Business Promotion Starts With Your Contact Information

Susan Ward writes a great article on how to use free business promotion to boost your marketing, leads and sales.  These are the very basics of promoting a business.

Many small businesses forget that your contact information should be everywhere.  I can’t even count how many emails I receive every day without a signature and contact information.  My emails always have full name, email, phone number, email, website and a tag about what I do.  Yours should be no different.

Here are the key points from this article found at http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/bizpromotion.htm

1) Use every outgoing piece of paper, and every electronic document as business promotion.

-You have business cards, but you also put out a lot of other documents in the course of doing business. Check these to make sure you’re using their promotional possibilities to full advantage.

2) Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.

-Well-written articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth…

3) Sending out press releases is another great way to get some free business promotion.

-The caveat to using press releases as a business promotion tool is that your press release has to actually contain information that is newsworthy, and be engaging enough to get people’s interest.

4) If you’re an Internet user, spend some of your online time on business promotion.

-Posting messages in forums (a.k.a. bulletin boards) is a great way to make your business known to people you would otherwise be unable to contact.

5) Use buddy marketing to promote your business.

-For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you.

6) Give out freebies as business promotion.

-We’re all familiar with hearing or reading advertisements that promise that the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____).

7) Promote your business on a talk show.

-Your local radio station or cable TV station may have programs that are looking for guests – a great low-cost way to promote your business! Business-related programs are ideal.

Promote your business by giving a seminar or presentation.

-You have expertise that other people are interested in! (You couldn’t be in business if you didn’t.)

9) Use your vehicle to promote your business.

-Mobile business promotion isn’t just for white delivery vans. Where I live, one in every four vehicles has the name and phone number of a business decorating one of the windows or doors.

10) Promote your business through your lesiure activities.

-One savvy businessman I know relaxes by being part of a rock band. Guess what? Every time his band’s gigs are mentioned in the newspaper, the piece also mentions the name of his business!