The promotional mix – 29 ways to promote your enterprise

By Nigel Temple1 Comment
Here are 29 promotional mix categories: * Advertising * Alliance Marketing Partners * Authorship * Business blogging * Channel marketing (i.e. distributors) * Content marketing * Customers (i.e. customer clubs) * Direct mail * Email marketing * Events * Location marketing (i.e. signage) * Media relations * Networking * Newsletters * Packaging * Point of sale * Printed matter * Promotional gifts * Referrals * Sales promotion (i.e. competitions) * SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) * Selling, professional  [Visit our Professional Selling Group] * Social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) [Visit our Social Media Group] * Sponsorship * Telemarketing * Vehicle (i.e. livery) * Videos (i.e. via YouTube) * Website  [Visit our Websites Group] * Word of mouth How  many are you using? Which ones are working well for you? Which ones should you abandon? You are welcome to discuss this within our website. The promotional mix should be part of your marketing strategy and plan. Navigator members of our community can blog within our website as often as they like. We promote marketing related blogs to circa 20,000 social media contacts. Written by marketing strategist, consultant, trainer and speaker Nigel Temple....
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How to get more sales enquiries

By Nigel Temple1 Comment
If you want to get more sales enquiries, it is a good idea to think strategically and to plan ahead. Within your marketing plan (hands up if you have one!), list all of the ways that you currently promote your business. For example, for an enterprise selling to other businesses: website, SEO, blogging, newsletter, networking, telemarketing, talks, printed matter and referrals. Consider which of these techniques have worked well for you in the past. If you keep track of where your sales leads come from, study the numbers. In addition, think about the promotional techniques which you are drawn to. For example, if you love to write, then you will be drawn to blogging, newsletters and article placement. At this stage, you may well decide to ditch some promotional techniques which aren't working for you. The next step is to add some new techniques to your list. Think in terms of promotional mix categories, i.e. Advertising, Alliance marketing, Direct mail (which is...
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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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