7 Last Minute Holiday Marketing Tips For Your Business

We’ve been talking a lot about what a great opportunity the holidays are for marketing your business. You know all about the why: people are searching for gifts, they are open to trying new places and businesses, and it’s the perfect opportunity to run a promotion. Yet, what about the how? If you’ve left it to the last minute, here are some helpful tips on exactly what you can do to market your business this holiday season.

 

 

1. Boosting Your Search Rank

 

Being at the top of search results is essential for building your business, but it can take a lot of time and energy to get there. With the holidays fast approaching, there just isn’t necessarily enough time to implement a complete content strategy to help you naturally reach the top. PPC, or Pay-Per-Click is the fastest way to instantly reach the top of the search engine results page (or SERP). A Fiverr® seller who specializes in creating or optimizing a PPC campaign for your business can help you dramatically, and quickly, increase your search result traffic.

 

 2. Keep Your Media Relevant

 

However you are marketing your Facebook page, the trick is not just getting visitors but getting likes and engagements. A Facebook cover photo specially designed for the holidays shows visitors that your page is active, fun, and well-maintained.

 

3. Keep Your Site Up-to-Date

 

Regularly updated website content is a huge part of building a successful website. Not only does it improve your SEO results when done right, but it increases user engagement and can be a highly-effective marketing tool when crafted to persuasively promote your business’ products and services to the target market. A blog post that both celebrates the holidays and explains why now is the perfect time for a visitor to become a client.

 

 4. Get Attention with an Email

 

Sometimes you have to go out and bring the customers to you. In today’s digital age, it’s all about the attention-grabbing email campaign. The holidays are the perfect opportunity to utilize your contact list that you’ve been building for your business. Whether you just wish your customers a happy holiday season, or run a special promotion to celebrate, an email campaign, like in this Gig® by amitbt, drives traffic and conversions.

 

 5. Engage with Content

 

Like we’ve said before, your Facebook page is a key element to your marketing strategy. Not only do you need to post regularly, but you need to post eye-catching items that won’t fade into the background of your customers’ already busy Newsfeeds. A custom made holiday graphic is a cheerful way to stand out among the crowd.

 

 6. Google Banner Ads

 

If you are looking for an ad campaign idea, then there’s no better way than to join the holiday cheer and create a visual Google adwords banner that will build your business’ brand and drive traffic to your site. You’ll find a number of sellers who can design baanners for your Google campaign.

 

7. Get Creative

 

So far we’ve talked about a lot of tried and true tactics that can really help your business. Thinking outside the box, you can really get creative with the holiday Gigs on Fiverr. For example, consider a fun, personalized, holiday-themed jingle or holiday video can be a fun and different way to market your business and celebrate this joyful season. 

 

http://blog.fiverr.com/7-last-minute-holiday-marketing-tips-business/

 

Facebook Advertising Version 105.334.890…

Social Media Managers for small, medium and large businesses alike will be pulling their hair out in frustration after hearing that further changes are coming to Facebook advertising.

 

 

Source: http://ow.ly/EWjHQ

 

2014 has seen a lot of changes in the way Facebook allows businesses to advertise and the way users can interact with advertisements. Whilst Facebook Atlas still dominates 2014’s changes, the recent “user experience improvements” signal another barrier for advertisers’ organic content from being seen.

 

So, what are these new changes? Facebook announced that, as of 2015, it will be reducing the reach of brands’ unpaid posts which are deemed to be too promotional, i.e. you will no longer be able to sell your services or products without paying for the privilege. The updated Facebook algorithm will now filter out posts like “Buy now” or “Enter this” unless there is budget behind them.

 

Source: http://ow.ly/EWkMi

Getting down to the bottom line, as a result of this change, the return on investment on Facebook is set to decrease – as costs go up and presumably result remains the same. The age of free Facebook advertising is over. If you are a small or medium sized business with no advertising budget for Facebook, then the only gain from Facebook activity is branding – that means neither sales nor leads! However, if you are a big brand or a business with an advertising budget, you’d better get good at optimising your Facebook posts or adverts to get the most out of your spend.

