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Free Small Business Marketing Tips - 3 SIMPLE Tips For Increased Profits

By Jonathan McCulloch

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 03Mar2012 Word count: 2587 Viewed: 281 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Here are three free small business marketing tips you can put to work for you right now -- today -- and start seeing increased profits and sales by tonight.

That's a big promise, I know, but it's one I stand by and intend to keep. But there is one caveat: simply reading this article and "knowing about" these tips won't do a thing for you. You actually have to roll your sleeves up and put them to work for you.

Small business marketing doesn't have to be hard, but you do have to do it.

Tip No 1: Raise your prices. It's a fact -- virtually no one buys only on price. For most people in most situations, it's simply not a major consideration. Far more important to most people are things like reliability, convenience, quality, level of service, and so on. As my mother used to say, "buy cheap, buy twice". Some words of wisdom from the old lady.

If you raise your prices right now, say by just 10 %, I can virtually guarantee you'll see no reduction in sales but you will see a big increase in profits. Remember, that extra 10 % is all profit, because the cost of your sale remains the same as it was. You may lose the odd customer here and there ... but it's unlikely, and even if you do, they're the kind of customers and clients you can probably do very well without.

Tip No. 2: Get more referrals.

Referrals are great and every business owner loves them because they're an easy and profitable sale (because your marketing cost is effectively zero). In the copywriting side of my business, I can't remember the last time any client came to me from any other source.

Trouble is, most of us don't do anything at all to stimulate or encourage referrals. Like sunny days, we're just happy when they come along.

But we can change all this simply by asking our present customers and clients this one simple question: "whom else do you know whom I might be able to help in the same way I've helped you?". You could send that email or letter right now and be getting more business within minutes.

You can even go beyond this and set the scene for referrals at the beginning of your relationship with a new client: "I grow my business with referrals. So if I do a great job for you I hope and expect you will refer at least three people to me whom I may be able to help". Most business owners are too timid to make this a condition of doing business with clients ... but that's their problem.

Tip No. 3: Become the media expert.

Open any newspaper, local or national, and you'll find "experts" holding forth with opinions varied and diverse from haircuts and horticulture, and finance and fishtanks. Who are these people and why does anyone care what they say? Well, they're really just people like you and me -- business owners with specialist knowledge of their area of expertise. And the only difference is... they're in the paper and you're not.

How do they get there? How does this happen? By their contacting the local media and saying, in effect, "I'm an expert on widgets, and I've got information on widgets your audience would really enjoy and benefit from".

None of this is difficult and any business owner can do it and every business owner probably should. In my own business, I used to write a monthly column for the local monthly paper. It took me maybe 30 minutes a month to write and brought in a regular stream of business, including one 30,000 Euro consulting contract.

So there you have it three free small business marketing tips you can put to work for you right away. It won't cost you a penny to give them all a try and any one of them could give a substantial bump to your bottom line.

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