When I first started my business, every conference that I attended dropped me into an environment of all new people because business was a brand new field for me.  Getting on a plane or in a car to attend a conference near or far with several hundred people that I never met before has made me a bit of a warrior in the area.

In fact, now when I choose a conference, I look for ones that will allow me to meet new people and partake of different information.  What can I say?  I am a renegade.

As I was leaving last week, a colleague asked me if I was ready to head off to a destination that I never went to before with people that I did not know.  My response was ‘Absolutely.’  Don’t get me wrong, I felt some jitters, but mostly I was excited.

You see, going to meet new people at an unknown conference or environment is not only daring and bold, but also savvy.  The business world is a big, wide open space, and with all the virtual opportunities, it is easy to get lost in a sea of avatars.  I love networking online and chatting on Twitter as much as the next person, but those transactions must translate into REAL LIFE for them to really push forward.

It is so easy to hide behind our laptops and tablets with a false sense that we are connecting with lots of people, and often, online connections are amazing.  However, in order to make greater partnerships, referral networks, and lasting relationships, some of these connections must become IRL (In Real Life). Although, we spread our avatars all over the internet, it really is crucial to put an actual face with a name.

Although it is imperative to keep current relationships fresh and ongoing, it is also imperative to make new ones.  My goal for this year was to choose one brand-spanking new conference to attend in comparison to last year when they were all new.  I had to reserve some time and money to attend one or two that I loved from last year in order to both pay it forward and stay in touch IRL with contacts.

Last week was the NEW one.  The conference where I knew nobody and had no idea what to expect.  What started out as a nerve wracking experience proved to be both fruitful and fun.

Of course, I had my survival tips ready.

(Attending a New) Conference Survival Tactics:

1. Smile.  Look happy.  Whether you are nervous, scared or feel like you are going to be sick, put a happy face on because it makes you way more approachable.
2. Forget Avatars. You see that picture by my name here?  Guarantee you that in person, I look nothing like it.  Don’t memorize avatars and think you will recognize anyone.
3. Don’t Prequalify. Leave judgement at home.  The most unassuming person may be your best contact or the one person that you are just dying meet, may prove to be a dud.  In other words, meet and greet as many people as you can!  Move around the room, change seats or tables, and introduce yourself to as many people as possible.
4. Be ready to conduct business. Really.  Bring extra business cards, notepads, pens, laptop/tablets/chargers, and even any legal documents as in non-disclosures if they apply.
5. Takes notes. After meeting someone, make a few notes on their card or in a  notebook so you are prepared for a little conversation when following up.

Yes, you must follow up with the contacts that you meet and make an effort to move the relationship forward.

I would love to hear about your adventures of heading to conferences…

To read more about the simple, yet practical advice I heard on work life balance, read here.

Rachel

I recently had the opportunity to interview Tiffany Manley (blogger, homeschooling mom, and one of my awesome 23 Kazoos marketing team members) about how Girl Scouts go about selling so many boxes of cookies.  Tiffany’s daughter Ava, who is 9 years old, sold 500 boxes of Girl Scout cookies last year which is pretty phenomenal.  This year, Ava has set her sights even higher and is working hard to achieve her goal of selling 750 boxes.  Ava, along with four other girls is part of Troop 763 from Chelsea, Alabama, have already pre-sold 1000 boxes of cookies for this season.    With pre-sales that high, it’s no doubt Ava and the other scouts will meet or exceed the sales goals they have set for themselves.

So what is the secret to their success?  I asked Tiffany for some insight to share with small business owners.   Tiffany explained that “They don’t want to fail; they work really hard to reach their goal.”  She added that she lets Ava run the cookie sale the way she wants to because “it’s her own little business.”  With the support of their parents and their eyes on the prize, the Troop comes up with their own ideas about how to market the cookies and increase their sales.  When I heard what Ava and her troop were doing to sell their cookies I thought, “These girls are brilliant!”   I immediately wanted to share their marketing practices with you.

Here’s how they do it.

1. They set a goal. (The number of boxes they want to sell.)
2. They have rewards. (Prizes for each level of sales)
3. They formulate a marketing plan to reach their goal.

To come up with their plan, Ava and her mom visited retail and grocery stores in their local community.  Ava noted what she liked and didn’t like about what the stores were doing and used the best of their ideas to create the Troop’s marketing plan.

Here’s their Girl Scout Cookie Marketing plan.

1. Talk to everyone you know.

When the order forms come out, the girls hit the streets to visit friends and neighbors and ask them to order a couple boxes of cookies.  Business owners can do this too by getting out of the office and talking to people wherever they go about their business.

2. Go to where the most customers are.

The girls visit area businesses and ask the business owner and employees to buy cookies.  One of their marketing tips: Business owners buy more cookies.  I think it is an act of solidarity as small business sales teams have to stick together.  Business owners can benefit from this strategy by doing the same thing, going to networking events, attending chamber of commerce events, and putting themselves in the path of prospective customers at every opportunity.

3. Build a customer list.

The girls keep their order forms from previous years so that when the new order forms arrive, they hit the phones and call all previous customers to ask them how many boxes they want to order.  Customers from previous years will refuse to buy cookies from other Girl Scouts because they have an existing relationship with the Girl Scout who calls them personally every year. This strategy helps secure repeat business but also frees up the Troop members’ time which allows them to market to new customers.  Most business owners know how important it is to build their customer and prospect lists; this example from the Girl Scouts just reinforces the importance of list building and highlights how much difference a personal touch can make.

4. Boost sales by bundling.

The girls tie three boxes of cookies together, wrap them in a bow, and sell them as a unit.  Even without a reduction in price, this increases the total number of boxes they sell.  Business owners can use similar tactics to bundle products and services in complimentary packages and increase their sales.

5. Tie marketing promotions to holidays.

To attract more business and differentiate themselves from other Scout Troops, the girls are turning their bundles of cookies into special Valentine’s Day bundles wrapped in Valentine’s Day ribbon complete with a Valentine’s Day card.  They make it easy for buyers like me who have little imagination and even less time to shop for the holiday.  Business owners can capitalize on this strategy all year long by tying promotions to the various holidays and using the promotions to generate business buzz and attract new customers.

6. Support a charity.

The girls are also taking donations of money that is used to buy cookies to send to the troops overseas.  This is a win for everyone.  It creates good will for the Girl Scout Troop, offers people a creative way to support the troops, gives soldiers a little taste of home, and helps the Troop sell more cookies.  This is a perfect example of how business owners can do good deeds for their community in a way that also boosts their bottom-line.

7. Be prepared for objections.

One of the most common objections the girls hear is “I’m on a diet.”  Their standard reply is, “Well that’s okay, we are also collecting donations so we can send boxes of cookies to the troops overseas.”  This strategy has a 90% success rate at converting an objection to a sale, according to Tiffany.  The girls have learned that if they stick with it, and keep asking, most people will buy at least one box.  There are two great takeaways here for small business owners.  First, be ready to answer objections.  Second, perseverance pays off.

8. Dare to be different.

Like other Troops around the country, the girls set up booths in front of local businesses with lots of foot traffic to sell cookies.  The Troop took this sales tactic to the next level by creating “Girl Scout Cookie Billboards” out of strapping and empty boxes that they walk around in to funnel customers to the table.   This is the kind of “out of the box” thinking that can be sales gold for small businesses.

9. Have a contest.

The girls set up a drawing for a free box of cookies at their booth which helps pull people over to the table where the girls can talk to them and make the sale.  As part of the drawing, they collect email addresses and get permission to email people when their order is in or when cookies come out next year.  This is a great example of how business owners can use a low-cost contest to generate interest for their business and build their customer list for future promotions.

10. Follow up after the sale.

The girls don’t stop after the cookie orders have been delivered to customers.  They send handwritten notes to each customer thanking them for buying cookies and letting them know that they have extra boxes for sale in case they want to buy any more.  They sell lots of extra cookies this way.  And the handwritten thank you notes go a long way in cementing the relationships the girls have built with their customers.  This is another great example of how powerful personalized service can boost sales.  Small business owners can mimic this type of tactic to build customer relationships and attract future sales.

Girl Scout cookies may seem easy to sell because they support great programs, are sold by cute little girls in green uniforms, and they sell a product that most people love.  However, Ava and the girls from Troop 763 in Chelsea, Alabama, are proof that it’s having a marketing plan along, and paying attention to details,  can make the difference between an average cookie selling season and a Troop of cookie selling superstars.

Lately, I have been putting my money where my mouth is and getting out and networking.  It has been both fun and rewarding for me.  I met a few key business people and engaged on a number of consulting projects as a result of live networking.  I am not saying that a few of these budding relationships did not sprout on social media, but they did take meeting in person to bloom.

