10 free / low cost ways to market your business

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
We are often asked about free / low cost ways of attracting more customers. Here is a list of 10 of our favourites: Online marketing 1. Ensure that your website has a CMS (Content Management System), such as WordPress - as this will give you a strategic advantage. (Regularly updated websites catch Google's attention). 2. Provide useful, helpful and relevant customer education, via your website. Google will love you and so will your customers. 3. A conceptual understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) will take you a long way up the search engine rankings. Use your knowledge to update the meta data within your website, via your CMS. 4. Use social media on a daily basis. 'Social' and 'Search' are merging and social media has opened up new ways of promoting your products and services. 5. "The money is in the list." Increase the size of your email marketing list. Traditional marketing 6. Get in front of more people. You can do this, for example, by giving talks. 7....
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Marketing is like playing chess

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
When you receive a new sales enquiry or make a sale to a new customer, the chances are that they didn't hear about you from one source. Typically, it goes something like this: A) Someone arrives on your website. B) They join your newsletter list. C) They receive your newsletters and open a few of them. D) Months go by, during which they follow you on Twitter and read one or two or your blog posts. E) They revisit your website to see what you are up to. F) Finally, they have a requirement that you can help with and they send you an email or make a purchase via your website. Exhausting, isn't it? Many people simply give up, because 'my marketing isn't working'. During my marketing seminars, I am often asked which promotional techniques are the most effective. Bearing in mind that I only work with independent professionals and small business owners (who don't have marketing budgets), my initial...
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