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Five Lazy Ways To Market Your Business
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Angela Booth
angelazip.com.au
Five Lazy Ways To Market Your Business
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Summary: Marketing tasks for your small business needn't take forever when you choose the lazy way. Market your small business in just minutes a day.
Category: Small Business
Words: 850
Five Lazy Ways To Market Your Business
Copyright © 2003 by Angela Booth
There's a store in the middle of our town that's been, in quick
succession: a soft furnishings retailer, a record and CD store, a
lighting shop, a pet store, and yet another soft furnishings
store. It's currently a coffee shop.
I think the store's finally settled into its niche. Each time I
pass it people are lined up to buy coffee and cake, so all
appears well.
Why didn’t the previous tenants make a success of the store?
Probably because the easiest way to go broke is to sell something
that no one wants. Not enough people in our area wanted to buy
soft furnishings and pets.
That's the first rule of marketing. Find out what people want to
buy. If you've got something that people want to buy, marketing
is a snap --- you can be as lazy about marketing as you like,
you'll still be a success.
Is lazy marketing for you? Your success may take a little longer
if you choose to go the totally lazy marketing route. Sometimes
you don’t have a choice; you may have a fulltime job and want to
start your own business. That's the message of lazy marketing:
it's the scenic route to success. Enjoy the view.
Here are five lazy ways to market your business.
= 1. Get a Web site
This is the ultimate lazy way. Put up a Web site, or get someone
to do it for you. Then forget about it. You won’t hear much for
around six months, but once you get listed on the search engines,
you'll start getting business.
You can help the process along, by promoting your site, and by
updating it regularly, but once it's up, and you're listed on the
search engines, you can be as lazy as you like.
= 2. Make three phone calls a day
How long does it take to make three phone calls? You could
probably make them in ten minutes.
Who will you call? Potential clients, suppliers, people who are
in the same business you're in --- it doesn’t matter who you
call. The idea is that you're shaking the trees. Once you start
communicating, you'll move your business along.
In any one work week, that's a total of 15 marketing-related
calls. I don’t care who you are or what you do, but if you make
15 marketing-related calls a week for a few months you're going
to kick your business along.
To avoid getting trapped in voice-mail hell, you can use the
ultra-lazy person's alternative – email. However, do make your
messages professional. That is, send an email message that's just
like a snail mail message, with all your contact details. Be
polite and courteous, and include your full name, your business
name, and your complete address, as well as your phone and fax
number.
= 3. Contact one client a day
Call, email or fax one client a day. You're not touting for
business, you're just touching base. This person has done you the
kindness of doing business with you in the past. Call and find
how he or she is.
If you're a writer, this means send out one letter, query or
proposal a day, every week day to your previous clients: that is,
editors who've bought from you in the past.
If you're just starting out as a writer, then send one query a
day to a market you'd like to sell to.
= 4. Give something away
"Free" is an incentive. And it works. What can you give people to
remind them that you're still in business, and that you're good
at what you do?
Give away something that's useful, whether it's a pen, a T shirt,
a bookmark --- or an hour of your time to mentor a beginner.
Be creative with your freebies!
= 5. Do what you enjoy
This is the ultimate lazy way to work, as well as to market. If
you love what you do, it's not work.
Make a list of marketing-related activities that are fun for you.
Again, be creative about this. No one is holding a gun to your
head and saying: "THIS is the way you market." There are hundreds
of marketing activities you could engage in. It's your business,
so find a way that's fun.
For example, I love to write. So writing articles to promote my
business is not a chore, it's fun.
Maybe you like to interact with others. So why not start a
business breakfast club in your area? Or an online club?
Once you've worked out what you love to do, you'll be able to
find marketing activities that relate directly to that, and
you'll have another great lazy way to market your business.
There you have it. Five lazy ways to market your business. Take
the scenic route to success today!
~~RESOURCE BOX: PLEASE INCLUDE IF PUBLISHING~~
Veteran multi-published author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts
words for your business --- words to sell, educate or persuade.
E-books and e-courses on Web site. FREE ezines for freelance
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