You see social media is like the match.com of networking.  Nothing can happen if you just keep looking at profiles online, you must get out there an meet.

So I say to you…Get out and Network!  Find ONE event in your area that you can attend and take the plunge.

However, avoid a few dating, I mean networking pitfalls.

1. Do not expect to go back to ‘your place’ later. Bring what you need to the event.  Make sure to have business cards and any other promotional items about your business with you because this is your chance to connect.  Save an office visit for the 2nd or 3rd date.
2. Stay clear - headed. Many evening networking events happen over happy hour or cocktails.  Be smart and stay on top of your game with a clear head.  Beer Goggles can be just as BAD when involved in business decisions.
3. Remember to follow up in or around 3 days. No reason to rush right home and write an email or add all your new contacts to your newsletter (remember that should be opt-in), but do make a point to connect with a few key people that you met within a few days.  You still want the meeting to be fresh in their mind.  A quick email works great!

Here is to you finding the connection of your dreams. Happy Networking.

Rachel http://backngroovemom.com

If you’re like me, you’ve probably said this statement many times: “If I had only known then what I know now.” I understand that mistakes are part of the process, but do I have to make so many of them!?! Experience has made me a fast learner and now, more than ever, I pay attention to those who have gone ahead of me so I can learn from their mistakes and hopefully not make so many on my own. Maybe you do too.

To gain some more insight, I asked business owners who have been in business five years or more the same question, “If you would have known then what you know now, what would you have done differently and why?” Their answers were not only insightful, but inspiring and I think you will really appreciate what they had to say.

So here you go; 29 (plus one) insights from business owners like us on what they would have done differently had they known.

We would love to hear your answers too, please leave a comment and let us know, “What would you have done differently in your business if you would have known then what you know now.”

Enjoy!

1. Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly

Oh man, I wish I would have remembered this one every day when I woke up. There is little of greater importance than having the right people on your team(s) and when you find out an apple has gone bad or you have found a worm in a seemingly perfect apple, get rid of it ASAP! The old adage is often true, ’some dogs can’t hunt’.

Thanks to Ben Sayers, VoIP Supply, LLC.,VoIP phone systems, in business 8 years

2. Be More Open to ChangeTechnology and trends are constantly evolving: one day you are set in your Facebook ways and the next day Pinterest is the new phenomenon. Social media has changed the way we do business and how startups utilize it is integral to your success. However, if someone told me this during social media’s infancy, I would have called them crazy. I let all my years in business bias my first impression of social media and thought it was simply a fad. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Social media has changed the way we do business and has set the bar for the way we measure success. If companies are not willing to adapt, they will never become an industry leader or experience great successes.

Thanks to Jim Joyal,, SHIFT Communications, PR and social media agency, in business 9 years

3. Be the Boss Not the Buddy

Don’t be friends with employees. When you try to be too nice it makes it easy for others to take advantage of you, and that’s been true of about 80 percent of everyone I hired in the past. There was a time when I would give a job to almost anyone who asked, regardless if they were qualified or not, because back then I had the capital and I did not want to be the person who turned them down. Most of the money I lost when I started out was due to being overly tolerant of inefficient employees. It’s fine to be friendly with your staff, but you have to set boundaries and be willing to be a firm boss — whether you have three or 300 people working for you.

Thanks to Cathy Ward, BridesVillage.com, wedding accessories e-commerce retailer, 11 years in business

4. Lock in Your Location

Had I known then what I know now, I would have done everything possible to purchase my own business property. Last year, the rent for my original office, located in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn doubled, necessitating my having to move during my income tax preparation season.  If I had to rent a property, the lease would have included a “lease to own” clause and have a termination date during my slow season.

Thanks to Eustace L. Greaves Jr., Greaves Financial Services, Insurance and Income Tax Preparation Services, 17 years in business

5.  Start with Sustainably in Mind

In hind sight I would have focused much more deeply on a sustainable way to generate deal flow and new leads. No matter how large you think your network is (mine is large) it is not large enough and although power networking/word of mouth is the best source of leads of all the advisor/coach /consultant/soloprenuers I know almost none are reaching their personal income goals. What I am doing differently is focusing on the internet. I have just launched an e-commerce site and hope to launch a content site in the next 90 days. Historically my advisory services were delivered on site at companies located regional. I will continue with my advisory work with about 1/3 of my time, but focus on national and to a lesser extent international clientele via phone or Skype.

Thanks to Ajax Greene, On Belay Business Advisors Inc., business advising, 7 years in business

6. Know the Value of Vision

I would have placed an earlier emphasis to define the vision, mission and values of our company. It is important for the value of our employees to be aligned with my vision for our Company.

Thanks to Jason Maxwell, MassPay Payroll Services, payroll services company, in business for 8 years

7. Eliminate Distractions

Having owned several companies, I would have eliminated my distractions sooner than I did, e.g. real estate investments (rentals), buying and selling a laundromat, renovating homes, etc. While all the ventures were profitable they took away from focusing on building a brand that ultimately would have had more value than the combined profits of each transaction not related to directly building that brand.

Thanks to Joseph Carvelli, Retail Ingenuity, retail inventory and sales forecasting, in business for 12 years

8. Set Aside Significant Saving

I assumed if I built a good product, they would come! I had no idea how costly being in business would be, the amount of money I needed to succeed, or the toll the financial strain would take.

I am blessed that I had the tenacity and the strength to succeed despite overwhelming odds. If I could go back to the beginning, I would make sure I had significant savings set aside, or capital from another source. I cannot overstate the importance of being properly funded!

Thanks to Regina McRae, Grandma’s Secrets, dessert delivery, in business for 18 years

9. Put More Emphasis on Processes

If I had known then what I did now I would have put a lot more time into creating processes.  I find that with the majority of businesses these fundamentals often get overlooked and sometimes ignored completely. To me this is utter madness! A company can succeed or fail just by their processes. We find that we avoid 99% of mistakes because we process them out. This not only avoids unnecessary errors and client issues, but actually makes the company as a whole more efficient.

Thanks to Ben Norman, Koozai Ltd., UK based digital marketing agency , in business for 6 years

10. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

I would have delegated more and not tried to do everything myself. Although it does take time to build relationships with your staff, I waited too long to delegate certain responsibilities that could have been done by someone else. Giving responsibilities does much to validate a staff member’s gifts and also demonstrates a deeper level of trust in the employer / employee relationship. Letting go of certain tasks has been difficult for me but I have come to realize that the more responsibilities I entrust to others in their areas of expertise, the lighter I feel, the more confident a staff member becomes and greater things are achieved by their efforts than could have been done otherwise.

Thanks to Stephanie Ciccarelli, Voices.com, online voiceover talent marketplace, in business for 8 years

11. Let Go and Let it Grow

For many years I had to know everything and do everything. I have discovered that other people and organizations can do things better and at a lower cost than doing it myself.  Letting go has enabled my business to grow and prosper and made my life much easier.

Thanks to Bob Shirilla, Keepsakes Etc. and Simply Bags in business for 30 years

12. Avoid Delaying Difficult Decisions

My biggest lesson over the years was learning that sometimes decisions had to be made for the good of the company, which sometimes meant disciplining or dismissing employees. In particular, when the economy started going into recession, I had to fire one of my closest friends in order to keep the company going. I should have done it sooner. As a result of my delay, it took a while to regain the company’s financial stability. Making difficult decisions is part of owning a business. Owners have to be willing to do it.

Thanks to Susan Southerland, Just Marry, Just Right DM and The Susan Southerland Secret, event planning, destination management, and small business consulting, in business for 20 years

13. Start with a Solid Team

I would have started with a solid business plan, hired an account, and started with a solid team around me.  There are not many businesses that are successful with one person wearing so many hats. Do what you do best and allow others to contribute what they do best to help your business grow.

Thanks to Amore Leighton Black, Apples & Oranges Public Relations, public relations and marketing, in business 7 years

14. Charge What I am Worth

I would have charged more! I was so excited to be working for myself doing something I loved. I’ve never been a person who chased profits -that’s not why I do what I do. But I didn’t do my homework and when I started, I charged pretty close to what I was making hourly at the jobs I’d left behind. That was all fine dandy except when working for myself, that wasn’t enough to cover things like taxes, health insurance, and so on. And also, I was definitely undervaluing my services. I was booked ALL the time, yet I could never seem to get ahead. Even though my clients all loved me and thanked me for my work, I doubted my value, and that was definitely reflected in my pricing.

