Of course there are many ways to advertise via the more popular websites; however, these are becoming increasingly more expensive the more popular they become. Banner and Pay-Per-Click advertising are amongst other successful methods too and can be successful with the correct strategy and budget.

Business directories have been around for years in the well-known form of Yellow Pages. However, businesses are becoming increasingly marketing savvy and they require more than a mere list of local suppliers and printed directories can be limited with regard to easily updating information regularly.

A well established online regional business directory is an excellent marketing tool for any business looking to capture more prospects searching locally for the products and services they’re selling. When coupled with even a modest internet marketing strategy such as a website or blog and perhaps a regular email marketing series, it will attract both new customers and keep existing clientele hot until they’re ready to buy from you.

Business directories aim to gather and promote all types of local businesses in one place on their website simply categorised and so increasing the number of potential customers finding you. Two type of listing are usually offered – regular listing and featured listing:

• Regular listing: is free and allows any business an entry level presence and should be the crucial first stage for any business.
• Featured listing: is an upgrade to the basic free listing allowing increased functionality for a modest cost.

There’s the obvious advantage for you listing your business in the top category of the business directory but the competition here can be quite strong too so careful time spend over content always pays bigger dividends and often you can be too close to your own business so outsourcing this crucial task can be cheap in relation to the benefits gained.

People will find your business from the search engines and the search facility on the business directories so thought is vital when choosing ‘key’ words and phrases describing your business and what your prospects will be searching for to find you.

You should consider the importance of the business directory to increase your business. Find the best directory for your region and place your listing into it. This will be really helpful to you and increase the number of your customers.

Use the leverage of your business directory even if it’s just a free listing; ensure whatever content is allowed in your profile is relevant and regularly up to date and search complimentary businesses in your area to see if you can partner with them or maybe some joint marketing sharing the cost and resources. How about a joint email newsletter or regular offers between customer databases, blog updates and swapping articles all of which can be inexpensive and benefit both parties.

If you would like to ‘brainstorm’ some online and offline low-cost ideas for generating more laser targeted traffic to your website, blog or into your door, contact us.

Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines.

But they aren’t getting the number of high quality referrals they’d like or need. The techniques we’re hearing aren’t working consistently. That’s because so often we leave it up to the client to guess who they should refer us to. If you really want to be successful building your pipeline with referrals, you need to take a step back and think about what types of introductions you really want.

Just any old referral won’t get you your next hot prospect. When you leave it up to your customer to figure out who they think would be a good referral, they won’t consider all the qualification points you do.

They might not recognize that they’re a great client because they’re:

• Focused on issues that fall within your offerings’ sweet spot
• Using your solutions exactly like you want other customers to
• In a specific industry or a certain size company
• Treating you as a trusted advisor

Suddenly you find yourself with a referral that’s less than ideal. It’s too small a company, has a completely different set of needs than you address, or is outside your industry expertise.
Because the referral came from one of your top clients, you either have to figure out how to say “thanks, but no thanks” or follow-up then explain to your customer why it wasn’t the best fit. It’s possible you could actually waste as much time following up on this unqualified introduction as you would cold calling!

A poor referral from a great client puts you in an awkward position – all because you were trying to shorten your new business development cycle through referrals. Mediocre connections won’t help you fill your pipeline.

No, you only want top quality referrals. Your desire is to get introduced to companies and contacts that really need your offerings and will want to talk with you. You’re looking for new connections with the characteristics of your best clients.

Don’t limit yourself to asking for referrals that are similar in size, industry, or region.
Broaden your expectations to seek introductions to people who’ll implement and appreciate your offerings like your best clients do. Ask for contacts who’ll want to work closely with you and welcome your expertise and recommendations.

To get referrals that fit such specific qualifications, you need to frame who is a great connection when you ask. Tell your customer what types of companies make the best match for your offerings.

