Small Business Marketing

6 Marketing Tricks You Can Count On

Written by Ashwin Satyanarayana for Gaebler Ventures

Marketing is a continuous, relentless and everyday process. Given its importance as a business function, here are some six marketing tricks you could probably use for your benefits.

Even though marketing is much like the pillars your business would come to rest on, most business owners treat marketing as an after-thought; a simple entry on their "things-to-do" list.

Marketing is a continuous, relentless and everyday process. Given its importance as a business function, here are some 6 marketing tricks you could probably use for your benefit.

Keep in touch with customers - old and new: One of the simplest tasks that businesses could do - but most businesses usually don't - is to keep in touch with your customers. Call them up, email them or send them a short message on their cell phones just to wish them a good day, congratulate someone on their birthday or anniversary, etc. Think about it - when was the last time you got a call like that from a company you dealt with? How would you feel if you got a service call, just like that?

Reward and recognize your customers: It's funny that there are many large businesses that have some sort of "reward and recognition" program to motivate and retain employees. Perhaps you didn't realize that customers need this kind of pampering too? Most companies rarely have anything to do with customers once the transactions are over. How about rewarding your long-term customers, for instance? How about giving special services for them? Have you thought about the impact it makes on them?

Give things away for free: It has always been a classic trick to give something away of value for free to create interest in whatever it is that you sell. Anything given away for free is tempting for people to take and if that thing you gave away has value, it creates more opportunities for you make more sales. Don't forget to pamper your customers by giving your products or services for free - perhaps like a limited trail. This could be the single biggest trick you would ever deploy in your business.

Hook them when they are hungry: One reason why animals survive the wilderness is because the wild animals are hungry, they strike; they know they need to or they won't survive. Hunting for food is something these animals do every day (at least the carnivorous ones do) for survival. As they hunt, they know when to strike and when not to. In business, you must know when to hunt for new a customer - which is every day.

Nurture customers until they buy: Buyers don't buy because you asked them to; they buy when they need to. As a business owner, it is your job to wait and nurture your potential clients until they buy. To do this effectively, you must have a strategy in place. You should find effective but still cheap ways to nurture your leads until they convert - relentlessly.

Use copy everywhere to score with them: If you have a business, chances are that you have a business name, business card, marketing collateral - your website included. However, most businesses don't tend to use the potential of these tools. Copy is almost always forgotten. You must have effective, profit-pulling copy everywhere - be it in your actual office precincts, marketing collateral, website, etc.

Ash has an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA from Ohio University. Today he is a corporate trainer, business coach and a freelance writer.

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