ADVERTISING IDEAS FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, Part 3

By Shawn Deacon, Independent Media Professional

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndeacon

A friend of mine has a statistic up on his BBM profile. It reads: Last year 30, 622 folks in this nation took their own life by hanging. That many people can’t be wrong. SUICIDE – hang with the “in” crowd.

Luckily it’s a new phone with, up to the point of writing, only twelve contacts; otherwise he’d be solely responsible for a much higher mortality rate this year. For those of you still not convinced, that’s what clever advertising does. He’s doing it from his BlackBerry Torch – and it costs him nothing.

I read of a pharmaceutical company that abandoned a cold medicine because their experts couldn’t remedy the drowsiness it produced. Some genius renamed it Nyquil and sold it as a bedtime cold medicine. Undoubtedly, it became the largest selling cold medicine on the market. Just food for thought. Here are other things you might want to consider.

1. Have a visible, solid presence in the community of your business. If you can, write a weekly column for the newspaper; hold press conferences; attend trade shows and consultations for the purpose of answering questions. Teach a class or hold a workshop on a topic of broad interest; have displays or promotional booths. Offer seminars to current customers as a means of attracting new ones. Establish yourself as an expert on your product or service. Follow-up with attendees by mail or in person.
2. Keep up with changing events in your industry by subscribing to trade magazines, taking refresher courses, browsing the net or if you can afford to, travel. See what’s happening in the world.
3. The public library has more information on business than anyone can possibly read. The librarians will research and find the information you need. A real time saver. Look the books over for two weeks and buy the ones you want to add to your business library. Yes, start a business library.
4. Make envelopes from flyers; insert an introductory letter, business card or promotional dvd for prospective customers. May also include a coupon (to be redeemed by a certain date), an event ticket, stage pass or a raffle ticket.
5. Maintain a database of prospective customers.
6. Keep a board of “advisors”. This can be friends, family members, business associates whose opinions and judgment you value and who you allow to critique every aspect of your business. In his book, Tiger Traits, Nate Booth explains why Tiger Woods is not only a Golf Master but a Business Champion as well. From an early age, Tiger had carefully selected teachers, heroes and teammates to guide, inspire and support him to mastery. Create a “team tiger”.
7. Always be ready to be where your customer wants you, when your customer wants you, with what your customer wants.

The advice from many advertising and marketing experts is to duplicate i.e. take something that works for someone else, somewhere else and do it exactly the same way. Franchises work on a system of duplication. KFC for example opened other branches all over the world duplicating the product, service and quality of the parent branch.  . . . and there’s nothing really wrong with that except that what worked for Colonel Sanders thirty years ago, or the Microsoft Corporation, Toyota or Amazon may not necessarily work for Cutting Room Studios, or Zita’s Flowers, or Immortal Designs in the year 2013 – and this can be for many reasons.

Today, small business owners are charged more than before, with a responsibility to be new and creative. Creative advertising is everywhere. Instead of writing heavy, long worded introductory letters about your business, one genius suggests stapling a business card to a teabag and scribbling at the back “Let’s meet for tea”.

Backed by your own determination to succeed, I can guarantee you that any combination of these ideas will yield the results you want quickly. Take a few months and test it. Leave me a comment, let me know what worked for you. I’d love to hear from you. Of the entire series what was your favourite tip? I’ve given you a lot of information, don’t be afraid to share with others now. Follow me on Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndeacon

ABOUT CUTTING ROOM STUDIOS

Cutting Room Studios is an evolving company with a simple vision of becoming a household name synonymous with high end DVD and video productions. Our customers will already attest that we maintain equal, or exceed ideals and standards set by the industry. To you we will continue to deliver on this guarantee. Our approach to every client and every project is with one goal in mind – to leave a lasting impression.

For a free consultation or for bookings, please call 1 868 384 2167 or contact us via email at cuttingroom.ttproductions@gmail.com and liaise directly with one of our qualified team members.