Now is the time to try something new.
As a business owner, it is understandable that you are busy running the day-to-day operations of your company.  There are bills to pay, employees to manage and work to get done.  However, there is still no excuse for wasting your marketing dollars on ineffective advertising.  You need to think “outside the box” and find ways to catch the attention of more prospects.

Look for the successful entrepreneurs.
One of the biggest reasons why business owners fail to try new and better forms of advertising is that they don’t know what to do.  If this sounds like you, there is a tactic you can take – watch other successful people and mimic their actions.  If they have found a method that is working, see if you can implement it into your business.  You can find a lot of great ideas by watching others.  All you have to do is determine what ideas will work for your business and then customize them.

Find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, by visiting Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

Small business owners generally have small marketing budgets.  They often feel like there isn’t a lot of room to try out different marketing avenues.  So, instead they throw money at Yellow Pages advertising or put together a website with nice colors and photos.  While this type of marketing might be safe, it is most likely not as effective as it could be.

Don’t be afraid to be different.  In fact, a different form of advertising or a different marketing message will help you stand out from the crowd of competitors in your industry.  Consumers have enough of a challenge trying to find the right product or service that meets their needs.  It doesn’t help that when they open the Yellow Pages, every ad looks the same.

How can you be different?  There are a few ways.  Look at what other people are doing in your field and do the opposite.  Create a free offer that entices prospects to contact you.  Develop a series of videos on the Internet that speaks to the questions going through the mind of your target audience. Jazz up your ads with interesting headlines that capture people’s attention.

You can learn a lot from successful entrepreneurs. Find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, by visiting Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

Who is on your list?
This list is one that has the names and addresses of everyone who has ever shown interest in your business.  These people may have heard your marketing message and responded.  They might be former clients or prospects.  Your list could even include business colleagues, vendors, friends, relatives and other influential professionals.

It is imperative that you add everyone who fills out a contact form on your website or calls in response to an ad campaign to your list.  These are leads that can turn into clients down the road.

What do you do with the list?
You need to understand that not everyone is a quick decision maker.  Some of your prospects won’t be ready to hire you right away or start purchasing your products.  Therefore, you have to stay in front of them, so that you continue to position yourself as the “wise man/woman at the top of the mountain.”

You need to make regular marketing touches.  Send newsletters, postcards, emails, etc., so that you can build a relationship with the people on your list.  Soon, they will start to feel comfortable with you and will turn to you when it comes time to purchase your products or services.

To find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, visit Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

What makes a lucrative marketing campaign?  Businesses that are succeeding with their marketing efforts appear to be doing some of the same actions, including:

1.    Focusing on the ideal customer. Who are you really trying to attract with your marketing?  Is there a certain demographic you are going after?  All of your marketing should be focused on getting your ideal customer.  Conduct some research to find out how you can get in front of your target market.

2.   Sticking with the plan. Once you have a marketing plan created and know where and when you want to advertise, you need to follow through.  Consistency is how you will get in front of the right people at the right time.  With that being said, you also need to have some type of follow up system after someone contacts you.  Good leads can slip away all too quickly.

3.    Aligning the marketing plan to fit the needs of the business. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing.  What might work for one type of business, might not work for another.  You need to make sure that your marketing efforts coincide with your needs.

Find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, by visiting Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

In most locations, the Yellow Pages is a dying media. Many hotels don’t even carry it anymore. Instead, people are using the Internet and smartphones to find the information they need.  Everything that they are curious about, including products and services, can quickly be accessed online.  However, many business owners still insist on advertising in this book.

If you are going to pursue Yellow Pages advertising, there are some things you should do to help your ad stand out.  Below are the components you should include:

Interesting headline. Don’t waste this space with your company’s name.  Instead, create something that is catchy.

Compelling copy. White space doesn’t necessarily sell, despite what the Yellow Pages rep might have told you.  Create copy that speaks to the questions that are going through your prospects’ minds.

Irresistible offer. You need to create an offer that would be of interest to your prospects and it should be offered for free.  The goal is to make your prospects stop their search until they have received your free offer.  For more information, read the blog entry, The Secret to Getting the Phone to Ring.

By including these three items in your Yellow Pages, you will have a better chance of standing out from all the other pages of ads.

