7 Tips for Promoting Your Home Business
June 28, 2007 by Mary Emma Allen
In my previous post, Promote Your Home Business Every Single Day, we mentioned a few strategies for doing something each day to market or promote your business, ways to get your name (business and/or personal) out there where you’ll gain recognition or become a brand (that popular buzz word nowadays).
What are you doing? What can you do? Possibly you have a very limited budget. Also, time is at a premium for you. So how do you find time to squeeze in promotion?
What about making out a check list for yourself? Then do at least one item on it each day, preferably more. Some of these take less than five minutes.
Here are 7 tips or items for starting your checklist:
*You’ve developed a blog. Post something on your blog frequently. It doesn’t have to be long or eloquent. Actually short pieces are read more regularly nowadays. People don’t have a lot of time for reading long, detailed posts and news articles unless they’re looking for specific information, knowledge, or instructions.
*Send out press releases to print and online media. Keep these short, too. When I was a newspaper reporter, we liked the short, to-the-point releases. If we wanted more information, we could contact the person…as long as they included contact information.
*Make a call to one potential customer. It may simply be a friendly, making a connection call until you’ve found how your business will benefit this person.
*Follow up with a customer. See if they have any questions about an item they purchased or a service.
*If you have postal addresses for customers, write a quick post card. I find many people like to receive a post card or note in the mail, even though there’s e-mail for contacting them.
*Check into opportunities for interviews, either in person or by e-mail.
*Develop a jar or container for drawings for prizes at your place of business. Customers can drop in business card or simply fill out a slip of paper with name, address, phone and e-mai.l If online, you draw from customers who register at your site, leaving their e-mail. These usually are potential customers or return customers.
What have you been using for promotion strategies in your business?