There are two parts to framing your referral request:

• Say, “someone like you who…” – and fill in the blank with the profile of your ideal referral.
• Then add, “someone who needs …” – and include the classic challenges, issues or needs you address.

What you’re doing is creating a picture of your ideal referral for your client. Now as they mentally search through all their colleagues, they can easily determine which ones to recommend. You’ve taken the guesswork out of it.

Call me a referral snob if you will, but if we’re going to ask for referrals, spend precious time following up on them, and then work them with due diligence, don’t we deserve to get only the very best introductions? I sure think so!

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment.

The term recession can conjure up a feeling of fear, uncertainty and even depression but companies and entrepreneurs often do very well in hard times.

Companies that are built upon weak business models are repeatedly overwhelmed in recessionary periods. However, those that employ solid basic methodology will easily resist market challenges and move in front of their competition.

So rather than let it be a time of uncertainty, a recession can be the opportunity for you to grow and move your company forward and ahead of the curve. But before anything else, it’s crucial to make sure your marketing and the tools being used, present an influential and comprehensible reflection of your company’s intention to succeed.

Importantly they should set you apart from the competition and if they don’t, an over-haul is definitely required. A great place to start would be with your website because up to 90% of your potential clients and customers will check out your website before deciding to trade with you and your business. So an effectively written, designed and optimised website is critical to progress and it needs to tell your prospects what is required if them.

After your website, other material that is used to make a first impression on your prospects should be designed to mirror that of your new website ensuring consistency of your brand identity and projecting a clear and professional image.

Once this is in place, you will feel more confident and ready to begin prospecting for your new business. You will need to accept that old methods used probably won’t be good enough now and it’s likely your competitors will be doing the same things; that means you must be different to get noticed and succeed.

These days’ companies are looking for knowledge to assist their decision to use new suppliers and providers; they will often come to you if they see you as an expert in your industry and you can promote yourself as such by writing and publishing articles that reflect issues within your chosen field or industry. You can also consider holding seminars aimed at your target market.

When selling a service or product, making it easier for your prospects to use you is crucial. With a service you may want to consider offering a package or maybe even free or part-free deals to enable a prospect to evaluate you first-hand without risk and products can be packaged or bundled too. Whilst considering your package or deal, also take into account methods by which your prospects contact and purchase from you and make sure there are multiple ways available for them to use so they can choose the most convenient for them.

A positive outlook together with a strong sense of purpose in these demanding times is paramount. You are not on your own either, the majority of companies will be experiencing similar challenges to you so a keeping an optimistic and determined attitude will separate you from the rest, help your success and steer you away from failure.

To get your marketing strategies in place and increase your customer base, contact us.

So just what is referral marketing and how can to promote your business in front of everyone else’s?

It’s basically a systemised approach that turns every single sale into the buying power of many. This is done by establishing a specific set of strategies and tools designed to bring you new customers, clients, leads, and repeat business without other advertising methods. However, when combined with other systems such as advertising and direct mail, you will have a very powerful system of customer generation.

There are usually two things that stop small businesses from working referral marketing consistently and powerfully:

1. Lack of system
2. Fear of rejection

If you provide a product or service that helps solve problems and meets the needs of your customers or clients then surely you owe it to others to spread the word.

If you think about the act of referring it really comes down to these two simple things:

1. Provide a product or service that is liked and needed
2. Administering the referral expectation

If you’re not already convinced you should be actively employing referral marketing then here’s why you need to do this:

• Referrals are credible right from the start. When a trusted friend or colleague tells you about a business you transfer that trust to this company…even if you’ve never heard of them before.

• Research has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that people who are referred to a business tend to spend more money. It’s probably because people tend to refer those that are ready-to-buy and not merely price shoppers.

• Referrals are extremely cost-effective and even a fraction of what you might pay in advertising costs in some cases.

Referrals are essential to your business so don’t overlook them.

To get your referral system in place and multiply your customer base contact us today.