 

Do the new Facebook advertising changes signal the end of organic Facebook advertising, then?

 

Source: http://ow.ly/EWljc

Well, to a degree, yes. The many changes Facebook has imposed on advertisers over the last year has slowly led us to a new Facebook that has plenty of room for big brands or advertisers who have budget with which to get their message out there; all disguised as a better Facebook for users (as they will no longer be bombarded by irrelevant messages and adverts). Having said this, there is still a little bit of room for organic advertisers, who have the expertise and creativity to get through the Facebook algorithm net!

 

There are three points that Facebook advertisers, who are on a shoe string budget must remember:

 

1. It is more important than ever before, that the content you post out is very engaging and extremely relevant to your target audience
2. If you’re not already, you certainly need to start factoring in a Facebook paid advertising budget (even if it is small)
3. Be very clear about who you are targeting and take good time to understand them and what they care about and how they would like to be communicated to

Source: http://ow.ly/EWlug

On a final note, Facebook is quickly becoming a real contender for Google’s advertising army and along with that it will become an advertising platform that is reigned by big brands with big budget… for now. Google has been through this phase and its focus has switched to local business with its Grow Local campaign. If Facebook manage to integrate this platform for everybody ethos from the start, then their threat to Google is much stronger than one may think. Watch this space!

 

http://www.absolutedigitalmedia.com/blog/facebook-advertising-version-105-334-890/

 

10 Facebook Marketing Tips for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

When it comes to social media marketing, and in this case Facebook, your business goal isn’t to get likes and shares, it’s to do sales!

For that reason every post should have a clear purpose. Ask yourself, “What is the goal of this post?” and “How does it relate to my business goals?“. If you can’t answer these questions you’re wasting time – one of the scarcest resources any business owner has.

 

If you’re in the wine business your goal is to sell more cases of wine, right? To test your audience and gauge if there is a market for Chilean wine you run a post on a new Carmenere with a question “What’s your favourite Chilean wine?”. Your goal for this post is to engage your audience and gauge their interest in Chilean wine. Wines you may ultimately stock based on your fans interest.

 

Facebook holds great potential for your business: 41% of B2B companies and 62% of B2C companies using Facebook have acquired a customer from it.
 

To make sure you’re using this channel effectively here are 10 Facebook marketing tips.

 

1. Integrate FaceBook into your Marketing Strategy

Be clear on what you need to accomplish with your marketing strategy and the role Facebook will play in helping you achieve your goals.

If for example your goal is to generate 40 new leads a month with 10 of them coming through social media marketing ask  yourself  – How will Facebook support that goal? How many leads will come from your fan base? How will you attract the right fans (use your buyer personas)?

 

Your fan base is the entry point into your sales funnel and your Facebook posts the digital breadcrumbs that draw your audience into the funnel and down a trail toward a much more substantial piece of content they can download after filling out a form.

 

Having a plan for attracting the right fans, engaging existing fans and drawing them into your sales funnel using posts is the first step toward reaching your goals.
 

2. Have a Clear Value Proposition

One of the biggest marketing mistakes is not having a clear value proposition. You must communicate how you solve a problem, what the benefits you offer are and how you’re different to the competition. Then make sure your value proposition is consistent across your marketing channels.

This is Hppy, an application to measure employee engagement, it’s clear as soon as you hit their homepage what their value proposition is – they reduce employee turnover and increase productivity.

 

 

However their Facebook page doesn’t communicate the same message. It simply asks “Are you happy?”.  In their defence they’ve just done website refresh and I’m sure their social media pages will be updated shortly.
 

3. Set up Your Company Page

First make sure you’ve setup a company page and not a personal page. Then go into the “About” section of your Facebook page and make sure it’s properly filled out with searchable information.

 

Provide readers with a clear value proposition, an overview of what your business has to offer with a link to your website, include your address details if you want your ratings to appear and add any products or services with links to relevant pages on your website. Even on your about page take the opportunity to pull fans into your sales funnel.
 

