| 100+ Marketing
Ideas |
| Marketing is all about
satisfying customer needs. The following represents a comprehensive
list of marketing ideas. Use the list of marketing ideas to help better
understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those needs. |
| GENERAL IDEAS
|
• Never let a day
pass without engaging in at least one marketing activity.
•
Determine a percentage of gross income to spend annually on marketing.
• Set specific marketing goals every year; review and adjust
quarterly.
• Maintain a tickler file of ideas for later
use.
• Carry business cards with you (all day, every day).
• Create a personal nametag or pin with your company name
and logo on it and wear it at high visibility meetings |
| TARGET MARKET |
• Stay alert
to trends that might impact your target market, product or promotion
strategy.
• Read market research studies about your profession,
industry, product, target market groups, etc.
• Collect
competitors’ ads and literature; study them for information
about strategy, product features and benefits, etc.
• Ask
clients why they hired you and solicit suggestions for improvement.
• Ask former clients why they left you.
• Identify
a new market.
• Join a list-serve (email list) related
to your profession.
• Subscribe to an Internet usenet newsgroup
or a list-serve that serves your target market. |
| PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT |
• Create a new service,
technique or product.
• Offer a simpler/cheaper/smaller
version of your (or another existing) product or service.
•
Offer a fancier/more expensive/faster/bigger version of your (or another
existing) product or service.
• Update your services. |
| EDUCATION, RESOURCES
AND INFORMATION |
• Establish a marketing
and public relations advisory and referral team composed of your colleagues
and/or neighboring business owners to share ideas and referrals and
to discuss community issues. Meet quarterly for breakfast.
•
Create a suggestion box for employees.
• Attend a marketing
seminar.
• Read a marketing book.
• Subscribe
to a marketing newsletter or other publication.
• Subscribe
to a marketing list-serve on the Internet.
• Subscribe
to a marketing usenet newsgroup on the Internet.
• Train
your staff, clients and colleagues to promote referrals.
•
Hold a monthly marketing meeting with employees or associates to discuss
strategy, status and to solicit marketing ideas.
• Join
an association or organization related to your profession.
•
Get a marketing intern to take you on as a client; it will give the
intern experience and you some free
marketing help.
• Maintain a consultant card file for finding
designers, writers and other marketing professionals.
•
Hire a marketing consultant to brainstorm with.
• Take
a "creative journey" to another progressive city or country
to observe and learn from marketing techniques used there. |
| PRICING AND PAYMENT
|
• Analyze your
fee structure; look for areas requiring modifications or adjustments.
• Establish a credit card payment option for clients.
• Give regular clients a discount.
• Learn to barter;
offer discounts to members of certain clubs/professional groups/organizations
in exchange for promotions in their publications.
• Give
"quick pay" or cash discounts.
• Offer financing
or installment plans. |
| MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
|
• Publish a newsletter
for customers and prospects. (It doesn’t have to be fancy or
expensive.)
• Develop a brochure of services.
•
Include a postage-paid survey card with your brochures and other company
literature. Include check-off boxes or other items that will involve
the reader and provide valuable feedback to you.
• Remember,
business cards aren’t working for you if they’re in the
box. Pass them out! Give prospects two business cards and brochures
-- one to keep and one to pass along.
• Produce separate
business cards/sales literature for each of your target market segments
(e.g. government and commercial, and/or business and consumer).
• Create a poster or calendar to give away to customers and
prospects.
• Print a slogan and/or one-sentence description
of your business on letterhead, fax cover sheets and invoices.
• Develop a site on the World Wide Web.
• Create
a "signature file" to be used for all your e-mail messages.
It should contain contact details including your Web site address
and key information about your company that will make the reader want
to contact you.
• Include "testimonials" from
customers in your literature.
• Test a new mailing list.
If it produces results, add it to your current direct mail lists or
consider replacing a list that's not performing up to expectations.
• Use colored or oversized envelopes for your direct mailings.
Or send direct mail in plain white envelopes to pique recipients'
curiosity.
• Announce free or special offers in your direct
response pieces. (Direct responses may be direct mail, broadcast fax,
or e-mail messages.) Include the offer in the beginning of the message
and also on the outside of the envelope for direct mail. |
| MEDIA RELATIONS
|
• Update your media
list often so that press releases are sent to the right media outlet
and person.
• Write a column for the local newspaper, local
business journal or trade publication.
• Publish an article
and circulate reprints.
• Send timely and newsworthy press
releases as often as needed.
• Publicize your 500th client
of the year (or other notable milestone).
• Create an annual
award and publicize it– as an outstanding employee of the year.
• Get public relations and media training or read up on
it.
• Appear on a radio or TV talk show.
• Create
your own TV program on your industry or your specialty. Market the
show to your local cable station or public broadcasting station as
a regular program. Or, see if you can air your show on an open access
cable channel.
• Write a letter to the editor of your local
newspaper or to a trade magazine editor.
• Take an editor
to lunch.
• Get a publicity photo taken and enclose with
press releases.
• Consistently review newspapers and magazines
for possible PR opportunities.
