Call People

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From 10 Ways to Build Your Business (without spending a penny)

1.  Call people

Just pick up the phone and call.
Just pick up the phone and call.

Some people may say “Laura…this is pretty basic”.  What about the miracle marketing tactics….huh?  Well, I hate to break it to you but there is no miracle.  To be honest, connecting with your existing customers, your existing client base is by far the single best way to build your business.  While this may sound simple, I’ll bet you a dollar that it has been more than a month since you’re talked to most of your previous clients or customers.  I’m talking about customers who you are not currently engaged with. If I’m wrong…send me an email and I’ll mail you a dollar.

Here’s the thing, you are not contacting these folks only to get repeat business from them.  Far from it!  You’re going to contact them for three reasons.  First, you’re doing market research – you want to learn more about your target customers.  What better way than to ask someone who has previously done business with you?  See how things are going since you last worked together.  How did the project turn out once it was implemented? What new things do they see on the horizon?  Ask questions and listen to what they tell you.

Second, ask for introductions to other people in the company, other companies, colleagues, etc. Again, you’re not looking to sell them anything – but you’re looking to expand your network and connect with new people who might have projects, of course, but they might also know of other people who have projects, or need your type of products or services. Be specific about the type of introductions you’re looking for.  Tell them the types of companies you’re interested in, the type of people you usually talk with, give them a place to start and most people are happy to introduce someone they trust and respect to someone else they trust and respect.

Finally, see if they need any help.  Again, I don’t mean you should try and sell them something. But ask if they need anything, have a question they can’t seem to answer, a problem that keeps cropping up.  Offer to help, do some research, send them some relevant articles (yours or someone else).  You need to do this on a regular basis.  Contact customers at least once a quarter if not once a month.  Email is fine but a well placed phone call is best, even if you have to leave a voice mail.  Script the voicemail out and make sure that you are specific in the reason you are calling and that you’ll call them back.

Then keep on calling…..

10 Ways to Build Your Business (without spending a penny)

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Listen to the recording of my Teleseminar (recording available until April 14, 2010)

Playback Dial-in Number:    1-213-289-0503
Playback Access Code:    218888

You’re here to learn the 10 Ways to Build your Business without spending a penny….and so you will.  I’m going to give you specific things that you can start doing today to build your business and your brand without spending any money.  You will have to put in some time and effort, but it will definitely be worth it.  What is the purpose of the exercise?  To show you how to market your business without spending a fortune so you can you achieve your business goals – whatever they are.  In most cases it is either to attract more of the right kind of customers, or to generate more revenue.

Before we jump in, let me lay the foundation. After years of helping companies and entrepreneurs build their brands and their businesses, I have developed a methodology I call THINK.PLAN.ACT. You can use it at a high level to develop strategic marketing plans.  And you can also use it at a very tactical level.  For example, every morning I spend 30 minutes thinking, planning and acting.  I think about what I want to accomplish during my day.  I plan out my time, meetings, work time, driving, errands, whatever.  Then I take the last 20 minutes or so and complete a task – usually it’s something that I need to do so that other people on my staff can be productive.  Think. Plan. Act.

Successful marketing is all about balance.  If you spend too much time planning and not acting, then you don’t get results.  If you start acting but aren’t focused, then you don’t get results.  If you launch your website, but no one knows, then who cares.  If you start publishing articles, but the topics aren’t relevant to your target audience, then they aren’t going to care.   If you get interviewed for an industry publication, but it isn’t one of your target industries, it’s not going to help you build your business.  Most people jump right to the 10 Ways without thinking about what they want to accomplish, without a plan for how to get it done and without the skill needed to act on any of their ideas.  So bear with me…

When you THINK about your brand and your business…start with what you want to accomplish – your business objectives.  Then work to understand your customers and the problems they are trying to solve.  Next, take a look outside and see what the others guys are doing.  This isn’t rocket science.  It’s stuff you probably know you should be doing…but it doesn’t mean you always do it.

When you PLAN to build your business you identify what you’re going to do, when & where you’re going to do it.  These are the actual detailed tactics of your plan. Usually, when it comes to marketing, the biggest challenge most of us have isn’t a lack of ideas. In fact, I’m going to give you 10 ideas today that will lead you to come up with more ideas.  The biggest challenge is selecting the most effective things to do based on what your customers want, what you like to do and what will help you achieve your objectives.

Now, we have thought about what we want to accomplish and what our customers need, we’ve built a plan of detailing what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do it.  The next thing is to ACT on it.  The key to doing anything consistently is to make it a habit – you need to create a marketing habit.  For some people, they take the first hour of every day and work on networking.  For others, they spend 30 or 40 minutes blogging – writing in theirs and commenting on others.  I spend 15 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon on social media – chatting with my networks, catching up with the communities I’m apart of and engaging in conversations where I have an interest or can add value.  The point is to make it a daily habit.  Then you can consistently do it everyday – which is what it will take. To build your business you need to market it everyday.

Here is your list of “10 Ways to Build Your Business (without spending a penny)”. You can click on each one to get more details and links to relevant resources.

  1. Call your existing customers
  2. Join an Affiliate Marketing program
  3. Launch an E-zine
  4. Use your email signature line
  5. Give something away for free
  6. Use social media
  7. Start a blog
  8. Publish articles online
  9. Create a video
  10. Get free publicity