7 Low Cost Marketing Tips

As a woman business owner, you have to start looking at marketing as an investment rather than an expense. And remember, no matter what your business is, you’re really in the marketing business.

So here are seven low cost marketing strategies to help you get started bringing in revenue.

1.) Free Advertisements - there are places where you can run free ads offline and online

2.) Speaking - every chance you get give a talk or presentation about what you do, you can do talks in your town and give talks on internet radio and podcasts.

3.) Create FREE reports and leave them wherever you go, hand them out, offer them on your website by using an opt in box to obtain the website visitor’s contact information.

4.) Write a blog, this will generate a little “buzz” about you and attract readers to your site. You’ll build a “following” and get known as an expert, people like to buy from experts.

5.) Write articles and submit them to online article directories. Fax them to radio shows, magazines and television shows that market to your target market.

6.) Put flyers around town on bulletin boards in coffee shops, libraries, community centers, grocery stores, and day spas.

7.) To build your expertise on the internet you can post helpful responses in discussion forums, make sure to include a signature line, avoid apparent self-promotion.

Those are just a few steps to get you started, while they won’t get your phone ringing off the hook, they are good, low cost ways to start any marketing campaign.

Online Marketing Basics

 The number one reason that most businesses fail is because they run out of money. And most businesses run out of money because their marketing isn’t working. Online marketing allows you the opportunity to market your business much more inexpensively than you can offline.

When you’re doing direct marketing you’re looking for a “yes” or “no”, when you’re marketing online you want people to say “maybe”. Online marketing affords you the opportunity to give your potential customer the opportunity to “get to know” you. You can offer them a free article or report, they can sign up for your free ezine, listen to a free audiocourse or watch a free video presentation. Because everything you offer them is digitally produced, your costs are minimal.

So your first step is to make them a free offer in exchange for their email address, this allows you the opportunity to market to them over and over again. You’ll want to offer the people on your list a lot of free information, make sure to vary the medium. Offer free audios, free videos, free PDF downloads and free teleseminars. Over time the people on your list will begin to feel like they know, like and trust you. Some will buy immediately, some may take awhile, and some may never buy at all, but because expenses are minimal that’s okay.

Eventually you’ll have a large enough list that whenever you offer a new product or service, orders will come flooding in. This type of marketing takes patience and should be just one of the marketing strategies you use to build and promote your business.

Are You An “IT” Girl?

Are you the “IT” girl in your field or industry? If you want to take your business to the next level and become an “IT” Girl, there’s a great book you must read called It! by Paula Froelich.

Paula is the smart, savvy (of course,she’s from Ohio like me) gossip columnist at Page Six; the place for all things gossip.

Paula has seen first hand what it takes to become famous, she knows what works and what doesn’t. Whether you’re an aspiring actress or you want to be the “It” Girl in your local city, Paula gives you the scoop on how you can be fabulous, famous and HOT! To be a successful woman entrepreneur you must market, market, market and “it! 9 Secrets of The Rich and Famous That Will Take You To The Top” is a great place to learn PR basics.

Paula gives a lot of examples used by the fabulously famous and shows us how we can use the exact same techniques to claim our fame. So for all you wanna be “it!” girls out there, buy the book, take lots of notes and make “it!” happen.

Selling The Invisible

 If your business is in the services sector, what are you actually selling. You don’t have a “tangible” product, so exactly what do you sell? And even if you do have a tangible product you need to add value, and usually the added value takes the form of services. So if you’re marketing any product or service at all, you’re selling the invisible. Harry Beckwith wrote a smart little book on this marketing concept aptly titled “Selling The Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing”. Beckwith’s book is a timeless classic. He provides practical marketing strategies that many of us have forgotten. This is not a “how to ” guide it’s a collection of stories and anecdotes that can be applied to any situation that involves communication. And what is marketing…if not communication?

“Selling the Invisible” is a must read in the changing face of the American economy, as we move towards a more service oriented economy. Marketers need to focus more on relationships and less on features and benefits. Seven out of every ten women owned businesses operate in the services or retail industry, therefore savvy women entrepreneurs should learn to implement Beckwith’s strategies to remain competitive, profitable and grow their businesses.

Because women business owners emphasize relationship building as a management style, “relationship” marketing will undoubtedly make sense to them, women intuitively seem to know that the better you understand people, the more successful you will be. This is the focus of “Selling the Invisible”, a must read for any women entrepreneur.

Marketing Is NOT Selling!

Most people equate marketing with the dreaded “S” word–Selling. Successful marketers know that marketing is not selling, marketing is about education.

What? Education? What does education have to do with selling you ask? Everything. Your position as a successful marketer is that you will educate as many people as possible about your service or product. When you come from a point of service, a point of educating consumers, all the dynamics change.

This is why it is so important to have systems in place to help you educate your prospects. For instance in my business Girls Who Network, we have several educational systems in place. We have the blog, which you’re reading, that provides a lot of useful information for our prospects. We have monthly newsletters that provides useful information, we have a free weekly call called Girl Power Hour that provides useful information and we offer strategy session that provide education as well.

Girls Who Network comes from a point of serving and educating the community, this way interested prospects have the opportunity to contact us and see if they want what we have to offer. By educating them we have broken down the traditional “I don’t want to be sold” barriers.

So think about your business. Rather than “selling” your prospects, how can you “educate” your prospects. Hey “teacher” try this and watch your sales soar!

How to Become Famous!

Want to create a little buzz about your business? Here are some step by step strategies you can use to get your message out and position yourself for success.

• Create your “pitch” and develop a news “hook”
• Put out online and offline news releases on a regular basis
• Appear on television, start local and build to national appearances
• Do radio and podcast interviews, these can be done over the phone, so look outside your locale
• Determine community needs and find a way to fill them, this will give you great local publicity
• Find a way to tie-in to charity events
• Do public speaking
• Write a book and become known as the expert
• Write articles to submit online to ezine directories

So there you have it, strategies anyone can use to become famous!