20 Marketing Ideas

Marketing could make or break a small business. Successful marketing is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your small business. Here are 20 free marketing ideas:

1. If your marketing offends someone it will probably be a success
2. Get someone to tell a friend. Hopeful someone will tell another friend and it will become viral
3. Collect email addresses from prospects so that you can build a relationship (with permission, of course)
4. Everybody makes marketing mistakes, learn from yours
5. Give a sample away for free.
6. Perform an outrageous publicity stunt
7. In some instances it is better to co-operate with a competitor rather than compete
8. Create a company blog
9. Ask clients for written testimonials
10. Study the marketing techniques of your competitors. Do what works for them
11. Be seen as an expert in your field by writing Ezine articles
12. Write a press release and submit it to newspapers and magazines
13. Differentiate your product. Just know that your product also must be good. A different product that sucks is useless
14. Give something of value away for free via a contest
15. Put your logo and website URL on everything
16. Learn from the pros – read Seth Godin’s marketing blog, read the Guerrilla Marketing series of books
17. Don't just make a promise in your marketing message. Deliver on your promise or you will be seen as a liar
18. Sponsor a popular local event
19. Use the new media
20. Follow your gut instincts

I got this from Marketing Profs' Daily Fix.

Research, Research the Market!

Many people think they have done their share of research before setting up stall. But when the business starts, they find that they have little or no customers! Just because your spouse or your best friend told you that your business idea is good does not mean it is really good. Always do extensive research - get the hard-copy facts. Let's say you have a great recipe for making kaya balls. You plan to sell them in a nearby shopping mall, but you don't know how many potential customers you have. Take a day off from your routine, get a pen and a notebook, and spend the entire day in that mall observing people - count how many people go in and out of the mall, how many people near the site of your future kaya-ball stall. Categorise the people into their respective age groups (children, teenagers, adults, the elderly). Everyone loves kaya balls, but children and teenagers love them more. Now you have some real market research - for the cost of virtually nothing! Try to be more thorough - observe potential customers on the weekends ( this is the time when most people flock to shopping malls). From your research data, you can be more confident of your plan when you move forward.

Conduct your own Focus Group

You've just developed a new product, but you don't know if it matches people's expectations. So what do you do? Focus groups have been so under-utilised in small businesses that it's time to turn the tide around. What are focus groups? Focus groups are carefully assembled groups consisting of members that have a common interest related to your product. They will give first hand opinions on your product and advise you on how to improve it. Arranging for a focus group is easy if you follow the steps below: 1. Contact the right people A typical focus group consists of 6-10 people who are relevant to your product. They should be willing to express thoughts and emotions without restraint , because the main objective of the group is to bare the truth. If you're running women's apparel business, you should have at least 2 focus groups. The first should consist of potential customers (teenagers/adults depending on your product). The second should consist of your sales people - because they need to understand the product and be confident that they can sell the apparel. Depending on your objective, you can choose to expand your focus groups or even add more groups to include employees from other departments. 2. Arrange for the session Once you get the green light, plan for the meeting. E-mail them the meeting agenda 1-2 days before the session. What are you going to ask the focus groups? Get your questions ready and prepare for positive and negative feedback. Arrange for proper sitting and refreshments. Make the group feel appreciated to maximise your input. A typical focus group session would be introducing the product, giving the participants hands-on experience with it before asking them the prepared questions. Most importantly, get a good moderator that appeals to the focus group so that he/she can keep the positive energy flowing in the group. In every successful event there must be a very good emcee. The same applies to focus groups! 3. Don't overprepare A typical focus group session lasts 1 to 1.5 hours, but it does not mean you need to prepare every minute of the session. Instead, allow plenty of space for participants to voice their opinions, because the ultimate goal is to get feedback. 4. During the session Anything can happen in a focus group, so get someone to note everything down ( an audio/video recorder might help). You might not have noticed a member suggesting a brilliant improvement to your product during the session, but you might catch in on tape! 5. After the session Thank the participants of the focus group and tell them that a summary of their answers will be generated and sent to them. Follow-up with thank you gifts.