The Five and Dime

This is part of a Chamber class in Fond du Lac. It’s simply a list of things you can do to market/promote your business. Feel free to add to it!

Advertising

• Print advertising — newspaper, magazines
• Television — despite all the doomsayers, TV still works
• Radio — can you use weekends and evenings?
• Billboards
• Direct marketing — mail or even drop off something direct

Social Media

• Build a Facebook and/or Twitter page (read our article!)
• Create a LinkedIn profile
• Be an expert — join LinkedIn groups and answer questions
• Advertise on Facebook
• Use LinkedIn to get introduced to someone

Web

• Have a good website
• Blog — write and update a blog
• Viral video — it’s tough, but when it works, it’s good
• Sell on Ebay (yes, this can be a tool to promote your business)
• YouTube — post your company videos on YouTube

Guerilla Marketing

• Stage an event — be careful, don’t do anything stupid
• Do something on location, build a dog house out front

Sponsorships

• Help a non-profit (and publicize it)

Public Relations

• Send out press kits to get feature stories
• Send out “announcements” — new hires, certifications, awards, etc.
• Send letters to editors (share your expertise on current issues)
• Be an expert — get quoted in articles (let writers/editors know you are out there)
• Write articles for other publications/websites

Trade Shows

• Have a booth
• Be a sponsor
• Sponsor a reception for attendees (either public or private)
• Walk the show (as an attendee)

Stay in front of your clients/prospects

• Newsletter (either traditional or electronic)
• Create an annual report (even though you don’t legally have to, create one anyway)

Events

• Have a party! (Have a Halloween party)
• Invite client/prospect to lunch, golf, etc.

Holiday

• Send out something fun/special at holidays (and don’t just think Christmas)

Sandwich boards

• Dress someone up and put them out on the street (Uncle Sam before the 4th of July?)

Give-Away samples

• Walk into a business and give away samples

Seminars

• Give a seminar

Join a group

• Join an industry or business group (Chamber) and attend events
• Volunteer for committees (this is when you actually meet people)

Write

• Not an email, but a letter
• Write an article

Create quality collateral materials

• Send out a quality brochure, DVD, catalog, etc.

Put up a sign

• On your location, if you already have one – change it somehow (even if just temporary)

Give-aways

• Do something different — tin sign, tickets to a concert, etc.
• Do something useful — okay, it’s not anything ground breaking, but I’ve seen my coffee mugs used lots of places

Change your on-hold message

• Make your on-hold messages entertaining — hire a comedian

Make a personal connection

• Talk to someone on the phone
• Send an email
• Ask for a referral

Tags: Brainstorming, Seminar

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.