 

 

4. Build an Audience

Chances are you already have customers, friends, and family that would be happy to give you a boost. If your business is a Pop-Up Kitchen reach out to customers, family and friends you’ve served and ask them for their support.

 

You can do this by inviting relevant Facebook friends to like your Page, or uploading a list of best customers so you can send them an email. All of which can be done from the “Build Audience”section. These are the fans who will build the initial foundation and set the tone of conversation on your Page.

 

To keep growing your audience you can use your website, blog, or email newsletter. Just be cautious not to over utilize these channels and annoy people. You can also use Facebook’s various social plugins – especially the Like Button or Like Box – to get people to like your Page without having to leave your page and go over to your Facebook page.

 

 

 

5. Have a Goal for every Post

Now that you have everything setup you’re ready to start posting. Make sure you have a goal for every post and the type of content you post is aligned with your goal. These are the three main post types and the effect of each post type.

• Status Update = Comments
• Link = Click Through
• Photo & Video  = Likes & Shares

 

If your goal is to generate traffic to a landing page then have a link type post to pull fans through to that page. On the other hand if your goal is to have fans share content with their friends then use a photo or video type post. Basically, make sure the format matches the goal.

 

In his online course “10 Mistakes People Make on Facebook Pages and How to Fix Them” Francisco Rosales suggest the following formula for each post:

• Set a specific goal for each post
• Be specific with the numbers you want to reach
• Determine the type of media to reach your goal
• Track the right metrics and ignore the shiny objects

 

6. Have a Call-to-Action

Once you start posting you’re communicating with your readers. Great! But are you asking them to take any kind of action? Or are you simply creating a dead-end for the visitor? You need to tell fans what to do next otherwise they’re simply going to surf away.

 

In the example below fans are informed about an event and invited to register for it by clicking the register here button. The whole image is a Call-to-Action link and will take the visitor to a registration page.

 

 

7. Use Facebook Insights

Insights is Facebook’s internal analytics tool that will help you measure and analyse the performance of your Facebook pages. Clicking the “Insights” tab will take you to an overview of your page performance. You can then drill down into detailed information about your Page Likes, Post Reach and Audience Engagement.

 

This is where you measure the success of your Post goals and, based on the data, make decisions on how to adjust your marketing to get the results you’re looking for.

 

 

8. Getting Your Posting Time and Frequency Right

There’s a lot of information out there on the best time to post on Facebook and other social media channels. The reality is there are too many variables for this information to be accurate. Your Facebook page is unique so you need to establish when most of your fans are on Facebook.

To do this go over to Insights and select the Posts tab. In the example below the highest fan engagement is around 1pm and continues through the afternoon. This is the ideal time to be posting, keeping in mind a post reaches 50% of its potential in the first 30 minutes.

 

 

 

9. Use the Data Wisely

Make sure you track the right analytics and numbers in Insights. You don’t want to waste time tracking numbers that aren’t relevant to your business or marketing goals. Francisco Rosales from Social Mouths suggests a four step formula to make sure your getting the most out of your analytics.

• Set aside a block of time (30 minutes) to spend quality time going through your analytics
• Learn which metrics are relevant to your business, how they work and what they mean
• Ignore the metrics that aren’t important
• Use the data to make business and marketing decisions

10. Never Stop Experimenting

Today marketing is all about experimenting and testing new ideas. That’s why it’s important you set goals for all of your marketing initiatives. Have a clear goal for every post, analyse its performance and if you aren’t getting the results you want then experiment with something else. Often the Posts you think least likely to have an impact bring the biggest results. So don’t be scared to try something new, just don’t be deceptive or mislead people.

http://www.business2community.com/facebook/10-facebook-marketing-tips-business-owners-entrepreneurs-01027680

10 Insights: How to Use LinkedIn to Build Business Success Faster than Your Competitors

Ever been to a business networking event and wondered why you bothered.

 

You had your ear twisted, cards shoved into your hand and the next day emails arrive in your inbox trying to “sell” you? You then thought… “there has to be a better way?”

