Call our Dallas Studio 214.703.0360

Covenant Design's:
The Top 100 Free
Small Business Marketing Tips
Maximize Your Marketing for Optimum Cashflow.

1. Use the computer in every aspect of your marketing.
The computer has revolutionized every aspect of business, from finance to manufacturing to inventory control. Yet, some companies never unleash the power of the computer for marketing. Most companies, for example, cannot tell you who are their largest and most valuable customers, and what products and services they are buying. They don't know if large customers are buying more or less this year compared to last.

Because of the high cost of mass promotion, the most brilliant marketers employ database marketing techniques that enable marketers to target prospects and existing customers with specialized messages that appeal precisely to their needs. Instead of expensive shotgun mass media, a computerized database marketing can provide your business a targeted approach to marketing.

2. Capture your customer information in a database. Your company's lifeblood is its customers. You need to know who they are, how much various ones spend on your products, which products do certain customers buy and why, and what things do they need in the future. The easiest way to trap customer names is to ask them their name and address for the invoice and enter it on-line on a computer. If that is not possible, they can fill in their address on a small card. To encourage and entice them to provide you this valuable information, you should tell them you will be sending them a valuable discount coupon in the future, or a valuable incentive offer, intended just for existing customers. Then follow up on your promise and have a sale or discount just for existing customers. It's a great way to show your appreciation to past customers. Each year, for example, a retailer that sell men's suits has a sale. Beforehand, the store sends out a mailer enabling past customers to come in early before the public learns about the sale, so they can have the best selection without crowds.

3. Direct mail puts your message in the prospect's hand.
TV advertising is glamorous but expensive. Radio is more affordable, but often charges you to hit a broad, untargeted market. Newspaper is limited to those who are dedicated readers. Only one method guarantees that your message will make it through the communication clutter to actually hit the hand of the prospect: direct mail. Direct mail, coupled with a database marketing system, can put a specialized and personalized message in the prospect's mailbox. Click here for our Direct Mail Services.

4. Remind customers it's time to purchase again. Dentists mail reminders to patients that it's time to have their teeth cleaned. Auto service departments log the current mileage of a car when it's in for an oil change so their computer will automatically calculate when 5,000 miles will likely have been driven, based on the driver's past rate. Then a postcard will mail that tells the driver that they likely have 20,000 miles and it's time for their oil change, valve adjustment, whatever. If you service customers regularly, anticipate when they will likely need you again, and have a postcard hit their mailbox at the right time, so they are less likely to go somewhere else.

5. Invite inactive customers back. Go into your customer database. Find all those customers who haven't purchased anything in the last calendar year. For these, send a personalized letter inviting them back. Tell them if they bring that personal letter, they will get $50 off their next purchase over $150. Provide a 60-day deadline to the incentive. If they don't want to take advantage of the offer, ask them to write down the reason they no longer use your company on the back of the letter and mail it back to you. That way, you'll at least be able to respond to their complaint or suggestion, and learn what is scaring customers away, and perhaps who is getting them.

6. Co-op promotion with other companies. American Airlines and Citibank partner to offer a Citibank charge card that provides frequent flyer miles for every dollar charged on the card. Through the scheme, both Citibank and American Airlines lock in a ideal customer -- someone who spends a lot of money on various things, including travel. American Airlines encourages flyers to stay on their airline, and Citibank has a mechanism to keep other charge card companies from stealing the customer away. There are often other companies are trying to reach the same type of person as you, but with a different, non-competitive product. Consider that you can both reach he prospect and share the cost of promotion.

7. Be aware of product life cycles. EVERY product has a life cycle. Do your services and products need to be reinvented to be current with today's marketplace? Every product goes through several stages of time, from introduction, growth, maturity and obsolescence. Fashion is a quick life cycle, where a trendy look can be introduced in the Fall only to be obsolete by Spring. On the other hand, tobacco has had one of the longest product life cycles, but it too is now in obsolescence. If you are a single product or service company, watch out for trends and advances that may make your product obsolete.

8. Observe, but don't follow your competitors. Too many companies play monkey-see, monkey do. They watch their competitor do a sale, they do a sale. A competitor places an ad in a certain newspaper, and they deduce it must work. Don't follow your competitor off a cliff. Develop YOUR marketing game plan and stick to it. Pretty soon, your competitor will be following your lead.