Thanks to Alaia Williams, One Organized Business, professional organizing and small business systems consulting, in business 5 years

15. Focus on Building Relationships

We spent a fortune of money on advertising when we started out (with unimpressive results). We then changed our focus on relationship building with existing clients and organic search maximization vs. paid ads.  Now we see incredible returns in the form of referrals, and new business at a cost that is a fraction of what we used to spend. We needed to learn the hard way but if I knew then…

Thanks to Ben Schusterman, ElJet Aviation Services - private jet charter service, in business for 5 years

16. Start with More Money, Less Friends

I would start with about three-times as much cash as I thought I needed. I’d also be cautious around hiring friends/family.

Thanks to Heidi Ganahl, Camp Bow Wow, doggy day & overnight care, in business for 12 years

17. Use a Better Business Model

If we knew then what we know now, we would have started with the business model that we changed to about two years ago. Before the recession hit, we charged $39.95 for an annual membership with no free trial, and no automatic rebilling at the end of their membership term. During the recession, the rate in which we generated new members waned and we reached a growth plateau. To combat our stagnation we decided to change our revenue model to a free trial and a monthly rebilling combination. We implemented a three-day free trial and then a recurring $18.95 monthly fee after the three days expired. We are doing very well as a company now, but in retrospect, we should have thought about rebilling from the get go.

Thanks to Ian Aronovich, GovernmentAuctions.org, providing information about government auctions of seized and surplus merchandise

18. Hire Employees Sooner

One thing I would do differently if I were starting my training business today would be to make my first hire sooner. Operating on shoestring (and a broken one at that), I originally had to do everything myself. The thrift that made it possible for me to survive and then thrive in the beginning quickly became a hindrance when I delayed hiring people who could do any number of specific tasks easier, cheaper and far better than I could.

Thanks to Barry Maher, Barry Maher & Associates, motivational speaker, leadership trainer

19. Dream Bigger

I would have dreamed bigger from the start. In the beginning, my focus was on serving clients in my own Puget Sound backyard, even though successful people who were familiar with my publicity expertise and storytelling gifts were telling me to think nationally or globally. If I had it to do over again, I would have put more emphasis on national and global reach of my message right from the start.  Lead with juicier, higher value, and leveraged offerings first. When I was just starting out, I put a lot of emphasis on creating the absolute best $10 product about do-it-yourself publicity that I could create. Yes, the Media-Savvy-to-Go Publicity Tips Booklets have sold by the thousands since debuting in August of 2006. However, it is so much easier to make a bigger impact for more people and my own balance sheet by leading with a juicer, higher value offering. Today, the Broadcast Your Brilliance Webinar Series and Bye-Bye Boring Bio PLUS! Programs deliver great value for many around the nation and the world at price points that make it a whole lot easier to make a good living. Whether you create an entry level product or something much more, you still have to create all the systems to support those offerings. By leading with a deeper offering, the rewards are greater for all.

Thanks to Nancy Juetten, Authentic Visibility, PR tools and training, in business 11 years

20. Approach Additional Services More Cautiously

I’ve been in business as a web designer for 18 years. The main thing I would have done differently knowing then what I’ve learned along the way is I would approach any add-on services very cautiously. I used to briefly check out add-on services such as hosting, domain name management, and others, and then I would jump in whole-heartedly. Most of the time, it worked out fine for me. However, the occasional missteps cost me dearly.  As I learned more about running a business, I also learned through hard knocks that it is much better to approach additional services methodically and cautiously. I don’t put a lot of funding and energy into them until I’m sure it is the right thing to offer. I’ve learned it is easier to resist the urge to jump at opportunities than it is to extract myself from the occasional quagmire!

Thanks to Jim Smith, Blarneystone, LLC web design, in business for 18 years

21. Give More Away Sooner and Speak More

Network a lot more in person (the Internet was in its commercial infancy) and hunt for in-person speaking engagements, even if they are not paid.  Good writing alone is not enough to convince clients to hire you. They want to hear you speak on your topic of expertise, and when you help business owners with their problems or concerns, they are more likely to hire you and/or to recommend you to others who hire you. I once helped a business owner write something for his church at no charge, and with another small assignment that paid very little. That led to a long-term writing assignment that exceeded $40,000 in fees. Sow seeds of good will and interest through your networking, speaking, and help. Continue to do this even after your business is successful because it leads to more success.

Thanks to Candace Talmadge, Talmadge Writing Services, writing services, in business for 29 years

22. Been More Focused on This Business

I wouldn’t have started it out of my apt.  I would have “cleared the decks better” by parsing other interests that I was juggling at the same time. I would have learned more about guarding a business (legal, insurance, LLC/Scorp/Inc).  I would not have spent so much money on a business plan.

Thanks to Todd Greene, HeadBlade men’s grooming, in business 12 years

23. Don’t Do It All Yourself

I would have gotten an assistant, accountant and web coder much earlier. I did it all myself for 8 years in my business and have only been hiring assistance for the last two years. I knew it would free up my time to hire people - and what I didn’t know was how much it would free up my mind and let me do better, more powerful work along the way. I’ve been able to create more products and do more thought leadership since getting those little tasks off my plate… and if I’d done it earlier, I can only imagine how amazing things would be.

Thanks to Erin Ferree, BrandStyle Design, branding for small businesses, in business for 10 years

24. Look Before Leaping

What I know now is the huge cost of marketing and promotion required to build demand. We started out expecting to sell retailers and distributors and attend trade shows and travel to customers and sell and spent two years on that path. Then we took a hard right and for past two years we have evolved into an Internet retailer running DRTV (Direct Response TV) infomercials with 85% of our business now direct to the consumer. Social media was never in the business plan either now it’s vital.

What would I do differently knowing what I know now? (1) Keep my old job as long as possible and not leapt off the cliff (but it was a nice feeling) (2) Anticipate 5 years to break-even, and set aside “don’t touch” money.

Do I regret jumping off the cliff? No way. As I tell my wife- don’t look down, keep looking up!

Thanks to Brad Barrett, GrillGrate, LLC, grill surface for better food, in business 5 years

25. Pick More Profitable Partnerships

I would have used deeper discernment in picking partners/vendors/joint ventures, even markets. I picked some doozey’s AND after the fact, saw all the red flags.

Thanks to Shawne Duperon, ShawneTV, media coach and production company, in business 11 years

26. Focus on Face to Face Interactions and New Technology

We learned a lot of lessons in starting our company. For example, we would never produce four-color mailers that are sent to mass prospective clients. We’ve learned that face-to-face interaction and building the business relationship is key. (This was pre-Internet). We also learned that a lot of mailing lists are not updated. This endeavor was expensive and resulted in a poor ROI. When the Internet came around, we certainly would have jumped on this new technology much earlier — developing a website much sooner. It’s an amazing tool to get your message out to the world to sell products and services with visuals. We try to make it much easier for clients to find us rather than we search for a ‘needle in a haystack’ to find prospective clients.

Thanks to Greg Jenkins, Bravo Productions, event planning and production company, in business 25 years

27. Plan For Growth, Be More Discerning in Following Advice

As the owner of a driving school in New York City, my first big regret is that I did not get all other licenses (Motorcycle, Bus, Truck license) earlier in life. I just pass my truck road test Tuesday January 17 2012.  Now I have to wait two more years before I can expand to teach Truck Lessons thanks to NYS requirement. Secondly, I was too naive and trusted many so called experts that convince me how to run my business only to find out they were wrong.  I wasted a lot of money trying ideas that did not work. 3.  In the real estate boom time I should have purchase commercial real estate to accommodate my growing business.  Now it’s impossible to get a loan.  I would have preferred to spend a bit more money to secure a property.

Thanks to Rajendra Hariprashad, Ena’s Driving School, in business for 8 years

28. Leverage People, Build a System

If I knew then what I know now I would have invested in two areas. One, I would have developed other people and brought them into the business sooner. No one is good at everything. Even Michael Jordon had a coach and team mates. One of my friends started a business five years ago and has 700 people working for him today. The more you can leverage other people and create a ladder for them to achieve what they want to then the more successful you will be. Find people you can trust and learn to work effectively with them. My business is much stronger today because I have a strong team.

Secondly, every business needs a system to build a pipeline that is consistent and measurable. I have depended too much in my business on my farming method which is delivering exceptional value to people I meet and eventually they and their friends become clients. I wish I would have understood how to build visibility for my business in my target market like I do today. I am beginning to develop a hybrid model that is both farming and hunting which I believe in the long run will deliver greater growth to my business. My approach that involves taking a prospect from visibility, credibility, and trust is proving to be highly effective. When people work with me they become more than clients they become friends because I am invested in their success. Everyday owning a business is a learning experience. I am very happy it is what I have chosen to pursue in my life.

