationships as you seek to build new ones.  Picking up the phone or typing a quick email, just to say “hi, how’s it going,” can do more to re-establish a relationship than any other method.  By getting in touch simply to catch up you remind the client that your company is about more than sales, it’s about people.

 

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

 

Network marketing is a growing industry in the United Kingdom with more and more opportunities for those interested in running a home based business.  If you are a network marketer, or are considering joining a network marketing company like Avon or Mary Kay to name a couple here are the steps you need to take:

1- Most networking companies have regular meetings, make sure you attend them.

2- Create a blog, the potential for backlinks to your selling website are endless.

3- Facebook and other social media let you grow your network online.  No spam, but genuine shared interest will help grow your business through these sites.

4- Article marketing is a relatively new field, but it is generating lots of results, consider writing and submitting a few well written article about your niche market and posting on some of the big sites like ezinearticles.com or squidoo.com.

5- Let people know what is happening with your business by sending out a report.  Keep it simple and interesting so consumers will actually read it.

6- A monthly newsletter is a great way to engage customers and get them interested not only in buying your products, but in entering the industry.

7- Creating an e-course doesn’t take long, but it does generate subscriptions if the content is well written and researched.

8- Leave your business cards everywhere.  Business cards offer information about you even when you’re not there.

9- Creating short videos can open up a market for you.  The anonymity of the internet makes many consumers more interested in sites that have a face along with the name.

10- Leaving a bowl at local businesses offering those who drop in a business card the opportunity to win something related to your product is a great way to generate leads.  After you determine the big winner of the give-a-way, contact everyone who left their information.

11- Customer testimonials are often one of the best selling points since prospective customers are more likely to trust another customer rather than a sales person.

12- Many network marketing companies focus on the home party.  Show off your product and demonstrate how easy and fun it is to sell your products.

13- Always ask people that you meet if they are interested and if they know anyone else who might be as well.  Referrals can be your best friend for growing a down-line.

14- Donating a portion of your proceeds to charity is a great way to raise money and grow your client base.

15- Find tradeshows or conferences that are near your industry focus and talk to as many people as you can.

If you follow all of these steps, you will see tremendous growth in both your up-line and down-line, raising your bottom line by thousands of dollars.

 

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

A long time ago we talked about affiliate marketing and how to grow your sales business if you’re focusing on affiliate marketing. But what if you have a product of your own you want to sell? Have you ever considered creating your own affilliate program?

Creating an affiliate program isn’t difficult. You need to follow 5 main steps in order to get it up and running. They are as follows:

1. First you need to decide what niche your product falls into. You can’t sell a zillion products to a zillion people. Design your product to fit into one, popular niche.
2. Find websites and people who are into your niche to partner with. The right partners will already have a high level of traffic and a great mailing list – perfect for promoting your offer to a trusting group.
3. Create a series of great promotional products for your product. Create banner advertisements and promotional materials to give your marketers free of charge so that they can more easily promote your product.
4. Never stop looking for new partners, even if the ones you have are doing a great job. Always look to recruit new partners so that if you lose one you don’t experience a huge drop in business.
5. Treat your partners well. The more you work with them the more they’ll appreciate you and your product. Give them marketing tips, pay them on time (and accurately) and consider a bonus plan for your top sellers.

It’s not difficult to build an affililiate program but it does take quiet a bit of time. With a little bit of patience and persistence you’ll soon see your hard work pay off!

Good luck,

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

Now that you’ve chosen the affiliate campaign you want to work with and have set up your websites you’ll need to start marketing the site and attracting visitors. There are three things every successful affiliate marketer does that ensures he’ll always be on the ball, even if he adds a different product or makes a change to his campaign at a future point in time.

Write these down. Save this page. Refer to it often. Here they are:

Focus on Targeted Traffic

Traffic to your website is good. Targeted traffic is even better. Actually, I take that back. Traffic to your website really isn’t good unless it’s targeted (ie. the people visiting area interested in the type of product or service you have to offer). Don’t waste your money buying traffic or implementing advertising campaigns that are going to focus on the general population. Instead focus on article marketing, pay per click, and similar campaigns that will attract attention from targeted buyers.

Build a List

How do you track the individuals who visit your website? How do you encourage them to return? The best thing you can do is to place a subscription box on your website so that you can build a list of names and email addresses. Now, people aren’t going to subscribe just because you ask them to – you’ll have to offer them something in return, such as a newsletter, a discount, or something else they perceive to have value. You’ll then use this list to send a weekly or monthly email newsletter with valuable information your readers can use – and a few links or references that might drive them back to your site to see what’s new, too!

Content is King

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again. Content really is king when it comes to attracting and keeping visitors on your website. Make sure your website is full of articles that are packed with details and educational information. Your content will prove to your visitors that you know what you’re talking about, which will give them a sense of trust that will encourage them to purchase from you instead of the next guy who tries to sell them the same product.

Make sure you include not only informational articles, but how-to articles, product reviews, and anything that relates to your niche. Avoid focusing solely on your product – your prospects want to know you have a strong grasp on your industry as a whole. If you aren’t an expert, use your writing to make yourself into one.

Keep these three tips in mind at all times as you work on your affiliate marketing campaign. You’ll certainly find yourself running a more successful campaign when you have a list, targeted traffic, and excellent content.

Are there any other “must have” tips you want to share? Sound off in the comments!

Good luck marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com