9. Grow geographically within your niche. The easiest way to grow is to improve access to the products & services that are already selling well by making them available to similar customers in new geographic areas. For example, if you are the perceived expert in a certain niche service, consider promoting your services to those potential buyers in a wider geographic market.

10. Be persistent. Most marketing efforts fail because they lack commitment. Keep in mind, tenacious promotion will always outperform flashy promotion that appears like a fireworks display ... and disappears just as fast. One direct-mail letter won't do it. People are buried under an onslaught of daily messages. You need to break through that clutter with a strong message, that is repeated over and over.

11. Consider purchases vs. impulse buying. Ice cream is an impulse purchase. Buying a Mercedes Benz is a considered purchase. Which category does your product fall into? Too many times, marketing efforts fail because the marketing director never asks this key question. Considered purchases need third-party endorsement, from publicity articles and impartial consumer ratings. For these products and services, consider spending money on developing publicity which is viewed by the consumer as credible information versus ads, which is viewed as self-serving chest thumping. If you have to use advertising, consider an informative approach that outlines for the consumer your comparative strengths.

12. Industries evolve: customers are no longer patient. For example, while people 50 and over, still hold doctors in high esteem, that same cannot be said for younger baby boomers, who are more often to question a doctor's advice. The tradition of physicians making patients wait for excessive periods in waiting rooms is at long last coming to an end. Patients are no longer patient. Unless, you hold your patients hostage through an HMO, you may find your patients slowly evaporating to competitors over time. Fact: don't make your customers wait when you wouldn't do the likewise.

13. Budget money and time for marketing. Effective marketing and new customer acquisition is much like farming. You invest time and money to plow the field and plant seeds that will produce a rich harvest months from now. Instead, most businesses chug along until they look up from their cash registers and see no new customers coming through the front door. The immediate prescription? "Gee, let's place an ad." Fact: sporadic marketing produces sporadic results. Take the time to develop a game plan for the year, and attach a dollar figure for promotion. The rule of thumb for most companies is to budget 5 to 10 percent of gross sales/revenues on promotion.

14. Innovate your own frequent flier program. The airlines recognized early on that in a price-differentiated industry, there is no product loyalty. Consumers will go for the low fare, unless they get a perk for purchasing more of your product. A buyer loyalty program shouldn't be complex. You don't want to create an administrative headache with point systems and and expensive record keeping. Consider a system that gives the 10th purchase free. You can use your business card, with a special punch hole that logs purchases. This also puts the record-keeping burden on the customer.

15. Price-seeking behavior: When price infers quality. Marketing experts have long recognized that in those industries where there is no objective quality data to compare products, Americans will defer to using the price tag to infer which product is more valuable or better made. For example, jewelry is an industry where most people are unaware of how to judge quality of a diamond. Consequently, American consumers will look to the price tag to infer a level of quality.

16. Variety-seeking behavior: When it pays to be new. Cookies are a good example of a product category that is victimized by variety-seeking behavior. For example, a consumer may try your cookie, love it, but next time will pass it by on the shelf to try a new cookie. It's not that your cookie wasn't good, it has to compete with new brands that tempt customers with a new flavor experience. If you are in an industry where people have no buyer loyalty, consider a frequent buyer program to lock in future purchases, or repackage and modify your product to appear fresh and different.

How To Use Promotion Strategies Wisely

17. Provide information instead of hype. Believability in advertising is now at an all-time low. That means that more Americans are becoming skeptical of the messages in paid advertising. While publicity is viewed as a credible third-party endorsement, advertising is not. Most advertising strives only to stand out in a sea of clutter. Unfortunately, that advertising philosophy creates ads that act like a screaming chicken: they attract attention but don't persuade. Persuasive advertising involves the communication of a believable message, not hype. Chest-thumping boasts about being "the best" are lost on discerning customers who have an insatiable appetite for facts and credible information. For example, in the mid-1980s, Mercedes Benz owned the expensive luxury car market. Their advertising featured the theme: "Engineered like no other car in the world." The ads had plenty of text and cutaway illustrations that explained the technological innovations like independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, beveled rear tail lights that remained clean even in dirty road conditions and many other features that explained WHY Mercedes cars cost three times as much as other American vehicles. If you are paying for expensive space in newspapers or airwaves, use that space to communicate information about WHY your product or service is a better value than competing brands. Use facts to lend credibility. Then let the facts add up to a convincing argument.

