There are many proven entrepreneurial marketing tips. These include the fact that early-stage marketing often has the most benefits, including that it tends to give you a head start when it comes to creating a significant marketing budget. These tips also include…
1. Content Marketing
This is perhaps the most underutilized of all the tips we have discussed so far. It is not enough to publish a website and wait for the money to come pouring in. No. You must use every trick you know to make your site as compelling as possible.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to write a sales pitch instead of a story. If you do this, people will leave your site and go to your competitor’s site. Don’t do this.
Instead, tell a story. The first draft of your copy should almost be written as a story. Only after this “rough cut” story is complete should you begin to add facts and figures.
2. Set-up Social Media Campaigns Tools
Another often overlooked tip is to set up a presence on as many social media websites as possible. This is especially true for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Delicious. These sites are free and have become significant traffic sources for millions (even billions) of people on this planet. If you aren’t on at least one of these sites, you are truly missing the boat. It would be best if you had a presence on all of them. Again, don’t do it because it’s “free.” Do it because it is an essential part of any entrepreneur’s marketing toolkit.
3. SEO Use Keywords.
It is not enough to publish a website and wait for the money to come pouring in. No. You must use every trick you know to make your site as compelling as possible. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to write a sales pitch instead of a story. If you do this, people will leave your site and go to your competitor’s site. Don’t do this. Instead, tell a story.
The first draft of your copy should almost be written as a story. Only after this “rough cut” story is complete should you begin to add facts and figures.
Monitor All Traffic Sources You must also monitor all traffic sources that may lead to a new customer for your website or direct mail campaign.
4. Build a Team.
People who will help you sell this report. Ideally, you’ll want to have one person write an introduction, one person does the body copy, and one person put the finishing touches on it, including the graphics. It would be best if you also considered having someone with sales experience create the “sales pitch” to entice people to buy your report.
If possible, have that person write the copy while you complete the graphics.
Sell Your Report! OK, that’s it for this month. Go back and read last month’s letter. Read the two reports I recommended and put them to work immediately. In the next couple of weeks, I will send you many sales letters (with examples), and I would be grateful if you could tell me which ones you think would be a good idea to sell your report.
5. Constantly Survey Your Market.
Never stop surveying your market. This is where the real money is. The more you know about your market, the better you communicate with them and provide what they want. Do this with your own two eyes as well as with every tool at your disposal, including… Search Engines SpyFu or SEMRush.
6. Maximize Your Opportunities.
Get your head out of the sand! There are three basic ways to distribute printed material: direct mail, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Let’s examine each one. Direct Mail:
Most people think of direct mail when they think of selling via print. However, direct mail can be used for all types of marketing: not just sales.
Suppose you belong to an organization that conducts fundraising events.
You could send a letter to everyone on your list offering to buy a report on how to perform a successful fundraising event at a deep discount if they would purchase another account from you, which covered another subject. You might say something like this in your letter: “Dear Friend, I thought everyone would appreciate receiving a report at such a low price which covers the subject of fundraising events.
Therefore,
I am sending this new report called ‘How To Raise Money For Charity’ free with this month’s newsletter. Would you please take a moment to fill out the attached order coupon and return it to me along with a check or money order for $14.00 payable to The Maupins, Inc. I’ll send the report to you immediately by First-Class Mail?”
7. Self-promotion Through The Media.
Most of us are familiar with traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and yellow page ads. But did you know there are also hundreds of other media you can use to promote yourself or your products and services? What You Need To Know: Here, I am listing some of the more common “alternative” media you can use to self-promote: Alternative Newspapers:
This includes items such as the Village Voice, Los Angeles Reader, and several others. Alternative Magazines: Success, Parade, National Enquirer, and several others. Community Newspapers: Your local “Herald,” Your local “Advocate,” etc. Radio: National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media (APM), several coast-to-coast commercial stations. Television: CNBC, CNN, TBS, The Comedy Channel, ESPN, MTV, VH1, etc. Online: Local listings services like Yellowbook.com, Infospace.com, Hotbot.com, etc. Cable: Showbiz Channel, History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc.
8. Write About Your Business Journey.
Start by telling your story. How did you get started in the business? What were your challenges? What obstacles did you have to overcome? How did you solve these problems? What was the most crucial factor in your success? How did you come up with your brilliant idea? Did you work on it alone or with others? If others, who? How did your spouse/partner react to your decision to go into business for yourself?
What was the most challenging part of starting your own business? How did you overcome this obstacle? What was the best part? The easiest part? The most important part? The most unexpected part? The most surprising amount?
Tell Your Story Through Customer Interviews. Another powerful way to promote your business is to ask customers what they think about your product or service.
9. Use The Internet To Sell.
The internet is the most incredible sales tool ever invented. If you can think of it, you can sell it online. And, with a bit of practice, you can begin to use this incredible sales tool to make huge profits. But, you must understand a couple of things if you want to make maximum use of this fantastic tool for marketing your products or services.
First, you must learn how to think about your business in internet terms. And, secondly, you must learn how to put those skills to work for you. You see, in internet marketing, which you sell is not so much “content” as it is “relationship.” People are not so much “buying” what you are selling as they are “becoming connected” to you and what you have to offer.
10. Use Your location to your advantage.
It may sound corny but using your location to help you sell is one of the most powerful things you can do. It’s not nearly as corny as it sounds. Look around you. What nearby would be of interest to people near you? Do you have a local art gallery? A piano teacher who lives close by? A metaphysical bookshop that sells tarot cards? Consider getting a piece of real estate in a high-rent district near these types of businesses.
Or perhaps consider a business that provides goods or services related to what you are selling. Get A “Big Picture” View Of Things. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are getting ready to write a sales message is that they get so focused on the words that they forget the “big picture.” Comments like this.”
11. Strategic Alliances Are Important.
Consider creating a strategic alliance with one or more of these businesses. If you are not familiar with the term, a strategic partnership is a relationship between two (or more) parties where each party gives something of value to the other, and they both benefit. In this case, you would provide value by sharing with the other party some of your marketing expertise, and they would provide value by having access to your distribution channels. Here are four benefits of forming a strategic alliance:
When it comes to creating a business, there are three types of people: Never running a business. Those who have successfully run a business. And those who will run a business. I hope these entrepreneurial tips can be helpful to you. See you to the following entrepreneurial tips. Let’s grow together!
