Green Business Certificate – Starting Small Company Promotional Campaigns

So you’re starting a little company. You figured out what you wanted to sell or do and went out and got it all set up, had your DBA framed and on the wall and now all you need is for somebody to buy your product or use your service. Correct?

How are you going to go about having your public to know you even exist?

Promote! Promote! Promote!

Well that all sounds easy, but say you’re a financial specialist, a boat builder or llama farmer. They most likely didn’t teach the basic principles of starting small company promotional campaigns in boat-builders’ school. So what do you’ll need to know, and how do you go about it?

Let’s start with the “Basic Principles” of promotion:

What is Promotion?

Promotion: Anything, as advertising, public appearances, etc., done to publicize (get the attention or interest of the public) a person, product, event, etc. The New Webster’s Concise Dictionary2003 Encyclopedic Edition

Why do you promote?

The purpose of promotion is to make sure individuals know you are in business. You market because should you don’t, you won’t make it in company. You market because it is communication that you need to engage in so that you can survive. You promote in order to expand and get the attention or interest of the public for your items or services. You promote simply because if you don’t, no 1 will know you exist and no 1 will buy from you and…well, you get the point.

How do you market?

You will find more ways than you would ever think. Have you ever heard somebody say, “I never market and I am always busy” OR “I do not have to market, all my company comes from word-of-mouth”? They may not be aware of how they’re doing it, but I promise you they’re promoting somewhere. Perhaps they just go around telling everybody they talk to, that they don’t promote. (Sound funny? It’s still promoting.) Perhaps their larger-than-life running water faucet in front of their store attracts so much attention that they do not require to do anything else. Well here are some ideas you can do “knowingly” to drive in the business.

* Greeting your customers with a smile is a great place to start.

* Calling your clients after they have had a chance to use your product is a good way to market that you care about their encounter with your organization. It can also create an opportunity to make much more sales.

* A neatly packaged product, the shipping label on straight, promotes that you take pride in what you do.

* Always keep up-to-date brochures or catalogs about your business in your reception area for people to see and take with them.

* If you have customers coming into your company, make sure they are greeted pleasantly, professionally, and immediately.

Anything that gets the attention or interest of the public for the organization, its employees, its products or services (in a positive way) is promotion. But how do you go about promoting to the masses?

Here is a story that could save you thousands of marketing and promotional dollars, as well as months or years of experience.

“I was working as the Communications & Promotional Director in a medium size company. We were fortunate enough to have our own commercial printing press, that put out lots of very fancy letters, catalogs, brochures and other promotional items, and oh yes, envelopes to put them in. My full time pressman and his helpers, spent several days each week getting everything printed, cut, folded and sent over to the mailing house.”

“There, they had machines that automated all the stuffing, sorting, addressing and stamping. All in all everything was going very well. We were sending out about 40,000 pieces per week at a cost of about $10,800.00, and getting around 120 to 140 good leads per week. This generated an average of 2 new sales per week for a product that cost around $12,000, and re-sign income of around $45,000 more. We weren’t growing very fast, but we were making money.”

“THEN…911 hit. ”

“Suddenly, nobody wanted to open envelopes. Our leads were dropping to nothing. We were heading toward our own disaster like so many other businesses did. I knew I needed to market, but what great did it do if nobody read it!”

“I was talking to the owner of the mailing house and he suggested the use of POSTCARDS rather than letters. So we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I had a lot less money to allocate towards promotion, so I started by sending about 20,000 postcards weekly. The total cost-per-piece, needing only one day on the presses, half the labor at the mail house and a substantial decrease in postage, was reduced by about 60%.”

What was the result? Try 120 to 140 leads per week!

Why?

* You don’t have to open a post card!

* You see it right away, the bright picture is not hidden from view by an envelope.

* The message leaps correct out and you can’t ignore it or throw it in the trash unopened (the fate of many bulk mail pieces).

Postcards are the best medium to reach new customers when starting a small business promotional campaign.

Get your FREE internet marketing training. Visit www.gbb.org/doubleyourleads to access over 50 hours of videos packed with practical strategies and tools to help you double your leads!

If you want to read more on how this program can help you, check this article out: Green Business Certificate.