exposure for your business

started out hittin the street with good success. industry related web directories have been great low cost ways to reach clientele. have done local community donating with some benefit.

really going to focus on web based exposure this year. Biznik has been really helpful lately. Thanks you guys!

totally excited about radio8ball. (which i found here on biznik!)..me and brianna are brainstorming a great spot! you guys will hopefully be able to hear that spot soon i hope as part of a podcast download of that very show.

also going to plan an opt in email marketing campaign soon.

i would choose flyers over mailers which i think just get tossed without being looked at and then you got to pay for postage for the priviledge. mailing can still work, but it has to be done in a very personal way and i think it would be a better fit for big ticket items aimed at target markets..

just some of my thoughts on the subject.

By far the best way is networking. It is all about developing relationships, getting to know what people need and offering valued help. The internet has made it possible to network internationally. Having an interactive website is also good and although I am just getting into blogging I think that is even better because you are having rich conversations with people all over the world and people who are interested in things you are offering. I write articles too and post them all over the internet- again it is about being seen and providing something of value. You have to know who you are wanting to connect with and what they need.

I could go on as this is my passion but I will leave space for the next person.

kaya just reminded me..i am interested in a blog as well. i understand it really widens the keywords that you get found under.

Blogging and podcasting are both fantastic. Offering something of value to your readers and listeners is key if you want this to work for you!

Yes, stay tuned for the radio spot Justin and I are working on. It's definitely Indie!

Craigslist.org campaigns have also worked well for me. the projects are smaller-scale for the virtual assistant business, but it is work, nonetheless! You ave to be careful to follow their posting rules, but the exposure is free and the time can be minimal.

With us, it's been a little different. We started at a bike expo in town in 1998. That got us an interest from a Redmond manufacturer and our first hint about REI. We built a web site and people immediately found us. We produced a CD Promotion with licensing agreements with Apple for Quicktime and Adobe for Acrobat Reader. Results nada. I upgraded my computer to produce DVDs, held a picnic for past customers, videotaped them, created a DVD and sent that out. We immediately got a bite from Wounded Warrior Project and and a bike shop in Illinois. Which leads us to this year and by recontacting Wounded Warrior Project and now are preparing to send a Bike with our unit and promotional material to Interbike, the number one Trade Show for bicycles in the country.

We tried Craigslist, but got not a single bite, let alone a sale. There is no hard and fast rule - except that web sites are almost mandatory in todays market. I recommend Andrew Sengal, who has turned out to be PR upgrade for everything we do. I've encouraged him to do a media event for Biznik.

I think success at marketing is very much a matter of trial and error, assuming you don't have someone doing focus groups for you. I always start with what costs the least, preferably nothing, and work my way up from there. The Internet has completely changed the way I market myself. For my particular business (life coaching), I agree with Kaya. It's all about networking, but not in person. My clients are all over the world since I coach by phone. So all my marketing and PR is based on the Internet.

I do have one printed piece, it's a 5x7 "postcard," but I don't mail it. I hand these out as freely as most do buisness cards whenever i meet someone new.

I also am a writer and have written brief pieces that have appeared in a number of books. Have gotten quite a bit of business from these. Sometimes something off beat will bring clients my way, like my favorites list on Amazon, for instance.

I start with doing what I enjoy and focus on that.

Hope this helps.

Warmly,

Lynn www.CoachWithLynn.com

At the moment I am doing direct mailings.. I have several specific niche markets and have made brochures and sales letters specific to those markets (kids, spas, garden centers-each one has their own brochure/marketing letter).

Im hoping by targeting those niches I would have a better return on those mailings. I offer free samples along with a new customer discount. I just started sending these out last week so we will see what happens.

If your websites has unique content, search engines will crawl your website and include you in the top search results of related searches. [Not to mention higher pagerank... etc.]

-Andrey

I'm with Kaya - build relationships - particularly if what you offer is a service. Think about it the same way you think about trying to get to know someone you want to go out with - you ask them questions about themselves, get to know them, offer them something free, invite them to do low-risk things . . . go to networking events, volunteer, get face time with your target audience, offer free info on your website, give free workshops to relevant audiences to get them interested in what you have to offer . . .

We have received most of our clients through referrals and word of mouth. Previously we have tried yellow pages, dex, verizon... but with limited success.

We have been trying a new approach and have hired a few cold callers for a trial run with decent results. But finding experienced cold callers is a difficult task, so don’t be too disappointed with your initial results.

The key is knowing who your target clients are and then getting your message out to them.

90% of the unsolicited printed promo pieces we receive go straight to the recycling--especially if

• we have to open them to get to the content
• the label contains a misspelling of our firm name (sure-fire clue they don't know us)
• they are a coupon with an expiration date (just don't have time to track when those interesting coupons will expire and plan to use them in time).

It is all about networking and finding referrals to like-minded businesses. I probably send out about a dozen or so referrals a week to professionals. That usually produces 5+ referrals back to me a week.

A lot of good marketing also revolves around understanding where you plug into a social web. If you have a widget to sell to CEOs, sometimes the best place to market and network in is the administrative level of the industry.

I personally find blogging to be a very helpful medium, but encourage people to leverage it as a value-add tool to real world marketing. Don't be scared to pick up the phone or shake some hands to establish a few different points of contact.

What has moved our business from being in the low-five figures, into the healthy six figures over the last three years has been:

• creating generous content around our area of expertise, and giving it away regularly

• creating an opt-in email list and learning how to use it to it's full advantage

• networking- not for individual relationships (although we did that, too), but for strategic alliances. Finding people who were active or leaders of communities/businesses who had their own lists, where our generous content (above) would be the most helpful.

Combining all of these has been incredible.

It's really been about person to person networking and relationships, but with strategy and content behind it.