Thanks to John Paul Engle, Knowledge Capital Consulting in business 10 years

29. Focus on Building Relationships with Customers

When I first started out, like most new veterinarians, my prime concern was my patients and their care. What I failed to fully appreciate was that each patient had an owner (aka client) attached to it! Often I would not address the needs and concerns of the client as well as I was trying to practice medicine and over time, I likely lost clients who, if I had better built my relationship with them, would still be a client today.

Thanks to Dr. James Day, Glendale Animal Hospital, veterinary practice in Glendale, Arizona, in business for 27 years

Bonus Tip:

30. Establish Boundaries With Employees

I would certainly separate “church and state” and I would have been more of a leader than a friend. As an owner and an active President& CEO of a small business- I’m in constant contact with my employees. When hiring new employees, certain requirements and credentials are necessary including: experience, expertise, and industry knowledge. Additionally, I look for multiple interpersonal skills and qualifications. That said, I’ve managed to find and retain wonderful employees who work well and who work well with one another. Formulating good friendships with my employees is nice but maintaining and stepping up as more of a leader at times, has been challenging. Establishing boundaries early on with employees is key and I wish I had known the importance of this, earlier on.

Thanks to Georgette Pascale, Pascale Communications, LLC. a healthcare specific PR firm, in business 7 years

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free e-book called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available on Amazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

I noticed an interesting tweet.  It read something like ‘Retweet someone who you never interact with on Twitter because cliques are not cool.’ Almost instantly, I realized that this message would be a part of my overall business manifesto for 2012.  A resolution of sorts.

In the coming year, reaching out on a leap of faith and growing my network is a priority.

At the beginning of last year, I was fairly new in my business mission so I was engaged in CRAZY networking efforts.  I was continually putting myself out there to meet a multitude of new and different people.  It was an effort and required a lot of work.  Somewhere during the year, I became comfortable with my group of people and/or burned out, so I was not networking as much.

At this point, a clique naturally formed.  When I needed some vital information or advice or opinion, I turned to this group.  Although, I admire all of these people tremendously, it does me NO good to always turn to the same people.  Growing, changing, and evolving business requires constant introduction of fresh information and people.

Therefore, in 2012 I urge you (and ME) to up the ante and grow our sphere of influence.  I am going back to a grassroots approach to networking.

To help both of us as we approach 2012, here are

4 Leap of Faith Networking Tips:

1 - See your business through a different avenue.  Attend one event/month that you normally would NEVER attend.  For example, if you are an interior designer and you typically attend design related events, try an outing for life coaches - I bet you this is an awesome area to partner.  Life coaches help others make life changes, and with those changes may come changes in their clients’ interior design.  The referral possibilities are endless.

2 - Host an out of your realm event. Plan an event, a quick lunch or dinner with a speaker that is not YOU, but rather someone that would provide insight/discussion for others.  Choose a topic with widepsread importance, and make an awesome first impression on new people. This is a spectacular way to get people to remember YOU as the one who put this all together.

3 - Play the name game. Get your eyes off that name tag.  Rather than walk up to someone and immediately focus on their name tag to say hello, INTRODUCE yourself.  It goes something like this, ‘HI, I am Rachel, and you are?’  Hearing someone say their name makes it much easier to put it in your memory bank.

4 - Invest in the future with genuine follow-up. Do not just add this new contact to your mailing list and forget about them!  Make time to engage with them in some way (Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Coffee) over the coming weeks, and form something solid for the year(s) to come.

I wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2012 full of Amazing Ideas and Powerful Networking.

Join me on my blog, http://backngroovemom.com for next year’s adventures.  Rachel

Here are 28 Small Business Marketing Resolutions for the New Year that will inspire you to write your own.

1. Build Relationships With Customers

To create more opportunities for our end buyers to interact with the company. As a manufacturer it’s always difficult to have a dialog with customers because our primary “sale” is to the dealer and we don’t get many chances to communicate with customers directly.

Stephen Roberts, Marketing Manager, Timberwolf Manufacturing

2. Engage and Monitor

To be consistent and emotionally engaging in all marketing efforts. To continue to monitor and measure all results. (I know that in 3 years my unique visitor traffic has increased by 250% to just under 8,000 unique visitors per month.)  To convert more visitors specific to eproducts thus increasing monthly income.  To achieve Alexa.com ranking of under 100,000.  To have the blog recognized as one of the top business, leadership and sales blogs.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.increase-sales-coach.com

3. Waste Less Time on Social Media

I resolve to waste less time on social media channels!

Tea Silvestre, www.theWordChef.com

4. Be More Visual

Don’t forget: All marketing is VISUAL.

David Langton, Principal, Langton Cherubino Group, Ltd. (http://www.langtoncherubino.com)

5. Consistency!

It is easy when we get busy to stop marketing ourselves, but we know that we need to do it consistently if we want to grow. So we have resolved to be more consistent in 2012 on doing our own marketing and PR.

Beth Walsh, Clearpoint Agency, Inc., (www.clearpointagency.com)

6. Update The Plan, Then Walk the Plan

Ann Siegle, Tria Marketing & Design, (http://www.triadesignfirm.com)

7. Discover Previously-Unidentified Markets

To find new ways to help customers obtain loans - financing is still a major issue.  To further expand our worldwide presence.

Catherine B. Ahles, APR, Fellow PRSA, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Premier Aircraft Sales

8. No More Advertising

Our 2012 marketing resolution is we will no longer buy advertising. We will buy results. After spending a year and a half attempting to optimize click through conversion rates, design high quality marketing communications and locate appropriate advertising vehicles we have discovered that we are not advertising experts. We have also discovered
that the risk for advertising success lies entirely with us. If we buy media space in a publication that does not produce results we lose both time and money. The publication, however, gets to keep our money.

For 2012 we are completely converting our marketing efforts to shared risk. We will no longer pay for click through or brand exposure ads. We will only pay a percentage of sales actually produced by the ad. Our advertising budget had previously floated at about 9% of revenue. For 2012 we will be increasing this about 30% of revenue. Instead of paying $600 for a quarter page ad we will pay 25% of all sales produced by the ad. If the ad produces $10,000 in sales the advertiser will receive $2500. If the ad produces $100 in sales the advertiser will receive $25. This will be tracked through coupon codes for print. All web advertising will be converted to affiliate programs which pay by the sale. We can increase our media budget since all advertising will be paid for by additional sales.

This does not mean that we will stop brand awareness advertising. Our brand awareness strategy for 2012 however will be entirely based on shareable content and partnerships with publications that have a similar audience. We will be producing more free downloads and more shareable content on the assumption that if it is valuable - it will be shared and republished. This is a big risk since traditional paid advertising guarantees space in a publication. Shareable content, however, may or may not get reused in other publications.

Chris Tobias, Director of Educational Excitement, School Skills

9. Positioning

Our 2012 our resolution is to position ourselves as the Thought Leader in our industry and also to all lose 5% of our current body weight, eat right and exercise more.

John Fairclough, the r e s i c o m group (http://www.resicomonline.com)

10. Happy Shoppers

Our 2012 Marketing Resolution is to keep our shoppers happy. Our success is driven by word-of-mouth marketing from wonderful customers. When they like their experience with us - as in our jewelry quality, diverse selections, low prices and customer service - they come back and they tell their friends about us. And the cycle continues when those friends have a wonderful experience too! That’s why we always try to listen to the needs and wants of our shoppers and make their Joolwe.com shopping experience amazing.

Monique Bird, Marketing and PR Specialist, Joolwe.com

11. Regular Communication.

Contact our email list on a regular basis (no more being flaky!) and not worry every single time that I might lose subscribers. It’s better to have tried and lost, than to never have tried at all!

Chris Wise, Online Marketing Director,  Guideline Central

12. Systematic Marketing

For our own firm and for our clients, we are resolving to commit to a programmatic approach to marketing (strategy) instead of simply a project approach (tactics, often with no real plan behind them : “one offs”).

Charles J. Morris, Jr., Principal, Morris Creative Group, LLC

13. Community Centric, Mobile Friendly Website

For 2012, The Voice of Your Customer plans to revise our company website to be less content driven and more mobile friendly with a great focus on customer engagement and community involvement. Previously, our website as focused on flash and SEO heavy content that is no longer of interest to our visitors.

The Voice of Your Customer also plans to increase our visibility in the media by distributing more company press releases and applying for more industry, small business and community awards. In years past, we won several awards that generated quite a bit of exposure in the local, regional and niche media that resulted in more visits to our website and social media pages.

Additionally, The Voice of Your Customer plans to increase the activity on our LinkedIn and Facebook company pages, better utilize the engagement tools and more effectively use the visitor analytics. When the pages were launched, the focus was on increasing likes and daily posts. In the near future, we would like to use these pages for survey research, recruiting and content management.

