Top 5 Ways to Grow Your Business!

The objective of this package is to share with you the 5 key features that will help you turbo charge your business and increase revenue. As an existing business owner it's crucial that you're always working on your business and not getting caught working in your business. The following 5 actions are all ways for you to work on your business by continually staying in front of your prospects and customers.

The 5 steps we'll discuss in this article are:

Direct Marketing - A cost effective way to bring business in immediately and build your brand!
Email Marketing - Virtually a no cost way of staying in front of your customers and prospects consistently.
Web Presence - A must today and a great way to win visibility for your business.
Social Networking Exposure - Free and crucial way to create viral marketing for your business.
Referral Marketing & Community Involvement - Simple ways to get started.

Thank you again and if we can assist you with your tool, office or janitorial supplies please let us know how we can earn your business. From our website please visit our business blog where we'll be discussing how to:

Initiate Press Releases for free
Create a Facebook Page
Create Google ads
Create Video's & upload to YouTube
Build a strong Brand

Send your ideas or topics you'd like to: [email protected]

The Top 5 Ways To Grow Your Business

1. Direct Marketing

Direct marketing can allow for immediate business, customer retention and relationship building with your community. Direct mail through postcards, brochures or door hangers work and according to studies over 70% of consumers pay attention to mail sent to their home. Direct mail can be targeted, is measurable, and the cost is little. Direct marketing should be part of every marketing budget for the following reasons:

Expect action immediately with DM advertising. Having a good call to action (coupons, expiration dates, discounts) will result in the consumer responding immediately.
Easily measurable as you'll be able to know the cost immediately. Apply some type of unique phone number or coupon code and you can measure the return of your investment based on calls taken or coupons redeemed.
Personal connectivity unlike newspaper ads, radio or TV. Consumers can decide when they'll review their mail on their own time.
Ability to target an exact area you'd like to gain attention. Direct Marketing offers you the opportunity to be very selective.

The Direct Marketing offer and message had better be clear for a higher result to be obtained. Consumers are more likely to read a door hanger, read a brochure or open a piece of mail if they feel connected to it. Over 50% of consumers are reading direct mail for savings. Over 40% of consumers won't open a piece of mail if the call to action isn't appealing. This is the top 5 consumer choices for types of advertisements offers:

Coupons & Something Free - Over 70% prefer this
Percentage Savings - Over 50% would like to have a discount
Grand Opening Message
Consumer Advice
Customer Loyalty Program - Only 15% were interested in this

Once you decide if you'll be sending brochures, making door hangers, sending coupons or some combination of all, here are some reputable companies to choose from:

Coupon companies: www.valpak.com or www.moneymailer.com When choosing between the two realize that the prices are very negotiable. The larger the number inserts the more negotiable they can be as the fixed cost are covered.
Brochure, Car Windshield Flyers or Door Hanger Companies: www.vistaprint.com or www.adeasprinting.com Both of these companies offer very competitive pricing and for small orders, often you just pay for shipping to test.

Direct marketing in summary is an excellent cost effective tool to bring business in immediately. Remember to make the offer attractive, the appearance creative and get personal. The process is easy to start as each of the above will do the work for little cost.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is an extremely effective marketing tool. Email allows you to systematically stay in front of existing customers, prospects and possibly individuals who have never had contact with you. Email marketing is not difficult and the cost is nominal. Implementing an email strategy is easy. Follow these simple steps and you'll be on your way:

Find an email marketing service provider. The monthly fee is based on the number of contacts you'll be importing monthly. 500 customer's run on average $15 per month, 1000 customers runs $20 and minor additional cost for each additional 2500 contact imports. Each of the three below are relatively simple to use, have many preset templates to choose from, and can be learned within an hour. The top three are:

Create two different emails to start with. One email should be to all prospects you've ever spoken to or provided an estimate to and have an email address for. This email should encourage them to call your service again and have a good call to action to encourage this. Offer a coupon possibly or another estimate. The second email should be to existing customers. Create an email that adds value with useful information. For example if you're a carpet cleaning service, have a recommendation for removing stains from upholstery!
Import all your contacts or begin adding them individually. Not very difficult to do with any of the three services above. Have the list put together as existing customers and prospects. Immediately after this is complete begin having all new contacts added to the prospect list and emails sent on some timely basis until they become a customer.