 

Recently I bumped into Alex Pirouz, not in a room full of suits and ties but on LinkedIn. I checked him out on Google, then LinkedIn and after that we caught up for a coffee.

 

Much of the conversation was how he had used LinkedIn to reinvent his business and apply its technology to enable effective and powerful business networking and grow his revenue.

 

While we chatted over a coffee he revealed how he had used LinkedIn over the past few years to:

• Get featured in over 50 media publications without sending out a single press release
• Grow his business advisory firms by over 328% by securing joint venture partnerships through LinkedIn
• Generate thousands of leads whilst spending $0 on advertising or marketing

I thought that it was worth asking him some more questions so I could share his insights into how to use LinkedIn to build business success.

 

1. What made you focus on LinkedIn instead of Facebook, Twitter or even Google+?

 

I came across LinkedIn more out of frustration then anything else. At the time I had just moved back to Sydney after exiting one of my previous businesses (door to door sales company) to start a business advisory firm.

 

By that point I had failed in 4 businesses and exited 2 so I thought it would be a good receipt when mentoring others. But when I moved back I soon realised that the industry was filled with a ton of coaches, out of which 95% had no business experience.

 

I knew at that point that the only way I was going to stand out and out compete against my competitors was to build a personal brand both on and offline. After speaking to various PR agencies I decided to do it myself . I also came across an article by the Artike media group which said that over 94.2% of journalists are on LinkedIn. It also revealed that for most journalists, LinkedIn is their preferred social network.

 

The light bulb went off.

 

What started off as connecting with journalist here and there eventuated to a network of around about 250 contacts. This resulted in getting featured in 50 media publications over the course of just 6 months.

 

2. How important is the creation of that optimum LinkedIn profile?

 

In my opinion how we do business has changed significantly. Nowadays people are buying into people first, your company and than your product. You could have the best product but if they don’t like you they will not enter into that new business relationship, buy your product or try your service. It’s as simple as that.

 

Because of the sheer size of LinkedIn most often when you Google someone’s name their LinkedIn profile will come up first within the search result before their company website or even blog.

 

 

 

 

The problem is that most people’s LinkedIn profiles look and read like a resume. I call this approach the inside outside approach instead of the outside inside approach.

 

Rather then thinking internally on what you should put in your summary, job experience, heading etc you should instead think about the top challenges and objections your clients are facing and build a personal brand around that so that when your clients read your profile they see that you understand them and have a solution to offer.

 

In this fast paced world your first impression could be your best or last.

 

3. LinkedIn has recently opened up its platform for its members to publish. How important is this and why should members participate?

 

The LinkedIn publishing platform is a great way to build a following on LinkedIn and get your message in front of key decision makers and or potential clients.

 

When you publish an article on LinkedIn those who read your article can then follow you for future posts even if you are not connected. If your content is good it will get liked, commented and even shared which in a relatively short period of time could go viral and therefore get your message in front of thousands if not millions of people. The more people who follow you; the greater your reach.

If your article is good, LinkedIn will publish it in one of the categories within Pulse or even better on the homepage which is exactly what happened to me.

 

My very first post reached over 65,000 views, over 10,000 shares and I gained 1,500 new followers. Out of that exposure I secured 3 new clients and another media appearance. Because of its viral nature, you just never know who could read your next article.

 

4. You mentioned that over 90% of journalists are on LinkedIn. How do you use LinkedIn to gain mass media attention including interviews?

 

Well the first thing you need to do is make a list of the top 5 publications you want to get featured in. These would need to be publications that your audience are currently visiting/reading etc.

 

You then visit each publication and look for journalist and editors who are covering stories on your chosen topic or industry. You simply connect with them, discover what their key challenges are so you can add value and than once you have built a relationship with them, naturally throughout that process they will find ways on helping you gain exposure. What networking is all about, you scratch my back I scratch yours.

 

5. Business networking can lead to more opportunities and sales. How do you recommend people use LinkedIn for networking?

 

I mentioned earlier that I originally joined LinkedIn because I was looking to build my personal brand and get some exposure throughout the media.

