Market your small business

1. Write and distribute a press release at least four times per year. The media is always on the lookout for a great story (particularly your local media), so write one for them.
2. Join a business referral group. Business Network International is one of the best business referral groups in the world and is very affordable.
3. Use free resources to build targeted prospect lists and then hit the phone selling. Many libraries have a subscription to ReferenceUSA, an online business list service. Through your library account, you should be able to access this database for free.
4. Learn how to sell using consultative selling techniques. Consultative selling is asking your customer questions to uncover their problems or needs.
5. Create a powerful money-back guarantee. When you remove your customer's risk in buying from you, you remove the biggest obstacle in making a purchasing decision.
6. Understand that advertising is salesmanship. When you create an advertisement, that advertisement must sell just as a salesperson would. Use conversational language and simple words.
7. Track all of your marketing to see which strategies are working. Every time a potential customer contacts you, ask how they heard about you.
8. Don't spend your entire marketing budget at once. Marketing works on repetition. The more a consumer sees your ad, the greater the chance that consumer will buy your product or service.
9. Test different ads. You may find that by simply changing the headline in your ad you can double the response rate. Therefore, try different ads and keep close track of the performance of each one.
10. Tell customers why you are different. To separate yourself from your competition you must tell your customer why you are different and why that difference is a benefit. This must be done in every aspect of your marketing.

Source: Peter Geisheker, CEO, The Geisheker Group Inc.