Crystal L Kendrick, President, The Voice of Your Customer

14. Mobile Marketing

In 2012, our company, Leon Mege Inc. (custom made engagement rings and fine jewelry) will be doing a lot more mobile marketing. We will also be focusing more on Google+ and are allocating a smaller budget to print ads and Facebook ads. A lot more branding is also in store for the New Year for our company (we are currently in the early stages of developing a branding strategy).

Olga Topchaya, Director of Marketing,  Leon Megé Inc.

15. Increase Twitter Following

Our marketing resolution is to increase our twitter following, in order to control cost and to weed out the multiple offerings of Marketing Services that I am swamped with on a daily basis. If I can control advertising cost, I can hopefully make better use of time and money to hire help.

Lance Dzintars , Zaria & Bella’s LLC, www.zariaandbellas.com

16. More Online Engagement

Going to do more: Webinars, email campaigns with partners who send on our behalf, retargeting, startup daily deal sites, guest blogging.

Going to do less: sitting around twiddling our thumbs

Going to start: LinkedIn advertising to drive webinar signups

Joshua Krafchin, Clever Zebo (www.cleverzebo.com)

17. Have a Conversation

We’re going to be more conversational and ‘broadcast’ less. We’re going to bring true value to our customers as opposed to just marketing our products. We’re going to listen to our customers and ask them, instead of making guesses as to what they want from us.

Kendall Moyles, Green Surf Shop

18. Give More Value

My resolution is to contribute more ideas and expertise to social networks that are related to what I do within my company.

Christi Pemberton, Global Crest Productions

19. Invest in Advertising

In 2012 I am going to jump off the bridge and go for big advertising in a major wedding magazine THE KNOT…it is needed at this time and so for 2012 I am placing an ad in this national player in the wedding industry.

Kelly Marie Albert , The Perfect Card Box

20. Intentional Marketing

A.    Greater emphasis on social media. We want to expand our presence on Facebook by adding custom tabs/pages to help grow our fan base. In terms of audience interaction, we are committing ourselves to posting at least twice per day on both Facebook and Twitter. The significance of LinkedIn is also something we plan to utilize in the new year.

B.    Videos, videos, videos. In 2012 we are launching a YouTube channel to post things like customer testimonials and information videos about our products or services. The goal is to educate our existing and potential customers through the informational videos while building and reinforcing a sense of trust with videos such as client testimonials.

C.    Targeted mailings. When we first started our original business we worked out a deal with a local printer to create some post cards for us. We mailed them out to local businesses and the response was better than expected. It may be a new year but the world is still generally the same, so we’re going to get back to some basics with this one.

D.    Launch an email newsletter. It is important for us to stay in front of our customers and on their minds. We are committing to sending out an electronic newsletter each month to those customers who opt-in to receive it. The newsletter will give them a first look at upcoming specials and promotions, as well as offer subscriber-only opportunities.

E.    Advertise in local newspapers. This relates a bit to point three above. We ran a few ads early on and experienced some moderate returns, so we will return to this as an option for us in 2012. Online readership is growing and rates are more than reasonable at this time.

Daniel J. Spence, President, Big Bird Media, LLC

21. Develop Partnerships

I plan to develop some strategic partnerships with other business owners so that we can combine our efforts to host a Mini-Telesummit.

I will be attending the Diva Toolbox Conference in Boston, MA for the second year and also be connecting regularly with my local chapter members of NAWBO.

I enjoy blogging and will be sharing my ideas on my LinkedIn Profile and the new Facebook page I am creating for my Coaching Business: “Moving Forward Through Divorce.”

Nancy A. Kay, Divorce Management Coach,

22. Focused Marketing

Narrow our marketing focus by eliminating distracting products and services that don’t pay their way that we carried in the past to be a “full service” company for our clients. They are a distraction from our meat and potatoes offerings. Instead, we’re creating a group of complimentary partner companies to take over those duties using other area business people we’ve known and trusted over the years to take over those services. We’re referring to them as “trusted local partners”. We’ll refer business to them and in return they’re going to refer back to us based upon our defined competency. Members in this group must have a complimentary business product or service that enhances the group. This is different than a networking group like those formed by Chambers of Commerce that group non-competing businesses together without any regard to how well they complement each other as businesses.

We also plan to drop the less sophisticated parts of our previous offerings as they’ve become commoditized by the market. Offerings such as retail software, Internet Content filtering, computer repair services (we call it break/fix) and retail sales of computers and printers. We’re trying to move up the IT food-chain and focus on more sophisticated products and services that aren’t generally offered at the “shallow end” of the IT services pool. This is our effort to differentiate ourselves from the retail big-box “Geek Squad” type guys.

Jeff Hoffman, President, ACT Network Solutions

23. Pick a Few Good Marketing Strategies

Narrow down social media to 2 - 3 tools that REALLY work in terms of responses. Narrow down my marketing hours. Make more effort to make human to human contact rather than just social media. Hire people to do some work for me. (PR, day to day tasks). I know it’s an investment but it will free me up to think of the big picture.

Sandra Mendoza-Daly, DebutanteClothing.com and VintageFindIt.com

24. Increase Local Exposure

We will continue to get involved in our community through various B2B channels, such as the local Chamber of Commerce, regional newspapers and their online versions, and traditional “small town” handshake efforts. The goal is to have every local business owner know who we are, and more importantly, understand what we do.

Leverage the Local / Mobile / Social aspects of technology. Being in a small town environment limits the effect of many social media efforts, however the growth in location based services such as Foursquare, Oink, Gowalla, and Facebook check-ins have allowed small businesses to focus on the people who are already around them. As smart phones continue to grow on older customers, these services and features will become more and more important on the local level. We plan on offering specials and contests that involve being physically close to our location.

Increase community involvement. We plan on sponsoring a local softball team, running a clothing drive, and taking part in our local Autumn festival in 2012. We plan on doing at least one major community campaign per quarter of 2012.

We are in the process of developing tools for local business owners to leverage technology that they simply don’t yet understand. We have found that the average local business owner still does not know how to properly use even their old outdated Web sites to their advantage. Add in Social Media, iPhone apps, and local search listings (Google Maps, Bing, Yahoo Local, Yelp, etc.) and it just spins their head. We are working to bring these tools to the average person through a series of free seminars, online tutorials, and even a local business app builder which will allow for our community businesses to take a giant leap ahead of even their larger corporate competitors.

I am really proud that the same efforts that we use to market our company are going to help our local community and our local business owners. Although it sometimes feels that technology drives us apart, we feel that it can be used to bring back the Mom & Pop way of doing business of yesterday.

Jon Berry, Berry Smart

25. Create More Local Partnerships

Our resolution is to find more local/regional partners in order to foster visible job growth right in our own backyard. Restoring hope locally is job one in this economy!

John Leschke, Green 3 Apparel

26. Get Involved

We are going to work with more websites that cater to our target market. This includes offering free valuable information to other relevant sites on how businesses can start implementing strategies of their own to start seeing results. Developing more relationships with experts in the industry. Giving away more free information to prospective clients. Also participating in more guest blog related public relations.

We plan to do less direct mail advertising and instead use email and other virtual mediums to maximize profit. We also plan to continue not participating in cold calls.

A major thing we plan to start doing in 2012 is to be involved with more charitable events and more offline activities that are in the public eye. We feel that in conjunction with our online promotions, this could create a synergy that is unmatched.

Mike Calloway, Trinity Marketing

27. Be More Personal

I hope to be more personal than ever in my marketing.  As a freelancer and now a small business owner with predominantly remote work, online content marketing is a stellar way to establish my expertise, inform potential clients about my methods, and get my name out. But blog posts, newsletters, tweets, and Facebook posts only go so far as information vehicles. I’m finding more than ever it’s the thoughtful notes, unexpected responses, and general accessibility that powerfully push my business relationships and my career forward. It’s easy to write these things off since they don’t have the same reach of our other efforts!

Stephanie Peterson, Fairground Media

28. Referral Marketing

We plan on giving a strong push to referral marketing through social media in 2012. We’ve played with it in the past, but it’s time to really see if we can make it work to help grow our business!

Sara Sutton Fell, CEO & Founder, FlexJobs.com

What are your small business marketing resolutions for 2012?  Share them here along with the link to your website.  We always love hearing from you!

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free ebook called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available onAmazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

1. Establish Yourself as the Expert

The one marketing thing that has generated the most customers for my business has been establishing myself as an expert. In addition to teaching continuing education classes via accredited universities, I also write articles and conduct seminars/workshops within the industries I have interest and experience in. As an expert, I sit on panels at industry-related conferences and events and conduct radio interviews related to my areas of expertise. Those who do not use me directly, will refer me based on what they hear, read or experience.

