Small Business Marketing on a Small Budget
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by: NancPaey
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Due to the fact that most small businesses have small budgets - and I'm guessing that also includes you - perfect targeting is much more critical. A form of targeting we rely on over again is targeting based at trigger events. It helps shorten the sales cycle by reaching prospects when they are most likely to make a purchase.
Trigger event marketing is targeting prospects that will be highly likely to respond to your marketing based on certain personal events. I'm sure you've looked at this before, for instance, my straight-A, college student daughter is inundated with credit card offers on a regular basis. The credit card offers are activated by her name being published to the Dean's list.
However, in my encounter, many small businesses are not employing trigger event marketing, mainly because they don't know they are able to. Usually, when I bring this up to a new client, I get the same reaction: the client rolls his little brown eyes, groans a little, then says "I can't afford that. "
But this process doesn't need to be expensive or complicated. You don't desire a complex relational database with multiple platforms and multipart queries. In fact, you often don't need anything more than your local newspaper.
You will find tons of trigger events hidden in the stories of your local newspaper, your current trade journals, even public records. All you have to do is think outside of the box and relate the events for your prospects' need for your services or products.
Here are a few a example of how I've implemented trigger event marketing and advertising for my clients, to get anyone thinking:
I created a direct mail campaign to get a realtor, helping her market to households who recently had new babies. New babies often result in the purchase of a bigger property, and, since the baby announcements were prominently listed inside the local paper, it was easy to find prospects' names.
For an automotive system center, I sent letters to the parents of 16 year olds that recently got their driver's licenses, urging the parents to create their family cars in for some sort of safety inspection. We purchased the get in touch with information from local driving schools, but based on your state, this info might be accessible through public records.
I have a primary mail campaign running for a client who rents business furniture. We regularly get information on local companies that are planning to expand - this information is accessible through almost any newspaper, chamber with commerce, economic development board - and we educate them to the value of renting versus purchasing.
I use trigger event marketing around my own led generation process on a regular basis. For instance, I scan my local business journal for new businesses which have just opened. I send them a congratulations card and invite these phones visit my website for a absolutely free report.
I pay attention to which companies have hired new personnel of their marketing departments. This often means that will their marketing budgets have increased, and now might be a wonderful time to see if they require my services.
I watch for companies which have recently rolled out a new product or announced an alternative service. Often, small businesses are so engrossed in the development of a new services or products that they don't even think of the marketing aspect until the product is normally ready. Product and service roll outs are great events to trigger a get hold of from me.
What events can induce contacts from you?
In order to use trigger event marketing for your business, you must first identify what your trigger events are typically. Here are a few questions which might spur some thought:
* What happens with a business, a family or a person's existence immediately prior to their needing your service?
* Who do your prospects often find out about you from? How is that discussion initiated?
* Who is the main decision maker in purchasing your service and what causes this person to finally spend money on?
* Are there others involved inside buying decision and what would make them support your product over other choices?
* What causes a business or individual to want to buy now?
Brainstorm a list of trigger events for your product or service. Next, compile a listing of resources that can act as notifiers these events. Consider using press releases, web pages, news wires, blogs, rss aggregators, bing alerts, yahoo news, etc.
You could also want to consult with a professional list broker who are able to customize a mailing list to fulfill your exact needs. Brokers get paid by the list owner, not the list renter, so you can usually get the ways to access their knowledge and services for 100 % free. And, believe it or not, there is a list out there of everything together with everyone imaginable.
Now, get started with your corporation marketing!
About the Author
Small Business Marketing - Modern Image Marketing provides small business marketing services which grow your organization. Other services include social media marketing, facebook fan page creation, blog setup, email marketing Indianapolis web design affordable SEO and more. To grab our multitude of free whitepapers, go to http://ModernImage.com
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