Here are some simple rules to follow with email marketing:

Only send emails to individuals who have given you permission. Sending unauthorized emails is not allowed. If you're adding value and offering savings customers will want your information and give you permission.
Only send relevant emails periodically. Don't spam your customers with constant emails as you'll diminish the true value. Social marketing allows for regular communication.
Keep your list clean. Remember to move prospects to customers list and always remember to be adding new contacts to grow your database.
Make sure to have your contact information clear and links back to your website. Don't have a website yet? Talk to your key account executive with Discount Cleaning Products to learn how one can be created for you.
Connect with your customer or prospect in the subject header. Remember everyone is sending emails today and you have an advantage if you're a local business by connecting about local news.

The return on investment and time is phenomenal once email marketing is started. Businesses use email marketing because it works and it's a great way to attract new customers and retain existing customers. Need further help with email marketing please call your Discount Cleaning Products Key Account Executive for assistance.

3. Having A Web Presence

Having a web presence is crucial in today's business environment. Regardless of your business size, having the opportunity to win visibility for your business even if you're a sole proprietor is crucial. Creating a website today is extremely simple and no longer as difficult as it was years ago. Here are the key reasons for creating a website:

Brand awareness: Having a website helps you reinforce your brand in your local community.
Credibility: Shows your professionalism and how serious you are about your business.
Informative: Allows customers to visit your site at anytime during the day to hear your message, view your hours, read referrals and gather information.
Selling Tool: Having a website allows you the opportunity to advertise on Google and other search engine sites, while driving local prospects to your site.

Creating a website is simple today. Discount Cleaning Products is happy to assist premium accounts this service for free as a thank you for choosing us as a business partner. Creating a site should mirror your current image and stay consistent with your local message. You can create information about your service, list all your referrals, list your hours of operation, give estimate ranges of pricing, advertise current promotions, communicate with customers and much more.

Here are some key features to consider when creating a site:

Keep it as simple as possible. Too much information will only hinder your sites effectiveness. Make sure it's easy to find your contact information via email, phone number and physical address.
Add Value! Offer useful information that your customers or prospects are curious about. Open a Paypal account online and offer your customers the ability to pay online for your service with credit card. List promotions on your site to encourage individuals to try your service. List referrals of those who recommend you in the local community.
Keep it Fun! Connect with your local community. Compared to national services you have the power to talk directly to your customers.

There are many website building sites available that will walk you through a simple process. Typically you'll want to come up with a creative domain/website name, pick a theme from templates already designed for you, choose the layout format, insert information & picture or video demonstrations and click publish it. Once complete your site will now be available on the internet!

Over 70% of Americans are online and over 30% of all online search's are for local information on products or services. To make it easier for individuals to find your site you'll want to list high in the search engines of Google, Bing and Yahoo. The more links you have of individuals pointing traffic to your site will increase your natural search. The following are 6 sites that you can have links for free to your site and also drive qualified leads for your services:

You'll also want to go onto Google maps, Yahoo maps and Bing to enter in your company information. This is all free, will drive traffic for your service and is very simple to do in a few hours.

In conclusion businesses need a web presence today as customers expect it. It will retain customers, inform prospects and assist in obtaining new customers. With the ease of forming a site and low cost of creating one get started today. Remember for Premium Customers call your Key Account Executive to assist.