18. Don't skimp on Graphic Design. Graphic design is no different than fashion. People today have sophisticated tastes in graphic design. Consequently, the design of your ad or brochure will convey a great deal of information about how sophisticated or professional a company you have. If you want to make a good first impression, you wear a nice suit. On the other hand, many companies skimp on design and end up looking as if they are in a striped sport coat, plaid slacks and white shoes. Recognize that graphic design is a specialty unto itself. Get someone who will make your company look current and professional.

19. Be consistent, be tenacious. So you placed an ad. The world must now be beating a path to your door. In reality, the secret to promotion is repetition. It takes at least three repetitions to get noticed. More, to get action. Typically, it's better to stick with an ad budget that keeps you visible most of the year, even if the ad size is small. Otherwise, your marketing may appear herky jerky, here today, gone tomorrow. A huge ad one day, that never appears again, has little going for it. Yes it may get noticed. But does it persuade on an ongoing basis? Consider a smaller ad that has content that continually shapes a new and evolving message to the prospect. Make a continuous point over time, rather than one fireworks display that disappears as fast as it appears.

20. Don't spread yourself too thin. It can be tempting to do TV, radio, and print to have a presence in all the forms of mass media. That's not a good strategy. It's better to have a significant presence in a single media. Otherwise, you end up spreading yourself too thin.

21. Do you need to print a brochure? Most companies need some type of communication that communicates their capabilities, prices, etc. Some companies might be better off, though, spending the money normally directed at a brochure to a direct mail catalog or promotion. That's because, sometimes brochures sit on shelves and go out of date. Next time you are thinking about promotion, consider the delivery mechanism to get the promotion into the hands of the prospect. Is there a salesperson who will hand it to them? Will it be mailed? Will it be part of direct response campaign with a toll-free phone number?

22. Promotion is an investment: track your return. (ROI = Return On Investment) Marketing and promotion is an investment in your company's future. Similarly, you can track your return on this investment. Design a simple new customer information card or on-line survey that tracks how new customers hear of you. If this is tracked in a database, you can quickly total the number of response from newspaper or yellow page ads after each quarter. If you have this information in a database you can link this file in a relational database to your customer charge file to show the charges related to customers coming in from the newspaper advertising.

23. Show the product. Unless you have millions of dollars to create secondary meaning for a swoosh, don't emulate brand retailers who have a different long-term positioning strategy. You need to sell product. If you're selling a shoe, show it. Show how good it looks, why it's better than the competition, why it will last longer, why the customer will be more attractive wearing it.

24. Show the service. The same rule applies to services. Only you are showing the desirable outcome or result of using a service. It's easy to confuse the process of the service with the outcome. If you are an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine, it's tempting to show all your Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment, but those are merely the tools in your toolbox. A more effective image may be an action photo of a former patient screaming down the mountain on skis. You are selling the outcome of health and return to activity.

25. Have a "Call to Action." Every ad should have a call to action where the prospect is invited to call your phone number, send in a coupon for a catalog or for more information. What do you want the viewer to do? Call you? Visit your web site? Place an order? Go buy at a distributor's location? Coupons are sometimes worthwhile because not everybody likes to call for information.

26. Use the Yellow Pages. How do yellow pages work? Yellow pages in many cases act as a signpost. A person may already be familiar with your company name, and then when they finally have a need, they use the yellow pages as a phone directory to obtain your phone number. For other products, the yellow pages can act as a catalog of competitors. In this scenario it is crucial to have a well-designed ad that projects the image you desire.

27. Avoid Yellow Pages Scams. Generally speaking, you shouldn't overbuy yellow pages. You can waste an entire marketing budget on yellow pages if you aren't careful. In a major metropolitan area, there are dozens of yellow pages books. Some are produced by outside entities trying to scam advertisers. They produce the books and distribute them free to certain addresses to secure expensive ads from businesses. Typically, just advertise in the yellow pages that are produced by the phone company that carries the phone service for the specific area you are considering. Because phone companies differ from area to area, you may be in several books to cover a certain area.

