A List of Pointers for Low-cost Promotion
You run your business from your home and don't have a lot of obvious ways to get your name Out There, right? Find your fingertips. A lot of the most effective marketing methods are right there, says self-promotion specialist Ilise Benun, who owns Creative Marketing & Management, in Hoboken, N.J. Benun suggests a few techniques: Track down names that you spot in newspaper or magazine articles if you think those people would make good prospects, referrals, or colleagues. "Business people [mentioned! in the press may seem inaccessible, but they're not," says Benun. Write them to offer your support or express your objections concerning what they're doing.
Contact speakers you have heard, who may know many other professionals in your line of business. Tell them how you feel about their views. Write letters to the editors of publications you read. This can bring wide publicity, says Benun. Do it whenever you have an "impassioned" reaction to something you have seen in print. If your letter is published, you may want to send copies to customers on your mailing list. Personalize your generic mailings. Tell prospects how you found them. Also try "inserting your prospect's name" throughout the mailing, jotting a personal note, and signing your name in a different color of ink, says Benun.
In addition, using a PS. to restate your message briefly also can be helpful in getting your point across. Mail to mailers who mail to you. You're likely to turn up a surprising number of prospects. Emphasize that they may recognize your name. Don't stuff the envelope—the more you send, the less they read, Benun says. Make yourself accessible by putting your company's phone number and address on every piece of paper that you mail. Market to your competitors. And even send your surplus projects their way. "If you don't market to your colleagues," Benun says, "how will they refer clients to you?"
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