Isha Edwards, Brand Marketing Consultant & Business Instructor
EPiC Measures, LLC

2. Video Email Marketing

I have experimented with many marketing tactics (mostly online) to drive customers to <http://rightlook.com/> Rightlook.com and one of the most effective techniques I have found is combining regular email marketing with
the use of video content. Though video content in general has been great for us, I have found that a simple linked video thumbnail in an email is irresistible to recipients and grants us an easy and effective way to funnel customers directly from our emails to an associated landing page where the video resides (along with a strong call to action). Since doing this we have
seen significant increases in lead generation and new customers.

Matt Fellows, Content Strategist & Copywriter
Rightlook Creative

3. Create a Contest

I think the most effective low cost marketing method is to conduct a giveaway online. Studies have proven that simple online contests make consumers 96% more aware of a brand (Razorfish study). I’ve conducted giveaways of all sorts of products from t shirts to electronics and have realized that I get the most “bang for my buck” through these sweepstakes.

Ismail
MyFreebeez

4. Connect with Facebook

I took over the Saco Drive In Theater (Saco, ME) this past Summer and revamped the marketing strategy to increase patrons and decrease the average age of our patrons. We relied very heavily on Facebook. We used Facebook as a tool to tailor our offering to please the masses. It was understood that not every week we could please every customer but our mission was to please every customer at least once. We ran promotions and special through Facebook consistently. We would poll our fan base when we couldn’t make up our minds on which movies to play and that clearly increased customer satisfaction. They had a felt ownership over the entire operation. Facebook was our preliminary feedback generator. We also implemented text message marketing that worked WONDERS. Customers could opt in by texting our keyword to 33938 and then every Friday they would receive the movie titles with a discount in the concession stand. TXTwave.com was who we used for this service.  AWESOME!

Ry A.K. Russell, President
Brophy, Russell, Wells LLC

5. Customer Referral Program

The one hidden gem that we’ve used to generate customers is our customer referral program. It empowers customers to take matters into their own hands and promote it on their social media (Facebook & Twitter etc.) for which they get a credit towards future orders. Thousands of people have tweeted about it. It has brought in thousands of dollars of revenue for us!

Suzy Kendrick, Public Relations Manager
Canvas Pop

6. Have Fun With Your Brand

The one thing we did with our marketing that’s been most successful has been to have fun with our brand! As a start up, we relied on creativity and fun to create marketing campaigns to get our name out and drive business during our busiest season (February-April).

Jolene Loetscher, Chief Doo Officer
Doogooders

7. Let Them Try it For Free

The one marketing thing that has generated the most customers for our business is letting them try it for free. In our eyes, it builds credibility and trust because why buy if you’re not sure? Instead of doing the talking ourselves, we give them a promotional offer with a little guidance and let the results talk for themselves. Giving customers free press releases or discounts off our premium packages as an incentive to try us results in sales after their free release and even subscriptions to our release packages. We give free press release coupons on our social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and once-in-awhile on our email lists as well. It’s good for a new customer as well as for customer retention-giving a customer who has been loyal to us a free press release keeps them using our service as well.

Stacey Acevero, Social Media Community Manager
Vocus/PRWeb

8. Create an Infographic

I wanted to reach out to share the one ‘thing’ that has been best for Lab42. We started creating our own infographics based on data that we obtain running our own market research studies.  We have been able to get these infographics published on major news outlets (Mashable, CNN, Huffington Post), which has led to many new sales and even more new leads.

Jonathan Pirc, President
Lab42

9. Invest in Your Current Customers

It does no good to invest time or money in gaining new customers unless you’ve got your current customers dialed in and satisfied. And referred customers are the best kind to have, since they are coming to you with a certain level of trust already instilled. Give your current customers an incentive to send you referrals: offer them a referral bonus. People love being rewarded.

Sara N. Schoonover, Vice President
TicketKick

10. Ezine Tips and Trends

I have been an interior designer for almost 20 years. I began writing an E-zine with decorating tips, trends, and other lifestyle information in 2008 and that has generated more customers for my business than any advertising I have ever done. I love to write, produce all original content and do a lot of networking and community service to build my distribution list. Currently
it goes out to over 1000 readers, and they in turn forward it to their friends. It is the best thing I have ever done to develop relationships with potential customers.

Barbara Green

Sensibly Shic

http://twitter.com/#!/thedesigndiva

11. Participate in Online Forums

I am a meeting and event planner. There is a forum of about 3000 planners. We share advice, info, sources, etc. I don’t “market” per se at all as there is no official marketing allowed on the forum. What I do is answer questions, give advice, offer info, sources, etc. I really participate and put myself out there.  Then when people are looking for someone who needs meeting planning services I am a go-to for them.   This has allowed me to secure national level business as well as grow my business overall!

Dianne Davis, Meetings and Marketing Consultant

12. Build Relationships Online and Offline

Whenever this question is asked I realize that the hope is that there’s a quick formula that can be deployed, leads flow in and sales made. While I think that may be true if you’re selling a product widget, but in my experience when you’re product is a service it doesn’t work that way. I could tell you that the “thing” is twitter. I’ve actually received a good amount of work through that channel. I could tell you it’s speaking at and attending conferences as you could connect the dots back to many of those too. But that’s not the real answer, not for me. The number one thing is relationship. I love what I do and the people that I work with, and the fruit of that is more work but more importantly better work and working environments.

Michael Buckingham

Holy Cow Creative @holycowcreative

13. Throw a Party

For 19 years, on the second Tuesday of June, we have thrown a party for 600 of my peers. The vendors that participate all donate their services and it has brought huge name recognition and referrals for me. Different theme, different place and lots of fun for 19 years.  The entire event only cost me around $1000.

Dave Forman
Pour Masters Bartending Service

14.  Targeted Publicity

The one marketing thing that helped jumpstart sign-ups for ShareAndTell Pro, a social promotions and loyalty platform, is targeted public relations. Getting exposure on AllFacebook, WebmasterRadio, and WebProNews helped bring in people that understood why it’s important to reward your loyal customers, and were eager to get their promotion campaigns live with our platform.

Sandra Proulx Rand, Marketing Manager

Share and Tell Pro

15. Set it up so Customers Can Invite Others

We own a competition weight loss website that members use to create their own weight loss challenges similar to what they do on the Biggest Loser television show.  We set up our customers with an invitation engine so they can invite their friends via email to participate in their challenge.  They really enjoy and get a kick out of inviting their friends to join with them and be members and to use our site.

Pete Maughan
WeightLossWars.com

16. Post Flyers Door-to-Door

I remember when we started the company we had no money, no clients, no hope. We decided to pay a guy to run some flyers for us, after about 6 weeks we had to stop him because we could not handle the call volume. It has always been like that every year. Whenever business slows down I always tell the staff to run flyers and magic will happen. There has been nothing that has beaten those flyers to date. We have tried everything else from newspaper to TV, but pound for pound flyers are the key.

You also have to have a very professional flyer too. It can’t be a call me today here’s the number type flyer. We use all different colors with bright pastels that are so loud you have to open it up for you pitch it and the flyer is very professional. I just collect all of the good looking flyers from my door step and I made ours look better. In closing the best marking is a person who just doesn’t stop marketing. They have to eat and sleep the marketing. A good business is a good marketing business.

Duane Draughon
PaverStone Design Group

17.  Turn Your Customers Into Your Sales Force

As a stylist and salon owner of Mosaic Hair Studio in Orlando, Fl. our corner stone marketing plan has always been to turn our clients in to our sales force. Every client that refers us receives a thank you card and a $10 Starbucks gift card. This one simple idea in conjunction to doing beautiful hair and excellent customer service has allowed us to thrive, even had a price increase during the recession. It always amazes us on how influential some people are and once you get those clients as fans they can have a strong impact on your business.

