Earlier this week, I had a great discussion about Affiliate Marketing with a good friend of mine. I thought that I will spend some time sharing details about Affiliate Marketing in this post.
This is the third and final post on inexpensive marketing tools for your business. The previous two post discussed the use of published written tools such as article reprints, brochures and catalogs as marketing tools. This post discusses the use of other more common tools such as audio recordings such as voicemail, toll free calls, CDs, and DVDs,etc as tools.
Audio tools
These include a long list of tools such as phone recordings, voicemail, toll free numbers, etc that that can be used as marketing for your business. These tools allow you to automate a piece of marketing your allowing you to leverage your time for other business activities. It also identifies those with a need for your product or service and weeds out those not interested.
Audio tools are also less intimidating for potential customers. People are more likely to dial a number for information for initial information rather than talk to a live person. This is where the use toll free numbers are great tools cas the customer can receive the information without paying for it. You can also consider using voicemail as an informational tool. Use it for existing customers to inform them of the latest product or service updates.
CDs and DVD
These tools are probably the most commonly used in the business. These can be used as informational tool for initial presentation and for following up with potential customers. They are great for engaging your audience more than any printed material. When using these tools, take the customer’s learning style into consideration. Does the customer prefer reading information verses watching it?
Tailor the tool to the event and customer. DVDs are great for party planning events as it keeps everyone engaged. CDs are great for those who spend a majority of their time in the car. The success of these tools is based on having them listen or watch the information. This can be accomplished by presenting the tool as a valuable solution to their immediate need. How can the information benefit them?
Video conferencing (Webinars)
Video conferencing is another great way to share information and educate others about your product or service. These tools target multiple senses (auditory and visual) making them effective teaching tools. They are effective because they can be interactive. There are a number of different video conferecing services. The most common are Webex and Gotomeeting.
As you can see, there are so many promotional tools available that you can use for marketing purposes. There are so many other available tools such as samples, bookmarks etc, that can also promote your business.
How have you used these tools in your business?
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In the previous post, I discussed a few inexpensive ideas of marketing your business using tools such as testimonials, research studies and article reprints. This post will continue with the same subject and discuss the use of other tools such as business cards, brochures and catalogs to market your business.
Business cards
Business cards when used correctly can be another way to market your business to your target market. To use this as a tool, you need to avoid using it like everyone else by including information such as your business name, logo and contact information.Your business cards can be another inexpensive way to inform others about the benefits of your products, service, and business. Turn your cards into a form of print advertising. The key is to get prospects to take a specific action instead of just providing boring contact information. Have you business card include an irresistible offer and provide a way for your prospect to get additional information by providing a link to a report, white page or internet landing page. If your products or services target different ideal clients, you want to make sure you have one card for each one with a message that targets each specific group. It should concentrate on one specific hot button for one specific ideal client.
Brochures
Brochures are another great tool to use because they contain comprehensive information about your company, product, and opportunity. These tools also provide information on the benefits and testimonials from others that happy customers. Brochures are great because they can be useful tools to address the most frequently asked questions about your products, service and business. There are also inexpensive marketing tools because most companies sell them in bulk and all you have to do is add your contact information.
These are also great tools to use with someone you just met or as a follow up tool to provide information on the benefits of your product or service.
Catalogs
Catalogs have been used for many years by many large traditional companies. This marketing tool continues to grow as statistics have shown an increase in people who shop using mail order catalogs. These tools are great because it exposes your prospects to the wide variety of products or services that your company offers. You can use these as drop off tools in waiting areas of places where your target market “hangs out.” You just want to remember to include you contact information on the catalogs so those interested have a way to contact you.
How have you used these tools in your business? What success have you had using these as marketing tools?
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What stage are you in starting your business? Are you just getting started or have you been in business for a while and have exhausted your warm market and are looking for alternative ways of marketing your products or opportunity? In these next series of posts, I will share some low cost ideas of marketing your products and opportunity to potential customers and partners. This post will address the use of promotional tools such as testimonials, research studies and article reprints to grow your business.
As you develop your business plan, it is important to include the different tools and marketing resources that you will use to spread the word of the benefits of your product and opportunity to potential customers and partners. There are a number of different promotional tools that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy to build your business. Today, I will share some ideas on how you can use testimonials, research studies and article reprints as marketing tools.
Testimonials
Testimonials are customer’s reviews and feedback of a product or service that they have used and have had positive results. Positive feedback from others not only provides education about the benefits that product, but also provides third party validation for its use. How many times have you purchased a product based on word of mouth and positive reviews?
These tools are great because they also cost nothing to acquire. Most companies provide testimonials that you can use or you can build your own collection of testimonials by asking current customers about their experience with that product or service. Chose the best testimonials to include in your own marketing handouts. Use these testimonials as follow up tools to continue to educate on the benefits of the product or service and to connect and network people with similar experiences to share their stories and insights.
Research Studies
Depending on the product, the use research studies as tools builds buyer confidence and trusts. Providing links to abstracts and publications on studies performed by Universities and research facilities provides another form of validation. Automating the setup to notify you of new studies is pretty easy to do. To set up, select key words for your product. Use search tools such as Google alert and Pubmed (National Library of Medicine resource. For medicinal products) to search and notify you of new research related to your keywords. In addition, the National Institute of Health has a website called CRISP that publishes any new clinical trial on any medicinal or device products. Having these alerts set up will notify you via email of any studies published with your selected keywords.
Article Reprints
Articles about your product or industry also make great marketing pieces. These articles can be featured in journals, trade magazines, online resources etc. When including extracts of these articles in your marketing pieces, be sure to give proper credit to the article’s author and media source.
The search for new updated articles can also be updated using tools such as Google News Alert When properly setup, Google will automatically alert and email you when there are news articles containing keywords related to your topic or industry that show up online.
Regardless of which promotional tool you use, organize these resources by creating folders or files to collect and include in your marketing pieces. Use these marketing pieces as hand outs, online and as educational resources to build your business.
How have you used these tools to market your business?
Please provide your comments and feedback below.
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Have you sometimes felt a little frustrated because you seem to be talking to a lot of people about your business yet you can’t seem to find anyone interested in either purchasing your product, services or partnering with you in your business? Ever wonder how it would feel if you had people coming to you for a change and wanting what you had to offer? In this post, I will discuss what you can do to become magnetic and attract the right people to you and what you have to offer.