 

After getting featured in so many publications I became very excited about the potential of LinkedIn. At the time I was spending a fair bit of money on traditional forms of advertising, so I wanted a more cost effective way to generate and convert leads.

 

Having had success already on LinkedIn I decided to use it again to find joint venture partnerships. Over the next 6 months I connected with over 500 accounting firms out of which I created 16 partnerships and grew my business by over 328%. So finding, connecting and developing joint venture partnership is my first recommendation.

 

My second recommendation would be to attract one on one clients especially if their clients are B2B. Over the past 3 years I have gone from 50 contacts to over 7,500 and successfully used that to and hundreds of clients, hold multiple events with some reaching over 300 people in attendance as well as generating thousands of leads for my business.

 

With over 300 millions members and 49% of them being key decision makers, LinkedIn has become one of the most powerful business tools of the 21^st century.

 

6. Building online credibility is vital in a digital age where the social web can define you. How do you use LinkedIn to build online authority, credibility and trust?

 

Going back to my earlier point, in most cases the first thing people see when they search for your name through search engines is your LinkedIn profile. Knowing this and the importance of building your profile based on the outside, inside approach, I would recommend doing the following:

1. Cut down your skills and endorsements to 3-5. This shows you are an expert not a generalist
2. Look at how many recommendations your competitors have and then aim to double it. Recommendations on LinkedIn are perceived to be twice as more powerful than those listed within your own website.
3. Make sure your headline tells potential prospects exactly what you do (try not to make it too salesy)
4. Ensure your summary is written in a story format, targeted at showcasing how your service/product is solving the challenges your target marketing are facing. Also important is having it written in third person. This section is by far the most important within your profile given it’s one of the very first things people look at.
5. List publications, interviews, key achievements, endorsements and provide any links where possible.

7.  What do you think is the biggest mistake people make when using LinkedIn?

 

Whilst there are many mistakes people make, the one that I see the most is not having a plan or purpose for being on LinkedIn. Most people are generally on LinkedIn because a friend or associate told them they should join or maybe they read an article about it and thought it would be worthwhile to join.

 

And usually that’s where it stops, they put up their profile and visit the network a few minutes here and there without any concrete plan on how they plan to use it as a marketing tool.

 

My advice to anyone in this position is to look at your marketing objectives over the course of the next 6-12 months. Then think of the people you need to connect with to achieve those results and use LinkedIn to connect with those individuals.

 

For example, if I own a business advisory firm, my marketing objectives could be to secure a total of 10 new clients over the course of the next 6 months. Then I now know that in order to achieve those goals I would need to do the following, connect with lawyers, accountants as potential JV partners. Also important is to connect with journalists who write on the subject matter.

 

8. What is one tactic that you have implemented with LinkedIn that surprised you?

 

I would have to say connecting with journalist and editors. For years now it has been extremely hard getting in contact with those in the media simply because of the red tape you would have to go through. When I first started connecting with journalist through LinkedIn I found the process of finding, connecting and building relationships with them so easy and effortless.

 

9. How do you identify and then connect with your ideal customer on LinkedIn?

 

First of all you need to get very clear and specific in terms of whom your target market is. Some of the things you need to look at is: industry, profession, location, organisational role, gender, company size and other demographic data.

 

Once you are clear on the above metrics, you can than search for them in one of two ways through LinkedIn:

1. Quick Search: Do this if you are looking for one person or wanted to get more of a generic result on your target market. For instance if you are looking for accountants in Sydney, that’s what you would type using the quick search box which can be found at the top of your profile located in the middle
2. Advanced Search: To the right of the quick search box there is the “Advanced Search” function. In my opinion this is the best method to use because of its ability to really drill down and get specific about your target market. Using this function, you can search based on all of the metrics listed above which will ensure you have a more targeted list of contacts to connect with. Once you are happy with your criteria click search and start going through the various profiles within the search result.

Now, in my opinion quality is better than quantity. Even though I now have over 7,400 contacts quite easily I could have 15,000 to 20,000 if I wasn’t as selective with who I connected with.

