create your market .com

marketing ideas and strategies for the home-based entrepreneur

What's your marketing mileage? CreateYourMarket.com helps you make the most of your time and money

Quick Tips: Enclose a business card promoting your website with each piece of outgoing mail. Ask customers who frequently do business with you for a testimonial. Promote your website URL offline on everything from bumper stickers to your answering machine message. Want to reach the highest percentage of your target market? Advertise in specialty publications including newspaper supplements devoted to a specific topic. Marketing is crucial, but it doesn't always have to be serious. Some of the most effective advertising campaigns rely on humor. Don't be afraid to make your customers laugh!

Looking for new ways to promote your business? Try a different approach with business cards. Think about the benefits your business offers, the problems it solves. Give those benefits and solutions equal billing on your business card along with your name, contact information, etc. Use your business card as a tool to talk to your customers. Ask them a question that incorporates a problem that your business can solve. Ask them a thought-provoking question that relates to why they need your products or services? That little 3 1/2 x 2 marketing tool commonly known as a "business card" can be anything from a mini-brochure to a refrigerator magnet. For more business card ideas: Scented Business Cards Brochure Layout People often scan instead of read. Use spot color and bold fonts to emphasize your most important text. Make your brochure reader-friendly. Place text in chunks instead of using long blocks of text. Use plenty of white space. Whenever possible, use bullets to list items such as product benefits. That will catch your reader's eye more than a lengthy paragraph. Even if you have a lot of text as well as photos or other images, you can still avoid a crowded look. Images can be lightly tinted and used as a background. This basically gives you two layers for text and any graphics. Getting Testimonials from Customers Testimonials can be one of your most effective marketing tools. They can enhance your reputation and help build trust when used in brochures, newsletter, websites, trade show displays, and more. Customers who give you repeat business are good sources for testimonials. Sometimes it's as easy as asking them. A good time to ask for one is in a thank-you letter to a customer for giving you their business. (These letters are good relationship builders and are important even if you're not looking for a testimonial.) Customer Feedback Tips Filling out surveys and forms isn't high on your customer's list of priorities. To give them an incentive to give you the information you need, offer a freebie. If you have a website, give away a useful e-book to those who respond. You can also offer gift certificates. Even $5 or $10 can give your customers the incentive they need. It's a good deal for them and for you. Not only do you get their feedback, but many of them are likely to spend a lot more than the amount of the gift certificate. Tracking Ad Performance You want to get the most for your advertising dollars. To do that, ad performance tracking is essential. Here's one way to do it: Assign a code to each ad. Offer your customer a special discount if they mention the code when they order. If it's a print ad using more than one color, use a spot, or accent, color to draw the reader's eye to the details about the special offer. More tips to help you increase your "marketing mileage"... One of the challenges for the home-based business is not having a "brick and mortar" storefront. Business expos and trade shows are excellent opportunities to have a physical presence, even if for a few hours. Have plenty of promotional marketing items on hand to advertise your virtual storefront - your website! Pens are inexpensive with great viral marketing potential. Make sure that everyone who passes your display booth gets a pen imprinted with your website URL. Neon pencils and note pads are two more examples of cheap promotional tools. Another way to distribute them is to mail them with orders and invoices. In many cases, it won't cost you an extra cent in postage! Business cards are one of your most versatile marketing tools. You can use them as coupons, referral marketing tools, or even to introduce a new product. Don't forget to use the back of the card! Here are a few ideas and tips to help you get the most marketing mileage from your cards: Business Card Design Ideas With advertising, the key is to diversify and track your results. Here's a mini-guide with some cost-effective ways to reach your market: Promote Your Home-Based Business

MARKETING STRATEGIES Differentiate Yourself Information Marketing Building Customer Loyalty Getting Customer Feedback Testimonials How to Define a Niche Discovering Niches Finding New Customers Indirect Benefits The Consumer's Perspective Promotional Marketing Pricing Products and Services Viral Marketing Magic Marketing Mix MARKETING IDEAS and TOOLS Business Card Design Ideas Brochure Design Ideas Die Cut Business Cards Scented Business Cards Cheap Business Card Ideas Unique Business Cards Unique Brochure Ideas Cheap Advertising Ideas Business Card Layout Promoting Home-Based Business Competitive Advantage Email Marketing Tips 3 Ways To Spend Less Selling With Color Promotional Magnets STARTUP IDEAS and STRATEGIES Home-Based Startup Ideas Business Idea Brainstorming Virtual Assistant Internet Researcher Event Planner Wedding Consultant Telecommuting Strategies Freelance Job Strategies WEBSITE MARKETING Build Traffic to Your Website Domain Name Ideas 5 Ways to Increase Traffic Scavenger Hunts Talking Avatars Promote Your Web Page Autoresponders Internal Links Link Exchange Tips Viral Marketing and Email Attract Your Target Market Market Your Website Offline KEYWORD TIPS Keyword Competition Keywords and Meta Tags Prime Spots for Keywords Keyword Phrases AFFILIATE MARKETING How To Get Started Residual Income Affiliate Agreements ONLINE BASICS Choosing Domain Names Domain Name Extensions Website Design Strategies Learning HTML Understanding HTML Colors Are Your Colors Web-Safe? How to Accept Payments Bandwidth: Doing The Math Find The Right Web Host Publish Your Website MARKETING YOURSELF Resume Tips Need a writer?

Site Map    |    Privacy Policy    |    Email    |    Need a writer?

create your market .com