If you own a business, by now you have probably discovered that there’s also a lot of competition, both local and national. An effective marketing program is vital for business owners in this competitive industry.Do you need marketing ideas to help you increase local business? If so, this article is just what you need to get your creative juices flowing. Below is a list of marketing strategies that will help you increase your exposure and grow your business.
1. If your local business just opened, hold an open house so people can come in and learn about your company.
2. Offer discounted prices for people who purchase during the first 30 days.
3. Offer something free to new customers.
4. Direct mail postcards are perfectly suited for local business marketing because you can target a certain area around your location.
5. Good ideas and unique services can help you generate word-of-mouth marketing and buzz. For example, when a new gym opened in my area, a lot of people were talking about the cario room “theater” that showed movies.
6. Develop a customer-referral program, through which your current customers get some type of bonus or reward for bringing in new customers.
7. Broaden your marketing program to include some public relations. Distribute press releases about your opening to local news outlets.
8. Write articles related sections for your local newspaper.
9. To coincide with the last marketing idea you could also distribute your press release online. You could use PRWeb for this purpose.
10. Many neighborhoods and communities these days have some type of community newsletter that gets mailed to the residents each month. These newsletters almost always have advertising opportunities for local business owners. It could be a valuable marketing tool for your business — and for a good price!
11. If you offer a new or unique type of business technique, try to get your local TV news to cover it. Invite them over to witness the procedure. Most local news channels have a segment where they cover such things. I recently saw a dental office on the news explaining a new tooth whitening procedure. What a great marketing idea for local exposure!
12. As an Internet marketing strategy, hire a search engine marketing consultant to improve your website’s ranking in the major search engines like Google. This will increase the online exposure for your business practice.
13. Another Internet marketing option: Advertise your website with a pay-per-click campaign through Yahoo/Bing or Google’s AdWords. You could put yourself onto the first page of keyword search results almost instantly, if you bid wisely.
14. List your business website in a variety of web directories. This will increase the number of links coming in to your site, which has a direct (and positive) impact on your search engine rankings. This in turn means more traffic and more patients.
15. Do some research to find out what your competitors are doing, in terms of self-promotion or social media. This can often be an excellent source of marketing ideas and inspiration. Ask yourself, “How can I adopt the same technique but make it even better?”
16. Join your local chamber of commerce or other business organizations. This can be useful for networking purposes.
17. Hire a company that specializes in website development and content writing to ensure your customers can find you online.
Which of these business marketing ideas are right for you? That’s something you’ll have to find out for yourself, through personal experimentation. But one thing is for sure — if you are not an expert in marketing, to get the most out of your marketing dollars, you may want to consider hiring a marketing company that specializes in growing business for local companies such as DirectiveGroup.