4. Social Networking Exposure

Social networking is a must for all businesses. All the different platforms aren't just for gossiping or playing games any longer. Social networking is in fact a way for you to market your business to your community for free. Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube, Blogs and many other social sites will allow you to personally connect with your community. Your customers are online now chatting, tweeting and posting about everything. As a successful business owner in the area you need to become part of the conversation and it all starts with having a presence.

Social media will allow you to:

Share with your customers and prospects anything new about your company. Give them valuable information and they'll share it with their friends and family - instant referrals!
Build stronger relationships with your customers. The easiest way to loose a customer is the one you don't speak with. Build a relationship with them and start that communication!
Share a viral message or promotion that will encourage your followers to forward it to a friend. Possibly a funny video of your surface, coupon only for follower's friends, contest, giveaway and many other possibilities.
Build a strong brand in your local community with a consistent message.

It's extremely easy for anyone to participate. Decide what type of platforms you're going to participate in, such as:

Forums - other people possibly in your field asking and sharing information
Social Networks - Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter
Blogs

Business owners should consider starting with creating a Facebook account, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It's simple to tie the sites together to have your posts on Facebook also tweeted. If you have video of your business, work or educational content include it and upload it to Youtube. Video is extremely powerful and shows well in search results as many business owners aren't using this feature yet. Buy a flip camera and you'll be amazed how simple it is. Lastly create a blog to inform the community about information related to your business, also very easy. Make sure that each of these are linked and linking back to your business website.

Now once this is complete start tweeting, posting and sharing information. Here are some best practices:

Participate in questions and discussions. Don't information dump or consistently promote your service as it will possibly diminish your creditability.
Make time to participate during your work week. If you're not active it won't be successful and remember to be relevant to your brand or service.
Stay true to your identity. Don't be fake or falsify information about your service.
Lastly have fun and build relationships.

Social media is hot and only going to get bigger. Businesses with a local brand can truly take advantage of the viral aspects of social marketing. Have as much fun as possible with it and be active. Share good, relevant information and your business will bloom.

5. Referral Marketing & Community Involvement

Businesses that are active in their community and can successfully gather referrals will prosper with success. Customers who have been referred to you are more likely to spend a greater sum of money than a non-referred customer. Community involvement is proven to spark referrals, build your brand, add credibility and create good will.

Community involvement is a powerful way to long term build a strong brand. Sponsor a town Little League team, donate to a school auction, sponsor a community event, participate in your local church, raise money for a local charity, be a guest speaker, assist at career day in your local school! There are endless ways to get involved in your community and the results are phenomenal long term. Businesses need to be involved as it will:

Offer you free Press
Build a loyal dedicated customer base
Offer you the opportunity to network

Referral marketing is much like social marketing in that it typically won't cost you anything. Though most businesses can say they've received referrals, few businesses can truly say this is how they build their business. Fear of asking for referrals is typically the number one reason holding people back. Create a system to follow and force yourself to follow it. Carry business cards and when you hand them out always hand out 3 and ask for 2 of them to be handed out to referrals. Entice customers by sharing with them that you build your business by providing top notch service and in return you ask that those who are truly appreciative of your companies performance to share it with friends. Consider offering a rebate on their service if they hand out both cards. Track this by having a coupon on the back of your business card and put your customers name next to it. Tell them when you receive these coupons back you'll be sending them a rebate as a thank you. To begin your network program:

Be clear with customers. Don't just ask for them to refer you please? If you're a carpet cleaning service ask them if they know friends whose homes are carpeted? Hand them a coupon and say would you mind giving this to them and each customer we receive we'll clean a room for free as our thank you next time out.
Network with other business owners and make sure to refer business to them, it'll come back to you.
Leverage all your other marketing sources. Use your social media, website, mailers to consistently ask for referrals.

Referral marketing and community involvement are not overnight solutions for growing your business. These are long term brand building ways your business will dominate the local area. Make your brand the first thing that comes to mind when a customer is thinking of your service or asked if they know a business like yours. Start today and you'll be on your way to business success!