28. Get a professional Web Site -- Your Billboard on the Internet Highway. There are innovators, early adopters, late adopters and then there are the laggards. You can spot the laggards because they are the ones who are now buying a collarless shirt on sale, long after that trend has died. They are also the ones who are oblivious to the Internet, which is predicted to revolutionize how products are promoted and purchased over the next 10 years.

If you own a business, and you are not on the Internet, you are missing out on the best promotional bargain of the century. Where else can you post your capabilities brochure for everyone IN THE WORLD to see, without the cost of delivery postage, for only $100 a month. See our Professional Web Site Development Services >>here

29. Submit your Web Site to search engines. Sometimes an Internet site can just be an economical way to quickly put your company's promotion in the hands of customers. You promote your address on business cards and letterhead, and prospects can dial up your site and check out your capabilities. If you can deliver services and product to a wide audience, you will want people to find you on the Internet through their searches performed on search engines like Webcrawler, Infoseek or AltaVista. This search for key words might yield 1 million total web sites that match your key words. Your objective is to get your site listed in the top 50 sites. You'll need to submit your site to the search engines so they can index it.

30. Embed Key Words in your site to raise your ranking. (Meta Tags) Search engines often rank sites higher in a query based on the frequency it sees a key word or phrase in your Web site. There are some techniques that enable a savvy Web site developer to embed these key words in ways that spiders can see, but the person browsing will not see. This includes hiding key words in hidden fields, in hidden text, within the html programming language and other places. Once you have your site up, test your site periodically by doing queries under key words. See if your ranking under various search engines improves over time.

Customer Retention Tips

31. To grow, you must stop the revolving door. If you have customers leaving out the back door as new ones enter the front, it is impossible to grow. You must learn how to hang onto current customers first, then add new ones. Customer retention is NOT a passive activity. It involves actions to keep customers away from competitors who are wooing your customers.

32. Ask your customers how you're doing. Sadly, customers are often taken for granted. Many companies ASSUME they are meeting the needs of customers only to find that as soon as a competitive alternative emerges, existing customers defect in droves. Are you holding your customers hostage? Ask them if they're satisfied with your product and service. Then ask them what other needs they have. Your existing customers can help you innovate new products that have a ready audience.

33. Reward the customers who refer customers to you. Sometimes just an expression of appreciation is enough, either in person or with a letter or card. In other competitive industries, you can lock in a steady stream of referrals with simple techniques that recognize referral sources. In a sense, a satisfied customer is 10 times as effective as a salesman. That's because, the customer is endorsing your product. For example, one successful cosmetic surgeon demonstrates his appreciation to satisfied customers. If a woman customer refers along another woman friend, the customer may get some flowers delivered to her door with a thank you card. If a second referral comes along, the initial customer may get a small gift, like dinner out for her and her husband. Depending upon the number of people referred, this appreciative cosmetic surgeon has even been known to send a TV or two tickets to a Caribbean cruise as demonstration of his appreciation for the referrals. Considering that a single cosmetic procedure can cost $5,000, such a gift is not out of the question.

34. Mistakes can be home runs in disguise. In the cruise ship industry, customer satisfaction is a studied art form. They know from experience that a screw up is really an opportunity for "recovery." "Recovery" is an advanced customer satisfaction technique that enables a company to turn a disaster into a memorable success and a new customer referral mechanism. Ironically, customer satisfaction studies show the MOST satisfied customers are produced NOT from everything going right, but from something going wrong. That's right. If something goes wrong, the company has a rare opportunity to "recover" and make a memorable impression in the mind of the customer. Here's how it works. A traveler returning home from an uneventful cruise may have moderate customer satisfaction. Food was good, everything went as expected. No surprises. Yawn. Another traveler, however, may have a different and more memorable experience that he will likely pass on to dozens of friends: "You won't believe what happened on my cruise on XYZ Cruise Line. Somehow my golf clubs were lost and never made it on board. I was so looking forward to playing some golf in the Islands. The cruise line, however, asked me what kind of clubs I like, and they radioed ahead to the next port. They arranged to have the best country club on the island pick me up. Their courtesy van was waiting at the dock with a brand new set of clubs for me along with my favorite putter. I couldn't believe it, but they set up a round on this beautiful private club where I played with the club pro. I was amazed. They really jumped through hoops to make my vacation the best ever." Next time you have a disaster, consider that it may be your best opportunity to make a lasting impression in the mind of the customer.