Mike Van den Abbeel, Owner

Mosaic Hair Studio

18. Become a Business Referral Source

I owned a CPA firm for 14 years and have recently launched my practice as a Business Coach. In both genres the same marketing “thing” is working. I
became known in my circle as being the one who knew everyone. I keep a card file of trusted professionals. When anyone needs a service or a contact, I probably have someone who can fill the need and would pass their business card along. It is not unusual for clients and friends to call me for a referral to someone who could fill a need totally unrelated to accounting, because they were so accustomed to me saying. I know someone who…

Karen P. Johnson, CPA, MBA

Certified Business Coach
FocalPoint Business Coaching of Louisiana

19. Answer Questions on Social Media

The one marketing thing that has generated the most customers for my business in 2011 is participating in social media and answering others questions. This lets them know I am an expert in my field and know what I am talking about which has resulted in people purchasing my books and consulting and attending my webinars and live presentations.
Michelle Dunn, author of The Guide to Getting Paid, weed out bad paying customers, collect on past due balances, and avoid bad debt
www.MichelleDunn.com

20. Write a Book

I wrote a book, and it’s generated more “SERIOUS” leads and closes than anything I’ve ever done. I try to get all my clients to write books to establish their expertise. Most don’t, though they could. I followed my own advice. Without question, the single best thing I ever did for myself and my business.
Tom Perić, president
Galileo Communications Inc.

21. Get Quoted in the Media

I am the owner of a fashion, beauty, and finance PR and marketing agency in New York City. The most important marketing/PR action I’ve taken as a small business owner is getting quoted and writing bylined articles in business magazines, industry journals, and trade publications these include Entrepreneur, SmallBusinessCEO.com, and WWD. I generated this publicity by sending pitch letters to the appropriate editors and journalists.

Kristin Marquet
President
Marquet Communications DBA Marquet Media LLC

22.  Build Your List

From almost day one , I’ve focused on growing my prospect/customer list and regularly communicating (at least once a week) with educational information. I primarily use e-mail to deliver information to my list, but I also use snail mail to send a monthly marketing tips sheet. My lists have allowed me to cut marketing’s most costly expense, which is getting in front of new
prospects.

Not only have my lists help me get customers, they also led to my first marketing book getting published (I’m currently working on book #2), speaking opportunities and exposure in several offline/online periodicals.

Tom Trush
Direct-Response Copywriter
Write Way Solutions

23.  Business Leaders Lunch

We get 45-70 business owners each and every Tuesday of the year to come together. I share a topic on how to build a business, and ask them to give me questions, input, etc. We don’t charge for the talk, they just pay for their own lunch. We make nothing off the lunch and bill it as a free service to the Denver business community. It has been the single best marketing thing we ever did. It is a low entry barrier for tasting what we do, our loyal clients can bring their friends, and we get at least 75% of our business as a result of what spins off of this lunch.

Our business - We are business advisors who work with small and local business owners only - to help them grow their business (I built six businesses myself over the last 25 years). Five years after starting this business, we now have outlets in Virginia, Ireland, Kenya, South Africa, and China.

The key - the most significant marketing tactics are going to be the most relational. The close you can get to being face2face with people, the more likely they are to get comfortable with you and buy from you.

Chuck Blakeman
The Crankset Group

24. Tap into Your Personal and Professional Networks

When our company was just starting up, our networks were the big thing that made us excel. Our personal and professional networks (extended through who knows who) helped us in two ways:

• People could help us with referrals, and building new connections
• Recruiting the best talent in development and designThe marketing principle of networking and connection building has been the most valuable asset to our success.Jennifer Butson
  Marketing Director
  Selectstartstudios.com | @JenButson

25. Become an Intentional Networker

For me, the “One Marketing Thing” is to be an “Intentional Networker”. This entails several things:

• Knowing who you are and what you do best and are most passionate about
• Knowing what you want
• Having an authentic image, brand, and reputation that aligns with who you are and what you want
• Remembering that success is not so much a factor of the size of your database or customer base, but of the quality of your database or customer base
• Knowing what opportunities to say “yes” to — and what to say a firm, but gracious “no” to
• Knowing where and how to build quality, long-term connections and relationships with colleagues, prospects and customers
• Knowing how to stand out from (and above) the crowd in a positive and memorable way
• Being generous, appreciative, honest, and forthright in all your dealingsPatti DeNucci
  DeNucci & Co. LLC
  Business Networking & Referral Expert, Speaker, Consultant
  Author of The Intentional Networker: Attracting Powerful Relationships, Referrals & Results in Business
  www.intentionalnetworker.com

26. Ask for Referrals

It seems so simple, but ask for referrals. Every client I have, I really shake down for referrals - multiple times. Getting them to say they’ll tell someone to get in touch with you isn’t enough, either. I ask my clients to do an email introduction to me, as well as give me their referral’s phone number so that I can call to follow up. Far and away, this has been the best source of new clients for my business.

Michael Kaiser-Nyman
CEO & Founder, Impact Dialing

27.  Give Them More of What They Want

We expanded our Member News (small newsletter format, published three times a year) into a full, 64-page magazine format (still published three times a year). This increased membership for us dramatically, up 20% from the previous year. The articles and images give our members (customers) more of what they want from the Museum.

Kristin Kautz, Director of Marketing and PR
Georgia O¹Keeffe Museum

28. Create Your Own Reality Show

We were planning to attend the Magic Trade show in Las Vegas. When we received our booth placement it was in horrible all the way in the back of the hall. We were not near anything or anyone! My sister and I completely freaked out because we did not have set appointments. Therefore, we decided to call around in Las Vegas and we hired a production company to film us for 4 hours each day and say that we were part of a “REALITY” TV show that was going to be on a huge national network.

This worked like a charm. We had tradeshow models giving out postcards that said “come to the Footzyrolls booth and receive a free pair of Flip Flops and a chance to be on a reality TV show.” The line to get into our booth was insane. People were waiting to meet the owners of Footzyrolls and be part of the reality TV show. We even got a few real celebrities to stop by our booth that were at the show because they wanted to be part of the filming too!

Sarah Caplan, Co-Founder

Footzyrolls

29. People Love Us and We Love Them Back

We’ve created the “EggHead Breakfast Club” which is an internal, custom card visa swipe style loyalty and rewards program. We recognize our guests’ birthdays, anniversaries, spending habits with rebates and award certificates, invite them to exclusive VIP parties, and send them handwritten cards and letters in the mail among other treats and surprises.

As of today, in a program just over three years old, we’ve got 19,702 members to opt in. That’s pretty bad ass for a little mom and pop restaurant company, now with three locations.

The Omelette Lady

Misty Young

The Squeeze Inn Restaurant

30. Word of Mouth

The “one marketing thing” that has generated the most customers for our business has been through word of mouth/references. While this may not be what marketers want to hear, my advice is that you focus on over-delivering high quality work, acting as a business partner & mentor for your client, and delivering exceptional customer service. If you deliver what the customer wants, are seen as a “friend & Partner,” and give your client the best service ever, they will gladly recommend you to someone else. And typically great references give your prospects confidence in doing work with you.

Becky Boyd
Vice President, MediaFirst PR

31. Free Teleseminars

Free Teleseminars have been a great way to build my list and to reach people I normally would not have been able to reach just by using Facebook & Twitter alone. It is an easy way to promote any upcoming events and new products and services. Furthermore, once those people have signed up for the tele-seminar, I have instant communication access to them!

Kelly Green
Insider Branding Secrets
@brandcoachkelly

Wendy Kenney is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Biz, Tap into the Power of Social Media, Publicity and Relationship Marketing to Grow Your Business, available on Amazon.com.  She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday. She lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her husband and three very hungryteenage sons.  One of her goals in life is to visit all of the Major League ballparks in the US before she turns 49.  So far she has been to 13. Grab your free ebook; How to Build Buzz for Your Biz; 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed at 23kazoos.com.

I’ve been working with the creators of StartUpNation since 2001 when I was hired to shoot Rich Sloan doing yoga on the conference room table in the Birmingham Michigan office of the up and coming StartUpNation.  I was recently offered the opportunity to blog about photography if I thought I could contribute to entrepreneurs and start ups. I think I can so I’ll give it a shot.  I’ll be talking about all things photography, from how to do a shoot in the office, to what’s the best stock agency for what your needs are, to rights and usage contracts.  I’ll be answering questions about any thing relating to the business of photography and photography in your business. If I don’t know the answers I’ll look to the vast knowledge base of my peers and will share what I learn with you, so post your questions and comments about you’re photographic quandaries here, and I’ll help you along the image driven super highway of successful businesses.