 

There is no point having connections for the same of increasing your network if those connections are not going to help you achieve your marketing objectives.

 

In saying that, there are 3 things that identify whether a contact is going to be a good connection or not:

1. Good profile photo
2. Over 150 connections
3. Filled out at least 50% or more of their profile

If they don’t fit these  three guidelines, chances are they are not as active on LinkedIn or take it seriously. So generally what will happen is that they will connect with you but hardly respond to your emails which defeats the whole purpose of connecting with someone.

 

10. What are your top 3 tips for making the most of LinkedIn?

 

1. Value Bank

Connecting and effectively communicating with people through LinkedIn is no different than dealing with people outside of the network. Whether they are a supplier, potential partner or customer you need to build enough value for them to trust you in order for them to grow an interest in your company and therefore your product/service. I call this: “Value Bank”

 

2. Connecting with a purpose

Building your connections for the sake of having a large following is not really a sound strategy if you want to effectively grow your business using LinkedIn. Every connection needs to be linked to your goals and objectives in business both now and in the future.

 

3. Segment your connections 

Most people don’t realize that  LinkedIn is in effect a very powerful CRM system that allows you to segment your contacts by tagging them into specific folders. This is extremely important because the key to LinkedIn success is ensuring that your communications is targeted and personalised to each individual person you are connected with.

 

Unfortunately if you don’t have your contacts segmented you simply can’t do this without going through your entire network one by one which is very time consuming.

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/05/23/10-insights-how-to-use-linkedin-to-build-business-success/
 

How to Use Pinterest - The Basics

The beginners guide to Pinterest. Learn how to get onto Pinterest, how to set up your profile and Pinboards and how to use the tools on Pinterest. Learn how Pinterest connects with Facebook and Twitter and why it's a great idea to interweave your social networks.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejaiNn5CmI0

 

5 Simple Ways You Can Improve Your Website’s Google Ranking Today

Are you looking for more targeted traffic for your website? Do you want to get higher up on the Google search results but don’t have the time or money to dedicate towards an expensive SEO campaign?

 

If so take a look at this infographic from Louise Franks Designs which gives you 5 simple ways you can improve your ranking today.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/09/03/5-simple-ways-you-can-improve-your-websites-google-ranking-today/

 

Sole Trader: 18 Ways to Market Your Business on a Tiny Budget

As a sole trader it's vital that people know about you and your brand.  The more people you reach, the more sales you'll rake in. Simple. You could be the greatest underwear designer or sandwich maker in the world, but if you fail to market your business and customers don't know about you, how do you sell them your product or services?

 

That's why marketing is such a valuable tool for sole traders. However, it's essential that you get your marketing strategy right. Don't blow your whole budget on one channel: you need to make sure the marketing reaches a wide yet targeted audience.

 

Another point to keep in mind when marketing is that the innovative methods are always the best. Take the route less travelled and make your business stand out from the crowd.

 

We've put together a list of the top 18 ways to market your business on a shoestring.  Give them a go. After all, what have you got to lose? They are as cheap as chips, or cheaper!

 

1. Write a Press Release

 

Send out a press release detailing your business proposition and what makes it unique. Target all relevant newspapers, websites, magazines and radio. Do this even if you think your product isn't the most exciting.  It could be a slow news day and you might be exactly what they're looking for.

 

2. Use Twitter

 

Set up a Twitter account for your business. You need to make people aware of you and your products or services.  If you have a shop or stall, tweet your whereabouts. Twitter's also a fantastic way to spread discounts and offers: tweet out every time you're offering a bargain. Tweet regularly enough and pretty soon you'll have an army of followers, or as they're known in the business world, potential customers.

 

3. Use Facebook

 

Set up a Facebook page for your business. Upload photos of your products and update your status to let customers know what you're up to.  It's another way of letting people know you exist and makes you look professional.

 

4. Set Up a Website

 

For a business to be successful today it's essential that you have a website. The first thing a customer will do when trying to find out about your business is Google it. An attractive website can make your business look ultra professional and should be the home of your online presence. Your social media channels should link back to your website as much as they can. This will help drive traffic to your site and is another way of creating sales.