• Submit "tip"
articles to newsletters and newspapers.
• Conduct industry
research and develop a press release or article to announce an important
discovery in your field.
• Create a press kit and keep
its contents current. |
| CUSTOMER SERVICE
AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS |
• Ask your clients
to come back again.
• Return phone calls promptly.
• Set up a fax-on-demand or email system to easily respond
to customer inquiries.
• Use an answering machine or voice
mail system to catch after-hours phone calls. Include basic information
in your outgoing message such a business hours, location, etc.
• Record a memorable message or "tip of the day" on
your outgoing answering machine or voice mail message.
•
Ask clients what you can do the help them.
• Take clients
out to a ball game, a show or another special event– just send
them two tickets with a note.
• Hold a seminar at your
office for clients and prospects.
• Send hand-written thank-you
notes.
• Send birthday cards and appropriate seasonal greetings.
• Photocopy interesting articles and send them to clients
and prospects with a hand-written "FYI" note and your business
card.
• Send a book of interest or other appropriate business
gift to a client with a handwritten note.
• Create an area
on your Web site specifically for your customers.
• Redecorate
your office or location where you meet with your clients. |
| NETWORKING AND
WORD OF MOUTH |
• Join a Chamber
of Commerce or other organization.
• Join or organize a
breakfast club with other professionals (not in your field) to discuss
business and network referrals.
• Mail a brochure to members
of organizations to which you belong.
• Serve on a city
board or commission.
• Host a holiday party.
•
Hold an open house.
• Send letters to attendees after you
attend a conference.
• Join a community list-serve (email
list) on the Internet. |
| ADVERTISING
|
• Advertise during
peak seasons for your business.
• Get a memorable phone
number, such as "1-800-WIDGETS."
• Obtain a memorable
URL and email address and include them on all marketing materials.
• Provide Rolodex® cards or phone stickers pre-printed
with your business contact information.
• Promote your
business jointly with other professionals via cooperative direct mail.
• Advertise in a specialty directory or in the Yellow Pages.
• Write an ad in another language to reach a non-English-speaking
market. Place the ad in a publication that market reads, such as a
Hispanic newspaper.
• Distribute advertising specialty
products such as pens, mouse pads or mugs.
• Mail "bumps,"
photos, samples and other innovative items to your prospect list.
(A bump is simply anything that makes the mailing envelope bulge and
makes the recipient curious about what’s in the envelope!)
• Create a direct mail list of "hot prospects."
• Consider non-traditional tactics such as bus backs, billboards
and popular Web sites.
• Project a message on the sidewalk
in front of your place of business using a light directed through
words etched in a glass window.
• Consider placing ads
in your newspaper’s classified section.
• Consider
a vanity automobile tag with your company name.
• Create
a friendly bumper sticker for your car.
• Code your ads
and keep records of results.
• Improve your building signage
and directional signs inside and out.
• Invest in a neon
sign to make your office or storefront window visible at night.
• Create a new or improved company logo or "recolor"
the traditional logo.
• Sponsor and promote a contest or
sweepstakes. |
| SPECIAL EVENTS
AND OUTREACH |
• Get a booth at
a fair/trade show attended by your target market.
• Sponsor or host a special event or open house at your business
location in cooperation with a local non-profit organization, such
as a women's business center. Describe how the organization helped
you.
• Give a speech or volunteer for a career day at a
high school.
• Teach a class or seminar at a local college
or adult education center.
• Sponsor an "Adopt-a-Road"
area in your community to keep roads litter-free. People that pass
by the area will see your name on the sign announcing your sponsorship.
• Volunteer your time to a charity or non-profit organization.
• Donate your product or service to a charity auction.
• Appear on a panel at a professional seminar.
•
Write a "How To" pamphlet or article for publishing.
• Produce and distribute an educational CD-ROM, audio or video
tape.
• Publish a book. |
| SALES IDEAS |
• Start every day
with two cold calls.
• Read newspapers, business journals
and trade publications for new business openings and for personnel
appointment and promotion announcements made by companies. Send your
business literature to appropriate individuals and firms.
•
Give your sales literature to your lawyer, accountant, printer, banker,
temp agency, office supply salesperson, advertising agency, etc. (Expand
your sales force for free!)
• Put your fax number on order
forms for easy submission.
• Set up a fax-on-demand or
email system to easily distribute responses to company or product
inquiries.
• Follow up on your direct mailings, email messages
and broadcast faxes with a friendly telephone call.
• Try
using the broadcast fax or email delivery methods instead of direct
mail. (Broadcast fax and email allows you to send the same message
to many locations at once.)
• Using broadcast fax or email
messages to notify your customers of product service updates.
• Extend your hours of operation.
• Reduce response/turnaround
time. Make reordering easy– reminders. Provide pre-addressed
envelopes.
• Display product and service samples at your
office.
• Remind clients of the products and services you
provide that they aren't currently buying.
• Call and/or
send mail to former clients to try to reactivate them.
•
Take sales orders over the Internet.
(National Women's Business Center, Washington, D.C., 4/97) |