I should tell you a bit about me.
I began my career as a photographer early in life.  My brother had a darkroom in a closet at our house when I was a sixth grader.  It didn’t take long for my teachers at school to see an opportunity to recruit the next news paper and yearbook photographer.  That’s when I learned that you can have fun and provide a needed service at the same time.  I could get credits for graduation if I work on the year book and news paper staff!  Life was good.  Then one day I was handed a press pass to cover the cheerleaders for a story for the news paper, that was all the motivation I ever needed to pursue my career.  When I was a senior in High School I was introduced to an advertising photographer in my home town of Detroit named Ameen Howrani.  He let me watch him work one day, he was shooting a news crew for the local ABC affiliate.  It was very glamorous, they had food there!  I was face to face with the local anchor man!  That’s when I decided that advertising was where it’s at.  Fast forward 25 years.  I have photographed some really great people, some incredibly beautiful places, and some of the most interesting stuff you’ll ever see.  I picked up a few professional sports teams along the way as well.  Namely the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, and currently Tampa Bay Ray’s as well as the NHL, NFL, MLB and other editorial venues related to sports. I’ve had unprecedented access to closed door behind the scenes events in the NFL, NHL, and MLB to name just a few. I was given the opportunity to shoot a book for the Detroit Red Wings called “48 Hours with the Detroit Red Wings”. Its a chronological documentation of what happens in forty eight hours in the world of the Red Wings Hockey team.  I was able to travel with the team to photograph players, coaches, and staff. We took two days to shoot the book so we could show the travel aspect of how the team lives on the road (and above the clouds).  During that shoot I was given access to coaches meetings that had never been photographed before.  One of the best experiences I had with the Red  Wings was Flying on the team jet to Washington DC to the White House to meet President George W Bush.   I was given an assignment by the Detroit Tigers Baseball team to shoot an eighteen page photo essay of Tiger Stadium during the final home stand ever to be played there.  The parting shot was Al Kaline in his nineteen sixty eight world series uniform (it still fit), pondering his days playing in that historic stadium.  The cover shot was of the stadium from the corner of Michigan and Trumble on a Friday night with fireworks lighting the sky.  I was able to get images never before captured, such as the neon Tiger Stadium sign from the roof of the press elevator.  I’m currently team photographer for the Tampa Bay Ray’s Baseball team, and have a nice client list of local and national companies and agencies as well.  I live in the St Petersburg area of Florida where I’ve lived for the past six years.  Before that I lived mostly in the suburbs of Detroit with a few years in New York city.  Please feel free to see some of the photographs I mention here at www.kovich.com

• National Hardware Show’s “Inventor Spotlight”
• International Home and Houseware Show’s “Inventor’s Corner”

These tradeshow opportunities can be extremely beneficial to inventors, by giving them ONE destination at which they can gain exposure to many companies.  In fact from my observation, the inventor areas at two of the largest industry tradeshows experienced heavier foot traffic than the main show floors. 

As a further extension to this “micro-show” trend, I am happy to announce InventionHome’s first ever Product Summit.  We will gather high-level executives from some very influential companies within certain industry segments…provide each company with a private meeting room…and then invite inventors to pitch their ideas to each company for free.  We feel this is a tremendous opportunity for inventors to get real one-on-one face time with successful companies…and what’s more, these companies are fervently seeking new product opportunities (why else would they attend?).

The first Product Summit, slated for September 28, 2011, will bring together six companies from the Direct Response television industry.  You know many of these companies…they are responsible for such products as Snuggie®, TopsyTurvy®, ShamWow!®, Total Gym®, Twin Draft Guard®, Pajama Jeans®, Easy Feet and HD Aviators. 

There are three standard ways to pitch your product in person to a company:  1) pay to exhibit or attend a tradeshow and hope you connect with the right company,  2) attend special inventor pitch days held on occasion by  individual companies, or 3) be bold and lucky enough to schedule a meeting at a corporate office.  Our Product Summit offers one more option…and is the only opportunity to pitch to multiple companies in one place for free.  Based on companies’ overwhelming responses in favor of this Summit concept, it is projected to be an instrumental tool to help the companies meet their need for innovation.

Inventors with products appropriate for TV can learn more about the DRTV Product Summit and submit their invention for consideration at http://signup.inventionhome.com/product-summit/drtv/.

At InventionHome, we are always looking for ways to bring great opportunities to the independent inventor community, and we feel that these Product Summits provide further evidence of our dedication to inventor success.

1.         Celebrate a celebrity’s birthday!

Make your business the official birthday headquarters for a much loved celebrity. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 star, Johnny Depp’s birthday is June 9^th.   Put together a giant birthday card or banner and invite people to sign it.  Name a menu item in his honor or offer a special promotion.   And even if the celebrity’s birthday isn’t in the summer, you can still celebrate it, Lady Gaga’s birthday is in March, so why not have a quarter of even a half birthday celebration just for her?  Publicize your party on social media, in your email newsletter and in a press release.  The ideas are endless as to how you can capitalize on this, and so is the fun.

2.        Put up a sign!

If you own a business that finds that the majority of your sales comes from local traffic, create a vinyl banner or clapboard sign to put in front of your location.  You can also purchase colorful custom sun blade or teardrop flags that will make your business stand out from the crowd.  If you don’t have a physical location, purchase a vehicle wrap or adhesive window signs and promote your business everywhere you drive!

3.        Fly a flag!

Along those lines, July 4^th is a perfect time to hang an American flag outside of your business.  Flags become landmarks because they are so noticeable.  Install several flags at your location and watch your sales soar!  If you don’t have a physical location, why not give away miniature US flags when you attend summer networking events, sales calls or mixers?

4.        Go to the movies!

Summer time is blockbuster time at the movie theaters, so why not get in on the fun by enhancing their summertime movie experiences.  For example, a restaurant might offer Pirates of the Caribbean 4-inspired drinks, or desserts.   You don’t have to own a restaurant to invite movie goers to redeem their movie tickets for a free gift or a discount, or use Pirate themed marketing materials and offer tickets or Pirate themed bonus offers as incentives to buy.

5.        Celebrate an unusual holiday!

There are some unusual holidays celebrated in America almost every day.   For example, June is National Candy Month, in July you’ll find National Gummy Worm Day and National Horseradish Month.  Just search online for “unusual holidays” and you’ll find a ton.  If you can’t find a holiday you like, you can always make up your own!  Here’s a great website where you can find some unusual holidays.  Brownielocks.com.

6.         Showcase a product offering of the day, week, or the month.

For example, Old Navy regularly has an item of the week- this week it’s summer dresses.  While they discount summer dresses, all other items are at regular price.  Old Navy knows that when buyers come into their store, they most likely will be more items than just the featured one.

7.         Start or join a Meetup group based on a favorite hobby.

Sometimes as business owners we have a rather myopic view of the way that we network.  We go to chamber events, networking groups, business groups, etc.  But why not join or start a group related to your hobby, and let business leads become a byproduct?  That’s what Farmers Insurance Agent Jayson Hoffer has done and I’m guessing it’s been both a fun, and profitable experience.  Jayson is a member, now organizer, of the Valley Gun Group, an active Tempe, Arizona, Meetup group with 282 members.  I recommend that if you start your own group for hobbyists, make sure that you state up front in your profile that you are a business owner.  And furthermore, don’t sell.  Use the opportunity of the meetups to get to know people or to advertise your business by sponsoring the group.

8.        Sponsor a giveaway.

Krispy Kreme Donuts recently took advantage of “National Doughnut Day” on June 3^rd, to give away a free donut to everyone in America.  Not only did they get to introduce themselves to thousands of new customers, they also scored some premium publicity spots on major media around the country.  This isn’t the first time Krispy Kreme has done this so my guess that the value of the free publicity and new customers far exceeded the cost of giving away doughnuts.  However, you don’t have to give something away to everyone in America to take advantage of this tactic.  Use giveaways as incentives for customers to do something for you; i.e., post a comment on your blog, check in on social media, or sign up for an email newsletter.  That doesn’t mean that everyone who gets the freebie will become a customer, but it does mean that you got the attention of more prospects.  And that’s exactly what you wanted.

9.        Do something different.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you always do the same old thing, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”    Take a break this summer to revisit your 2011 marketing plan.  What’s working and what’s not working?  What’s going well and what’s not?  If you’ve been spending money on a marketing strategy for six months and it’s not meeting your goals, it’s time to adjust either your goals or your strategy or both.  Just do something different.

Summer time doesn’t have to be a slow time of year.  Put your creative energies to work by using some of these marketing strategies, or come up with your own and the summer of 2011 can become the best one yet.  Have a great summer!

PS.  I’m giving away one copy of my book How to Build Buzz for Your Biz to two random commenters to this post who answer the question:  What is one of your best summer marketing ideas?

The winner of the last giveway was:  David Linamen.  David, please email your address to me at Buzz (at) 23Kazoos.com and I will send you a copy of my book!  Congratulations!

Wendy Kenney is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Biz, Tap into the Power of Social Media, Publicity and Relationship Marketing to Grow Your Business, available on Amazon.com.  She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday. She lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her husband and three very hungry teenage sons.  One of her goals in life is to visit all of the Major League ballparks in the US before she turns 49.  So far she has been to 13. Grab your free ebook; How to Build Buzz for Your Biz; 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed at 23kazoos.com.