Five Tips to Inexpensively Increase Your Marketing in Tough Times

Five Tips to Inexpensively Increase Your Marketing in Tough Times

Experts are saying that most recessions only last 18 months which means that this crazy “sluggish economy” should be ending soon. So then what! So now what! What have you done to continue markeing your business in Tough Times? Research studies have proven that those businesses which continue to market through a recession will grow 50% and those who do not will either not grow at all or not be there when economic situation improves.

So you are saying to me, "but I can barely pay administrative costs and it’s tough to make payroll even for my administrative assistant. I have had to make cutbacks and tighten up, there’s nothing left for marketing." Well, did you ever hear that when the going gets tough, the tough get going????
Can I throw some other trite sayings at you?
Think outside the box.
Find a quicker, more effective way to market.
Get out of your living room, there’s no business there.
Action cures just about everything.

Here are five ways to increase your marketing without expanding your budget

I. Increase your networking, find synergistic events and get out there—miracles don’t happen in your living room.
Sign up for newsletters that tell you about events in your local area.
In Pittsburgh—Pittsburgh Business Times, City Paper, City and County Websites. Many of these events are free or low cost, you will know which ones work out for the best Return on Investment if you have to pay for them.

II.On line free marketing:
Merchant Circle, you can almost create a mini website
Craig’s List—check out announcements and Notices, Shows and Events, Clubs, Garage Sales, Fundraisers, Graduations .What works for you to expand your potential customer base?
Craig’s List—Services and Small Biz Ads
Open Directory or Dmoz, takes a while to get your website approved by volunteers but let it sit and percolate while you do other things.
Restaurants can advertise on LocalWineEvents.com for free in your local area
SuperAds.com, choose the free listing, you can upgrade later when the economy gets better if you feel the need.


III. Word of Mouth:

Offer Perks to Regular Customers to Get the Word Out, use referral marketing. It helps keep your steady customers happy, let’s them know they are important and there is no source of new business like a satisfied customer.

IV. Use Social Media, Blog, Talkcast, Social Networks

Blogging, Talkcasting and Social Networks can give you an opportunity to do some shameless self promotion by setting your self up as an expert in your field. With all of the options out there and money tight you need to be the “go to person” in your field.
Some tips for Social Media
· Don’t always tout your business, offer good information and then give people a call to action, a subtle suggestion that if they need additional information they can call you.
· In your social networking offer free seminars, do them on line as webinars or hook up with a businesss that needs to promote itself also and hold it there for free. Everybody wins. You get your expertise out to some new clients and your non-competitive venu gets exposure for their business.
· Good partners are salons, spas, small restaurants (some like Panera have free meeting space that you can reserve.) Anyone that has a space that can accommodate about 30 people is a good candidate.

V. Many small businesses do not know that you can get some free advertising on Google, using Google Local or Google Maps. Google is looking to increase the value of their local search and their mapping application, so they have a simple way for you to tell them some information about your business, and now they are infusing those results into their main search engine
Things You Need Before Starting Your Free Advertisement
· A description of your business
· Your phone number, address and any other contact info you want to advertise
· A logo or image that represents your business (some people use a picture of their office, store or restaurant) If you are a consultant and a good in person networker, it's best to use YOUR picture.
· A coupon or special offer you want to advertise (Google also lets you add a coupon for FREE if you want)
·
Step-by-Step Guide to Free Google Advertisement
1. Go to www.google.com/local and search for your business to verify it is not yet listed with an advertisement.
2. Go back to www.google.com/local and click on Add/Edit Your Business at the bottom left part of the page.

Whatever you do, know that your clients and your neighbors are watching you. You can be the impetus for not just building your business during tough times but also inspiring others to do the same. The trickle down effect is that businesses on the same perverbial street corner who are doing business makes that street corner a hub of activity and in tough times prospects and customers want to be where the action is.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: http://www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com/
Or on its unique radio channel at:
http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com/
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to and advocacy of small businesses.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

Phone: 412-628-5048

Monday Morning Marketeer, To Tweet or Not to Tweet Your Blog!

To tweet or not to tweet, your blog! It’s not Shakespeare but if you quote him and add his name, many people will follow you. Also if you can tweet out someone else’s tweets that have a RT directive and if you can tweet out people to follow so that you can make new friends, why wouldn’t you tweet your blog.

With the clutter of your prospects and client’s e-mails keeping conscientious e-mail readers like me up at night, Lord knows you have got to engage your readers somewhere else besides e-mail, so why not tweet?

The idea by all means is to tweet valuable and interesting content so if your blog has valuable and interesting content, and I am sure it does or why would you waste your time on it then twitter tout it. By all means cast out your line in the Twitterville fishing hole and hope that you catch some extra fish, that is readers.


Tweeters converted to readers are not a bad thing. Do I sound corny? Am I making light of twitter? Well, yes and no! Just the idea of twitter and that little blue bird and 140 characters, come on—it’s a veritable microwave marketing miracle. And thereby twitter is by nature a light subject although not to be made light of in marketing. So go on, you know you want to, tweet your blog. And also if you are not using everything in your arsenal to develop your presence on line and in the social media world then someone should give you a swift kick in the trump, not Donald but a twitter double entendre.


