Marketing Advice By Business Type
Marketing a Shelters Business
Looking for innovative ways to market a shelters business? Although you there are no magic bullets that will enable you to dominate the industry, there are several things you can do to improve visibility and market presence.
It's difficult to pinpoint a single marketing strategy that is capable of turning around a struggling business. However, great marketing strategies share a common characteristic.
Some marketing concepts are just common sense. Unfortunately, it's takes more than a basic business mindset to achieve total market visibility. You will also have to become a student of specific marketing strategies for a shelters business.
Marketing Ethics
Ethically challenged marketers are a dime a dozen in today's economy. Successful shelters businesses avoid marketing tactics that exploit their customers. If direct mail is part of your marketing mix, you should also make sure your mailing list provider adheres to ethical standards in the collection of contact information. Premier vendors are safe bets since they have established themselves as reputable mailing list providers.
Hiring A Marketing Firm
Eventually nearly all shelters business owners consider outsourcing their promotional and advertising functions to a professional marketing firm. Unless you have a marketing background, you won't be able to touch the ROI you'll receive from a professional firm. Cost is a consideration, but if you're thinking about hiring a marketing firm for your shelters business, experience should trump other considerations. Marketing firms that lack industry experience are sometimes unfamiliar with competitive marketing channels and may not understand the value propositions that dominate industry messaging.
Newsletters
Despite the unrelenting demands of generating content on a monthly or quarterly basis, a company newsletter has promising potential as a marketing device. Unlike flyers and other advertising mediums, newsletters have an informational focus. In fact, the best newsletters encourage customers to take the next step without ever asking for a sale. It's not unusual for shelters businesses to distribute newsletters through online channels (e.g. in email campaigns and as PDFs on the company website).
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