Find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, by visiting Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

Competition is strong in most industries, which means you are vying for the same customers as many of the other businesses in your area.  Everyone is shouting similar marketing messages that are basically saying – “Pick me! Pick me!” If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to do the following:

1.    Attract your prospects’ attention amidst the hundreds of competing companies
2.    Get the prospects interested in you
3.    Encourage them to initiate the conversation with you first
4.    Stop their search for the product or service until they have heard from you

That might seem like a long list of things you need to do, but it can all be accomplished with an irresistible offer.

An irresistible offer is something that will get your prospects to say to themselves, “I would have to be a fool not to take advantage of this offer.”  The offer should be free and needs to be some type of interesting information that will help the consumer.  It could come in the form of a book, report, DVD or CD.  The goal is to make it interesting.

Find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, by visiting Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

To maximize your advertising budget and to get more people walking through the door, you must have a tracking system in place.  This system needs to monitor where your leads are coming from and how long it is taking these leads to contact you after being exposed to your marketing message, but that’s not all. You also need to track how long it takes from the initial contact to the point in time when that person becomes a customer.

Depending on your type of business, it could take months from the time that someone hears your message and becomes a client.  This is information you need to know.  If you don’t track your leads, you might quit your marketing efforts too early.  How many businesses don’t follow through after the initial contact made by a lead? Don’t be one of them.

If you don’t have a tracking system in place, you need to get one.  You also need to create a follow up marketing campaign that will allow you to stay in constant contact with your leads.  There are many programs out there that are completely automated, so there is no excuse for not getting something implemented.

To find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, visit Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

Business owners often complain that they don’t know how to market themselves.  They whine that consumers aren’t spending like they used to and that competition is fierce.  Instead of working on differentiating their business from the other one down the street, they basically throw their hands up in the air and declare – “I give up!” Maybe they don’t say those actual words, but their actions make this statement.

It starts with your marketing message.
Too often, business owners engage in nothing more than random chance marketing. They look at what all the other businesses in their area are doing and copy them. The problem is how do you know if these marketing messages are working? Just because other people are shouting the same message, it doesn’t mean it is an effective one.

As a business owner, you need to position yourself so that you are the one and only choice for your prospects.  You can accomplish this by creating a compelling marketing message that will provoke your prospects to call you first.  When you draft your ads, think about what would get them to stop their search and contact you. Is it a free offer, such as a CD or a book? Is it something else that they will consider valuable?

It continues with your follow up marketing.
Once you get your customers to walk in the door, your work doesn’t stop there.  You need to stay in front of them even when you are done helping them.  That means you need to remain in constant contact, whether that is through a newsletter, social media or mailed postcards. You need to keep your position as their obvious choice – one in which they won’t stray from.

To find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, visit Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

The result?

Just months after starting the business, the van started drawing crowds of over 400 people wanting to buy one of the infamous tacos.  A continuous Twitter feed would alert fans to where the van would appear next.

One Thursday night last year, the Los Angeles Times reported that “Kogi parked at 5:30 PM at the Japanese American National Museum on Central Avenue and 1st Street in Little Tokyo. By 7 PM, the truck had already served at least 400 people and a long line still snaked across the broad brick entrance to the museum.”

A recent update on this company stated that they were still attracting up to 250 people at each stop using Twitter.

Kogi isn’t the only company that discovered the huge benefits of social media.  There have been many others that have used social media to their advantage.

Here is what you can learn from companies, such as Kogi – don’t be afraid to try something new.  Avoid sticking with the same traditional forms of marketing.  Give social media a try and always look for innovative ways to spread the word about your products and services.

To find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, visit Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.

Newsletters still work, but not just any newsletter.  Using a canned, boilerplate newsletter that you do nothing more than slap your name and a stamp on, will not be as effective and may end up turning off your customers.  You need to have a personalized newsletter that contains information that would be interesting to your audience.

A monthly newsletter is not as difficult as you might think.  Create a folder where you can store article ideas and topics for future newsletters.  When it comes time to write your newsletter you will find that instead of having the problem of not knowing what to write about, you have too many options to choose from. Not a bad problem to have!

If you don’t want to write all of the articles yourself, you can ask a local business owner if he or she wants to contribute an article.  When the newsletter is printed, you can drop some copies off at his or her place of business, which will not only reach that person’s customers, but could also lead more people your way.

Don’t discount the significance of a monthly mailed newsletter.  It is well worth your time and effort.

To find out where the smart Northern Virginia business owners are gathering, visit Glazer-Kennedy-Virginia.com.