35. Test your phone system like a customer. Call your office like a customer. Most executives and managers have inside extensions that enable them to get to the right people. But try calling your general phone line, the ones customers have to use, at peak times. Note how long you have to stay on hold... how easy it is to place an order... or get information. Sometimes the exercise can be surprising. Customers get busy signals, rude operators, the runaround, or are placed on terminal hold with a company propaganda tape playing in the background.

36. If you sell expertise, don't hide your experts. Medical practices are often comical examples of the competency pyramid. They often hire someone who worked at Burger King the week before to answer phones for a specialized medical clinic. Complex questions about cholesterol levels are being posed to someone who was flipping fries the week before. The most competent people in the typical medical practice (doctors and nurses) are the most difficult to reach. Instead of putting the most incompetent people (the bottom of the pyramid) at the front line phone contact, invert the pyramid and make nurses available to answer questions. Customer satisfaction and appointments will increase. The more complex the business and product line, the more important it is to have technical support people available to answer questions.

37. Use auto attendants to quickly sort phone inquiries. Five years ago, people weren't fond of calling into a company and getting a phone system auto attendant asking them to press "1" or "2" for various options. That's ancient history. Most people now are used to them, perhaps with the exception of the elderly who are technologically out-of-touch. Many people under 50 will even prefer self-sorting mechanisms instead of having to describe their technical problem to an operator, only to be transferred around to wrong destinations within the company. Done correctly, auto attendants can save on customer frustration and employees. Done incorrectly, auto attendants can be a nuisance. For instance, never have more than three options for every sort, and never more than three sort options before a person talks with a real person. Always, from the first sort, provide an eject button enabling some callers to press "O" to reach an operator who can direct them and transfer as appropriate.

38. Even the president should have a voice mailbox. Thanks to voice mail, there is now no excuse for any company to hold its top management where customers, especially large ones, can't communicate easily with them. For example, Men's Wearhouse President George Zimmer has a voice mailbox that enables any customer to deposit a complaint, or praise, without having to draft a letter. Problems get resolved faster, and accolades are even used in their advertising. Recorded messages from enthusiastic, satisfied customers are used as effective and persuasive endorsements in radio ads. Most busy customers, especially large ones, don't have patience for the runaround. If they don't have a quick way to resolve the problem, or at least make the problem known, they'll react quickly by taking their business elsewhere. There are also awful employees who do tremendous damage to a business because there is no quick way for customers to warn top management.

39. Don't use your "secretary" as an answering machine. You are not doing anybody a favor by making a secretary play answering machine. People don't and won't leave long, detailed messages with a secretary to scribble down. No busy executive has the time or patience to dictate lengthy, complex messages so a scribe can write them down, continually asking the caller to repeat a previous sentence. So, you get caught in a frustrating telephone tag game where nothing gets done. The more complex your industry, the less able a secretary will be to interpret and parrot back to you the correct message. Tests have shown that every time a story is interpreted, it changes, and becomes less accurate to the original message. Fact: the secretary is an anachronism of the 1950s. Use your personal assistant to do other things than play answering machine. You'll find that you can get a tremendous amount of work done by responding to detailed voice mail messages, then leaving return voice mails.

40. Audit customer satisfaction quarterly. Many companies spend millions to develop a sales force trained and equipped like the Navy Seals. Their mission: acquire new customers at all costs. Too often, existing customers are taken for granted. And hence a revolving door effect: New customers come in the front only to replace the unsatisfied defectors leaving out the back door. Not only does a company gain no ground, the unsatisfied customers bad mouth the company making new sales more difficult and more Navy Seals are recruited for sales.

41. Audit employee performance. One physician was horrified to learn that a bad employee at the front desk was scaring away loyal patients. This dragon lady was rude, abrasive and inconsiderate. Because this person was hired by the physician, most patients felt uncomfortable complaining to the doctor, assuming that perhaps this is the employee behavior desired by the doctor. In your customer satisfaction audit, be sure to audit the performance of your employees to find out early on if you have staff problems. What separates the mediocre company from the excellent company is often in the intangible area of customer service. Ritz Carlton Hotels are five-star hotels and excel with beautiful facilities and a loyal employee base. Each employee carries a small laminated card that features the company philosophy. Employees not only meet the needs of the guest, they are challenged to "anticipate" the needs of the guest. The result is often a superior hotel experience for the the traveler.