Instructions from Twitter Feed:

Tweeting your new blog posts is a great way to engage your readers, and something that most serious bloggers have already espoused. An easy way to do this is through Twitterfeed, which automatically updates Twitter with each new blog post. Here's how to set it up: Head on over to the Twitterfeed site, click Sign In with OpenID or create an account with your e-mail address and a separate pass code. Then type in your Blogger blog's URL. Once you've registered you'll then be taken to the New Feed page where you can start linking blog feeds to your Twitter account.First click the Connect your feed to Twitter Account button, which will prompt you to enter your Twitter login credentials to authorize Twitterfeed's access. You will get a nice little confirmation once you've successfully linked up your Twitter Account.Next just enter a name for your feed, as well as your blog's Feed URL into the form. If you want to customize your feed's settings you can modify frequency, add prefixes, and even create keyword filters. Otherwise you're all set—Create Feed button and your Twitterfeed is enabled.You can always come back later to the Twitterfeed site and modify your feed settings, as well as look at click-through metrics for existing feeds.

http://twitterfeed.com/

Great article at Buzz.blogger.com


“John Merrick and Soren Jordansen just released a tool called Tweet My Blog that makes it easy to automatically post new updates to your blog to Twitter.com using a WordPress plug-in.Tweet My Blog provides a way to link your blog postings to Twitter so your followers there will be informed each time you update your blog.They also provide a widget that you can add to your blog that takes the information flow the other way. You can show your latest tweets on your blog.The use of both the plug-in and the widget completes the flow of information between Twitter.com and your blog and provides more links to what you are writing about, and this should increase the number of people who read your blog. If they then decide to follow you on Twitter, you should see an additional increase as more people learn about you and what you are doing.Both the plug-in and the widget are provided for free, at least for now. John and Soren are both good at earning an income, so I don't know if Tweet My Blog will continue to be free in the future. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.”
Dimitry says:
“Here is a great free tool to get this done and also schedule future posts: http://www.blogomator.com/”
MLM-Branding-Specialist says:
“I think it's a great idea, and even before I know of this plug-in I was doing so. The fact is, if you're active and informative you're usually able to build up a following on Twitter before you can for your blog. In this way, Twitter can be used to stream in new readers, and can then be used for conversation surrounding your latest blog post.”
Now the Monday Morning Marketeer and the ever so subtle self horn tooter in me says don’t be Marlo Thomas in “That Girl” and always be tweeting or pimping your own stuff. I know I am dating myself but then I am also known as “The Techno Granny.” So get over it. And speaking of getting over it, if you are going to tweet your blog, you also need to get over yourself.
You need to do things like ask questions and give tips. You must chronicle important events and projects in your community and of your friends and associates. Cross promotion of other people makes you a resource and if the people you promote are smart they will reciprocate. Everyone wins. It’s a veritable Twitter Economy. Oh excuse me, that is probably someone’s twitter name or an already taken hashtag.
The clue here is to keep everything related. If your Twitter account is business-related, keep it professional. Don't add in random tweets about personal life. “I scratched my arm just now” is not only not going to make sense three months from now, but it also is not very interesting right now. The more relevant and related your content is, the better it's understood and the more followers you'll gain! Also remember one thing and that is all of your tweets, including your blog appear in Google and search engines under your name, yes your name.
Here’s some info right from the delicious blog
Aug 7 2009
“Sharing Made Easier: Email and Tweet Your Bookmarks
Earlier this week Delicious released a series of significant improvements and each day this week we spent some time exploring each of these improvements. This post concludes our series of deep dives.A part of the fun of discovering something new on the Web is sharing it with friends. We’ve made it easier to share your bookmarks on Delicious when you use our Firefox extension or bookmarklets. Instead of copying and pasting an URL, you can now email or tweet your bookmark directly from Delicious.
How it WorksPreviously, sharing a bookmark with another Delicious user required using a particular syntax or copying and pasting the URL into an email or tweet. Now, you can share it directly when you save or edit the bookmark. To share a bookmark, simply add recipients in the new Send field when you save or edit the bookmark. Click the Send field and you will see the Send tab with social network options.
For Twitter UsersIf you use Twitter and want to send bookmarks to your Twitter feed, associate a Twitter account (only a single Twitter account can be associated at one time) by logging into Twitter under the Twitter panel. You have the option to send all your saved bookmarks to Twitter by selecting the “Tweet all bookmarks unless private” checkbox when you add the Twitter account. If you’ve selected this option, your Twitter account will appear by default in the Send field.”

Okay this is the Monday Morning Marketeer again. Tweetfeed, TweetMyBlog, Blogomator, Delicious—these are all applications that will help you tweet your blog. Hello! All of these applications were developed just for you with your name on to help you turn your “followers” into readers, so now why aren’t you tweeting your blog????????? To Tweet or Not to Tweet, Your Blog! It may not be Shakespeare, however, “Methinks the lady doth protest too much!”

© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeerBlog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.comOr on its unique radio channel at:www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.comJoanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketerFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmithThe audio radio talkcast of this show can be heard on Monday Morning Marketeer unique radio channel at http://positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com, date of show 8-24-09

Monday Morning Marketeer, Brand Building with a Business Blog, 8-24-09

Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, Brand Building with a Business Blog Episode Notes: Using any type of social media for building a brand depends on a lot of elements: establishing credibility on the web and in person, establishing yourself as an authority and matching your social media persona to your web content to enable brand development. If you are using blogging as a part of your web marketing strategy then all of these elements can come together into an online brand that will persist off line also. Fifteen minutes of ideas to get your creative juices flowing to use your business blog to build your brand. EPISODE84 - Start Time (EDT): 08/24/09 09:00 AM EDTDuration (minutes): 30
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Third in a series on Business Blogging:
If you like the show you can subscribe to the feed at orange button that represents RSS and you will be notified of each new show.

Show Notes:

If you are using social media to promote your business then you need to find a way to make your brand universal by integrating all of those things into your blog. I like to add all of my other social media elements at the end of the blog so that readers know how to find my shows, how to follow me on Facebook, how to follow me on twitter and join me on LinkedIN. If you have listened before, these are my social media mainstays, Linked in, Twitter, Facebook and Blogging. You can only do so much but it all has to mesh.

1. So even before you start your blog, get all of this together and create a by-line. Use something that tells about you in addition to the name of your business. Mine is: “Monday Morning Marketeer, helping small businesses to jump start their business with gorilla marketing tips that you can do for free or with just your time.”.

2. All of your social media including blogging should have a purpose. The reason you blog is to establish yourself as a thought leader, monitor the marketplace, establish yourself as an expert and shape the marketplace. So the bottom line is that all other elements of social media should direct people to your blog. The end result of course is to turn suspects into prospects and get people to buy.

3. A good suggestion because most social media has limits on number of communication characters, so go to tiny url and create a customized short version of your blog. For this radio show, it’s: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer Sometimes your name is too long and the idea is to keep it simple so when you do this be creative. I find that people trust vanity customized shortened URL more than one that has letters and symbols.

4. All products and services are not for all people, so you must as in all aspects of marketing determine who your niche customers are and develop a language suitable to communicate to the needs and behavior of your “best customer.” Also, keep in mind that every article you write, every video you record, every image that you post contributes to the whole picture of your business.

5. A brand takes time to build. The reason for that is because you have to establish some power elements that will stick in people’s mind. These elements must result in prospects thinking of you when your field or your niche is mentioned. You can’t expect to be recognized over night.
CNN.com is related to the news; think about what you have on your blog to help create a brand. It’s important to have a strong name for your web domain and then secure that name on as many social networks as you can.

First, I think it’s important to have a strong name for your domain.
Second, go and secure that name on as many social networks as you can. Once you are famous many people will try to take advantage of that and maybe damage your reputation.
Third, arm yourself with patience, passion, commitment and determination.

6. The same characteristic of a successful blog, consistency in posting will also help you establish the credibility of your blog. It doesn’t matter how many articles you post every week. What it matters is to be consistent. People have to rely on you for providing content.

7. I try to post at least once a week to all of my blogs because I also have weekly radio shows attached to all of them but if you have no radio show then I recommend that while you are establishing your brand, you should post at least twice a week. These are not news articles unless they are about you or your event but are articles that you write and publish on your blog. Things like 5 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Survive the Slow Economy or Tips to Running a Successful LinkIn Group. Tips and suggestions, “need to know” articles, “Did your know?” articles, ten mistakes not to make are all great ways to provide good content.

How and when do you create these articles? If you are truly covering the marketplace, you read articles all the week. While you do this I’m sure that ideas for new articles will come, so write the title and few ideas down. Then, at the end of the week, sit down, close the TV, cell phone, Internet connection and start writing. You write 3 articles (or 2) on a row. The idea is to write all the main articles for the week that comes.

8. Where do you get your ideas? When you read articles all week long do you sometimes say to yourself, that’s a great article but I can write a better one? Or you might decide there is something that person left out. It doesn’t always have to be an article if you get writers block. It can be a Power Point Presentation, a video, a podcast. I like to talk and write so I do both podcasts and articles.

9. You don’t always have to be pimping and promoting your own stuff. Between these main articles you can also publish news or articles related to other blogs. This is not necessary but if you have time you can go for it. If it’s something useful to your reader, they will thank you and if you have enough of your own content, you are still the expert.

10. Decide that you are as committed to your blog as you are to your business, follow these simple rules and add more as you learn where you are going with your blog; these are just some suggestions to get you started.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

“Monday Morning Marketeer, helping small businesses to jump start their business with gorilla marketing tips that you can do for free or with just your time.”.

© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeerBlog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.comOr on its unique radio channel at:www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.comJoanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketerFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmithThe audio radio talkcast of this show can be heard on Monday Morning Marketeer unique radio channel at http://positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com, date of show 8-24-09