No Magic Bullet
He knows the exact number of clients he needs for the next couple months in order to pay the bills and he wanted to talk about what he could do to make money fast.
This guy is a fantastic salesman - you intuitively trust and believe him, and in him. He had an assistant cold-calling businesses for him to make "lunch & learn" presentations regarding his service and quitting smoking.
He wanted me to give him one marketing idea that he could throw his last few bucks at that would result in guaranteed customers.
Of course, there isn't one.
If he was in business longer, had a regular clientele and needed to make some cash fast, I'd suggest some kind of sale or up-sell to his current customers. However, with him just starting out and no client list yet, there's no real quick fix. Except what he was already doing...getting out and pounding the pavement and putting his sales strength into full use.
Marketing is all about creating trust and credibility with an ongoing relationship - something that doesn't usually happen quickly. That's why it's so important for all of us small business owners to consistently market and start marketing from day one - it takes time to build a list, a reputation, a solid customer base.
I suggested a few ways he could start building up his marketing, right now, that didn't cost much money or time - two things he's short on at the moment.
Some ideas are:
* identify local doctors and chiropractors who have a client ezine or newsletter, where he could add a little blurb about his services and start building awareness and credibility using someone else's list (strategic partnership)
* add some reports, articles, how-to lists (quickly and easily put together from all the material he has laying around his office) to his website that people can access for free - give people something to keep coming back for and start building credibility and value
* have his web person quickly add a sign-up box to his website to start gathering names and email addresses so he can start doing email marketing
--> he'll use one of his free reports to give in exchange to people for their contact information
* do up a letter of introduction, enclose the brochure he already has printed up, and drop off at doctors, chiropractors, wellness centers, massage therapists, etc. in the surrounding area - anyone who may be interested in referring their clients to his laser clinic
This new small business owner left our lunch feeling good and more in control of his efforts. He realized he is already doing the best thing to make some short-term revenue. Plus there are some things he can start doing now that he will build on and be able to develop further once he's got some money coming in.
He realizes there's no magic bullet in marketing but that there are lots of strategies that he can use. Now he's excited to make money fast - to keep his doors open but also to fire up his marketing machine!
(ArticlesBase SC #558937)
Article Tags:
business
,Marketing
,Small Business
,marketing tips
,marketing systems
,Marketing Strategies
,marketing idea
,Marketing Message
,marketing solutions
,Marketing Basics
Learn About Combining a Business Plan and A Marketing Plan
What's the difference between a business plan and a marketing plan? Tim Berry discusses how they fit together. (03:45)
How to Start a Business in Hong Kong?
Learn how to start business? http://blog.servcorp.com.hk Tim Murphy of IP Global provides insight into the Asia real estate market. From startup to long term strategies revealed. (02:04)
How to Find a Niche Market
Learn about focusing your efforts in a niche market (04:55)
Matt O'Brien of Mint Social Shares Video Marketing Strategy
http://www.MintSocial.com On February 11th, Matt O'Brien of Mint Social presented at the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce on using social media marketing to grow your business online. In this segment Matt O'Brien discusses how Mint Social leverages video marketing and Google's universal search to multiple rankings in Google and drive traffic to your call to action web pages. Success often comes through a viral marketing business model. Learn more at MintSocial.com Distributed by Tubemogul. (02:00)
Work At Home Business: organize work
This free video has been brought to you by http://www.BetterLifetimes.com In this video Michael will explain to you the importance of organizing your work at home and internet marketing businesses. Learn how to make $10,000 a month or more onl (04:45)
Your marketing message is the central message in everything you do and say about your business, products and services. Learn how to make your marketing message as powerful as possible.
It's a good idea to check where you're at in terms of your marketing plan goals and objectives - by being proactive you can keep on top of any changes, good or not-so-good.
Learn the 9 reasons why follow up is such an important part of your marketing strategy.
Many small business owners dislike marketing, or they can't figure out which marketing strategies to use. Learn to identify your core marketing strength so that you can choose marketing strategies that you are good at and actually enjoy doing!
There are different ways that you can schedule your marketing to ensure that you are doing it consistently and as easily as possible. What appeals to you depends mainly on the level of detail and structure you like to have.
As a small business owner, you usually do not have the money, resources and time to market to a larger target market. You need to focus your marketing efforts on those people most likely to buy what you offer. Learn the reasons why getting a niche market is critical to your success.
The key to marketing is to take consistent action, and one of the necessary components you need to ensure you take consistent action is a marketing system. Learn the various definitions of a system, and why they are so important to your business success.
Not only big companies or corporate names need to think about branding, this can also be applied to small businesses as well. Branding says a lot about you and your business, and this certainly true for a home-based, one person operation to a multinational company. This only means one thing, that having a good brand name or branding strategy can add a couple of figures to you sales...
Aarkstore announce a new report "Chemoil Energy Limited - Financial Analysis Review " through its vast collection of market reserach report.
This year is a great time to start rethinking your income stream. If you’re tied up to a job that’s taking too much of your time and not paying enough, you might want to rethink your idea of earning money. These days, a lot of the people who are earning more than the average employee are working from home. The Internet has indeed revolutionized many things, including people’s idea of what a career should be.
This year is a great time to start rethinking your income stream. If you’re tied up to a job that’s taking too much of your time and not paying enough, you might want to rethink your idea of earning money. These days, a lot of the people who are earning more than the average employee are working from home. The Internet has indeed revolutionized
ProPix 10MP Digital Camera 300K CMOS Sensor. 8MB Memory,ProPix 10MP Digital Camera 300K CMOS Sensor. 8MB Memory
Aarkstore announce a new report "United Fuel & Energy Corporation - Financial Analysis Review " through its vast collection of market reserach report.
This year is a great time to start rethinking your income stream. If you’re tied up to a job that’s taking too much of your time and not paying enough, you might want to rethink your idea of earning money. These days, a lot of the people who are earning more than the average employee are working from home. The Internet has indeed revolutionized
ProPix 10MP Digital Camera 300K CMOS Sensor. 8MB Memory,ProPix 10MP Digital Camera 300K CMOS Sensor. 8MB Memory
Aarkstore announce a new report " True North Energy Corp. - Financial Analysis Review" through its vast collection of market reserach report.
A newsletter or ezine is one of the best marketing tactics you can do. Use these 5 tips to make sure you get the most out of your ezine or newsletter.
If you're feeling out-of-sorts with your marketing, discover some questions that will help you to evaluate what you're currently doing and give you some ideas about ways to get feeling excited again about your marketing.
A negative or fearful attitude towards our marketing can lead to inertia, inaction, or saying no to great opportunities. Learn some actions you can take to help you move more confidently forward and get a positive mindset about marketing.
To free up your time, have the lifestyle you want, work less hours and be highly profitable, you want to eventually have most of your income coming from passive sources. Learn what steps can you take to make this happen.
Your marketing plan needs to be based on your objectives or goals. Take the time to get really clear on what objectives you want your marketing plan to address and fix.
You must schedule a specific day into your calendar to spend time on activities that will grow, develop and enhance your business. If you don't spend your time on business growing/development days, you won't spend much time having profit-generating days!
Often it's things, events and people that direct your day - not you. Learn to be in the driver's seat of your business, control what you spend your time doing in the workday, then you'll really start to see results.
The timing of your marketing is an important factor in how successful not only your plan is, but how effectively you implement your marketing plan. Learn how different marketing tactics have different timing needs.
1