42. Associate your product with a desirable outcome. Long ago, car makers observed an interesting phenomenon: an ad showing an attractive girl in a bikini sitting on the fender of the car, sells better than just showing a picture of the car. The male car buyer would theorize, "Gee if I buy this car, then maybe I'll be more attractive, then maybe I'll be able to get a knock-out girl like the one in the ad." Women are played to the same way with advertising messages directed at their wants and desires. Attractive men are shown chasing women wearing a certain perfume, dress, jeans, etc. The premise: "Buy THIS perfume and men will find YOU attractive." If you are selling a product, try to communicate the desirable outcome that comes from owning your product. The Container Store, which sells closet fixtures and organizer devices for the home and office, argues in its radio ads that by being organized a person gains extra time. Health food stores aren't selling bottles of pills, nutritional supplements, or sprouts. They're selling an energetic feeling of vitality that comes from healthy living, something many people have lost over the years. What do customers gain from your product or service? Do they see that in your promotional message? It's easy to fall in love with your product from your perspective. The challenge is to view your product from the customer's viewpoint of what benefit they gain from buying it.

43.Determine a percentage of gross income to spend annually on marketing. Set specific marketing goals every year; review and adjust quarterly.

44. Carry business cards with you (all day, every day). Create an attractive nametag or pin with your company name and logo on it and wear it at high visibility meetings. Put magnetic signs on your vehicles.

45. Stay alert to trends that might impact your target market, product or promotion strategy. Read market research studies about your profession, industry, product, target market groups, etc.

46.Collect competitors' ads and literature; study them for information about strategy, product features and benefits, etc.

47. Ask clients why they hired you and solicit suggestions for improvement. Ask former clients why they left you.

48. Identify a new market. Join a list-serve (email list) related to your profession. Subscribe to an Internet usenet newsgroup or a list-serve that serves your target market.

49.Create a new service, technique or product.

50.Offer a simpler/cheaper/smaller version of your (or another existing) product or service. Offer a fancier/more expensive/faster/bigger version of your (or another existing) product or service.

51.Update Update your services with special offers. Update your ads and, most importantly, your web site.

52. Establish a marketing and public relations advisory and referral team composed of your colleagues and/or neighboring business owners to share ideas and referrals and to discuss community issues. Meet quarterly for breakfast.

53.Referrals: Train your staff, clients and colleagues to promote referrals. It is at least 50% easier to get a client by referral than by a cold call.

54. Hold a monthly marketing meeting with employees or associates to discuss strategy, status and to solicit marketing ideas.

55. Join an association or organization related to your profession.

56. Analyze your fee structure; look for areas requiring modifications or adjustments. Offer financing or installment plans.

57.Establish a credit card payment option for clients. Add Pay Pal capability to your web site.

58. Give regular clients a discount.

59.Learn to barter; offer discounts to members of certain clubs/professional groups/organizations in exchange for promotions in their publications.

60.Give "quick pay" or cash discounts.

61.Publish a newsletter for customers and prospects. (It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive.) This keeps them informed up updates, gives you a venue to promote new products and services. Make this same newsletter available as an e-newsletter through your web site. (See our Graphic Design services)

62. Develop a brochure of services.

63. Include a postage-paid survey card with your brochures and other company literature. Include check-off boxes or other items that will involve the reader and provide valuable feedback to you.

64. Remember, business cards aren't working for you if they're in the box. Pass them out! Give prospects two business cards and brochures -- one to keep and one to pass along. Produce separate business cards/sales literature for each of your target market segments (e.g. government and commercial, and/or business and consumer).

65. Create a poster or calendar to give away to customers and prospects.

66. Print a slogan and/or one-sentence description of your business on letterhead, fax cover sheets and invoices.

65. Get a professional developed site on the World Wide Web.

67. Create a "signature file" to be used for all your e-mail messages. It should contain contact details including your Web site address and key information about your company that will make the reader want to contact you.

68. Include "testimonials" from customers in your literature.

69. Test a new mailing list. If it produces results, add it to your current direct mail lists or consider replacing a list that's not performing up to expectations.

