Six Secrets of Shoestring Marketing

Sales Boosters Every Business Can Afford

by Susan Bellows

Marketing is (pick the best one that applies):

• Going to the grocery store to buy food and cleaning supplies
  
  
• A salesperson who calls you during dinner to sell you encyclopedias or the Los Angeles Times
  
  
• Creating, promoting, and delivering customer-satisfying products (or services) at a profit.

Correct answer: Marketing is the creation, promotion, and delivery of customer-satisfying products or services at a profit. 

Customer-satisfying means that your product or service satisfies a need. And, to stay in business, your product or service pricing must be profitable. Otherwise your business becomes just an expensive way to create a tax loss. Promoting your product or service can be done cost-effectively. The Six Secrets of Shoestring Marketing are aimed at keeping your marketing expenses low and your income high.

1. Determine what makes you, your product, or your service unique and let everyone know about it. Toot your own horn -- nobody else will do it for you. Some examples of capitalizing on your uniqueness are:

• An auto repair shop that gives free rides to customers dropping off their cars for service.
  
  
• An office supply business owner who charges 25% less than the standard catalog prices and delivers free of charge.
  
  
• A $2,000 workshop that offers a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied within the first 30 days following the workshop.

2. Know the "pain" that motivates your customers and use their words when you talk about your product or service. In order to get people to spend money for your product or service, you need to let them know "what's in it for them" (WIFM) or what problem ("pain") your product or service will satisfy. Examples of "pain" are shoplifting if you're a retail store owner, insomnia for a stressed executive, and employee turnover for a production line manager. Most people do not like to spend money, but they do want to solve their problems. So give them a reason to buy by reminding them how and why you, your product or your service can alleviate their "pain."

3. Pay attention to your image. Anything that is seen or heard by a customer or potential customer should represent you and your business in a way you'll be proud of. This includes signage, neighborhood, cleanliness, clutter, smell, lighting, price tags and décor, as well as your sales reps' grooming and professional brochures.

Also, a smile from you or your employees is an image-enhancer and is so important to a customer. A smile makes the customer feel glad they came to see you. So, smile, make eye contact, and use the person's name whenever possible to make your customers feel special.

Be sure your business card represents you in a flattering, positive way. For example, a graphic artist with unattractive, crumpled, dirty business cards does not convey a positive image,

4. Network like crazy! According to a Success! magazine article, The Art of Networking, "Networking is the art of making and using contacts. It is the single-minded pursuit of useful contacts at every convention, seminar or neighborhood barbecue."

Jay Levinson in Guerilla Marketing Attack suggests passing out coupons for two free dinners to owners of every beauty salon in the neighborhood to attract business to a new restaurant. Why? Because if the food is good and if the beauticians like the eatery's ambience, their word of mouth recommendations will outweigh any amount of advertising.

Finally, always carry your business cards and give them out whenever possible. You never know where or when the opportunity for networking might strike. Make sure that your uniqueness shows on your business cards – it helps people remember what makes you special.

5. Be of great service -- genuinely, not just a moneygrubber who doesn't care about his/her customers. According to Guerilla Marketing Attack, consumers consider service or lack of it to be one of the four important influences in selecting a business from which to buy. It doesn't necessarily cost any more to provide exceptional service, but it may take extra time, time well spent to build customer loyalty.

6. Make it easy for people to find you and to remember you. Pick a name for your business that is recalled easily and/or tells what you do. For example, Same Day Lawn Mower Fix-It Service is memorable and descriptive. Those involving your own name may seem less exciting, but are remembered even more easily.

Be sure that you are listed in the white and yellow pages in the phone book. Use a map or landmark-oriented directions (such as "across from the bus station") on your brochures, in yellow page ads, and on coupons, if your office is in a hard-to-find location.

There are many more secrets that are equally inexpensive and cost-effective. Most of them are common-sense ideas. All of them reinforce the fact that shoestring marketing can be fun, inexpensive, creative and extremely profitable.