 

5. Start a Blog

 

This is a fast way to keep your website relevant. It could also encourage people to spend longer on your website and will encourage repeat visitors. You should style yourself as an expert on your particular field or industry. It's the perfect way to enforce brand messages and engage with customers. If people read and like your posts, they'll respect your brand even more.

 

6. Email Marketing

 

Email lets you communicate with thousands of customers or potential customers at the touch of a button. And, for smaller mailing lists, it's usually free. Get customers to fill in a form with their email address on it whenever they buy from you and have a 'Sign up for more information' field on your 'Contact us' page. This will help you build a list of email addresses to contact whenever you have a new product or offer.

 

7. Convert Your Customers into Promoters

 

Potential customers are a million times more likely to use your business if its been recommended by a friend. So why not turn your customers into brand ambassadors? Give them a discount on products if someone they recommended buys something from you. That way they'll be singing your praises and getting you more customers in the process.

 

8. Turn Your Customers into Fans

 

You only have to look at the outpouring of respect for Steve Jobs in the past few days to understand the power of brand loyalty and the impact of a visionary leader. You need to make your service and product - even yourself- so positive that customers can't wait to tell their mates about it.

 

9. Offer a Discount Card

 

It's a great way to reward customers for their loyalty and persuade them to keep using your business. For example, 'buy 9 t-shirts, get the tenth one free'. In order to get the free one, the customer may buy more than he originally intended.  This tactic is a favourite of major companies such as Starbucks and McDonalds.

 

10. Get Happy Customers to Tell You

 

Encourage customers to write a short email or letter about the positive experience they had when using your business. Put these testimonials on your website and maybe frame some exceptional ones in your shop/office. People will be more willing to use you if they see that other customers have had a positive experience.

 

11. Run a Competition

 

Give something away and get people talking about your business. You could run a competition from your shop and advertise it online. This could get more people visiting your shop: more people will see your awesome products and ultimately buy from you.

 

12. Offer to Write for a Trade Magazine or Website

 

A sole traders is the CEO, CTO, FD and CMO of their business. That makes them experts in every aspect of running their venture and their industry.  So offer to write a blog on your business for a trade publication. It's another way of getting your business known and makes you look even more reputable.

 

13. Try and Win an Award

 

Entering for an industry award can be easy. For some, all you need to do is write an application. If you're successful, local press may be interested in speaking to you and it's another accolade to put on your website or business card. It also gives customers confidence in your business.

 

14. Form a Partnership

 

For sole traders, a business partnership can be a godsend. Pairing with another business means that you will have access to their network of customers. You can also pool contacts and share advice. Want an example? A freelance marketing expert could team up with a sole trader in the printing industry. This way, the marketing expert can give advice and help with some social media advertising for the printing firm, while the printers can provide the marketer with branded stationary for his or her client.

 

15. Help Out a Local Charity

 

Help organise a fundraising event or give 5% of your earnings from a particular product or campaign to charity. It will win your business brownie points in the local community and may even get some coverage in the press. TOMS footwear has made corporate social responsibility synonymous with its brand. Its USP is: " With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need."

 

16. Ask Experts to Write on Your Website

 

Just like you, thousands of other businesses and people are looking to market themselves. If they're relevant, why not allow them to write a comment piece and post it on your website? Regular updates help your website to climb the Google rankings and guest posts are great link bait: your blogger will tell everyone they know to read it!

 

17. Get on YouTube

 

Have a YouTube page where you can put videos of your business. If you're a carpenter, film yourself building your latest project. If done well, it can show customers that you really care about what you're creating. It also gives customers an opportunity to see how much effort goes into building that chest of drawers. The same can be done for people selling burgers or even cleaning offices.

 

18. Make a Memorable Business Card

 

Business cards are cheap to make and a great way of ensuring people remember your business. When you meet potential customers at an event, give them your business card. If it's fun and memorable they may show it to friends. Effectively they're marketing your business for you.

 

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