70. Announce free or special offers in your direct response pieces. (Direct responses may be direct mail, broadcast fax, or e-mail messages.) Include the offer in the beginning of the message and also on the outside of the envelope for direct mail.

WISE PUBLIC RELATIONS MANGEMENT

71. Update your media list often so that press releases are sent to the right media outlet and person.

72. Write a column for the local newspaper, local business journal or trade publication.

73. Publish an article and circulate reprints. Send timely and newsworthy press releases as often as needed.

74. Publicize your 500th client of the year (or other notable milestone).

72. Create an annual award and publicize it- as an outstanding employee of the year.

73. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or to a trade magazine editor.

74.Take an editor to lunch.

75. Get a publicity photo taken and enclose with press releases.

76. Consistently review newspapers and magazines for possible PR opportunities.

77.Conduct industry research and develop a press release or article to announce an important discovery in your field.

72.Create a press kit and keep its contents current.

ESSENTIALS

73. Ask your clients to come back again.

74. Return phone calls promptly.

75. Set up a fax-on-demand or email system to easily respond to customer inquiries. Set up a response form on your web site that emails the results to you.

72. Use an answering machine or voice mail system to catch after-hours phone calls. Include basic information in your outgoing message such a business hours, location, etc. Record a memorable message or "tip of the day" on your outgoing answering machine or voice mail message.

73. Ask clients what you can do the help them.

74. Show Appreciation: Take clients out to a ball game, a show or another special event- just send them two tickets with a note.

EXTRA CREDIT

75. Hold a seminar at your office for clients and prospects.

76. Send hand-written thank-you notes. Send birthday cards and appropriate seasonal greetings.

77. Photocopy interesting articles and send them to clients and prospects with a hand-written "FYI" note and your business card.

78. Send a book of interest or other appropriate business gift to a client with a handwritten note.

79.Create an area on your Web site specifically for your customers.

80. Redecorate your office or location where you meet with your clients.

81. Join a Chamber of Commerce or other organization.

82. Join or organize a breakfast club with other professionals (not in your field) to discuss business and network referrals.

83. Mail a brochure to members of organizations to which you belong.

84. Hold an open house.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

85. Send letters to attendees after you attend a conference.

86. Advertise during peak seasons for your business.

87.   Provide Rolodex® cards or phone stickers pre-printed with your business contact information.
88.    Promote your business jointly with other professionals via cooperative direct mail.

89. Distribute advertising specialty products such as pens, mouse pads or mugs. Mail "bumps," photos, samples and other innovative items to your prospect list. (A bump is simply anything that makes the mailing envelope bulge and makes the recipient curious about what's in the envelope!)

90. Create a direct mail list of "hot prospects" and do a postcard mailing just to them with a time-sensitive special offer on it.

91. Consider non-traditional tactics such as bus backs, billboards and popular Web sites.

92. Code your ads and keep records of results.

93. Sponsor and promote a contest or sweepstakes.

94. Get a booth at a fair/trade show attended by your target market. Sponsor or host a special event or open house at your business location in cooperation with a local non-profit organization, such as a women's business center. Describe how the organization helped you.

95. Teach a class or seminar at a local college or adult education center.

96. Volunteer your time to a charity or non-profit organization.

97. Donate your product or service to a charity auction.

98. Appear on a panel at a professional seminar.

99. Write a "How To" pamphlet or article for publishing.

100. Produce and distribute an educational CD-ROM, audio or video tape.

We promised to give you 100 ways to grow your business. Here is an extra one:

101. Make it a practice to "exceed" expectations. Experts in customer satisfaction will preach that satisfaction comes not from meeting customer expectations, but rather exceeding expectations. That's why Lexus will ALWAYS have the client sign a repair estimate that will be more than the actual amount when the client picks up the car. Consequently, the customer is always pleasantly surprised when the actual amount is less than they approved. If you must provide estimates, always make it a routine to estimate slightly higher than the final amount. You'll always give a customer a pleasant surprise. Lexus also washes and vacuums the car after servicing it, as a pleasant surprise. If the customer is expecting 500 color copies, consider enclosing five extras. Growing a small business doesn't always require a big marketing budget, just creativity to spend what resources your have (time and money) in productive ways. We can help.

>> learn more: contact Covenant Designs